That's it? One studio only. There is no turning HD. It's the future and will boost the sale of porn. Imagine watching Venus pussy and asshole being fuck totally raw in 1080P.
I don't think that we will see adult being the leader in HD porn, like they were in the VHS/Beta days. Like with DVD, they're going to wait until the dust settles, determine how much money is to be made with it and take it from there.
Unlike the VHS/Beta days, there isn't a lot of money to be made on HD porn. How many people won't buy the standard DVD verseion of a title that they want because it isn't in HD? I don't think that there are that many. At least not yet.
I think that, for the most part, any HD porn sales would just cannibalize the standard DVD market. So, for now, it wouldn't increase revenues. It would just increase expenses because companies would now need to manufacture both SD & HD versions of movies.
No, it just fulfills your want. Nobody suddenly thinks they were iffy on getting porn until HD is offered. Any buisnessman sees that neither standard has won and any commitment of money may be lost. For what? Not one single additional sale, just a sale that they would have gotten anyways. Potential loss, no gain.
Digital Playground is working on HD-DVD versions of Island Fever 4, Island Fever 3, Pirates and Teen America 3. There's an ad in the Oct. AVN that shows the covers. Last I heard, they were still working out some problems with the discs, but plan to release them soon.
Good! Glad to see someone leading instead of following. Fact is there will be a demand like all the previous formats before, VHS, Beta, and DVD because HD is the way of the future. And even if one format wins over the other money will still be made cause it's cheap to manufacture disc. Even the government mandated a gradual phase in of HD for TV. Is just a matter of time before a few of these studio start to realize that if you make, and show that it's the best available for the price it they will buy it.
WWW [TV Predictions.com] - As CEO of Vivid Entertainment, the top adult film studio in the U.S. with stars such as Jenna Jameson, Hirsch could arguably decide the winner in the format war between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD.
If Hirsch (and his fellow adult execs) choose one format over another, millions of adult fans might decide to buy that player and its high-def DVDs. The early explosion of sales could be enough to force the rival format out of business.
Think it can't happen? That very scenario played out in the 1980s when the adult world got behind VHS, leaving the Beta industry in the dust.
In an interview with TVPredictions.com, Hirsch, whose company generates $100 million in sales annually, says he doesn't believe in picking winners. However, he reveals that his studio's first high-def DVD will be on Blu-ray and not HD-DVD.
Hirsch also comments on whether Sony's Play Station 3 will give Blu-ray a boost and why cable and satellite TV operators seem to be ignoring adult HDTV.
Here's the entire TVPredictions.com interview with Vivid's Steve Hirsch:
TVPredictions: So, will your first HDTV DVD be Blu-ray or HD-DVD and when will it be released?
Steve Hirsch: We will be releasing our first high-def DVD in the first quarter of 2007. We're working on it now. It will be a Blu-ray DVD and it will have multiple angles. You will have the option of watching two different angles of a scene.
TVP: Will you release the title in HD-DVD later in the year?
SH: As of now, it will just be Blu-ray. But that's not to say we won't release it in HD-DVD later.
TVP: Why did you choose Blu-ray for your first movie?
SH: We're working with a (production) company that has been involved with Blu-ray from the inception so it made sense. We're also very excited about Play Station 3 and its Blu-ray player. That is very exciting. But they need to get those players out there. (Editor's Note: Sony will launch the Play Station 3 video game console, which includes a Blu-ray player, on November 17.)
TVP: But you're not backing Blu-ray over HD-DVD at this point or picking a winner in the format war?
SH: No. Blu-ray seems to have the momentum. But we're not in the business of picking winners. We will produce content for all formats. It's important that we do so. We have shot more than 40 films in high-def and have been shooting in HD for more than a year.
TVP: Do you think there needs to be a single format before the high-def DVD players take off? Many consumers are concerned that they will pick the wrong format.
SH: New technology takes time to get penetration into people's homes. The studios are getting behind it (high-def DVDs) so it will get there. Maybe there will need to be just one format but we will offer content for both.
TVP: What is the name of your first Blu-ray title? And how many high-def DVDs will you release in 2007?
SH: I don't want to reveal the name of the first title. It will be a brand new release, though. We will probably release four (HDTV DVDs) in 2007 but we'll see how it goes.
TVP: Why aren't HDTV adult films carried by cable and satellite TV companies? (DIRECTV dropped Spice HD a year ago.)
SH: You'll have to ask the cable and satellite guys. But there's plenty of content available in high-def. We've been shooting on film for the last 20 years so we can go back and (re-master) movies for HD. And we have shot more than 40 titles in HD during the last year. Maybe they think there's not enough HDTVs out there yet; not enough people watching. Maybe they are saying, 'Let's get the non-HD content first so we're not known as the high-def porn guys.'
TVP: The former president of Playboy TV told me a few years ago that he was concerned that adult actresses might not look good in high-def. That the picture is too clear. Is that a concern?
SH: I don't agree with that. I understand what (he) was saying. You do see every inch of a person's body. But it took time to get the right filters so the girls look good. We've made a living because we have the most beautiful girls. We make sure the girls look good.
TVP: What can HDTV do for the adult industry?
SH: It can prolong the life of the DVD. We're starting to see a shift from DVD to VOD (Video on Demand). But this will give people a reason to get the DVD.
TVP: Do you think that adult HDTV DVD will expand your audience?
SH: It just might. Look at the Internet. Everyone said don't put your programs on the Net. But it expanded the audience; more people got interested. It could happen with HD.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Nov 12 2006 : 1:36PM
HD-DVD discs will play in any DVD player; older ones and the newer high definition players. Blu-ray does not play HD-DVD (vv.). This makes retail marketing and shelf space management easy, favouring HD (HD taking place of SD, BD adding shelf space). The HD-format also can be applied to current red laser DVDs in 5/9/15/18 GB capacities which offers an even lower cost-option to content owners wanting to sell shorter form content. Only now is the 'Blu-ray Disc Association' in the process of finalizing BD-ROM specifications, which they expect to have finished sometime later this year: when finalised, this enables producing smaller production-runs for more economically feasible prices, but still not a lower-capacity disc in any BD-standard. The BD-standard is slightly more flexible in it's use, making it more future-proof and allowing for more precisely allocated quality features (ie. more and different algorithms for processing and compressing video/audio/authoring). Blu-ray as of now, is less competitive in manufacturing-costs compared to HD.
HD-DVD is similar to Blu-ray, in that both use the same 120 mm sized optical data storage media, a 405 nm wavelength blue laser and by incorporating MPEG2 and VC1/ MPEG4 (Fox will launch 5 BD titles this December, of which 3 are in 1080p MPEG-2 format, and 2 encoded in AVC MPEG-4). So, as DVD-media processors supporting both HD and BD content are recently brought to market (like from Broadcom, NEC or Vaddis), players offering an universal Blu-ray/HD-DVD solution are not far from being introduced, creating a significant competitive advantage that translates into superior services for it's consumer/user. Panasonic has two working prototype BD players already, able to play both HD movies and interactive Blu-ray. No wonder producers of adult movies (and Hollywood movie studios) are still looking into the market potential of high definition movie discs, especially with the upcoming release of an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 by Microsoft and Sony's PlayStation 3, which has a built-in BD drive IIRC. Additional, Windows Vista supports protected HD content in 32-bit systems ([invalid URL removed]free CyberLink tool to check if your current PC is ready for BD/HD playback).
Although I personally prefer the AV-quality of BD over HD right now (click here to see the 'Google Trends Search' I performed to see a the general trend), I doubt the porn-industry will favour the 'future-proof' and possible quality advantages of BR over HD's lower production costs (ie. it takes 3.5 seconds to make a single HD-DVD compared with around 3 seconds for a DVD and 4.5 seconds for BD). Since the estimated average production cost (based on $10,000 for one adult-production) of $50,000 for a BD movie and $42,500 for HD, and with BD players currently costing $700 up-warts ($500 for HD), today's market acceptance of BD porn-DVD titles is questionable IMHO. I vote for HD software / 'combined BD/HD' hardware to stay ...
Say what?!? AFAIK, only if it's either pressed on a regular DVD with a maximum of 9GB storage, or one of those special hybrid discs with both DVD and HD-DVD layers. But the DVD-9 means lower picture quality, and the hybrids are more expensive. If I had an HD-DVD player, either solution would piss me off no end.
Edited to add: And HD-DVD content on a regular DVD-9 can only be played by a few non-HD DVD players.
Edited by - K on 11/12/2006 3:02:37 PM
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Nov 12 2006 : 4:19PM
You're right as right can be: HD-DVD has legacy over SD-DVD, not the other way around.
If Hirsch thinks Blu-ray has momentum over HD-DVD, he hasn't been paying attention. HD-DVD players and titles are outselling Blu-ray by about a 3 to 1 margin. And most early adopters are much happier with HD-DVD than Blu-ray.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Nov 13 2006 : 4:20PM
According to a market-review ordered by the HD DVD Promotional Group, you're right. When you ask the Blu-ray Disc Association, it's the other way around (BD 4-to-1 over HD). Maybe the movie release lists tell us some (HD, BD)? We've to read between the words, to gain useful info on this subject IMO.
The question of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray will become pointless once the first dual format players arrive next year. I'm certainly not going to buy a device that doesn't play both formats.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Nov 13 2006 : 5:04PM
+1
Seen the legal play going on right now, to come to a DF-HD agreement, the HD vs. BD discussion is indeed just marketing.
I've a BD machine on permanent-loan, and regular HD players in rotation, but a buying decision will be made when DualFormat has arrived.
A German AV retail company tells me it sells more HD players , but considerable more BD discs . What can we learn from that?
Won't it make a huge amount of difference based on which technology is first to get adopted and bundled with computers?
Once the drives start being produced in quantities large enough to bring the price into the real world, it should give an enormous leg-up to that product.
I have zero interest in HD disks with the hardware running $500 to $1000! I'm also completely satisfied with porn (and mainstream movies too) on DVD. I have no interest in purchasing a large-screen HD television set (which is, truly, what requires all that extra disk space to provide enough information to make really large pictures look good in the first place). For the rest of us watching 17" to 27" screens, who cares?
BTW, I do have an interest in HD disks from a data storage point-of-view. If they can bring this aspect into the marketplace at a price consistent with what we now spend on DVD technology, I'm interested -- but only once we settle on an HD standard! No fucking way I'm playing VHS-vs-Betamax on this one.
The "Blu-ray" / "HD-DVD" debate has caused confusion with consumers. This confusion may lose revenue to both hardware and media companies. If the industry could produce a single player that handles both formats, this would ease consumer concerns. The development of a Blu-ray/HD-DVD (so called DualFormat or DF) product offers advantages over even newer formats in both time-to-market and cost-effectiveness, while offering higher resolution entertainment than currently possible on the DVD format. As I see it now, it will also provide full backwards compatibility for current DVD-V titles as well as DVD-R, DVD-VR and audio CDs (which is a format-war in itself, seen the rumors about the prospective abandonment of SACD and DVD-A: SACD and DVD-A sales were down 93% over last year). Is the future one of broadly usable disk-space, eg. for quality (DF-)DVD, making past high-res standards like SACD/DVD-A redundant? Very likely.
Private is planning to sell one title in both formats, B-D and HD-DVD, at the end of the year: Sex City.
For now, I'm glad with the quality of my DVDs, and I do not need HD format for porn movies... maybe for movies like Matrix, but when I'll have a all new home theatre...
Time will tell which will be the winner... I hope B-D will be the one, because I like Sony, I like the PS3 and I am exciting in buying one in 2007.
Wait and see
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 3 2006 : 11:29AM
any news on new releases?
p_n
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Darth-Morpheous Deactivated User
1701 Posts 3/02
Posted - Dec 3 2006 : 2:34PM
Right now you can get an HD-DVD player for under $400.00. THat is less than half of what it costs for Blu-Ray. So far HD-DVD has been more impressive on top of the fact that it is half the price. So far, most are not that enamored with PS3. Xbox 360 HD-DVD add ons are selling better than anyone could have expected. Hd-DVD is about to release there second generation model that is going to cut down on the load time and the buggs involved in the first gen model. Blu-Ray is more than double the price, has more first generation bugs than the first gen HD-DVD, and it hasen't been as impressive.
All HD-DVD needs is for one or two major studios that are only releasing in BD, to also release in HD-DVD. If this happens Blu-Ray will be another beta, SACD, or SDDS.
As far as what a difference HD would be in viewing porn, those who have HDTV's I'm sure would notice an amazing improvement. Like watching national geographic, most people never watched such programs before HD because the images weren't as real and spectacular to look at. Now that HDTV is getting more and more popular, discover channel and others are shooting more and more of those types of programs because people are watching for the first time. Porn would be greatly the same as far as the difference in quality. HD will create a sense of realism that 480i just can never accomplish. People now say that they don't care about porn in HD just like people used to say they don't care about HD period. That's because they never saw how good it looks. There small minds will change when they get a look at it.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 3 2006 : 4:08PM
Opinions vary: of the almost 10 high-def players I had in house, the Blu-ray standard got my standard. Not cost-wise/ marketing related, but after using it where it's made for.Load-times of 2nd-gen BD is as fast as the newest HD-DVD player: try for yourself. A common high-def-player (HD and BD) problem still is crash/ reboot: when possible, upgrade the Java-applet in the firm-ware used, as this is often the culpit I'm told (unfortunately not the only one ...).We started to travel when we knew the world was round instead of flat ... I think not: HD is a catalyser for the viewing-experience, not a start.+1, being it HD or BD, or a successor.
p_n
Edited by - pinc_noiz on 12/3/2006 4:12:10 PM
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 3 2006 : 4:11PM
dubbel post the result of using 'reply' instead of 'edit' ... scuze
Darth and pinc, you're missing BigBobxxx's and my point. Hi-def players only make sense with big HDTV screens. Big HDTV sets don't make as much sense in small apartments. If I were to buy a big HDTV set and move to a place better suited for having the big screen, I would have less money for buying movies to actually watch on it. Right now, my 20 inch CRT television and DVD changer are plenty sufficient for me. I know someday they will wear out, and by then the technology that is new now will have come down in price enough that it will be affordable for me. But until my current hardware wears out or I win a sweepstakes, what I have now is fine. But I am interested in blue laser optical discs for computer data storage. In that respect Blu-Ray has the edge.
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Darth-Morpheous Deactivated User
1701 Posts 3/02
Posted - Dec 4 2006 : 2:44PM
I'll agree that HD doesn't make as much of a difference on a small screen. However T.V.s are getting bigger and bigger and most people don't get small T.V.s in there living room. A 32' screen is considered small now. I have a 32' LCD in my bedroom and HD looks amazing. I don't know anyone who is looking to watch a 15 or 17' T.V.
My small mind has seen too much porn, with the current technology, that reveals way too many unattractive physical flaws as it is. So, would I like to see Jenna Haze in HD? Sure. Do I want to see the "normal" performers in HD? Don't care.
Before I give a rat's ass about HD for porn, I want to see properly-lighted scenes, make-up and hair done, sets a step above a couch with a bedsheet thrown over it and full-motion action segments (like the cumshot) where the picture doesn't disintegrate into a blur with jagged edges.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 5 2006 : 8:47AM
As I wrote in the "HD or not HD?"-thread, both high-def standards, when properly implemented and playing professional made (authored/ filmed/ pressed/ ...) content, can deliver an A/V quality that's nothing short of spectacular.
Some people living around 1614 may not have liked the notion of living on a round earth instead of a flat one: the possibilities of the round-earth are that much broader, that there's no change of going back to the flat-earth idea. Like then, we now have to get used to the idea of having the broader capabilities of high-def; getting used to the idea a person depictured can actually have pimples or scars (or whatever flaws). We have a better picture of reality now, as the knowledge of being on a round-earth was a better idea of reality then. No sense in stopping progression IMO.
p_n
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 5 2006 : 8:52AM
Indeed, like any big screen, big HDTV screens makes sense primarily when used in a large(r) room. To me though, HDTV makes sense period: better picture quality (so, when a smaller room to use it in is a given, a smaller HDTV makes sense too). But then, HD TV makes less sense without HD source material, like high-def DVD (and there are substantial benefits upconverting SD material to 720/1080 on a HDTV too). Of course there's no counter-argument to "my 20 inch CRT television and DVD changer are plenty sufficient for me": that's a personal fact, on which I see no point on arguing. High-def formats, or indeed any format of disk available bringing benefits/ growth in usable data storage, isn't forgotten: I see this as a huge advantage of the new disk-formats. Upgrading sound- or picture quality is just one of the advantages of having more available disk-space.
I resent being categorized as against the advance of technology.
My position is that I don't see the advantage that HD brings to porn as we know it.
My irritation is we are being asked, yet again, to re-invest in hardware, software and acquiring the movies again -- and without a clear-cut standard.
So, when there is an HD standard, that is fully backwards compatible that will play current DVDs, is not laced with restrictive anti-consumer copyright protection limitations, and will sell in the retail marketplace for what DVD sells for today, I will embrace it.
Until then, I will support current DVDs. It is in all of our economic interests that I do this. If HD is going to take over, it must EARN its way in the marketplace, not merely be shoved down our throats.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 5 2006 : 10:24AM
My post wasn't intended as being personal; it was only motivated by your writing.Both HD/BD are fully downwards compatible/ waiting for a "restrictive anti-consumer copyright"-less standard is waiting till the earth turning flat again .../ present-day DVD pricing will be here for high-res DVD's in a short whileHow can anything 'earn' any position when not openly (but maybe carefully) adopted? When you would have no need for it, I could understand this (no sense in letting something get shoved down your throat). To me, ecomonic development is hindered by acting this carefull IMO.
Nonsense. My positions have been consistent and crystal clear:
(1) Current porn -- that's everything we have so far -- is of such poor production quality, that I see little benefit in seeing all the many flaws presented with HD clarity.
(2) The current hardware is seriously over-priced.
(3) I'm not going to get involved with HD until a standard is settled on and pricing becomes consistent with what current DVD technology costs consumers.
You want to have a different argument/discussion than I am making.
The fact is, the new HD/BD formats INCREASE the restrictive anti-consumer copyright protection limitations beyond what the current DVD limitations are. IMHO, it goes beyond copyright protection into micro-managing how the consumer chooses to enjoy their purchased movies.You talk as if there is something to adopt. Therefore, I will repeat this for you for the 4,007th time -- there is no friggin' standard! By the time HD/BD duke it out and a "standard" possibly emerges, it will already be obsolete!
So, you will forgive me if my take on this differs from yours. I'm not ignorant about what the benefits/limitations involved with HD/BD technology. Obviously, I have reached different conclusions than you have -- particularly with regards to porn (which, after all, is what I thought this thread was about).
Since I am a moderator here on ADT, I am not going to permit this pissing contest to escalate into a disagreeable situation. Therefore, I am not going to respond further should you feel the need to continue this. We disagree; Let it go.
Posted - Oct 24 2006 : 11:23PM