I'd like to think Blu-Ray could make a come back at some point,picture quality is hugely important to me,to the point that,i don't purchase anywhere near as much anymore (partly)because of the lack of Blu-Ray releases. However,this is not the sole reason(and this is a separate issue in itself for me,but i struggle explaining what i mean by this,so i hope someone out there "gets" me) i dislike the way the industry has generally moved towards a more "shot on film" type picture quality over recent years. I really struggle finding stuff that i find watchable(and yes I do realize that i am probably pretty much alone on this) that doesn't make me feel "distanced" from the action,i much prefer the old "shot on camcorder" type picture quality that used to be commonplace. I recently bought some more recent Jules releases(and by that i mean directed by him) to be hugely disappointed to discover that his stuff looks that way now also,so another studio off my purchasing options.I also recently saw some Vouyer Unleashed titles,again hugely disappointed that they don't look nice and crisp and clear like his stuff used to look with redlight. One of the few studio's that still has the look i find watchable is Lethal Hardcore(or at least they did on the most recent stuff i have)but there isn't many studio's left that have that kinda picture quality. I'm sure some will disagree(and feel free to correct me on this)but it feels to me like part of the reason why studio's shoot that way now,is that the old "camcorder look" picture(because of it's increased contrast levels and crisp,sharp look) results in larger file sizes and therefore is more difficult to download/stream. I have yet to see any downloaded/streamed content that i find acceptable to watch on my screensize,you can quote 1080p/4k specifications at me all day,that is all they are,specifications,and are totally irrelevant if the detail wasn't there to begin with(due to the "look" it was shot in) Over recent years i have become more and more disappointed as one director after another adopts this more "filmic"look(so i guess most people must prefer it)but as sad as it is,i'd rather not watch stuff at all than watch it looking that way. The next director's stuff i'm going to check out is the more recent Mike John/Von Swine stuff,in some vain hope that they haven't changed in recent years,but i'll again be preparing for another disappointment(maybe the labels insist that they look that way,so they can be streamed easier?) So to get back to the original question,YES,i hope Blu-Ray could make a come back,for people like me who only collect physical discs and care about PQ as much as i do,it feels such a shame that the technology is there and that for whatever the underlying reasons maybe,it is not viable to utilise it.
^I didn't understand what you mean to camcorder quality and filmic look, films have best picture quality as far as i know, old films can be restored as HD with great quality, this is impossible with digital recordings. About Lethal Hardcore,i had a membership in a few months ago, i can say their quality was rubbish, only new a few title from 2016 was watchable, the rest of the HD content (2015 and older) unwatchable for me. Since you only collect physical media maybe their DVD releases good enough for you, anyway i only like DVDs from the SD era and watch on computer screen with original size. Fullsize on a HD TV they become unwatchable.
^^^ The only type of stuff I can think of that fits this description of modern porn would be the X-Art style stuff. Hazy soft focus with muted colors. Edited by - jackie treehorn on 2/20/2017 5:02:03 PM
Yes,i knew i would struggle to explain and put into words the kind of picture quality i like,let me try and explain another way,i like the picture to look like it would,if the scene was happening right in front of my very eyes,like your eyes actually see things in the real world. I do not want the picture to look like(for example)a lot of the Digital Sin/New Sensations stuff does,with all that soft focused,dream like,filtered color's look,obviously that's just not how things look in the real world.
A lot of older porn looked like it was being done in an actual seedy apartment or hotel room, whereas much of today's stuff feels like it's being done on an over lit stage. The newer stuff is technically sharper and more detailed, but the atmosphere is very cold, sterile and artificial feeling.
I've noticed that too. My assumption has always been that the people who over light sets don't know how to properly use the lighting set-ups they have.
I remember when imdb used to distinguish mainstream films that were shot on video buy putting a (V) after the title,so that people knew they would have a more amateurish look to them(that look is how i like my porn to look),not sure if they still do it now as this was before digital video camera's arrived that could replicate the "shot on film" look you get when you,well,shoot on film.
Thanks for the detailed response! I'm also not entirely sure what you mean by the"camcorder" look but I completely agree I would love to see Blu-ray discs make a comeback in adult. I also love collecting physical media there's something about having a Full HD 1080p copy of the movie in your hands that I enjoy. I enjoy the artwork, how it looks on my shelf and the fact that I'm not relying on streaming (which can sometimes be unreliable). I hope that Blu-ray discs eventually replace DVDs as the form of physical distribution in Adult, there's definitely consumers out there like us who value Full HD content on our TVs.
I know i'm over simplifying the situation here to some degree as there are many other factor's like distribution networks,target audience's and as someone already mentioned,industry desire(already been burned with Blu-Ray not working out once) and resources etc etc at play,but i still can't fully understand why companies like Vinegar Syndrome find it viable to release golden era adult films(i wouldn't personally call ALL of them"classics") on Blu-Ray,and i'm assuming it is viable as they are doing more now than ever before.Yet porn producers don't consider it viable? Considering Vinegar Syndrome have :- 1,The films rights costs to recoup 2,Scanning and restoration costs 3,The cost of shooting extra's in some cases Costs that a newly shot porn HD title would have non of,they can pretty much just be stuck on a disc. Clearly there is a replicator willing to handle this stuff,as Vinegar are getting them pressed,and they are able to sell them for around $15-$20? Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me that there isn't at least a few more new porn titles finding there way to Blu-Ray. I'm sure someone here can put me straight on this.
^^ To impress people who don't know any better. Kind of like sites that boast about stuff being shot in 4K when they don't offer any resolution higher than 1080p. It does annoy me when you see dvd boxes from 2007 or 2008 that have the "Shot in HD" logo, yet 10 years later with HD being the norm, they still have not re-issued that title in a higher res than the 480i dvd. Edited by - jackie treehorn on 2/21/2017 8:01:10 PM
In fairness, with so many porn companies having gone under it's quite possible that the HD source files for many of these movies simply aren't available anymore and any licensed re-release on Videobox or wherever has had to be taken from the DVD release. I think re-releases by the original producers/distributors (Evil Angel, Zero Tolerance, etc.) do tend to make resolutions greater than SD available. All in all, IMHO the early appearances of that "Shot in HD" logo weren't even so much about the video quality, but rather about it being shot in 16:9 instead of the then-customary 4:3.
I think the classic porn that Vinegar Syndrome puts out, also appeals to cult movie collectors and film buffs in general. I'm not sure that many the people buying Taboo or Babyface on BluRay would even have much interest in today's porn. I have all the VS Blurays but can't think of more than 2 or 3 modern porn titles from the last 5 years I would bother with on disc.
+1. Anything on DVD is 480, not HD. People are really going to stop buying porn movies even more unless some changes happen. It is 2017! DVDs look horrible! Adult companies need to move forward, not stay trapped in the past. I really think more people would buy porn if the picture quality was more with the modern times. Blu-Ray discs. Not dvds. Shot in HD does not mean sh$$ if it is on a 480 dvd.
This is discussed many times in blu-ray threads , other than blu-ray there's no way to release this movies in HD. A video shot in 4K still better than a video shot in HD. This is not pointless. Edited by - bahadir on 2/21/2017 8:48:38 PM
Yes i would like to see blu-ray discs but unfortunately this is not possible, discussed in a few threads, for reasons you can visit the relative threads. Even worse there's DVD's has ''shot in 4K'' . But shot in HD or 4K not meanless as you said, when you compare a DVD shot in SD and shot in HD, there's difference.
Absolutely agree with this! Shot on HD doesn't really mean much if its on DVD since a DVD is can only produce 480p standard definition. With content moving from 1080p to 4K, I truly can't believe that new DVDs are being released in Adult in 2017 given how old the technology is and how low the picture quality is. I think that DVDs should be phased out in favour of Blu-ray Disc being the dominant form of physical media for Adult entertainment. That way consumers will have the same experience as if watching it on the website in its intended resolution of 1080p. Blu-ray has been around for 10 years I'm sure by now there are replicators willing to work with Adult content and that the cost of replicating it has gone down significantly since its debut.
As I said before, it isn't going to happen. The number of replicators for BD has declined to a mere handful and there are no independent replicators in Murica - replication lines are very expensive to start/run/keep-up - and there never were any here, which is why the industry had to go to Asian sources to get their product replicated and packaged. The best you can get in this country or any other, would be BD-R duplication, where you create a master disc on your computer and get a bunch of cheap BD-Rs banged out of a few automated duplicators, which is how many small studios got their product on DVD back in the day. While the industry could do that, the BDA wouldn't be getting any per-title/per-disc royalties and the BDA would likely take them to court for offering Blu-Ray media, without paying their dues.
It's supposed to be an indicator of visual quality. Back in the day, disc packaging said "Shot In HDV", then it turned into "Shot In HD", and then "Shot In 1080P", as time and optical disc formats moved on. But, as we all know, the low-budget modus operandi of the adult entertainment industry is not conducive to putting out quality video products, due to the use of heavy compression settings to cram as much as possible onto the discs. I don't know who is doing the encoding work for the industry now or rather, how it is being done, but I suspect most of it is not being done by professionals with pro-grade hardware and is just being done through whatever set-and-forget program is attached to the editing set-up.
What's interesting is that I started offering DVD, Blu Ray, and USB Physical media for my clips and have had some success in selling to international customers. I would assume that it's due to bandwidth concerns, or maybe physical media is still valued a bit more in places like SE Asia and the Middle East.
It's also relatively simple to do nice looking Disc sleeves and laser printing a cover on the disc itself, so I don't have to order 500 replicas and hope they all sell. I can just burn 1-3 scenes per disc and send them out via post!
No chance in hell any adult studio makes physical blu-ray's anymore. Almost all sites offer their content in 1080P and 4K. Just put the scenes on a thumb drive, plug into your TV and enjoy!
^I agree. I don't think any of them wants to waste money to release one of their titles in a format that's going to be more expensive than standard DVD and where their return on investment on the DVD format is already getting smaller every year as more and more people are going to internet route to get their porn.
Vinegar Syndrome and as such only filmed classics. A few others but too sporadic and not dependable labels. Even then VS output has gotten less lately and more tamer than I prefer
It really didn't since you have to pay that licsening fee to sony, but I think Digital playground regular released their movies on blu ray in their hey day of contract stars like jesse jane
^ It never gained enough momentum to threaten DVD. As others alluded to, licensing costs and the cost and scarcity of blu-ray disc replicators in the western industry that are porn friendly made market penetration difficult for that format alone. Affordable high-speed internet and large-capacity storage for consumers just drove more nails into the coffin of porno blu-ray.
[Link]
kronas77 Deactivated User
469 Posts 4/19
Posted - Feb 4 2021 : 6:40AM
Here is a solution: Blu-Ray quality put on a blank data DVD.
First, there are two basic styles to a DVD.
One is the commercial style, the DVD-Video. This is "DVD" resolution.
The other is the blank data DVD, which can hold up to at least 4K resolution.
Many of us buy a commercial DVD-Video because it has one scene with a star we love.
Burn that single scene as a Web-based 4K to a DVD and watch it on your computer or attached monitor.
Yes, 4K. I have some DogFart 4K scenes put on dual-layer blank DVDs that I watch.
A dual-layer DVD can effectively hold a 4K scene of up to about 8 GB.
The studios should think about how often we buy their DVDs for one scene with our favorite star.
Blu-ray fees have decreased. Effective this year, the licensing fee for content owners is $625 for a 5 year term, that's if you release new content, if it's old/previously released content, the fee is $0 however you will still need a logo license which they give for free. Scenarist now offers a $99 per month plan to author BD. Jules, EA, Vixen can easily pay those costs. No excuses not to drop a 4hr comp on BD for 2021.
^ but the problem with adult-friendly replicators still exists.
And on top of that: just an example: Since the Vixen/Blacked/Tushy DVDs are no longer released through Jules Jordan video, but via Pulse Distribution, the size has also decreased. Previously, a typical 3 hour movie was on a disc with 7 GB. Now you'll find the newer Tushy DVDs with again 3 hours of content, but at 4-5 GB (not really sure if these are double layer anymore).
And Perv City DVDs are now (for a year) DVD-R, not pressed DVDs. And always single-layer, i.e. again for 3 hours of movie, less than 4GB... :(
I only know of two replicators have publicly stated they won't print adult. Sony DAC and a smaller family run replicator. Going through a broker or asking around might show results, the Blu-ray association has a list of licensed replicators on their site.I'm guessing it's the distributor who handles replication instead of the studio, if so then that's a problem they have to deal with. I guess the distributor knows how many sales they make so they try to cut cost. Putting any movie over 135minutes (including extras, trailers etc.) on a single layer disc would be inferior video quality wise.They should be offering a pressed disc on dual layer for that runtime or 2 single layer discs. If the cost are high or they have less sales they could put 2-3 movies on multi dual layer disc then price it accordingly. They could hold releases, do one every quarter or twice yearly.
I've done some math, based on fees I found, it would cost almost $6,000 to do a run of 5,000 BD discs. The more disc you press, the cheaper it gets. Only if you 25,000 you could get it for pennies on the dollar.
