September 21, 2006
The Widescreen Obesity Epidemic
Suddenly, all the beautiful people in Hollywood have become fat -- or so you would think from watching TV recently. For it seems as though most of the shiny new widescreen TVs out there are still showing old, lo-res signals meant for a tube that just isn't that wide. So those expensively toned bodies we're all used to fetishizing on TV are now being stretched about a third wider than they were before. It's a little like the opposite of the new slimming feature included with most new HP digital cameras.
The sheer prevalence of this phenomenon leads me to believe that the pundits decrying the insufficient resolution of the "near-dvd quality video Apple is offering with its new iTunes video store are sorely mistaken. If anything, the rise of MP3s and digital music have shown that when it comes to deciding between fidelity and convenience or cost, people will take the easy way.
Update: As yet further proof that I have no original thoughts, this same idea appeared on Slashdot earlier this year. I had no idea.
Posted by dreeves at September 21, 2006 9:58 PM