CES 2009: Toshiba Combo to integrate Widget Channel internet TV onto your LCD

Toshiba made efforts to embrace the future of AV/networking integration today at CES 2009 with the announcement of their online widget-enabled combo TVs and stand alone network player.

With the help of Yahoo!, Intel and Microsoft, they’ll bring LCD TV sets to the market in the second half of 2009 complete with integrated DVD players and networked capabilities to allow users to stream video from the web, download movies, watch internet TV and even record as well.

The on-screen Widget Channel application network was developed by Yahoo! and Intel and will provide direct access to weather, sports, movies, music, news and just about every bit of joy the web has to offer. No specific mention of porn.

A lot of the widgets will be pre-installed – presumably heavy on the Yahoo! services – but consumers can pick and choose as more become available.

Microsoft’s hand in all of this is with the “Extender” – not a dining table preferred by Alan Partridge but the hardware that allows wireless connection between the Toshiba Combo and your home PC. You’ll then be able to stream anything form your computer onto your telly. Again, no specific mention of porn.

It’s through this that the DVR functionality comes in. If you add a TV tuner to your PC set up – actually a bit of a pain – you can then store programming on your computer hard drive, but presumably you can do that without the Toshiba Combo anyway?

Still, the system sounds good but something tells me that Sony might have something to say about Toshiba’s we-were-here-first claim this afternoon as far as networked AV goes.

More CES 2009 news waiting over here.