Hybrid gadgets to reign at Vegas show

LAS VEGAS — Flat-panel televisions with built-in digital video recorders. Pocketable satellite radio receivers that can bookmark songs for online purchase. High-definition TVs engineered to play video or display photos from any computer on your home network.

The new offerings from LG Electronics Inc., XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are just a tiny sampling from this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, an annual showcase of technologies soon to hit the market.

Spread out over 28 football fields of real estate when the doors open Thursday will be a dizzying array of new products from small startups, dot-com boom retreads and such longtime players as Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.'s Panasonic.

Cameras, MP3 players, DVD recorders, giant plasma screens and accessories for all the above — you name it and, chances are, it will be on display at the Sin City convention center-turned-electronics mecca.

Portable gadgets will be smaller but more powerful. Laptops will boast longer battery lives. TVs will be bigger and sharper but cheaper. And many devices will have the ability to connect to the Internet, a home computer network or to each other — with more ease than before.

In the home appliance arena, Samsung Electronics Co. will show a refrigerator with four convertible compartments that can switch between being a freezer or a fridge, depending on the user's needs. LG will debut a washer and dryer system that lets users monitor the laundry cycle from a small remote control.

Satellite radio, climbing in popularity, will become more accessible as a growing number of portable and home devices — such as LG's new five-disc DVD player — have the feature built-in.

Digital music players from Samsung and Pioneer Corp. will not only play live XM radio but also integrate the Napster music download and subscription service, so users can "bookmark" songs heard on XM for online purchase from Napster.

"We've seen millions of MP3 players sold and millions of satellite radio products sold. Now we're marrying them together and will hopefully create a new market," said Chance Patterson, spokesman for XM Satellite.

Portable multimedia players, which first hit the market a few years ago, are enjoying a renewed buzz this year, assured the attention by Apple Computer Inc.'s debut of a video-playing iPod and recent deals that have made TV shows available for sale online.