LG to offer HDTVs that download movies direct from Netflix

LG Electronics announced a range of Internet-enabled televisions on Monday that can stream movies from the Netflix rental service. The companies will show the televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, a year after they first announced their plans to work together on a set-top box for downloading movies.

The new televisions will have Ethernet connections allowing Netflix members to stream high-definition content over the Internet, LG said. It plans to release plasma and LCD models in the first half of this year.

These are not the first high-definition devices on which the companies have collaborated: LG recently announced an Internet-enabled Blu-ray disc player, the BD300, which can also download movies from Netflix. That company's customers pay upwards of $8.99 a month to rent DVDs from a catalog or to stream unlimited movies to compatible devices. Netflix boasts a catalog of 100,000 DVD titles and 12,000 titles available through its streaming service.

LG recently announced plans to allow its Internet-enabled Blu-ray players to stream content from YouTube and from CinemaNow, another online movie rental service.

Users of the new Netflix-enabled televisions will be able to choose movies directly on screen using the television remote control. Streaming a movie through the Blu-ray player involves using a PC to add it to a queue of movies to watch.

Netflix is also working with other consumer electronics manufacturers to incorporate support for its movie streaming service in their devices. Samsung released a Blu-ray player, the BD-P2500, in December with similar functionality to the LG BD300. And with Roku, it developed a set-top box that streams standard-definition movies from a queue created using a PC to access the Netflix Web site.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.