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Why HDTV will further demoralize women in our society.

Bold statement, but let me talk you through this.

Like it or not, pornography is a huge driving force of technology. I remember reading an article a while back, documenting the history of porn. Let me summerize.

The VHS-betamax format war was won in part due to greater availability of porn.

Before the Internet exploded to the conscious minds of Joe Public, porn was available by first telneting to an Archie server, do a search, then FTP (file transfer protocol) it to your machine. Porn text stories was available through gopher searches a la Veronica. Both were also available for download via usenet newsgroups. alt.binaries.* was not a good place to stumble upon if you abhor such things.

Of course in that same timeframe, you could dial with a 2400, 9600, or 14.4K baud modem, connect to your local BBS, and find pictures.

Stay with me, I do have a point.

Early adopters of the World Wide Web made dirty pictures available and made it simple to display their catalog of pictures via thumbnails. I remember I learned the term "thumbnails" through a schoolmate who knew about pornography.

In 1995 video technology began to appear, with Xing Technology creating video/audio streaming. I still remember the first clip I saw, then later that week someone said they had another clip, and you guessed it - porn. I was amused at the technology, not what was on the screen.

Secure Internet transaction with credit cards, a mainstay of internet shopping? Pioneered and championed by the porn industry. They were using encryption technology very early on.

The first DVD disc? Probably some demo, but I remember my co-worker telling me that the second DVD ever produced was a Japanese porn title.

DVD angles? Porn. They were the first titles to use DVD angles in home titles.

What about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? I don't know. I honestly have not heard of porn being on them, yet. But here's where I make my point.

I have seen HDTV streams, I have been priviliged to see some Blu-Ray and HD-DVD demos. I can personally attest that the picture quality is beautiful. If you think that your current DVD titles look good on your 37"+ LCDs, wait until you see HD-DVD movies, it will blow you away.

Anyone lucky enough to watch a football game in HD will agree just how amazing it is, how life-like, how wonderfully sharp and vibrant the people appear to be. No longer do you watch a game, but now you admire and gawk over how you can practically see every fan's facial features; it's surreal.

So you now you read this, bemused and maybe a little upset, thinking to yourself, "Geez, that losir sure is a pervert. How does he know so much about the porn industry??"

Well, I actually did research on this one, not the actual sites, but the technology and timeline behind my points.

I better get back on topic and answer the rhetorical question I posed in the beginning.

HD is too sharp. 1080P streams show too much. Every flaw on a girl's face, every imperfection on her skin, every pore, every bump, every nick can now be seen because HD is just that good.

Forget porn for a sec. Think of a model, how much more flawless does she need to be in order to look "good"? With lower resolution cameras and picture quality, you could get away with much more. It is for this reason that glamour shots use soft filters, or magazines airbrush the snot out of pictures in the past, and how Photoshop can clone/healing brush out all that stuff now.

The point is, whether you like it or not, HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war will win depending on who has the best porn titles. There just cannot be two mass competiting next generation "DVD" technology, especially when Blu-ray already stated early on it will NOT allow and revoke all licensee who make combo Blu-ray/HD-DVD drives. This is the exact reason why LG announced they have retracted their plan to make combo drives, now supporting only Blu-Ray.

Again, I digress. But don't you see? Once these discs are released to the public, porn will once again dominate and drive the technology until it becomes mainstream. When they finally broadcast Miss Universe in HD, girls will go crazy trying to look perfect.

We are already bombarded with overly perfect figures and wrinkle free smiles. Everywhere you look, magazines, media, etc are all showing perfect men and women. Check out your local fitness magazines, no one in their right mind looks that good all the time.

And yet, high resolution video/pictures will do just that - they will make everyone look perfect, because if they didn't, you'd see it. "Look at Miss Columbia, Oh My Gawd, is that a mole on her bum or is that lint? My gawd, it is a mole!"

I don't know if I've made my point clear, or if what I say even makes sense. I hope you're not railroaded by my heavy references to pornography. I honestly had to google and wikipedia some of the technology, but that article I read many moons ago really stuck with me - especially the point of porn being the driving force for advancement in display mediums.

....My right elbow really hurts.
[EDIT 8/02/06 @12:45am] From this much typing! Not something else, pervs! posted by losir at 11:58 PM