Yes, I’m back and revamping the blog. But how could I not write something while in limbo?

I visited the headquarters of Toshiba America this morning to get a look at what’s next in computers from the Irvine company (I’ll share details in upcoming weeks). One thing that’s not coming: high-definition DVD.

In a video war similar to Beta vs. VHS in the 1980s, Toshiba backed HD-DVD format, ultimately losing to Blu-ray disc. The company called it quits on the high-definition technology in February.

Of course, we should have known Toshiba wouldn’t back its rival. Toshiba, after all, was a key developer in the HD DVD format.

Dave McFarland, a Toshiba product manager, told me it wasn’t too much trouble to switch out the HD drives in upcoming notebooks to regular DVD burners with Labelflash. Toshiba is forecasting a $665.5 million operating loss because of HD DVD, according to an article in Twice magazine.

Toshiba Corp. is evaluating the market to see what happens with high-definition, Dave told me.

“We won’t be supplying Blu-ray drives at this time,” he said. “We saw it as an added feature. It wasn’t the reason people bought the computer. … We’re watching what users are doing with DVDs.”

If you want high-def in a Toshiba laptop, you’ll have to buy your own Blu-ray player.

So, no high-def from the company that brought us many cool technologies first. But, as Dave points out, this means lower prices on notebooks. Some with HD DVD drives are still available at TigerDirect for $999.

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