CES 2009: Networked TVs Signal the Death of the DMR

Padding around the floors of CES this week, one big trend I saw from the big Consumer Electronics manufacturers was the launch of the networked TV.

Sony, Samsung, LG and Toshiba were all showing off TVs with ethernet connections which could be used to display Yahoo widgets (which were everywhere and causing a lot of interest) as well as content from YouTube, Picasa and others.

A couple of models were boasting DLNA compliance, which meant that they could very easily connect to other compliant storage devices around the home (like a home server running Twonky Media Server, perhaps?) and playback Music, Videos and Photos without the need for any kind of separate set top box, extender or digital media receiver.

I think this is great for two reasons – firstly, who needs more boxes under the TV? Secondly, the big CE guys are very experienced in communicating features in simple and easy ways for consumers to understand. Sure, they’ll all create silly names for network playback like BraviaLink Display+ but, the feature will work every time, consumers will understand what it does and best of all, whilst the TV will be able to play lots of content in the cloud, it will reinforce the benefits of a home server, acting as a hub for all of your media.

This is probably the main reason we didn’t see any new Extender news from HP, Linksys and D-Link at CES this year, but expect to see more networked TVs, DVD and Blu-Ray players heading your way in the next few years.

Here’s a few shots I took of networked TVs around the show:

LG showing networked TVs and the same NAS device displayed at IFA last summer, as part of a “Connected Home” exhibit.

We’ve already discussed Toshiba’s adoption of Windows Media Center:

Sony’s DLNA compliant TV will play content from compliant devices including home servers:

as will Samsung’s own DLNA compliant offering:

With millions of dollars about to be spent by these guys educating consumers on the connected home (let’s face it, TV companies have to sell TVs and there’s not a lot of other news for them to shout about right now) there’s a huge opportunity for Microsoft and home server manufacturers to jump on board and shout about how their products will realise the value of the TV purchase.

The next version of Windows Home Server will be DLNA compliant out of the box – up until then, TwonkyMedia Server gives any home server DLNA compliance for $30 bucks or so. Things are becoming a lot more simple for consumers who want to get this stuff working together.

The next 24 months will be interesting – let me know what you think.