The bag on the left is what reporters get after we register to cover the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the annual confab, orgy, Mecca of all things shiny and cool.

It’s no small irony that this year the press will be toting a bag paid for by Toshiba, leader of the HD-DVD next generation format. Toshiba just Friday suffered a body blow after Warner Bros, the last of the big U.S. movie studios that released movies in two high-def formats, decided to back Sony’s Blu-ray exclusively. Blindsided by Warner’s news, Toshiba has postponed its CES presentation.

Is this the end of the format wars? What does Microsoft, also a big backer of HD-DVD technology, have to say?

These are just a couple of the questions we aim to explore over the next five days as we elbow for taxis in-between meetings, keynote speeches by the chiefs of Intel, Cisco, Comcast and others in the neon-lit gambling oasis in the Nevada desert.

Some other queries come to mind: Can electronics makers, whose quickening product cycles entice shoppers to trade up faster and faster, ever find a way to be environmentally friendly? Will this be the year when TV size no longer matters? Is convergence in the living room dead?

And finally, will anticipation over Steve Jobs’s MacWorld presentation next week overshadow the exponentially larger gadget tradeshow as it did last year, when Apple’s iPhone made its debut?

Please drop by here and Reuters.com to find out.