Reviewers Recommend Satisfying Lesbian Desires - review by Captain Jack Starring: Julia Ann, Kendra Lust, Whitney Wright, Hime Marie, Eliza Ibarra, Freya Parker, Kay Lovely, Alexis Tae. Read review
OK we are putting out our first HD DVD this year. We shot Surfer Girls 2 and are very excited about it. But i would like to know how people would be most interested in picking it up.
We can either package the HD DVD together with the regular DVD ... or we can release them seperatly. Personally as being someone new to HD DVD .. i like the idea of them together (with a 3rd bonus disc of course) because we just got an HD DVD player and i had to go buy movies. So for those who havn't upgraded but are going to .. they will already have a movie at home to watch without having to wait to watch it while it's a new release. Make sense?
As an owner of an HD DVD player, who watches most of my porn in a room other than the one where my HD DVD player is, I'd like to see them packaged together. However, the big question is what will that do to the price of "Surfer Girl 2".
If you're doing a "real" HD DVD (not a WMV HD disc as has been done by other companies prior to the release of HD DVD players), then I think that the incremental cost of producing an HD DVD will have to increase the price of this title. If that's going to be the case, I can't imagine that it's a good idea to charge more for a feature that very few people will be able to take advantage of.
Looking forward to reviewing Shane's World HD DVDs!
Den
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Darth-Morpheous Deactivated User
1701 Posts 3/02
Posted - Feb 16 2007 : 12:32AM
I wouldn't mind paying more for a true HD-DVD release, as long as it's not as high as $50.00. To me $30.00-$35.00 is a fair price considering the higher cost to produce HD-DVDs in it's early stage.
I'm glad to hear Shane's World is going HD-DVD. How many releases to you plan to have this year? Any anal? Any by Swine? Thanks.
I think you're better off packaging them together. Few people have an HD-DVD player, so you won't move a lot of the HD-only units. However, if people have the HD-DVD sitting around it'll give them an incentive to buy an HD-DVD player (to see what they've been missing).
While I agree with the basic concept of the HD-DVD/DVD Combo discs, I definitely don't agree with their average price of $35. This would be fine if you had a choice between combos and either version individually. But you don't. All movies that have been sold as combos have remained only that. No choice to buy the HD-DVD version individually at a relatively cheaper price. And that pisses me off.
So, I cast my vote for 3 different versions. DVD, HD-DVD, and HD-DVD/DVD Combo. If that's not financially practical, then I vote against the Combo.
And yes, $50 is way too much. I realize this price could go down in time, but how long will that be?
I hate, hate, hate Combo Discs. The HD DVD owner is NEVER going to use the standard DVD, and the standard DVD owner will just buy the standard DVD. They make no sense whatsoever.
I hope somebody will do a review comparing the standard DVD to HD DVD and tell us if they really notice a big difference assuming it's been watched on a 1080p tv.
I'm hoping to upgrade to HD later this year. If and when that happens I plan to review a few movies that I've already reviewed. As the content will probably be the same I'm planning on those reviews to focus on the technical aspects of the HD discs.
"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling
We are doing a TRUE HD DVD ... it will be in 720p (sorry it's not 1080i) and it will have HD DVD menus. It was shot in Hawaii and has amazing location shots!!
It will NOT be a WMV file.
I am thinking it will be best to run it as seperate runs. that way everyone gets what they want. I know the price is a bit high on HD DVD ... but trust me, it is sooooooo worth it. I was a total non-believer until recently. My boyfriend works for Digital Sin/New Sensations and they put out an HD DVD sampler. Until he brought that and an HD DVD player home .. i thought HD DVD was marketing at it's best. Watching those scenes was amazing. The clarity, the color ... the details! That minute i was sold.
But remember aside from the high cost of duplication, studios have to pay more for equipment, menus, etc. Which is why they are more money. But after you see one ... especially really well done scenes .. i think you will understand that the product warrents the cost.
I wish more fans appreciated companies that spend money on production and cast and equipment to make sure viewers get the best. Sometimes it feels as if people complain if it's not high quality, but will then turn around and bitch if they have to pay for it. I am not calling anyone out on this by any menas ... but when going over most threads ... it seems to be a common theme. We want it all and we want it for next to nothing. There is a reason most people appreciate Evil Angel, Jules Jordan, Digital Playground, Us etc. They spend lots of time and money to do the things they do.
Please tell me some people appreciate studios putting a lot of work into all the details!!!!
This just ended up off topic ... my mind wanders LOL
Yes, some of us do appreciate the details, and that's part of why my reviews are as long as they are sometimes. It's because I want to point out how some companies are paying attention to the little details (such as whether they animate the menus or whether they identify the people in each scene in the chapter menu or just give a scene number). Although it's been a while since I've watched a Shane's World DVD you've always shown plenty of effort into those little details, so thank you.
"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling
Well thank you very much!! We try and it's hard to do with all the reality stuff we do. But we spend a ton of time in post, going over DVD menus, Picture galleries and 900 other thing. We get better with that stuff every year.
I am not comparing us to the above companies in any way ... except for the details arena! Voyuer is another example of a good details company. When i look at their boxes and "O" cards ... i can see a lot of thought was put into that. I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into a Wicked feature either. I know Evil Angel puts a great deal of time into just picking the chapter markers on their DVD's to really help out the consumer.
It just seems like people want all that high quality stuff, but be able to buy it out of the bargin bin. Which i guess is life!! LOL
I disagree. Combo discs are perfect for people like my sister. She regularly brings DVD's from her house to her car for the kids to watch. When we spoke about HD DVD, her first comment for not upgrading was that she didn't want to buy 2 copies of the same movie. One for the house and one for the car. When I told her about the combo discs, she thought that they would be perfect for her.
Lots of people have DVD players in multiple rooms in their house. They're not all HD DVD players. An HD DVD disc will only play in the room with the HD DVD player. A combo disc will play in any room with any DVD player.
I also think that combo discs are good for porn. I have an HD DVD player in my den. But that's not where I usually watch porn. I haven't put an HD DVD player in my bedroom (at least not yet). Given a choice between buying an HD DVD version of porn and the SD version, today I would still choose the SD version. However, if the HD version were a combo disc, that I could watch in both rooms, then I would buy a the combo version.
That's why you have to sell them separately. If you package them together, you will never get the non HD DVD owners to pay the additional cost for a very expensive "bonus" that they can't take advantage of.
Combo discs would be GREAT if they cost the same as an HD-DVD disc by itself.
But no. They routinely cost an extra $10 more than a non-combo HD-DVD disc. Being forced to pay that extra $10 if you have no intention of using the regular DVD does and will always suck.
Again, my main problem with the Combo discs is that you're never given a choice to just buy the HD-DVD version by itself. If they cost the same, this would cease to be a problem. But of course, that'll never happen.
Where are you buying your discs? At Amazon, for the most part, "big" new releases are about the same price whether they are combo's or not. For example, "The Departed", "Babel", "Hollywoodland" and "The Good Shepherd" are all $27.99. Two of them are combos and the other two aren't.
For, older re-releases, where I agree that combo's don't make sense, because most people buying an old movie on HD DVD, probably already have the standard DVD version, the price difference is about $4.
I don't mean to be a technical stickler, but 720P has MORE information and therefore resolution, than 1080I. We should be HAPPY that they are releasing at 720P.
The horizontal resolution for 720p is only 1,280 pixels while the horizontal resolution for 1080i is 1,920 pixels. So, 1080i still has more information than 720p, even thought it's interlaced (1,036,800 pixels per field for 1080i vs. 921,600 pixels per field for 720p)
On top of that, most HD DVD's are 1080p. Not 1080i. So, when played on TV's that will display 1080p, there are actually 2,073,600 on the screen at any given time.
720p is still considered High Definition. Fox, ABC & ESPN all broadcast in 720p.
Although there are fewer pixels in the 720p format, the fact that it's progressive scan means that there is a smoother image during motion than there is with 1080i.
With most of the HDTV's that have been sold to date, I would be very surprised if many people could tell the difference between a native 1080p, 1080i or 720p signal when watching on their own TV.
I screwed up and waited too long to start buying from Amazon. Late last year, Amazon had a deal where, if you bought 3 HD DVD's or BluRay discs and entered a coupon code, you would get either 10 or 20% off of future HD DVD and Blu Ray purchases.
I knew that I was getting an HD DVD player for Christmas. So I told other people who wanted to know what I wanted for Christmas to buy me HD DVD's. So I waited until after Christmas to start buying my own DVD's.
By the time that I went to Amazon to make my first HD DVD purchase, the promotion had ended.
As far as resolution ... 720p seems to be as good as it gets right now. But we are still working things out with our camera and such. It's kinda hard when you have to change a card every 8 minutes LOL But we invested in hard drives and stuff ... so i can only expect us to keep moving forward with this. It's how reality and locations are meant to be seen =) Which is what we do best!!
I stand corrected. You of course realize that the difference in pixel count is very small here: Less than 10%. Depending upon the scene being filmed, the interlaced versus progressive factor could be much higher in determining perceived image quality. I.E. fast moving subjects are going to look better at 720P than at 1080i, even though 1080i has a few more pixels.I was going to say that you were wrong here, but I just did the math and you are of course correct. It's interesting that 1080P has twice the number of pixels as 720P. I have not seen any true 1080P sources displayed on a 1080P capable display. I wonder how much perceived difference there is from 720P to 1080P ? It would be a real bitch to set this up, as you're not going to find the same title recorded at both resolutions. Interesting in any case.
I'm interested in knowing how much "a small amount more than their current new release price" will actually be.
For those who don't know what DVD/HD DVD combo discs are, they are double sided discs where one side of the disc contains the HD DVD version of a movie and the other side contains the standard DVD version of a movie. It's similar to how some DVD's contain the widescreen version on one side and the Pan & Scan version on the other side.
It's too bad so far only couples-appeal companies seem to go HD. I wonder when the gonzo companies will follow. I would love to see some HD stuff from West Coast Productions and Evasive Angles.
I also wonder if we're gonna need 2 players like HD-DVD to watch porn and Blu-ray to watch mainstream since all big companies are going Blu-ray.
If you look at the titles that are available, it's still about 50/50 between HD DVD & Blu Ray. Sales of stand alone Blu Ray players are still lagging behind those of HD DVD due to the high price. I got a great deal on my Sony Blu Ray player and it was still $775, while my HD DVD player, of similar quality, was $429. The lower priced stand alone Blu Ray players (Samsung) have had problems, so a lot of "early adopters" are staying away from them.
The Playstation 3 is really the only thing that has kept Blu Ray in the running. But, since you can't use universal remotes with the PS3 and it has limited audio features, a lot of people, like me, have stayed away from it.
Unfortunately, the HD DVD / Blu Ray war is far from over. The biggest losers in this battle will be the consumers.
I'm starting to think that porn might be backing the wrong horse after reading Bill Hunt's comments on the format war at The Digital Bits the other day about how Universal could and should end the format war. He provided a strong enough argument for Blu-Ray that it made me think that the HD-DVD player is going to be a ways out. Blu-Ray has also passed HD-DVD in sales now...
"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling
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Darth-Morpheous Deactivated User
1701 Posts 3/02
Posted - Feb 24 2007 : 3:14PM
They past them in sales because HD-DVD hasen't had any new releases. Once the flow of releases comes out, HD-DVD will be right there.
I don't necessarily disagree with much of what he wrote with regard to Universal. However, it pisses me off that this "war" will likely be decided based on corporate politics rather than which format the public would prefer given a level playing field of titles.
What specifically annoys me is that many of the companies supporting Blu Ray are doing so because of the functions that Blu Ray was supposed to support. On paper, the Blu Ray spec kicks the ass of the HD DVD spec. However, movies are not watched on paper.
Similar to how many of the promises that were made with regard to standard DVD never came to fruition. Does anyone remember that they were supposed to make widescreen DVD's that would pan & scan inside the player for people who didn't want to watch widescreen movies? That's why DVD players offer 3 options on TV format (Widescreen, 4:3 letterbox & 4:3 full screen).
The same thing has happened with Blu Ray. They might be able to fulfill all of the promises that they made with regard to features. But they haven't yet. However, it was those promises that gathered studio support for Blu Ray. If Blu Ray ends up winning because of that studio support, without fulfilling the promises of the format's specs, what's to cause them to continue to meet those specs in the future? Nothing.
If it was going to be studio support that was going to decide the outcome of the HD DVD / Blu Ray war, I much would have preferred that support to be based on the functionality that the two formats actually achieved, not on the promises of functionality that they would hopefully achieve some day.
Maybe. With the recent drought of good HD DVD new releases, I would have thought that the HD DVD version of "The Departed" would have outsold the Blu Ray version.
Now, granted that the HD DVD version is more expensive than the Blu Ray version is, due to the fact that it's a combo disc. But at Amazon, the Blu Ray version is ranked #41 in DVD sales, while the HD DVD version is ranked #61.
If you're swapping out a card every eight minutes, you must be using the Panasonic HVX200, far and away the best HD camcorder out there. It shoots DVCPRO HD instead of the less-than-stellar HDV that most everyone else (including me) is shooting. Good for you.
Steve Hirsch has said that they have found a company willing to replicate their discs in Blu Ray. However, until that company actually does the work, the possibility exists that Sony could interfere with them as well. So, until they actually have discs pressed, nothing is definite.
From what I've been told, there are more Blu Ray replicating plants in Asia than there are in the US and some of them don't do any work for Sony or Disney. So, unless Sony or Disney starts giving work to these replicators, there may be nothing stopping them from pressing porn on Blu Ray.
Hirsch also said that they are planning on releasing their HD movies in HD DVD as well.
There is another large company who is looking to go to Asia to produce their product on Blu Ray. However, at this point, I don't think that this other company currently has any plans to release their product on HD DVD as well. But nothing is cast in stone yet.
Actually I'm surprised we are not hearing a lot from Evil Angel when it comes to the next-gen formats. I mean they were one of the first ones who went from VHS to DVD.
DVD presented obvious benefits over VHS, so changing formats was a no-brainer. I'm not convinced HD holds any benefits for porn. Maybe Evil Angel isn't either.
For me it's the next digital revolution with many benefits especially when it comes to quality and size. I mean one can only imagine how great a Buttman must look in full HD.
No they weren't. They were actually a little late to the game. They waited until there were quality replicators avialable for the adult market. If you remember, the first few Evil Angle titles were released on single layer discs. John Stagliano wasn't happy with the quality and they re-released all of those titles on dual-layer discs and exchanged the original copies for the redone copies. There weren't enough replicators capable of creating dual-layer discs the early days of DVD. Because of the volume that those companies were producing of mainstream companies, adult companies weren't able to get their discs done on dual layer discs.
I know that the swap out took place in June 2000. So I assume that Evil Angel first started selling DVD's in either late 1999 or early 2000.
You would be right ... and it fucking sucked at first LOL But we have worked out the hard drive way now ... which is better. Nothing like weighing your camera guy down with a big ass heavy camera, lights and now some hard drives. I really have to give an insane amount of credit to our camera guys. You can also link it directly into a laptop to capture ... but that is not reasonable for us. You can't exactly shoot reality and be tied down to a laptop. We just spend a lot of time at night dumping cards/hardrives.
xoxo, Megan
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Darth-Morpheous Deactivated User
1701 Posts 3/02
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 2:42AM
There were people saying the same thing when DVDs became the fad in porn. People were saying, "Who wants better resolution?, You will just see more flaws and scars." It's the same principle here. When looking at an image, would you rather it be clear or blurry (Compared to 720p or 1080i, 480i/p is blurry no matter how you slice it)? Does it matter what flaws the picture has? I really think not.
Satisfying Lesbian Desires - review by Captain Jack
Posted - Feb 15 2007 : 7:29PM
