One of the first remarkable things that became evident in the early years of HD (for our purposes here, that would be about seven years ago) was how unremarkable most news sets--and some news anchors--looked in 1080i or 720p. Local and network sets--as well as backdrops and sets for TV series--held a lot to be desired in the HD realm. Sets viewed in HD suddenly looked cheap (which they were, of course), and routine wear-and-tear on tables, curtains and logo signage were quite noticeable--details that normally did not pose a problem in analog.
Among the more obvious problems that cropped up in some early local news HD demo tapes was male and female anchors' pancake make-up, which was noticeable to the point of distraction. Fortunately, that's a problem easily resolved. However, the Web site onhd.tv recently conducted a reality check on actors, in its opinion, who were helped by the unforgiving eye of HD, and which thespians may have to reconsider their make-up regimens or the use of gauzy lenses to hide facial blemishes, wrinkles and other negatives.
We won't divulge the actors who did not fare too well (and several were quite young), but those judged to benefit more from being more highly defined in HD than SD include: Anna Kournikova, Catherine Zeta-Jones, George Clooney, Jay Leno, John Travolta, Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie, Sting, Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson (although Johansson is still very much a teenager and probably shouldn't count anyway.)
