When Toshiba announced the end of HD-DVD we told you that they would release a Blu-ray player, as that is what our sources kept telling us was on their road map. Toshiba instead licked its wounds from the HD-DVD loss and threw its support behind the regular DVD format, and didn’t have a lot to say.

Now, it would seem that Toshiba will turn to the dark side as predicted and release a Blu-ray player in time for the holiday selling season. The one surprise about the new Blu-ray player that Toshiba has been developing is that it will not offer HD-DVD support as many have speculated and hoped for.

From what our sources tell us now, Toshiba is still counting up the losses from the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war; and while they will launch this new Blu-ray player, it is unlikely that it will be a lower-end player that takes advantage of the Toshiba branding, but instead a more middle-of-the road model that the company hopes to at least make some money selling.

While we don’t know what features the Toshiba Blu-ray player will offer yet, our sources tell us that we should not be surprised if the company puts their own unique spin on their Blu-ray offering. We also hear rumors of Toshiba looking at the possibility of launching a Blu-ray recorder, as well, but we doubt that it will be released before the end of the year; instead, look for it to be launched at CES instead.

We do believe that whatever direction Toshiba takes with their Blu-ray offerings it will offer only Blu-ray products that it can make money on. They have a reported $1 billion dollar deficit that they need to recover from the HD-DVD losses, and it will take some time to make that money back.