Toshiba, which once led the charge against Sony's Blu-ray with a competing high-definition format, introduced its first Blu-ray disc player on Thursday.

The BDX2000 provides 1080p digital output and supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, which Sony calls BD-Live, to take advantage of interactive features through an Ethernet connection. BD-Live enables movie studios to offer a variety of downloadable content with Blu-ray DVDs, including bonus scenes, shorts, trailers, subtitles, and interactive movie-based games. Ring tones for mobile phones could also be made available.

The Toshiba player features a polished front panel that drops down to reveal the player's primary functions. The player can connect to digital TVs using a HDMI connector. Connecting to Toshiba's REGZA LCD TV enables the user to control both devices from a single remote control.

The BDX2000 also has a SD card slot for plugging in photos or video taken on a digital camera and then showing them through the player onto a TV.

Scheduled for availability in November, the player has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $250.

Toshiba announced last month that it planned to launch a Blu-ray disc player this year, and said it had joined the industry group in charge of the Sony-backed format. The Blu-ray Disc Association is responsible for the development and promotion of the format.

Toshiba, which backed HD DVD in the format battle, conceded defeat in February 2008 after Hollywood studios and Wal-Mart lined up in support of Blu-ray. Toshiba had hoped to compete against Blu-ray with other technologies, but falling prices and rising sales of HDTVs caused sales of Blu-ray players to increase dramatically, making it impossible for Toshiba to ignore the product category, analysts say.

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