As thousands of people milled around the high-tech devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday it was becoming clear that one of the big trends at this year’s event was the push for a holy grail that has thus far eluded the industry: internet connectivity in the living room.

Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG Electronics, Sharp and Toshiba all announced plans to build technology into their latest high-definition flat panel TV sets that will enable consumers to access limited internet content, including streaming movie services and information “widgets” built by Yahoo and other content partners. Set-top boxes that connect TV sets to the internet have, so far, had a limited impact. Devices such as Apple’s iTV box work well enough but have not broken through to the mainstream.