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Adult Film Industry Moving To HD DVD
profet writes "One of the heavyweights in the war between BlueRay and HD DVD has chosen its format. Various members of the adult film industry have decided on HD-DVD. The article says the reasons seem to be based primarily on cost of manufacturing. History has shown that the porn industry can be a driving factor for technology, as it was in deciding for the VHS format over BetaMax." Heise reports that US BlueRay press plants are refusing the adult industry's business (in German).
You mean the mythical VHS versus Beta where the "better" format lost, or the _real_ VHS vs. Beta war where the better format (longer tapes, for one thing) actually won but where people keep propogating the "Beta was better than VHS!" myth?
It really is VHS vs. BetaMax all over again. And it's even Sony again pushing the more expensive and less open option!
In the VHS vs Beta days you couldn't get high quality porn for free. I want HD DVD to win as I have invested in it but I just don't think this will be a big push for team HD DVD.
With the porn industry behind HD-DVD now, there is little doubt that the HD-DVD format will be hacked into oblivion. Nothing inspires developers more than the possability of free porn....
Let me put it this way: It's like a real woman. Just because you can whip out a microscope and examine every inch of her body (every pimple, every blemish, every hair), doesn't mean you do. She's there, she's naked, presumably she wants to fuck you, so why are you counting the hairs in her landing strip?
Same thing with HD. Yes, if you pause it and zoom in, it may look much worse. But you've got a giant HDTV and some nice surround sound; again, why count the hairs in her landing strip when you can just sit back and enjoy the show?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
"HD-DVD" will win over "Blu-Ray" because of the name of the tech anyway...
Average consumer: "WTF is Blue Ray?"
Answer: "It lets you watch high-definition DVDs."
Average consumer: "Is there a Red Ray?"
Average consumer: "WTF is HD-DVD?"
Answer: "It lets you watch high-definition DVDs."
Average consumer: "Sorry I was such a dumbass."
The more I have thought about it the more I think that the 'best' (and probably most plausable) outcome to this whole Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war is that both formats will retain enough support for the first few years that eventually every 'Movie Player' will support both formats; at that point the consumer doesn't care anymore and the each of the 'camps' will be fighting over content providers.
Ultimately, if I see this as the likely outcome next christmas I will probably buy a HD-DVD player because I will have no worries about the content I buy not playing in future devices.
The OP was not suggesting that Beta had higher quality pr0n. He was suggesting that in the VHS v. Beta war there was no interweb. When you can get (legally or illegally) high quality pr0n online, who cares if you can get high quality pr0n on HD-DVD as well?
"No, we don't want porn released on our products, but secretly installing crippling software on computers -- regardless if people accept the EULA -- we fully support (*ahem* until we get caught and sued *ahem*)."
Just me or is that a big hypocritical? On the other hand, I'm sure there is a "business philosophy" disconnect between the HD DVD and music groups/divisions.
:wq
This has been on /. before, but you can't call the war based on this.
When VHS/Beta came around, there was no real way to watch that kind of content at home before. That was HUGE. Right now, that exists in the form of VHS and DVDs.
People wanted VHS. Going from nothing to a way to record TV or watch movies at home when you want was HUGE. DVD->Whatever is just going to higher quality. There is no massive benefit like before.
Then there is the computer factor. You know where I could watch high quality content without buying a $500+ player? My computer. You know where I can find tons of FREE content? My computer. The only competition that VHS had was "those kind" of theaters in the "bad part of town". People already are in the privacy of their homes
Then there is the higher quality is not better argument.
Let's face is, no one cares that much about this battle. It's almost NOTHING LIKE VHS/BETA. Same field (home video), same circumstance (two competing formats), same players (Sony on one side, this time with other people). But the reasons why people will choose a format are different. VHS was longer. Blu-ray is longer, but but since HD-DVD isn't limited to 60min like Beta was that isn't as much of an issue.
Can't compare the situations. Doesn't hold up.
Random theory: Blu-ray will win in end. Why? Cooler name. I have no idea.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I,>porn: 12-15 billion annually (US)
movies (theatrical): 8-11 billion annually (US)
dvds (non-porn/rental and purchase): 21-25 billion annually (US)
music: anyones guess. numbers range from 5-15 billion depending on who is doing the telling. the music industry is notorious for lying about sales though - perceived popularity of music makes people buy more music. This number is probably high.
Complete fabrication. Porn is a large industry but not larger then the Theatric movie release industry. The 12-15 number is based on interviews AVN did then re-enforced in Frobes for mentioning it. It's not based on hard numbers. Let me ask you this, how many porn produces are as WEALTHY as Speilberg. Or how about the head of any major studio? According to those numbers, under a similiar distribution system there should be at least 1/3 as many WEALTHY porn makers as there are film makers. But it's not supported. Even well known industry icons like Seymour Butts is only "rich."
Porn is a little more democratic then hollywood since any person wiht a camera can make it, but distribution (digital* or old school) still requires money. So we may have 100,000 producers but only several large distribution houses and online pushers. More conservative "studies" peg the amount to be 2-3 billion per year within the US.
*for online distibution, you still need to attract traffic which require money. The most successful online porn retailers use some pretty complex referral systems and networks of sites to generate cash. You need cash for this.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Only on slashdot will a story about high-definition porn devolve into an argument about the superiority of star-wired token rings vs. Ethernet.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Isn't high quality porn an oxymoron?
What's with the massive anti-HD sentiment regarding porn? What happened when you guys see a woman in real life? Do you go "EWWWWWWW! She's so hi-def! I can see her pores!" Christ, if detail really turns you off that much why not just confine yourself to viewing hentai?
I think that just as most people (of the appropriate gender and orientation) prefer to see a naked woman in real life vs.a naked woman on DVD, so too would most people prefer to see a high-resolution picture of a naked woman vs. a picture which is so low-rez that you can actually see the individual pixels fairly clearly from 10 feet away (I can, at least.) Now don't get me wrong, that's not enough to make me want to rush out and buy an overpriced, over-DRM'ed piece of shit AND a new TV to use it with, but saying that HD is the TV equivalent of a microscope is just dumb. My laptop has a WUXGA (1920x1200) screen, and you'd have to be smoking some amazing crack to say that it makes naked women look uglier. It most certainly does NOT. It makes pictures--ALL pictures, regardless of whether or not they involve naked women--look vibrant and real in a way that makes owners of XGA-resolution laptops weep with envy. I suppose I COULD stare with my eyeball an inch from the screen and scream "AHHHHHHHH! I SEE A PIMPLE!" but... why? Just why would you do such a thing? Not to imply that imperfections bother me that much--on the contrary, I find that the plastic, 'pancake makeup' look to be pretty unappealing... I'm just saying, why would you go out of your way to look for such things?
HD isn't a microscope; it's simply a MUCH NICER PICTURE TO LOOK AT.
More like, "She's there, she's naked, and probably wants to fuck every guy in the room BUT you."
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
And if your girl tells you that she's perfectly satisfied after 15 minutes, she's lying to you for your ego. :-p
Things don't really get interesting until she's come for the third time.
In the 70s and early 80s, most if not all porn was produced using film, and then, maybe, transferred to Betamax or VHS. So, our parents, if they went to the XXX cinema in town, enjoyed High Def Widescreen porn long before we did.
While most of that material would be considered crap by todays standards of beauty of the performers, or production values, since is done in Film, all that material is succeptible to be converted to HD-DVD.
I, for one, would pay for a good HD transfer of certain movies of that era, like "For the Love of Pleasure" or "The Devil in Ms. Jones" or "Behind the Green Door"
The only problem I forsee in this scheme is the tangle that the copyrights is now, with long gone companies being acquired by others time and again, and resellers in other countries geting non-clear rights.
The other useful effect of porn's entry in the HD-DVD camp is that their economies of scale will make Disk pressing Even cheaper, both for porn HD-DVDs as well as for regular content HD-DVDs
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!