The ?super? set-top was the talk of last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The boxes combine a range of entertainment devices, from last year's hot personal video recorder and DVD player to cutting-edge applications like video-on-demand and home networking.

At least five technology and manufacturing companies announced plans to offer cable operators, satellite providers and movie studios their own version of this enhanced technology. Even programmer MTV got into the game, announcing new products with computer manufacturer Lan Plus that will enable consumers to watch TV, play DVD movies, listen to music and browse the Internet using one device.

?This new product line is an ideal solution for anyone wishing to combine all their entertainment and computing needs in one unit,? said Bob Anderson, Lan Plus's director of business development, in a statement. Anderson expects these new products will be rolled out in the spring.

And the products were the subject of their own panel discussion, subtly named ?The Set-top Box as Entertainment Super Appliance.?

But not all of these high-tech wonders are likely to survive in the marketplace.

?There will undoubtedly be a shakeout,? said Fred Zeiler, president of consulting company Video-on-Demand Expertise, after the panel. ?Who knows who will survive? The market is in such an embryonic stage that it's too early to tell.?

Zeiler was not on the panel but is writing an in-depth report comparing PVRs. He said that though he likes his PVR service, if he were faced with the choice of buying it today he would only do so if it were included with other entertainment-services platforms.

PVR pioneer TiVo is taking that very tack.

Last week TiVo dropped its business plan to sell stand-alone PVR boxes to consumers, switching instead to a license-fee business model similar to that of competitor ReplayTV. TiVo also announced its plans to provide new entertainment services such as a version of video-on-demand that enables consumers to order any movie from a content provider and download it via the Internet. With its new partners, RealNetworks, Jellyvision and Radiance Technologies, TiVo will develop CD burning, VOD and interactive game features. To help achieve this transformation, TiVo will open its platform to other applications, a difficult move for an industry tightly guarded over intellectual property rights.

TiVo, however, does not have any deals with content providers to get movies on demand yet. It also faces competition from a range of other companies developing home entertainment centers, including the two top cable set-top-box manufacturers Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta.

Both set-top makers are developing their own home entertainment centers. Motorola displayed a combined digital cable and DVD box at the electronics show last week for $899. The box will incorporate other home-networking technologies in the future, the company said.

UniView Technologies Corp. has teamed up with Microsoft to provide a set-top box that offers VOD services, broadband and dial-up connectivity as well as Web browsing.

Moreover, Moxi Digital, a new technology company introduced by former WebTV founder Steve Perlman, attracted attention at the show for its own version of a super entertainment box. Moxi, which will work with satellite provider EchoStar Communications, provides PVR capabilities, an electronic program guide, a jukebox that can store and play hundreds of CDs and a DVD player.

So while this year's technology may not leap tall buildings in a single bound, it can sweep an archive of compact discs to play one track, instantaneously play a DVD and even browse the Internet all with a single remote, according to company demos. The biggest challenge for these super entertainment boxes will be to convince cable operators and satellite providers to buy and deploy them.

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