LATEST ADDITIONS

<A HREF="http://www.comcast.com">Comcast Cable Communications</A> announced last week that it will make high definition TV (HDTV) programming available to subscribers in its major markets by the end of 2002, beginning in the Washington Metro/Virginia region this summer.

Perhaps more than any other art form, movies are about blurring the line between reality and fantasy. For the sake of entertainment, film scripts take great liberties with historical figures and events, and the film industry spends millions on each production to create effects that could never happen in life.

Veteran readers of <I>Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I> and <I>Stereophile</I> will know that my longtime reference speaker for 2-channel playback has been the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//551/">Energy Veritas V2.8</A>&mdash;it's capable of dominating a room in a way that few other speakers in its price range can. For years now at trade shows, I've badgered Energy to produce a suitable center-channel and surrounds, but what Energy has had in the works the last few years were not additional models to fill out a home-theater setup based on the V2.8, but a complete new Veritas line. Everything about the current flagship of that updated and expanded range, the Veritas V2.4&mdash;from drivers to cabinet&mdash;is new, and many of those new developments are carried over to the full Veritas line.

It appears that almost nobody in government thinks a single direct broadcast satellite system is a good idea.