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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).
Too much detail can be a bad thing ... unless you're into that sort of thing.
In the previous discussions about pornography decided the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle, I'd always said that the porn industry was fully capable of going both ways, and a few others besides (with the double-entendre wholly intended).
However, hearing that Sony itself has been pressuring the porn industry away from the Blu-Ray format, it seems they've shot themselves in the foot and mooted their brand from competition.
I suspect they want to keep the format that is used in their gaming system free of purient-interest content and not be a portal for pornography, preserving it as a "kid friendly" device. And with a limited number of facilities able to produce BD disks compared to DVD houses refitted for HD-DVD production, that scarcity allows Sony more control. Perhaps Sony is still stinging with the parental backlash against kids putting porn on their PSPs. How many more PSPs to adults did that revelation sell again?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
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?
The format wars have been decided.
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.
So in other words, Blu-ray is...erm Fucked.
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
Whew! Thanks for this news, Slashdot! Now I can finally feel confident buying an HD-DVD player!
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
1.Create rootkit
2.Create new HD Disc spec
3.Shoot feet
4.??????
5.Profit
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Sony blew their chances.
But a semi-serious question though: Have sales of porn movies decressed with the greater availability of online content?
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
They're disqs.
KFG
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....
I've got Blu-Balls!
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."
OK, I'm with you so far...
Have you ever installed & maintained a token ring network, and kept it going when idiot 1users would try to "fix" things when they had a problem? Oh god, the horror, the horror.
The right one won with that battle, IMO
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
HD-DVD DVDA! I can hardly wait.
(Anyone who doesn't know the reference should watch this)
Yet this is precisely the sort of "we don't need your money, customers" attitude that screwed Sony out of the last big format they pushed (aside from UMD, which IMO isn't a 'major' format). Beta died fast and hard because it couldn't compete with the format putting out huge numbers of titles, be they porn or not. Look at DVD sales and check out what percentage are porn. Can Sony prevail with a format that alienates that much of a market share? Unlikely.
Beyond this, if BD does, in fact, win, then to what medium does the porn industry turn? If Sony is trying to kill off the adult entertainment industry, this is not the way to go about it. They (with the consumers' help) will find a way.
Yes, this post is just gushing with double-entendres.
If all my base are belong to you and I attempt to retrieve my base, does that mean I'm freebasing?
listing to 'this week in tech', last week and someone (Leo / Dvorak) was saying they visited the HD-DVD booth who's rep's were all about how movies can be filmed with 'skinable features'.. and gave the example of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift where they got to select the color of the cars....
I think Leo went on to predict the Porn industry will win the race with this feature alone...
Slashdotters will be able to superimpose their own face over Ron Jeremy's and finally get to see themselves (albeit a hairy version) do nasty things to girlz.
So does this mean that the PS3 is a kiddy system because it won't actually have any "adult media" while the XBOX360 can?
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?
As a Republican I would like to publicly state my strong opposition to HD-DVD.
If we let HD-DVD win, we let the pornographers win.
Fixing it for you
"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 porn DVDs."
Average consumer: "Sorry I was such a dumbass."
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I'm suspecting that feature will land in the same category as multiangle DVD's. Yeah there are some pornos that use the technology, but I'm suspecting the logistics of coordinating X number of cameras instead of one is the reason. Also, I bet if you went into a porno store and asked everybody in the place if they knew about the multiangle technology, I'm betting the response would be less than 1 in 10.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
I'll be the first to say it...
"What a load..."
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
"She's there, she's naked, presumably she wants to fuck you"
You must be new here.
Why else do you think pr0n technology makes headlines around here?
And with a limited number of facilities able to produce BD disks compared to DVD houses refitted for HD-DVD production, that scarcity allows Sony more control.
And there is the problem, that also affects things like DRM: trying to control too much. The industry is so intent on controlling everything they own and not allow the indivual fair use, that they seem more ready to shoot themselves in the foot than letting have other people have any sense of using it a way that makes it worth while.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
"Hey, you got yourself those glued HD-DVD+BlueRay discs from Warner! What's this then? Jurassic Poke?? Forrest Gimp?"
"Umm..."
"Dude. This is not glue on your discs."
My other SIG is a Sauer.
Isn't that HD-DVDA?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
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'm sorry, but I must disagree. Based on your example of two possibilities, Blu-Ray will win.
Because there is no known universe where the average consumer makes an apology for being a dumbass.
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."
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.
Yes. According to a bunch of adult industry folks, the real figure is more likely $400-500 million annually, which makes much more sense than $12-15 billion if you believe the guy from the BoingBoing post who says $216 million is spent making porn movies each year. The $12-15 billion number includes the entire adult entertainment industry -- strip clubs, sex toys, etc. in addition to porn movies, but keeps getting pushed as the size of the "porn industry".
I would like to call for the desistance of calling HD-DVD "technically inferior" on the simple-minded basis of its only very limitedly lower theoretical storage capacity. This seems to be a very popular thing to do by people who like to think they know what they are talking about. However, it is actually stupidly simplistic and inaccurate.
Blu-ray is capable of having some more storage capacity. Meanwhile, HD-DVD disks are cheaper to make, do not scratch as easily, are more backwards compatible, have a more capable and author friendly development environment/UI system, more advanced video encoding algorithms (as of at least very recently), and support the highest available resolution available (1080p)!
Apparently, what people mean by "technically superior" is "has a little more storage capacity". I prefer my way of looking at things -- HD-DVD is "better" and was more intelligently designed because it has all the advantages above over BluRay. It appears that Sony reinvented the wheel for negligible gain, yet many-fold setback.
I think it depends on whether you are talking about budgets or returns on investments.
People will tolerate more crap in porn than they will in a movie, and that's not including the actual crap.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
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?
... company. Japanese society has one of the most warped views on sexuality (I mean this in a good way :), and yet a Japanese company is anti-porn? That's just too funny.
I'm no expert on video compression, but shouldn't it require six times as many bytes to store HD video at the same compression rate? That means you'd need 51 GB just to store the same length movie as a dual-layer DVD.
...
...
If you were using the same compression algorithm, yes it would require that much more data
We're fortunate that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are not limited by the same compression algorithm that DVD is
DVD uses MPEG 2 compression and (IIRC) Blu-Ray and HD-DVD can use H.264 and H.264 can fit (practically) the same ammount of video data at 1080p on a DVD that MPEG 2 can fit (at 480p) on a DVD.
The notion that porn was available only on VHS is entirely myth. I lived in New York City during the height of the VHS/Beta wars. At that time, VHS had only a modest lead. Video stores had large beta and VHS departments (these were video sales stores; rental stores did not become common until later on). And both the beta and VHS departments had substantial porn sections. Videos, no matter what the rating, were quite expensive, selling for close to $100 (which was real money in those days)
Sony had chosen to go after the high-end market, a practice that had been successful with other items in their audio and video equipment line. Sony imagined that VCRs would be used mostly for TV time-shifting, with sales of modest numbers of (expensive) prerecorded videos to enthusiasts. Sony players tended to be the videophile favorite, because they usually got the hot new features such as stable still display and hifi sound a bit earlier, with VHS catching up a few months later. The cheaper VHS machines sold to the more budget-conscious buyers. What Sony failed to anticipate was the emergence of rental outlets as a major market force. The first rental stores that I saw carried both beta and VHS (and yes, all ratings in both formats). But since the cheaper VHS machines were a bit more common, they stocked VHS a bit more heavily. Consumers noted this that the rental selection was better for VHS, and began favor VHS machines even more heavily. In response, to the increased demand for VHS tapes, the rental outlets cut back still further on beta to favor VHS. Within a couple of years after rental outlets became common, I began to see stores eliminating their beta departments. Around that time, Sony dropped the price of beta VCRs to make them competitive with VHS, but by then it was too late for Sony to catch up.
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.
Try going down on a girl for 45+ minutes, and suddenly the shaven thing makes a lot more sense.
Plus, you gotta admit that wet lips just look hella sexier than an indistinct patch of hair under which could be hiding, well, anything.
You're correct that 1080p requires 6 times as much data at the same compression rate.
Thankfully, compression algorithms have improved since DVDs were invented. Both HD-DVD and BlueRay support H.264 compression. Compared to the MPEG2 compression used for regular DVDs, this new format yields better image quality at a smaller data rate.
Click here to see a comparison between H.264 and an older MPEG4 codec.
You can buy HD-DVDs with cash.
paintball
Isn't high quality porn an oxymoron?
Check out titles by Michael Ninn. The first time we saw one it was by accident, channel surfing on cable. We had to double check which channel we were on because the production quality seemed to be too high to be the pr0n channel.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I've made my choice...
Actually, the Internet was a factor back then, too. It's just that at that point all the boobies looked like this: (.)(.)
A girl, on Slashdot, who talks about watching porn.........
Somebody's "fans" list is about to get much longer.
(Cue jokes about the use of the word longer. )
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
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!
All joking aside, the success of any new communication technology depends on it being useful for a variety (preferably a broad variety) of different purposes. This isn't a particularly new observation, but I've documented evidence for it elsewhere. For better or worse, one purpose that is often seen as desirable is education. One that is frequently seen as undesirable is pornography. I understand the reasons for the the widely shared bias that leads to these judgments. I'm a fan of education and haven't much use for most of the things that are currently regarded as pornography.
It remains, however, that pornography is an important benchmark in the success of new media. I frequently summarize the nature of this benchmark (see, for example http://evolutionarymedia.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?WhyN ewMediaMatter) as three "laws of new media":
This pattern holds for a huge number of new media going back over 100 years. The nature of what has been deemed pornographic has changed along the way. Jazz, for instance, was once frequently described as pornographic. It was the porn of early records and broadcast radio. It remains that porn users are often one of the first mainstream sets of users to widely adopt new media, that their opinions and equipment purchases often drive other uses of the medium, and that the publicity generated by the anti-porn movement often raises awareness of the communication technology and its potentially useful applications.
I can understand SONY not wanting to invoke the wrath of the considerable anti-porn movement (religious, feminist, and otherwise), but history suggests that SONY is reducing BLU-Rays chances of success by taking a hard line on it.
Davis http://davis.foulger.net
Your thinking isn't that far out at all. Which is why Fox are releasing not terribly long movies on 50Gb Blu-Ray discs with minimal extras.
The difference is that many Blu-Ray discs are encoded with poor old MPEG-2, which with its fixed 8-pixel-square macroblocks is old tech never designed for HD. Just about all HD-DVDs, and many new Blu-Ray discs are using MPEG-4 variants (usually H.264 for Blu-Ray, VC-1 for HD-DVD, though there is some crossover for both) which are several times as efficient; even at quality settings which completely shame the best MPEG-2 Blu-Ray discs the latest HD-DVDs are only using up 15-20Gb with the main video stream.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Are we by the way expecting physical media to be a big part of the way Porn is distributed for very long?
If you see a rock violating the law of gravity, then the law is wrong, not the rock!