HDT&A

Briana Banks

On MSN.com, columnist Brendan Koerner muses about the ins and outs of High Definition TV and raises some good points about how it will affect the pornography trade.

It seems that DirecTV announced last week that it would be broadcasting pay-per-view adult movies in HDTV. One of the many allures to HDTV is that it's a warts-and-all experience. You get to see EVERYTHING in full, revealing detail... which may be to its detriment when it comes to porn.

Porn performers are NOT the kind of guys and gals you see on the streets. Gals like busty Briana Banks and guys like well-hung stallion Nick Manning are not the average person. They look larger than life and have sex like one imagines superheroes might. From the viewer's point of view, these folks are superior specimens of beauty (albeit, often in a sleazy way) in peak physical shape. So imagine the nationwide groan of displeasure when HDTV reveals the pimples, blemishes, bruises, scars and other such imperfections that don't show up on regular TV.

Yes, if you make your living being naked on television screens, than HDTV may not be your friend -- newscasters are already becoming aware of this.

Sure, the studios could spend lots of money in post production trying to airbrush every frame so their objects of desire retain their otherworldliness, but that would be expensive and porn films are not known for big special effects budgets -- or big budgets in general. Besides, the return on that investment may not be so obvious. It may take years of subtle sales decline as HDTV sets are adopted before the studios realize their business is being negatively affected by HDTV. On the other hand, maybe no one really cares about these performers being perfect, the evidence for this is the rising popularity in low-fi gonzo porn and internet amateur sites, and the clamoring demand for grainy home vids of celebrities in scandalous situations.

Either way, it seems that High Definition pornography is coming, and the question is, will the future be airbrushed?