CES 2008 was supposed to give Toshiba’s HD DVD format a stage on which to shine. All of the pieces were in place: signage greeting attendees at the McCarran International Airport baggage claim, prominent placement on the Toshiba-sponsored CES bags, a press event scheduled for Sunday night and more. That was until Warner Bros. spoiled the party Friday by announcing that the dating period is over and it’s marrying Sony’s Blu-ray, leaving Toshiba with a much smaller share of HD titles come June—and HD DVD partners in a quandary. The press event was one of the first obvious casualties, canceled within hours of WB’s announcement. Meanwhile, the promo efforts already in place and the interest in Toshiba’s next move will keep HD DVD on the CES stage. The question now: What act is being played and is the finale being written? It’s hard to imagine Toshiba and its partners will shrug and walk away but stranger things have happened.

Meanwhile, thousands of other products and services are vying for attention here at CES. Late Saturday afternoon, a few dozen of them had a moment in, well, not the sun, but a far-too-crowded smallish ballroom at The Venetian during CES Unveiled. The annual event is a combo press reception and peek of the Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase. It’s a microcosm of CES --- a mix of hardware, handsets, accessories large and small, and technology. RealNetworks was the major content exhibitor, with a focus on the hardware it hopes will boost efforts to move Rhapsody away from the PC and into other rooms of the house as well as help make it more meaningful to portable device owners. Case in point: a Denon receiver with integrated Rhapsody and WiFi. The new Ibiza Rhapsody portable devices have WiFi. But the magnitude of the task for Real and others banking on non-iPod users was also in evidence: nearly every portable player accessory in the room was iPod-centric (that includes iPhone and iTouch), although some could be used with MP3 players.