Friday, May 4, 2007
HDTV
The Washington Post is aggregating HD content for a new iTunes feed.
I watched the most recent, a campaign moment lasting five minutes. This is the first time I've really focused on an HDTV news broadcast and all I have to say is: it is disturbing. Traditional fuzzy news-footage, now in memory and soon to be history, seems like a dreamscape, compared to this hi-def procession of unrelentingly detailed images. Sharper than a DVD movie — a real life segment without the benefits of lighting and makeup — the politico spectacle in this WaPo feed is hyper-real.
Like the new HDR blends in Photoshop, where both shadow and highlight are drenched in detail, you wonder if this is a boon or an oppressive imposition. Shadows provide visual space for dreaming, lending depth, a vicinity for imagination to inhabit and add its contextual coherence. The images in HDTV are so sharp they distract from all but the images — even the shadows offer no space. This is probably just a newness effect and later it will become familiar — fodder for zoning out just like good ol' regular TV. Still, these are oppressive times and HDTV really fits.