My call to Sharp Electronics to ask for some help with their new Internet-based and Wi-Fi, required several discussions to get to the support person familiar with those new TVs. And even TiVo, the usually reliable and one of the best new product installation departments, took much longer than usual with a source at the company, claiming they were a little shorthanded this week.

But the opening day at CEDIA here was still a terrific experience for me as this show continues to be the best venue to see the latest in audio, video, home networking and related products and services (There were nearly ninety new manufacturers and service companies at this show.)

Panasonic stole the thunder from the other big guys by introducing the first fully working Tru2Way TVs that will supposedly do away with cable boxes forever. The Tru2Way technology, developed with Cable-Labs, the cable industry’s technology development group, also replaces the disappointing cable card as a way to have cable channels, pay per view and other on demand features built into the TV itself. Funai and LG have agreed to the standard but have not introduced TVs with the Tru2Way technology built-in.

Speaking of LG, they formalized their Netflix deal by releasing a high-end $399 Blu-ry Player which when connected to the Internet (directly) offers Netflix video rentals streamed directly to the Blu-ray player. The system does not support Wi-Fi yet. LG’s and Netflix executives claimed that almost 40% of U.S. households contain Internet connections in the living room…. that’s really ridiculous statement since the real number of people who have direct Internet access in their livings rooms is about 8%.

Sony countered with its Bravia Internet based TVs that will now have video downloads available from Amazon’s video download service.

Toshiba had no new Internet tricks in their new products but did offer up the first TVs that featured super up converting of almost any content into 1080P HDTV. Toshiba also has a new DVD player that will offer that kind of up-converting feature with even older DVDs.

Sharp closed the festivities showing off their most robust line of LCD TVs ever.

And Yes! Almost all of TV makers added a little Internet content to their web-based TVs. probably making the computer makers happy, as all these TVs fall short of providing a true and viable Internet experience.

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