LAS VEGAS — That big-screen digital television you just bought may soon get some powerful new connections.

As the annual Consumer Electronics Show gets into full swing here, everybody is talking about connectivity. But this time it's not about connecting computers to each other.

It's about connecting all the other devices you may have: your computer, cell phone, portable music player and camera to your television set, so you can get whatever programming you want, whenever and wherever you want it.

Microsoft Corp.'s ambition is to provide connected experiences 24 hours a day, Chairman Bill Gates said in a conference kickoff speech.

Microsoft announced plans to update its Xbox 360 video game console by the end of the year so it will also work as a set-top box for IPTV television programming delivered via Internet protocols.

It also is developing software for a new line of home computer servers designed to store and dish up movies, photos, games and other digital content to TV sets, other PCs and portable devices.

Microsoft isn't the only tech company talking about connectivity.

Cisco Systems chief John Chambers plans to discuss today how his company wants to hook consumers' PCs and TVs together, and to the Internet.

Sony Corp. is showing off devices that plug into its TVs and connect them, wirelessly or with cables, to home computer networks, allowing users to get video from the Internet.

Sling Media, whose Slingbox device lets users access their home television programming over the Internet using a computer wherever they are, unveiled a new gadget Monday called SlingCatcher that lets users do the reverse: access Web sites and Internet video with their TV sets.

The most-anticipated TV connectivity breakthrough, though, may come today in San Francisco, not Las Vegas.

At Apple Computer's Macworld conference, CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to give more details on the iTV device designed to connect to the Internet and also work as a bridge between TV sets, computers and Apple's iPod music players. The company also may show off a cell phone that plays video and music.

The idea of watching Internet video on a TV, or television programming on a PC or cell phone, may still be like a foreign concept to many consumers, but that's changing.

In surveys by Jupiter Research, about 30 percent of consumers have expressed interest in watching TV programming on their PCs, and 12 percent have said they'd like to watch TV on mobile devices such as cell phones.

The entertainment business is in the midst of a transition, said Dan Scheinman, senior vice president for Ciscos Media Solutions Group.

There are no well-defined winners and losers yet, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at the Yankee Group research firm. But, he added, the game has definitely begun.