She noted that many media equipment companies agree. For example, she says, Sharp's 108-inch , which made quite a splash at the show, doesn't support Wi-Fi. Rather, because of the potential shortcomings of wireless, Sharp chose to only support HomePlug networks for its behemoth.

Vendors such as Netgear, which are known for their Wi-Fi equipment, agree.

"Powerline has its best place right around the home entertainment center," says Netgear's Pyo. "It reaches the reliability of a plain [Ethernet] network."

NAS for the home

Media files are large, so network-attached storage (NAS) is also expected to play a significant role in the home network of the future. As a result, D-Link, Netgear and Linksys, not to mention heavyweights in the field such as Seagate Technology LLC and HP, were all showing off home network-storage products at CES.