This page will contain videos about Girls, as they become available.GirlTo meet Wikipedia's quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup.The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. Please improve the article or discuss the issue on the talk page. A girl is a young female human, as opposed to a boy, a young male human. The age at which a female person transitions from girl to woman varies in different societies, typically the transition from adolescence to maturity is taken to occur in the late teens. The English word from 1290 designated a child of either sex. During the 14th century its sense was narrowed to specifically female children. Subsequently, it was extended to refer also to mature but unmarried young women since the 1530s. Usage in the sense of (romantic) "sweetheart" arose in the 17th century. Historically, girls faced discrimination and limitations on the roles they were expected to play in their societies, and the United Nations targeted discrimination in schooling to end by 2010. An ongoing debate about the influences of nature versus nurture in shaping the behavior of girls and boys raises questions about whether the roles played by girls are the result of inborn differences or socialization. Images of girls in art, literature, and popular culture often demonstrate assumptions about gender roles. DemographicsTwo girls who are friendsThere are 2.18 billion people (est. UNICEF, 2004) aged 18 or under in the world, for a total of more than one billion living girls. From birth, girls are a slight minority due to both natural factors (the human sex ratio has been observed since the 1700s as approximately 1,050 boys for every 1,000 girls) and due to sex selection on the part of parents. Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specifies that "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all", girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary (70% enrollment vs. 74% for boys) or secondary education (59% vs. 65%). This disparity is targeted to end under the Millennium Development Goals and has closed substantially since 1990.^ Gender rolesA girl playing with paper dolls–a typical manifestation of a female gender role.In almost all cultures, girls have been socialized into gender roles. Girls have traditionally been associated with playing with dolls and toy cooking and cleaning equipment, while boys have been associated with toys and games that require more physical activity or simulated violence, such as toy trucks, balls, and toy guns. Girls are less often encouraged to pursue sports, with the exception of those that might be considered "feminine," such as figure skating or gymnastics; or those considered "gender-neutral," such as tennis.[1] They may be prevented from participating in many of the same activities that boys participate in at the same age, as a matter of protecting them from perceived outside dangers, such as boys and men, or anything that may cause physical injury. Sometimes boys are presumed to be more responsible than girls, except in the cases of caring for younger children, which is sometimes thought to be instinctual in girls. Girls, as a group, may be perceived as being more docile than boys, and as being less capable of rational decision making and more governed by emotional responses. The reasons for this perceived difference in the behavior of girls and boys are a controversial topic in both public debate and the sciences. The idea that differences in gender roles originate in differences in biology originates from 19th-century anthropology; more recently, sociobiology and evolutionary psychology have turned to this problem to explain those differences by treating them as evolutionary adaptations to a lifestyle of Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies. For example, the need to take care of offspring may have limited the females' freedom to hunt and to assume positions of power. Simon Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge University professor of psychology and psychiatry, argues that "the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, while the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems." A girl "driving" a toy car, an example of counter-stereotypical behavior.On the other hand, feminists have argued that gender roles are the result of stereotypes and socialization rather than any innate biological differences. Due to the influence of (among others) Simone de Beauvoir's feminist works and Michel Foucault's reflections on sexuality, the idea that gender was unrelated to sex gained ground during the 1980s, especially in sociology and cultural anthropology. The biological viewpoint of gender roles is not that all gender distinctions result from biology, but rather that biology has an influence. Some feminists deny this, but many feminists agree that both biology and upbringing have an influence on gender roles, with the question being the relative importance of each. This conflict is often called nature versus nurture. Several studies, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment of the OECD, have shown that, in developed countries, girls usually obtain better scores than boys do in secondary schools in Literature and Language, boys on the other hand tend to score higher in mathematics. However, their choices afterwards in postsecondary school are often very different and lead them to less socially recognized professions. Relatively few girls become engineers, though in the USA, more do become doctors. EtymologyThe word "girl" first appears during the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxon word gyrela = "ornament" may have given rise to the modern pronunciation of "girl", if the change in meaning can be explained. While there is no general agreement about the etymology of "girl", it is found in manuscripts dating from 1290 with the meaning "a child" (of either gender). A male child was called a "Knave girl"; a female child was called a "gay girl". Like many other words that originally were not gender specific, "girl" gradually came to be used primarily and then exclusively for one gender. There are manuscripts dating from 1530 in which the word "girl" is used to mean "maiden" (also originally applied to both genders), or any unmarried human female. Within little more than a century, however, the word began to take on implications of social class. In 1668, in his Diary, Samuel Pepys uses the word to mean a female servant of any age: "girl" = "serving girl". Note the parallel shift in the meaning of the word "maid". UsageA smiling Iraqi girl.By the 1700s, there was a difference in some uses of the word between England and the Americas. In England, a "girl" was often a serving girl, while in America a "girl" was often a sweetheart or "girlfriend", for example, in the lyrics of the popular song "The Girl I Left Behind Me". In England, the word "girl" was also used as a euphemism for "prostitute", as for example by Richard Steele in The Spectator. In America today, the word "girl" is often used as an intended compliment or used humorously. A woman of a certain age might be called a girl to suggest that she looked younger than she was, or a group of women might speak of themselves as "us girls", though all were well over the age of maidenhood. Adult women will sometimes refer to themselves as "girls", as in "We're having a girls' night out" or "It's a girl thing". But social shifts generally permit only the female gender group themselves to use such terminology without giving offence. With the rise of feminism, the use of "girl" applied to any adult female became offensive to many, especially given the fact that the word was so often used to indicate low social status, low morals, weakness, or homosexuality. There is a parallel objection to use of the word "boy" to describe a male over the age of puberty. In modern usage, "girl" is properly restricted to mean a human female who has not reached adulthood, and some would restrict the usage to prepubescent girls. The term "young woman" is sometimes used in the period between childhood and full adulthood. Using the word "girl" to refer to a male is usually meant as insulting, such as "You throw like a girl". The more insulting "girly-boy", which originated in 1589 as "girle-boy", is used to indicate a weak or "sissy" male. Calling a male a girl often serves as a provocation to fight (see fighting words). While outsiders might use "girl" or "girly" as a pejorative to refer to a gay male, within the gay community it is used as a term of endearment. The word girl has many synonyms, including "belle", "chick", "doll", "gal", "lass" or "lassie", "maiden", and "miss". The slang word "gal", as in "Buffalo gals won't you come out tonight", is a variant pronunciation of girl. Art and literaturePortrayals of girls may reflect their standing in the artists' culture, and a brief overview of different views of girls in different art periods gives a sense of girls' roles in societies around the world and at different points in time. The White Girl, Whistler (1862) Portrait of a Young Girl, de FlandesEgyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls of royal descent. Ancient Greek classical art and literature paid scant attention to female children, though there are many poems about boys. Only Sappho's poetry includes love poems addressed to girls. In European art, some early paintings to feature girls are Juan de Flandes' Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1500–1510 (shown at left); Frans Hals' Die Amme mit dem Kind in 1620; Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas in 1656; Jan Steen's The Feast of St. Nicolas, circa 1660; and Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Later paintings of girls include Albert Anker's portrait of a Girl with a Domino Tower and Camille Pissarro's 1883 Portrait of a Felix Daughter. In American art, paintings that feature girls include Mary Cassatt's 1884 Children on the Beach and Whistler's Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and The White Girl (shown at right). As in art, portrayals of girls in literature can reflect the social norms of the time at which they were written. Many novels begin with the childhood of their heroine. Examples include Jane Eyre, who suffers ill treatment; and Natasha in War and Peace, who is sentimentalized. Other novels include Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which has a young girl as protagonist; and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, about a girl subjected to sexual abuse. Most early children's stories focused on boys, with the notable exception of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, whose photographs of little girls are part of the history of photographic art. Popular cultureEuropean fairy tales include some memorable stories about girls, including Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, and The Princess and the Pea; the Brothers Grimm's Little Red Riding Hood; and others. Children's books about girls include Little House on the Prairie, Eloise, Pippi Longstocking, Dragonsong, and A Wrinkle in Time. Books which have both boy and girl protagonists tend to focus on the boys, but important girl characters appear in Knight's Castle, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Book of Three, and the Harry Potter series (by Book 6, Harry Potter's social circle includes 1 boy and 2 girls, although newcomer Ginny still isn't let into secrets like Ron and Hermione are). There have been many American comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character, such as Little Lulu, Little Orphan Annie, Girl Genius, and Amelia Rules. In superhero comic books, an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of Wonder Woman's sidekicks. In the Peanuts series (by Charles Schulz), girl characters include Peppermint Patty, Lucy van Pelt, and Sally Brown. The most famous Flemish comic strip is Spike and Suzy (Suske and Wiske), about the adventures of a boy and a girl (each about 10 years old); it was translated from Flemish into French and English. Franco-Belgian comics with girls in a central role include Isabelle (by Will) and Sophie (by Jidéhem). In Japanese manga and anime, girls are often protagonists. Most of the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki feature a young girl as the hero, as in Majo no takkyūbin (Kiki's Delivery Service). There are many other stories with girls as protagonists in the Shōjo style of manga, which is targeted to girls as an audience. Examples include The Wallflower, Ceres, Celestial Legend, and Full Moon o Sagashite. Other genres of manga and anime often feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls. Hollywood movies also tend to sexualize girls, as in Taxi Driver and The Blue Lagoon. A nonsexualized portrayal of a girl is the character played by Drew Barrymore in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Much of today's popular music centers around girls, typically in the context of romantic or sexual interest by young men. One of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War shows a girl, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, whose clothes were burned off by napalm; she was taken to the hospital by the photographer and received medical care. She survived, married, and lives in Canada. This page about Girls includes information from a Wikipedia article. Additional articles about Girls News stories about Girls External links for Girls Videos for Girls Wikis about Girls Discussion Groups about Girls Blogs about Girls Images of Girls |
|
She survived, married, and lives in Canada. Recording at 100 Mbits/s, it uses a better color compression method to give better color representation than a standard DV25 or MiniDV cassette and less compression artifacts. One of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War shows a girl, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, whose clothes were burned off by napalm; she was taken to the hospital by the photographer and received medical care. Broadcast-level HD cameras often record to hard-drives via a raw input/output or to tape or flash disks in formats that support higher bitrates than MiniDV cassettes such a DVCPro HD. Much of today's popular music centers around girls, typically in the context of romantic or sexual interest by young men. All major Camcorder vendors provide camcorders in this segment. the Extra-Terrestrial. It records MPEG-2TS compressed HDTV video on standard DV media (DV or MiniDV cassette tape) and transfers it using Firewire. A nonsexualized portrayal of a girl is the character played by Drew Barrymore in E.T. The standard for consumer/prosumer HDTV acquisition is High-Definition Video (HDV). Hollywood movies also tend to sexualize girls, as in Taxi Driver and The Blue Lagoon. Some DVD manufacturers such as Philips are licensing the DivX codec in order to play 720p/1080i content recorded on standard consumer DVD-R discs. Other genres of manga and anime often feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls. This upconversion process can improve the perceived picture quality of standard-definition video. Examples include The Wallflower, Ceres, Celestial Legend, and Full Moon o Sagashite. These players, however, are not considered to be true HD DVD players since they include only an integrated scaler to upconvert the standard-definition DVD video to high-definition video. There are many other stories with girls as protagonists in the Shōjo style of manga, which is targeted to girls as an audience. There are now some DVD players that will output enhanced or high-definition signals from standard-definition DVDs. Most of the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki feature a young girl as the hero, as in Majo no takkyūbin (Kiki's Delivery Service). Although they disagree about physical format technology, both the HD DVD and Blu-ray factions have selected the same three video codecs to be mandatory in their designs: specifically, MPEG-2 Part 2, VC-1, and H.264. In Japanese manga and anime, girls are often protagonists. The Blu-ray format has already gained a majority support from almost every major movie studio in the USA, while the HD DVD format has received support from a smaller consortium of companies, many of whom have also pledged support for Blu-ray anyway. Franco-Belgian comics with girls in a central role include Isabelle (by Will) and Sophie (by Jidéhem). A more likely possibility is that the PlayStation 3 console (manufactured by Sony, the main advocate of Blu-ray discs) will gain a major lead in sales for Blu-ray players when it launches in 2006. The most famous Flemish comic strip is Spike and Suzy (Suske and Wiske), about the adventures of a boy and a girl (each about 10 years old); it was translated from Flemish into French and English. A possible outcome of a messy format war could be the emergence of combo players, as the physical disc sizes are identical. In the Peanuts series (by Charles Schulz), girl characters include Peppermint Patty, Lucy van Pelt, and Sally Brown. As a result, this will likely lead to certain films becoming available only on one format. In superhero comic books, an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of Wonder Woman's sidekicks. Both sides of the HD disc camp are likely to leverage studio partners against each other through exclusive arrangements. There have been many American comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character, such as Little Lulu, Little Orphan Annie, Girl Genius, and Amelia Rules. A format war is now very likely between the DVD Forum's HD DVD (formerly "Advanced Optical Disc") standard and the Blu-ray Disc Association's Blu-ray disc standard. Books which have both boy and girl protagonists tend to focus on the boys, but important girl characters appear in Knight's Castle, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Book of Three, and the Harry Potter series (by Book 6, Harry Potter's social circle includes 1 boy and 2 girls, although newcomer Ginny still isn't let into secrets like Ron and Hermione are). Recently, the DVD Forum and the Blu-ray Disc Association failed to agree on standards for high-definition 12-cm discs. Children's books about girls include Little House on the Prairie, Eloise, Pippi Longstocking, Dragonsong, and A Wrinkle in Time. It was unclear to On2 and the arbitrator whether the Chinese government ever approved the EVD proposal as a standard. European fairy tales include some memorable stories about girls, including Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, and The Princess and the Pea; the Brothers Grimm's Little Red Riding Hood; and others. On2 filed multiple breach of contract claims for arbitration, but in March of 2005 the arbitrator ruled that E-World had not broken the contract and owed nothing to On2. Most early children's stories focused on boys, with the notable exception of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, whose photographs of little girls are part of the history of photographic art. Other novels include Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which has a young girl as protagonist; and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, about a girl subjected to sexual abuse. studio will commit to movies in this format without some form of copy-protection, which is not yet specified. Examples include Jane Eyre, who suffers ill treatment; and Natasha in War and Peace, who is sentimentalized. It is unlikely any major U.S. Many novels begin with the childhood of their heroine. Very few titles were made available in any market for this format, although it is presumed that many would be needed to drive purchase of incompatible players. As in art, portrayals of girls in literature can reflect the social norms of the time at which they were written. A low cost for the codec itself is not a significant advantage over DVD, however, as the standalone hardware players will be incompatible with standard DVD-Video unless the manufacturer pays the royalties for the technologies necessary to make the player DVD-compatible. In American art, paintings that feature girls include Mary Cassatt's 1884 Children on the Beach and Whistler's Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and The White Girl (shown at right). As China starts to dominate manufacturing of TV and DVD units, the country's choice of standards becomes more important for everyone. Later paintings of girls include Albert Anker's portrait of a Girl with a Domino Tower and Camille Pissarro's 1883 Portrait of a Felix Daughter. As an advantage, VP6 would not require royalties on recorded media (although royalties would be charged for player devices at a similar cost as for other codecs). Nicolas, circa 1660; and Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. As reported, this was a result of China's desire to avoid royalties on WM9 or AVC. In European art, some early paintings to feature girls are Juan de Flandes' Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1500–1510 (shown at left); Frans Hals' Die Amme mit dem Kind in 1620; Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas in 1656; Jan Steen's The Feast of St. VP6 was reported by On2 to have been chosen by China for use in the Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) format initiative. Only Sappho's poetry includes love poems addressed to girls. H.264 is also used by some for encoding video podcasts. Ancient Greek classical art and literature paid scant attention to female children, though there are many poems about boys. Since many movie trailers are released in QuickTime format, when movie distributors started releasing HD trailers on the web the format they chose was H.264. Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls of royal descent. H.264 has made significant progress towards becoming a widespread video format on the internet thanks to Apple Computer's QuickTime software supporting the format as of version 7. Portrayals of girls may reflect their standing in the artists' culture, and a brief overview of different views of girls in different art periods gives a sense of girls' roles in societies around the world and at different points in time. Example of broadcasters concerns. The slang word "gal", as in "Buffalo gals won't you come out tonight", is a variant pronunciation of girl. However, this is currently a rumour and has not yet been challenged. The word girl has many synonyms, including "belle", "chick", "doll", "gal", "lass" or "lassie", "maiden", and "miss". In fact, there is some concern in the community that Microsoft may have appropriated itself the H.264 standard, modified and improved upon it and are trying to resell the solution as VC-1, without providing dues to the MPEG-LA. While outsiders might use "girl" or "girly" as a pejorative to refer to a gay male, within the gay community it is used as a term of endearment. The main areas of dominance of VC-1 seem currently to be in the Blu-Ray DVD (HD DVD have not yet announced support for VC-1) and, for obvious reason, the home PCs. Calling a male a girl often serves as a provocation to fight (see fighting words). It has been thought for a while that VC-1 was better adapted for the IPTV world than H.264, but press announcements have also already been made by some of the largest STB manufacturers like Amino, Pace, Kreatel demonstrating solutions based on H.264 standards. The more insulting "girly-boy", which originated in 1589 as "girle-boy", is used to indicate a weak or "sissy" male. So far, only a handful of very minor broadcasters are seriously considering VC-1. Using the word "girl" to refer to a male is usually meant as insulting, such as "You throw like a girl". H.264 was chosen for several reasons: The standard was validated as an open standard at least a year before VC-1 was seriously considered as a potential open standard, and, then, there is a lot of uncertainty on the levies Microsoft may want to impose once the algorithm is adopted. The term "young woman" is sometimes used in the period between childhood and full adulthood. H.264 as a standard has already been selected and adopted by the biggest broadcasters in the USA (DirecTV, DISH Network) and Europe (BSkyB, Premiere, Canal+, TPS, ...). In modern usage, "girl" is properly restricted to mean a human female who has not reached adulthood, and some would restrict the usage to prepubescent girls. Other codecs are in contention such as AVC (MPEG-4 part 10, also known as H.264, approved by the ITU-T and MPEG standards bodies in early-2003) and the VP6 and now VP7 codecs from On2 Technologies. There is a parallel objection to use of the word "boy" to describe a male over the age of puberty. The codec has been submitted to SMPTE and is in SMPTE's standardization process with an intent for it to become an official SMPTE standard known as VC-1 in the near-future. With the rise of feminism, the use of "girl" applied to any adult female became offensive to many, especially given the fact that the word was so often used to indicate low social status, low morals, weakness, or homosexuality. As of the start of 2005, Microsoft recommends a 3.0 GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM and a 128-MB video card for 1080p playback on Windows XP, though they are now commercially available DVD players, like the KiSS DP-600, that will play back WMV HD DVD ROMs in high definition on HDTV sets. But social shifts generally permit only the female gender group themselves to use such terminology without giving offence. Since then, more titles have become available in this format, such as the acclaimed surf documentary Step Into Liquid. Adult women will sometimes refer to themselves as "girls", as in "We're having a girls' night out" or "It's a girl thing". As of November 2003, this format required a significant amount of processing power to encode and decode and the only commercially-available movie that used the codec was the Terminator 2: Extreme Edition DVD (see 1). A woman of a certain age might be called a girl to suggest that she looked younger than she was, or a group of women might speak of themselves as "us girls", though all were well over the age of maidenhood. It remains to be seen if the codec will be adopted for widespread use, if only as a Wi-Fi industry standard. In America today, the word "girl" is often used as an intended compliment or used humorously. Microsoft is marketing its high-definition Windows Media 9 Series codec as WMV HD. In England, the word "girl" was also used as a euphemism for "prostitute", as for example by Richard Steele in The Spectator. In an attempt to provide a bitrate-compatible high-definition format for high-definition video on standard DVD-ROMs, Microsoft introduced their Windows Media 9 Series codec with the ability to compress a high-definition bitstream into the same space as a conventional NTSC bitstream (approximately 5 to 9 megabits per second for 720p and higher). In England, a "girl" was often a serving girl, while in America a "girl" was often a sweetheart or "girlfriend", for example, in the lyrics of the popular song "The Girl I Left Behind Me". It is expected to have a big impact on the HDTV market. By the 1700s, there was a difference in some uses of the word between England and the Americas. Sony will include a Blu-ray player in PlayStation 3, and it will be released during 2006. Note the parallel shift in the meaning of the word "maid". Blu-ray uses a blue-laser optical disc with an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 codec. In 1668, in his Diary, Samuel Pepys uses the word to mean a female servant of any age: "girl" = "serving girl". Blu-ray technology is currently available only in Japan with a Japanese satellite/terrestrial tuner, but is expected to be released in other world markets in 2006. Within little more than a century, however, the word began to take on implications of social class. HD programming may be recorded on optical disc using Blu-ray or on HD DVD. There are manuscripts dating from 1530 in which the word "girl" is used to mean "maiden" (also originally applied to both genders), or any unmarried human female. D-Theater is currently a small niche market even within the niche HDTV community, and it appears as if the final D-Theater title was published in 2004. Like many other words that originally were not gender specific, "girl" gradually came to be used primarily and then exclusively for one gender. This format is superior to broadcast HDTV due to its higher bandwidth and, of course, the ability to do non-realtime optimization of the encoding, which is not possible with broadcast HDTV. A male child was called a "Knave girl"; a female child was called a "gay girl". Comprising less than 100 titles and utilizing a 28-Mbit/s MPEG2 stream at 720p or 1080i with either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS encoding, D-Theater is an encrypted D-VHS format, and only D-Theater capable D-VHS players can play back these tapes. While there is no general agreement about the etymology of "girl", it is found in manuscripts dating from 1290 with the meaning "a child" (of either gender). Aside from scarce Japanese analog MUSE-encoded laser discs that are no longer produced, as of 2005 the only current available prerecorded HD media is D-Theater. The Anglo-Saxon word gyrela = "ornament" may have given rise to the modern pronunciation of "girl", if the change in meaning can be explained. This encryption can prevent someone from recording content at all or simply limit the number of copies. The word "girl" first appears during the Middle Ages. This content is protected by encryption known as 5C. Relatively few girls become engineers, though in the USA, more do become doctors. As of July 2004, boxes are not included in the FCC mandate. However, their choices afterwards in postsecondary school are often very different and lead them to less socially recognized professions. None of the DBS providers have offered this feature on any of their supported boxes. Several studies, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment of the OECD, have shown that, in developed countries, girls usually obtain better scores than boys do in secondary schools in Literature and Language, boys on the other hand tend to score higher in mathematics. As part of the FCC's "plug and play" agreement, cable companies are required to provide customers that rent HD set-top boxes with a set-top box with "functional" Firewire (IEEE 1394) upon request. This conflict is often called nature versus nurture. Analog tape recorders with bandwidth capable of recording analog HD signals such as W-VHS recorders are no longer produced for the consumer market and are both expensive and scarce in the secondary market. Some feminists deny this, but many feminists agree that both biology and upbringing have an influence on gender roles, with the question being the relative importance of each. Realtime MPEG-2 compression of an uncompressed digital HDTV signal is also prohibitively expensive for the consumer market at this time, but should become inexpensive within several years (although this is more relevant for consumer HD camcorders than recording HDTV). The biological viewpoint of gender roles is not that all gender distinctions result from biology, but rather that biology has an influence. However, the massive amount of data storage required to archive uncompressed streams make it unlikely that an uncompressed storage option will appear in the consumer market soon. Due to the influence of (among others) Simone de Beauvoir's feminist works and Michel Foucault's reflections on sexuality, the idea that gender was unrelated to sex gained ground during the 1980s, especially in sociology and cultural anthropology. D-VHS digitally records a 28.2-Mbit stream onto a classic VHS tape, using a FireWire (IEEE 1394) digital transport to carry a compressed MPEG-2 Transport Stream from the tuning device to the recorder. On the other hand, feminists have argued that gender roles are the result of stereotypes and socialization rather than any innate biological differences. In the U.S., the only current archival option is D-VHS. Simon Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge University professor of psychology and psychiatry, argues that "the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, while the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.". HDTV can be recorded to D-VHS (Data-VHS), W-VHS, to an HDTV-capable digital video recorder such as DirecTV's high-definition TiVo or Dish Network's DVR 921 or 942, or to a computer equipped with an HDTV capture card. For example, the need to take care of offspring may have limited the females' freedom to hunt and to assume positions of power. Lower-resolution sources like regular DVDs may be upscaled to the native resolution of the TV. The idea that differences in gender roles originate in differences in biology originates from 19th-century anthropology; more recently, sociobiology and evolutionary psychology have turned to this problem to explain those differences by treating them as evolutionary adaptations to a lifestyle of Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies. An HDTV-compatible TV usually uses a 16:9 aspect ratio display with an integrated ATSC tuner. The reasons for this perceived difference in the behavior of girls and boys are a controversial topic in both public debate and the sciences. In the United States, HDTV specifications are defined by the ATSC. Girls, as a group, may be perceived as being more docile than boys, and as being less capable of rational decision making and more governed by emotional responses. Viewers without HDTV sets will continue to receive their television programming through analog transmission approaches. Sometimes boys are presumed to be more responsible than girls, except in the cases of caring for younger children, which is sometimes thought to be instinctual in girls. Viewers with HDTV sets will receive picture resolution six times sharper than standard definition analog sets. Girls are less often encouraged to pursue sports, with the exception of those that might be considered "feminine," such as figure skating or gymnastics; or those considered "gender-neutral," such as tennis.[1] They may be prevented from participating in many of the same activities that boys participate in at the same age, as a matter of protecting them from perceived outside dangers, such as boys and men, or anything that may cause physical injury. In January 2006, Televisa's XEFB-TV and Multimedios' XHAW-TV in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon began HDTV transmissions on UHF channels 48 and 50, respectively. Girls have traditionally been associated with playing with dolls and toy cooking and cleaning equipment, while boys have been associated with toys and games that require more physical activity or simulated violence, such as toy trucks, balls, and toy guns. San Antonio in Tijuana, Mexico with 403,000 watts, directed primarily northward at San Diego. In almost all cultures, girls have been socialized into gender roles. This affiliate of the American Fox TV Network is on UHF channel 23 broadcasting from Mt. This disparity is targeted to end under the Millennium Development Goals and has closed substantially since 1990.^ . XETV in Tijuana, Baja California - across the border from San Diego, California - is on the air in HDTV using 720p format. 65%). And one retailer, Elektra, started shipping televisions with HDTV receivers to support this broadcast. 74% for boys) or secondary education (59% vs. Also, TV Azteca has planned to broadcast the Mexican football tournament in HDTV. Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specifies that "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all", girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary (70% enrollment vs. Phase Two of the national rollout will bring HDTV services to six additional cities (Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali and Tijuana) through the first half of 2006. From birth, girls are a slight minority due to both natural factors (the human sex ratio has been observed since the 1700s as approximately 1,050 boys for every 1,000 girls) and due to sex selection on the part of parents. By the third quarter of 2006, HDTV transmissions will be available in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. UNICEF, 2004) aged 18 or under in the world, for a total of more than one billion living girls. The launch will be carried out in two phases. There are 2.18 billion people (est. In 2005, TV Azteca signed a deal with Harris Corporation's broadcast communications division for digital TV transmitters and HDTV encoding equipment to bring high-definition TV to nine Mexican cities. . During the first half of 2005, at least one cable provider in Mexico City (Cablevision) has begun to offer 5 HDTV channels to subscribers purchasing a digital video recorder (DVR). Images of girls in art, literature, and popular culture often demonstrate assumptions about gender roles. Some events are now broadcast in high definition. An ongoing debate about the influences of nature versus nurture in shaping the behavior of girls and boys raises questions about whether the roles played by girls are the result of inborn differences or socialization. Mexican television company Televisa made experimental HDTV broadcasts in the early-1990s, in collaboration with Japan's NHK. Historically, girls faced discrimination and limitations on the roles they were expected to play in their societies, and the United Nations targeted discrimination in schooling to end by 2010. It is required that at least 10 hours of HD content to be broadcast on a weekly basis during the first year of commercial digital service. Usage in the sense of (romantic) "sweetheart" arose in the 17th century. From 2005, digital services are available in all the country. Subsequently, it was extended to refer also to mature but unmarried young women since the 1530s. After a long controversy between the government and broadcasters, ATSC was chosen over DVB-T. During the 14th century its sense was narrowed to specifically female children. It is reported that two million HD receivers have been sold in Japan already. The English word from 1290 designated a child of either sex. Japan terrestrial broadcast of HD via ISDB-T started in December 2003. The age at which a female person transitions from girl to woman varies in different societies, typically the transition from adolescence to maturity is taken to occur in the late teens. The old system is not compatible with the new digital standards. A girl is a young female human, as opposed to a boy, a young male human. Japan had pioneered HDTV for decades with an analog implementation. The purpose of the label is create a single norm to simplify the purchase of a HDTV in Europe. A label "HD-ready" has been created to inform consumers of the benefits of High Definition. Although most of these channesl are pay tv, there are some free to air hd stations available(Prosieben & Sat 1), as well as technical transmissions by satellite. As for 2006, there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of HD channels available to european viewers in many countries. Commercial HDTV services began in 2004 with Euro1080, an Belgian MPEG2/DVB-S pay channel. CBC officially launched HDTV programming on March 5, 2005. as of early-2005. CHUM Limited's Citytv in Toronto was the first HDTV broadcaster in Canada, however very few shows are shown in HDTV beyond the well-known ones such as CSI, ER, etc. Other networks are continuing to announce availability of HD signals. Global joined the crowd in late-2004. They were also the first to broadcast a terrestrial HD digital ATSC signal in Canada. CTV Toronto broadcast in HD along with its western counterpart, BC CTV. stations plus some PBS feeds and a couple of pay-TV movie channels. Bell ExpressVu, a Canadian satellite company, Rogers Cable and Videotron provide somewhat more than 21 HDTV channels to their subscribers including TSN HD, SportsNet HD, Discovery HD (Canadian Edition), The Movie Network HD, and several U.S. In Canada, on November 22, 2003, CBC had their first broadcast in HD, in the form of the Heritage Classic outdoor NHL game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. A complete testbed is expected for 2006 (see http://sbtvd.cpqd.com.br/ for updates). Brazilian universities, research and government institutions are discussing the best policies for a digital television system for use in Brazil. However, most Australian DTV broadcasters are still experimenting with HDTV transmission and DTV delivery. Most cities in Australia that have a population of 40,000 or greater have at least one terrestrial DTV channel available (for example, Albany, Western Australia, has had DTV available for almost a year as of May, 2005). Australia started HD broadcasting in January 2001, but only in August 2003 was HD content mandated. See also: COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 92/38/EEC of 11 May 1992. The HD-MAC standard was abandoned in 1993, and since then all EU and EBU efforts have focused on the DVB system (Digital Video Broadcasting), which allows both SDTV and HDTV. Thus, analogue HDTV could not replace conventional SDTV (terrestrial) PAL/SECAM, making HD-MAC sets unattractive to potential consumers. HD-MAC could be used only by cable and satellite providers, where there is a wider bandwidth available. Another reason for HD-MAC's failure is that it was not realistic to use 36 MHz for a high-definition signal in terrestrial broadcasting (SDTV uses 6-, 7- (VHF), or 8-MHz (UHF)). HD-MAC (the high-definition variant of MAC) was left for transcontinental satellite links, however. Owing to the advance of technology and the launch of middle-powered satellites by SES Astra, broadcasters could avoid MAC, and lower transmission costs. It was required that all high-powered satellite broadcasters use MAC from that year. However, it never became popular among broadcasters. The European Commission established a European standard for uncompressed digital HDTV in a 1986 directive (MAC). It broadcasts the same programs as BS-digital channel 103, but will end sometime in 2007. Though Japan has since switched to a digital HDTV system based on ISDB, the original MUSE-based BS Satellite channel 9 (NHK BS Hi-vision) is still being broadcast. The Japanese MUSE system, developed by NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories (STRL) in the 1980s, employed filtering tricks to reduce the original source signal to decrease bandwidth utilization. Japan began broadcasting analog HDTV signals in the early 1990s using an interlaced resolution of 1035 lines (1035i). Japan has the earliest working HDTV system still in use, with design efforts going back to 1979. It was transmitted only on VHF channels, and a French 819-line TV channel occupied 14 MHz of bandwidth. It was used only for black-and-white TV; color TV in 819-line SECAM never went beyond the experimental stage. It was discontinued in 1986. The French "755i" 819-line HDTV system was used in only France, Belgium and Monaco, and in France only for the first French TV channel. When, in the late-1960s, a second TV channel and color TV were introduced in Europe, the UK dropped its 405-line TV system (completely in 1985) and France dropped its 819-line system, making all European countries agree to use 625 lines (576i) for their TV transmissions. The French 819-line (or 755i) HDTV system was introduced in the 1950s. The French TV system thus became the world's first HDTV system, and, by today's standards, the French system could be called 755i (not all lines could be used for the actual image — some lines were lost during the vertical retrace). The UK used 405 lines, most other countries 625 lines (both numbers include the vertical gap, the actual resolution were lower), but France decided in 1948 to go for 819 lines. in the late-1940s and early-1950s, different countries used different resolutions. When Europe resumed TV transmissions after WWII, i.e. Most professionals in 3D technology foresee greater use of stereo visuals and animation as HDTV becomes the norm. The Discovery HD channel has already provided a small amount of science programing in 3D. A number of 3D stereoscopic major animation films like Polar Express, Disney's Chicken Little and 6 more scheduled for 2006 release, will be likely to be sold for home display in one or more of the new HD disk systems in 3D. For more technical details see the articles on HDV, ATSC, DVB, and ISDB, respectively. New HD compression and recording formats such as HDV use rectanglar pixels for more efficient compression and to open HDTV aquisition for the consumer market. The pixel aspect ratio of native HD signals is 1.0, or 1 pixel length = 1 pixel width. HDTV is capable of "theater-quality" audio because it uses the Dolby Digital (AC-3) format to support "5.1" surround sound. Recommended receiver is Humax PR-HD 1000, but others are announced as well as PCI cards. Some German broadcasters already use MPEG-4 together with DVB-S2 (ProSieben, Sat1 and Three Premiere Channels). Some broadcasters also plan to use MPEG-4. Although MPEG-2 supports up to 4:2:2 YUV chroma subsampling and 10-bit quantization, HD broadcasts use 4:2:0 and 8-bit quantization to save bandwidth. MPEG-2 is most commonly used as the compression codec for digital HDTV broadcasts. NBC, Universal-HD (both owned by General Electric), CBS, HBO-HD, INHD, HDNet and TNT currently broadcast 1080i content. In North America, Fox, ABC, and ESPN (ABC and ESPN are both owned by Disney) currently broadcast 720p content. An LCD capable of native 1080i resolution still costs over a thousand US dollars. 720p appears at full resolution on a common 1280x1024 LCD, which can be found for under $250. 720p Video also has lower storage and decoding requirements than 1080i or 1080p, and few people possess displays capable of displaying the 1920x1080 resolution without scaling. In addition, 720p is used more often with internet distribution of HD video, as all computer monitors are progressive, and most graphics cards do a sub-optimal job of de-interlacing video in real time. In general, 720p is more appropriate for fast action as it uses progressive fields, as opposed to 1080i which uses interlaced fields and thus can have a degredation of image quality with fast motion. The format depends on the broadcast company if destined for television broadcast, however in other scenarios the format choice will vary depending on a variety of factors. Noncinematic HDTV video recordings are recorded in either 720p or 1080i format. (See also: Deinterlacing). These may be upconverted to a higher resolution format (720i), but removing the interlace to match the common 720p format may distort the picture or require filtering which actually reduces the resolution of the final output. Older (pre-HDTV) recordings on video tape such as Betacam SP are often either in the form 480i60 or 576i50. (See also: Telecine). One film frame is held for three video fields, (1/20 of a second) and then the next is held for two video fields (1/30 of a second) and then the process repeats, thus achieving the correct film rate with two film frames shown in 1/12 of a second. In countries using the NTSC standard, (60 fps) a technique called 3:2 pulldown is used. When shown on television in countries using PAL, film must be converted to 25 frames per second by speeding it up by 4%. Depending on the available bandwidth and the amount of detail and movement in the picture, the optimum format for video transfer is thus either 720p24 or 1080p24. Photographic film destined for the theatre typically has a high resolution and is photographed at 24 frame/s. The lossy compression that is used in all digital HDTV systems will then cause the picture to be distorted. On the other hand, a very high resolution may require more bandwidth than is available. The field and frame rate should match the source, as should the resolution. The optimum format for a broadcast depends on the type of media used for the recording and the characteristics of the content. In addition, the technical standards for broadcasting HDTV are also able to handle 16:9 aspect ratio pictures without using letterboxing, thus further increasing the effective resolution for such content. HDTV has at least twice the resolution of SDTV, thus allowing much more detail to be shown compared to analog television or regular DVD. The most common are:. Most HDTV systems support some standard resolutions and frame or field rates. For example 24p means 24 progressive frames per second and 50i means 25 interlaced frames per second. A frame or field rate can also be specified without a resolution. It can then usually be assumed to be either 50 or 60, except for 1080p which is only supported as 1080p24, 1080p25 or 1080p30 by consumer HDTV displays. Often the frame or field rate is left out. The format 1080i50 is 1920 × 1080 pixels, interlaced encoding with 50 fields (25 frames) per second. For example, the format 720p60 is 1280 × 720 pixels, progressive encoding with 60 frames per second. In the context of HDTV, the formats of the broadcasts are referred to using a notation describing:. . This is a confusing use of the terms HD and HDTV. Even HD-ready sets do not necessarily have enough pixels to display video to the 1080-line (1920x1080) or 720-line (1280x720) HD standards in full resolution without interpolation, and HD-compatible sets are often just standard-definition sets with an HDMI input. They indicate that a TV or display is able to accept video over an HDMI connection, using a new connector design, the main purpose of which seems to be to ensure that digital video is only passed over an interface which, by agreement, incorporates copyright protection. The terms HD ready and HD compatible are being used around the industrial world for marketing purposes. The world used analog PAL, NTSC, SECAM and other standards for over half a century. Most patents were expiring by the end of World War II leaving the market wide open and no worldwide standard for television agreed upon. It was patent interference lawsuits and deployment issues given the tumultuous financial climate of the late 20's and 30's. Farnsworth, John Logie Baird and Vladimir Zworkin had each developed competing TV systems but resolution was not the issue that separated their substantially different technologies. Historically, the term high-definition television was also used to refer to television standards developed in the 1930s to replace the early experimental systems, although, not so long afterwards, Philo T. Except for early analog formats in Europe and Japan, HDTV is broadcast digitally, and therefore its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of digital television (DTV). High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SÉCAM, PAL) allow. TV Azteca Plans HDTV Mexican Rollout. High Definition (HD) Image Formats for Television Production, technical report from the EBU. High Definition for Europe - a progressive approach, article from the EBU technical review . Images formats for HDTV, article from the EBU technical review . DVB HDTV standard. DTV channel protection ratios. United States Federal Standard 1037C. MUSE had a bit-reduced stereo audio transmission system that was notable in its design as it was not psychoacoustical like Musicam. Considering the technological limitations of the time, MUSE was a very cleverly-designed analog system. Whole-camera pans would result in a loss of 50% of horizontal resolution. Stationary images were transmitted at full resolution. Moving images were thus blurred in a manner similar to using 16mm movie film for HDTV projection. In the typical setup, three picture elements on a line were actually derived from three separate scans. The increased clarity, and detail make larger screen sizes more comfortable and pleasing to watch. Both systems will usually play current DVDs, and attempt to extract a near-HDTV-quality image from them, but they are not compatible with each other. One is called HD DVD, the other is Blu-ray. Two new pre-recorded disc formats will be available in spring 2006. The gaps between scaning lines are smaller or gone. The visual information is about 2-5 times more detailed overall. The colors will generally look more realistic, due to the cleaner signal. Most HD programming and films will be presented in the 16x9 proportioned, semi-widescreen format (though some films created in even wider ratios will still display "letterbox" bars on the top and bottom of even 16:9 sets.) Older films and programming that retain their 4:3 ratio display will be presented in a version of letterbox commonly called "pillar box", displaying bars on the right and left of 16:9 sets (rendering the term "fullscreen" a misnomer.) Or, one can usually choose to enlarge the image to fill the screen, however this option will display a distorted, stretched-out picture. You would never get a snowy, washed out, image, or vertical rolling. All commercial HD is digital, so the signal will either deliver a good picture, a picture with large pixelation, a series of frozen pictures, or no picture. 60i (NTSC). 50i (PAL). 60p. 50p. 30p. 25p. 24p (cinematic film). NTSC is typically 720x480. Number of frames or fields per second. Progressive frames (p) or interlaced fields (i). The number of lines in the display resolution. |