Toshiba has scheduled a press conference for later today, at which it is widely expected to announce that it is officially ceasing support of the HD DVD format.

Japanese news site Nikkei.net broke the news that Toshiba has scheduled a press conference for 5pm Tokyo time Tuesday (that's 12 midnight PST), at which the company is expected to announce that it will immediately stop manufacturing all HD DVD hardware and that it will cease selling them at retail by the end of March.

The news comes on the heels of a rapid succession of high-profile setbacks for the format over the past last week. First, three major retailers -- Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart -- each announced plans to endorse the rival Blu-ray format, followed by intense speculation that Toshiba was mulling over its exit strategy for the nearly two-year old next-gen format (a claim that the company later confirmed, though it stopped short of declaring whether any decision had been made).

Needless to say, we'll keep you posted on any news out of Toshiba's press conference tonight, as well as any other developments as they unfold.