TV and the Internet have merged even closer together after the announcement by LG that the company will be releasing a new HDTV TV set that is to be fully broadband enabled.

This exciting news is the result of a joint venture between LG and Netflix, an online movie rental company in the US, and will mean that movies will be embedded in the TV, which can then be streamed by the user. According to Teddy Hwang, the president of LG USA, it is an “industry-first” which allows users to “access exciting content directly through their TV”.

Since there is now an increasing amount of video content available on the Internet, the idea of bringing all of this to our TV sets has long been a desire of TV manufacturers. Furthermore, with young people in particular now spending more time on the Internet than watching TV, especially with video websites such as YouTube booming in popularity, TV manufacturers will want to take advantage of this trend and find ways in which the gap between computers and TV sets can be narrowed to their advantage.

The whole idea of allowing the TV to stream the content itself negates the need for a laptop or another similar device to do the job. The deal also allows the customer to access good quality content, rather than other services which currently exist and leave a lot to be desired through the poor content that is on offer.

So, can we expect all our TV sets to come with built-in broadband in the years to come? It is certainly a welcome pairing, and now that we have the Internet taking over our mobile handsets, it is surely only a matter of time before we cannot envisage an era when TVs did not come with inbuilt broadband.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology is helping electronics companies all over the world overcome one of the most taxing problems faced by modern industry. Namely, how to make your TV set look better than your neighbour’s.

OLED technology was first used in 1987 by Kodak. It was not adopted widely, however, due to the astronomical costs and complicated manufacturing processes associated with it.

In 2008, the Japanese government asked the hundreds of Japan-based electronics companies to devise a way to mass-produce OLED technology, and the system was thrust back into the spotlight.

Sony unveiled an OLED TV set for the first time at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

This device, named the XEL-1 for no obvious reason, comes bundled with millions of clever molecules that can turn electricity into light, forever consigning clunky backlights to the history books.

The company claims that future OLED TVs will be able to resist being beaten, rolled up, thrown around, and folded in half without sustaining any damage whatsoever.

Scientists are already inventing marvellous new uses for Sony’s indestructible television. Implanting OLED substrates into t-shirts features quite high on their list.

The versatility of the OLED system should not be underestimated. Sony’s XEL-1 box is a mere 3mm thick and weighs just 2kg. It has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and is capable of producing super-luminous colours.

If you are feeling particularly extravagant this year, consider visiting Sony’s official website for more information. But be warned - at almost £2,000 per set, the XEL-1 is likely to upset your bank manager!

Couch potatoes have a reason to celebrate this year, because Japanese electronics company Toshiba has come up with an innovative way of ensuring that the obligatory re-runs of Home Alone and James Bond look even prettier than they did last year.

The new Regza ZV range of LCD TVs come bundled with upscaling technology, a piece of hardware that Toshiba claims can boost standard definition images to near-HD quality.

Sales of HD-ready TVs are on the rise, but a recent survey conducted by Toshiba’s marketing division revealed that only 1% of all content is viewed in high definition. The technology used in the Regza range – the Resolution+ system – is therefore long overdue. Fans of high-definition programming have been starved of content by broadcasters, and the persistently unpopular Blu-Ray format has done little to satiate popular appetites.

Toshiba’s new TV was released on the 27th of November. It boasts a 1080p resolution over a 42-inch or 46-inch screen, and is capable of improving both the refresh rate and the overall quality of most standard-definition signals.

For more information, you can visit Toshiba’s website here.