If you wonder what the telcos will be like years from now, when they're raking in the cash from video services, get a load of the way they behaved last month. As soon as the Federal Communications Commission removed some regulatory charges from consumer DSL bills, BellSouth and Verizon quickly tried to add them back and pocket the cash. The deleted charges had gone into the Universal Service Fund, which was originally designed to subsidize phone service in rural areas, and later extended to nurture Internet access in schools. BellSouth DSL customers had paid $2.97 per month into the USF, while Verizon DSL customers had paid $1.25-2.83 (depending on speed of service), until the FCC reclassified DSL and eliminated the fees to give consumers a break. Thereupon BellSouth swiftly imposed a "regulatory cost recovery fee" of $2.97, while Verizon added a "supplier surcharge" of $1.20-2.70. This breathtakingly opportunistic pickpocketing of consumers, greasily interlarded with corporate doublespeak, so enraged FCC chair Kevin Martin that he instantly threatened to send official letters demanding an explanation. He didn't have to send them—BellSouth quickly backed off and Verizon followed a few days later. They've got a lot on their regulatory wish lists, with BellSouth awaiting approval for its absorption into AT&T, and all the telcos eagerly awaiting the replacement of municipal franchise agreements for video service with more relaxed federal and state regulation. If this is what they act like when they're on their best behavior, just imagine what they'll be like at their worst.
CLUTTER CUTTER Everybody loves HDTV, but enough with all the cables already! Pioneer feels your pain, providing no fewer than four HDMI inputs on its new flagship receiver, the VSX-84TXSi. The Cadillac of connectors delivers both HD video and audio, so you can hook up everything from your high-def cable box to your HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc player and still not get tangled up.
TIPPING THE SCALER The absolute best that high-def video can look is the en vogue 1080p format, which floods your screen with more than 2 million pixels as often as every sixtieth of a second (assuming you have a 1080p-resolution TV).
MEDIUM MEDIA Fans of portable video face a stark choice: squinting at microscopic cellphone and iPod screens or lugging around a bulky laptop. Staking out the middle ground is the Pepper Pad 3, which sports a roomy 7-inch touchscreen and a 20-GB hard drive.
DLP PROGRESS If HDTV is your religion, your savior has arrived: The Marantz VP-11S1 is the first DLP front projector with 1080p resolution. Unlike previous 1080p DLP TVs, which stacked their pixel counts using a technique similar to interlacing called "wobulation," the VP-11S1 packs a state-of-the-art DLP chip that renders discrete 1,920 x 1,080-pixel images.
ROCK ON Are you still dragging your old boombox out to the backyard for your barbecues? Son, it's time for an upgrade. StereoStone's DaVinci Cinema Rock speaker can fill your patio with sweet sounds without messing up the outdoor ambience, thanks to its rocky camouflage, available in seven colors or your own custom color.
