If you’re anything like me, the first time you saw an HD flat screen television at your local electronics store you were blown away by the image quality and you were thinking, "That’s so cool!" I loved the look of a flat screen TV up against the wall with no wires or boxes getting in the way. It almost looked like a piece of art. But anyone who has brought home a HD TV knows that sleek "hung painting" look is far from easy to achieve.

Between the power cable, the cable box, and the wires for my speakers, my first attempt at recreating that look ended up looking more like Doc Ock from Spiderman than the Mona Lisa. And unless I had a cable box plugged in, I couldn’t get any OnDemand programming. As the years have gone by, it hasn’t really become a whole lot easier to get that sleek wireless look, without having to make some major sacrifices in features or quality.

With Tru2way technology, this is all going to change. Panasonic’s new tru2way Viera HDTVs pack all the features you expect from your entertainment center, with the simplicity and ease of a digital cable ready TV. No cable box is needed, one remote to rule them all, and you can even access Video on demand right from your TV.

By now you’re probably wondering, ‘Tru2way sounds neat, but I have no idea what it actually does.’ To explain Tru2way technology, we have to go no further than the computer on your desk at home. Think of Tru2way as a sort of operating system, a common software platform that developers can write applications for. It enables consumer electronics companies, content developers, network programmers and others to extend interactivity to the TV set, and other kinds of devices, because its built with open standards. One of the many cool things about the Panasonic VIERA HDTV for Comcast customers is that you can access two-way digital cable programming, like Video on Demand, for the first time without a set-top box.

At the moment Tru2way is active in Chicago and Denver, but it’ll be expanding across the country in the coming months (and I’ll be posting more about it right here at Comcast Voices). You can also check out a few of Panasonics’ Tru2way televisions on their website.

Now we just need to work on wireless power and my dream of a pristine HDTV hanging on my wall will be complete.