How anxious are you to watch porn in Hi-Def?? And which format do you believe will emerge as the eventual winner? Looks as if the porn business will be leading the way again to decide for the consumer which format will win like it did with VHS video and DVD video.
I don't think Hi-Def is terribly useful in porn. The biggest impact of the extra resolution may be to make the makeup artists work much harder... Broadcast TV is running into this now in many cases.
The widescreen “aspect” of HD may be useful since it allows more of a horizontal object to be in view at once. It may be easier for the videographer to capture all the good bits and facial expressions without zooming out in some cases. On the other hand standing shots are slightly harder since objects beside the actors are more likely to be in the camera view, which they might not have been without widescreen.
Realistically most videographers would be better off investing in better lighting that a HDCAM.
The format chosen for HD DVDs will be decided by the equipment manufacturers looking at patent licensing costs, playing chicken with Hollywood studios over what gets supported by releases. No one from porn will have any say, although porn may be used in various bluffs (i.e., one side may claim they can release even without Hollywood if porn studios sign up and the alternative formats are not near release).
I'm interested in HD porn, but I have no interest in being an "early adopter" for this technology.
Personally, I think there might only be 6-8 directors who are technically capable at shooting decent looking HD porn at this moment.
Worse, the format wars aren't over. I will wait until one format has firmly entrenched itself as the replacement for DVD.
What I think about the technologies is irrelevant. Between VHS and Betamax, the inferior technology won. It's pointless for me to worry about whether HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will win.
That said, I'm thinking that whatever format the popular content appears on will win. The average consumer will go for the content; they don't understand or care about superior technology. If there's little worth watching on a particular technology, they aren't going to spring for it.
I guess that would depend on your definition of "inferior". Each format had things that it did better than the other format. Beta had better picture quality, but VHS allowed for significantly longer recording times, which people seem to have preferred over picture quality. Don't forget, when video tape first came out, the vast majority of the US was still watching TV over the airwaves using an antenna. We were used to a snowy picture.
As far as High Definition DVD is concerned, I think that we're in for a long haul on this one. Unlike the VHS/Beta days, the same companies that make movies are also the same companies that make the hardware. So, we're not going to see the same situation that we did with video tape where the studio would release movies in both formats and the consumer decided which they want to see. We're going to see the studios side with the technology supported by their "sister" hardware companies.
Eventually, I think that we will see DVD players that will play both versions, kind of like the newer "universal" players that play DVD, SACD and DVD-A.
Lastly, other than companies who are extremely concerned about the current level of DVD piracy, I don't see that the adult industry will be in that big of a rush to get into HD DVD. I agree with cv that the vast majority of the people shooting porn aren't technically capable of shooting well enough for HD at the moment.
Is this true? I know it is for Sony, but they are by no means the dominant equipment manufacturer and only one of the patent holders. They don't control nearly enough patents to do their own thing.I was thinking of the DVD-R vs. DVD+R situation which was driven entirely by patent licensing costs.Not to mention that there are few porn titles the will get a sales bump in re-release. This isn't like Star Wars where Lucas can be release a new vesion every six months with a new inflection on a word somewhere.Lighting for a VHS-C shoot is asking too much of some.
Even with todays footage there can be a huge difference in picture quality between companies/directors.
I doubt the hacks will be able to make good use of HD. The better directors might.
Some of the sharpest images I've seen we're in Jim Holliday movies. Every little physical 'flaw' was visible. Some may not like that, but I thought the girls looked the most beautiful I'd ever them. I can scarcely imagine how good it would have looked, if it had been shot with good quality HD gear.
Bring on HD ASAP. I won't buy into it until the format wars are over though. I've never been keen on paying a premium to be a guinea pig, sorry 'early adopter'.
I think Toshiba own a 1% stake in Warner ( I know , really significant !) , though more importantly Warner hold patents in DVD technologies which would carry over to HD-DVD if that were to succeed . My bet is on Blue Ray to carry the day : Playstation 3 , home computer dominance (Dell , HP , Apple) , exclusive MGM and Sony (Columbia) titles , and backing from all the major CE companies less Toshiba . HD-DVD seems to be relying on name recognition - and hoping for no confusion with HDD , DVD , HD-DVD - and cheaper start up costs for disc replication . Hardly a convincing package .
Having Universal players would be fantastic but is it likely? I believe both technology use the same blue laser and are technically almost identical. But eventually one format will come out swinging and I hope it's the one less complicated, problematic and expensive. HD is fantastic. Everybody will get more enjoyment from watching porn in HD because of the clarity and detail.
As Lee mentioned, Toshiba along with Sony has ownership interest in a studio (I'm pretty sure that Toshiba's stake in Warner is more than 1%).
Between those two companies, we're talking about Columbia TriStar, MGM (both Sony, Blu-ray), Warner, New Line and HBO (all Warner, HD-DVD).
Disney has alreadly aligned itself with Blu-ray. While Paramount and Universal are both in the HD-DVD camp. At this point, Fox has not committed to one or the other.
At this point, we're talking about $1,000+ players (at least in the beginning). I can't imagine these formats living side by side for very long if it means that people will either have to buy 3 players or give up watching movies from certain studios. I also find it hard to believe that retailers selling and renting DVD's are going to be too happy having to deal with customer complaints about why the the High-Definition DVD that they bought yesterday won't play on their player. At least with VHS/Beta, the tapes were different sizes from one another. That was easy to explain. But both new DVD formats will be the same size. I feel for the poor clerk who has to explain to my mother why the DVD that works at her friends house doesn't work at her house.
the last time the big boys like sony and phillips split into two camps and everyone waited for a huge battle and casualties was dvd+rw/-rw and you see both formats on the shelves 3 years later. i'm with bill that universal players are going to come out a little after the movies hit the streets. there's no way those companies haven't developed the technology for them as a contigency plan if their competition takes an early lead.
I think I can hear Tony C opening a can of whoop ass... Better run while you have a chance.
It's a tough call which will be a better successor. one format is compatible with current DVD lasers (but NOT current players, but still cheaper hardware?) but has a smaller capacity.
I doubt this will be a quick migration, I don't think many current HD televisions have enough of the proper connections (will it be DVI or HDMI?)
They say Porn will be a big factor because of the volume of sales... but does porn need to move beyond DVD?
HDMI. Essentially, HDMI is DVI with audio in the same connection. HDMI does nothing for me as I run all of my digital audio directly to my receiver, which still has a a few available inputs.
Because the video from HDMI and DVI are identical, there are adaptors and cables with one HDMI end and one DVI end. There are also some HDCP compliant switch boxes that will allow for multple components to be connected to a TV with a single DVI or HDMI connection. Gefen currently has a 4x1 DVI switcher and a 2x1 HDMI switcher. But they're both around $200 right now.
