The two-sentence press announcement was terse in the extreme.

Monday morning it said, "To meet the increasing consumer demand for high definition content, Toshiba America Consumer Product, LLC, will be entering the Blu-ray market. We will share additional product information and details later this year."

Actually it was Toshiba's burial details for the HD-DVD, which lost the war to the Sony-backed Blu-ray early last year when Warner Bros and Wal-Mart lined up against it. Microsoft also lost the HD-DVD bet.

Toshiba san now says it's joining the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), responsible for developing and promoting the format, and will have Blu-Ray players and notebook PCs with integrated Blu-ray drives this year. It's working out the product announcement details.

The format battle had a stultifying effect on the market. The Blu-ray players might support Toshiba's hi-def TVs but the Blu-rays in laptops, where DVDs dominate, is a dicier move.

Toshiba and NEC first proposed the HD-DVD in 2002.