Sony's Blu-ray technology is close to winning the latest format war for home movie DVDs after a source at Toshiba said it was planning to abandon its HD DVD format.
The new discs promise consumers high-definition movies and up to five times more space than previous DVDs, but the two rival formats had put off shoppers, with players only able to use one or other type of disc.
That changed this year as HD DVD suffered a string of defections to Blu-ray by movie studios, such as Time Warner's Warner Bros, and big retailers.
Sony and Panasonic products maker Matsushita - who fought the video cassette format battle of the 1980s - are on the same side this time with Blu-ray.