You've gotten a ton of support from people on this site. You use our site for PR constantly. But when you get some constructive criticism you tell people they just don't want to see you suceed? While I may not agree with how some people voice their criticisms this began in a very constructive, helpful manner.

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I just popped the disc in and yes I could see it if I strained my eyes and ignored the action that was going on. Like the Jule's watermark issue though I could easily overlook this and it has no effect whatsoever on my enjoying this scene as Sandra is easily one of the most energetic workers out there!

Edited by - bono-ONE on 6/1/2004 5:32:20 PM

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I am curious to see what, if anything, will be seen. When you magnify other companies product, will you see crisp edges? I think we will. I just want to compare the extent of the improvement, please.

Thanks!
Brandon

P.S. Steph, please cut Jewel some slack. Of course PXP has received tremendous support and it is truly appreciated, as is this discussion -- especially when it ends! Having said that, M.B.'s thread has opened up a can of worms for us regarding RIOT SLUTS, a movie we have not even released yet. No one at our office can explain how M.B. has a copy of this movie. I am not saying this to denegrate his post, but it raises some further issues for us. Do we have many gremlins in the works, or is there some other explanation? The drama thickens in this continuing drama we affectionately call "As Our Stomachs Turn."

Edited by - Brandon Iron on 6/1/2004 6:07:40 PM

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The halos are there, exactly as in the frame grabs provided above.

Honestly, I had never noticed them before. Certainly, I notice things like washed out imaging (as in the transfered-from=PAL status of Rocco's DVDs shot in Europe) and jittery frames ("bad tracking" if it as VHS, but somehow impossible to resolve with DVD).

The halos came and went and came and went. But I am not spending much time looking at the contours of Manuel's striped shirt (I like that shirt, though!). I am watching the nice Czech girl swallow as much of Manuel's cock as she possibly can. She does a great job!

Then, I skipped to a tasty Stefano scene, which I had never really watched all the way through, with Jules Van Saint -- not a particularly super-hot cutie, but then Stefano works his magic on her and she becomes a very hot submissive sex toy and -- well, I didn't even get past the blowjob.

I think PXP can obviously fine-tune their product. I'm sure sharper images and absence of distracting artifacts will make their movies more watchable. But, technologically inclined as I am with a really nice hi-fi/video set up, I never would have noticed the halo if someone hadn't brought it up. Which isn't to trivialize the complaint, or PXP's at times defensive response, but I can see how they might have missed this problem. Anyway, hope it all works out for everyone.

For the record, I'm much more annoyed by the bad looping/audio matching in Vince Voyeur's "Cum Drippers 6" in the Kayla marie scene, where the moaning and groaning and big black cock craving is playing on the soundtrack while her mouth is stuffed with cock and cannot, therefore, speak! That totally throws me off, since I am so keyed in to speech as an erotic trigger. Anyway, that is another thread ...

Edited by - skronker on 6/1/2004 6:26:52 PM

Edited by - skronker on 6/1/2004 6:28:43 PM

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Jewel obviously has a different opinion on the matter. She reminds me of Michael Eisner of Disney/Miramax...stubborn and ignorant to anyone elses opinion. For which, will bring the whole company down and maybe kill it off! Who knows it may get as bad as Michael Eisner for which there is a ongoing concern to give the boot!

Edited by - sanchez_1960 on 6/1/2004 6:31:34 PM

Edited by - sanchez_1960 on 6/1/2004 6:32:32 PM

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I read M.B.' review and viewed it as constructive criticism. It also reinforced my faith in the ADT reviews, especially when written by unbiased reviewers.

(My apologies for getting off track but I couldn't resist.)

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Edited by - M.B. on 6/1/2004 8:02:48 PM

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I wasn't aware that the disc was released already. For some reason, I remember thinking that your review hit before the official release date and I tried to guess how you got your hands on it.

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Edited by - M.B. on 6/1/2004 8:01:23 PM

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I know that my local store had Size Queens on the shelf last Friday when it was due to be released today. This store is owned by a distributor and they put new releases out every day, the same day that they receive them. Usually, they are available on the "street" date. But often, discs are available a day or 2 in advance of street date.

As far as some people seeing the problem and others not seeing the problem, that makes sense to me. I see it dramatically on the setup in my den. In the den, I have a 56" HDTV that has been professionally calibrated and a Panasonic RP-56 Progressive Scan DVD player. While the DVD player is not one of the newest ones out there, it was highly reviewed by sources whom I respect. The player is connected to the monitor with good (not necessarily expensive) component video cables. The problem is also visible when viewing the same combination through the S-video connection. I also see it very clearly playing a DVD on my PC using Power DVD with an LCD monitor connected via DVI input.

However, when looking at the same DVD in my bedroom on a 34" direct view HDTV that has never been calibrated using either a Pioneer mega-changer connected via S-Video or a Kenwood Sovereign mega changer connected via component video cables, the problem is barely noticible and I wouldn't even notice it if I didn't already know that the problem exists.

It's also not consistent from PXP disc to PXP disc. In some cases the problem is huge. There have been some titles that I've had to stop watching becasue they were unviewable and others where the problem isn't so bad. Usually, the greater the change in contrast in the movie, the more severe the problem is. So brightly lit scenes in white rooms are usually horrendous as are interracial scenes (if you notice, the movies that caused me to start this thread were both IR titles).

For anyone who doesn't see the problem. Good for you. Keep watching PXP discs. But the fact that you don't see the problem, or only see it a little bit, doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist.

And Jewel, congratulations. You caught us. It's a big conspiracy that we're seeing this problem. People from all over the world bought special "Make PXP Discs Look Bad" software so they could all post and e-mail screen shots from different PXP titles to you, all containing the same problems. It was all done to confuse and frustrate you.

You must be a fucking genius that you were able to solve this "crime" so quickly and easily. BTW, what color is the sky in your world?

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Have to say I have not seen any of PXP's IR titles. I have seen only the titles directed by Brandon ("ILIR 1, 2, 3,' "AGSOI 1," "Spit Shined 1, 2" and "Intensities in 10 Cities") and Michael Stefano (various "Teens Revealed" and "Fresh New Faces.") And, "Mason's Sexual Disorder."

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I've also commented in my reviews that the not-great audio isn't helped by Rocco's mix of so-so English/Italian/Hungarian in his scenes. Hell, I once made a joke on the message board that he needs some English language lessons, and that's with him being one of my favorite performers.

There are also reviewers, like Astroknight, who has commented about A/V stuff in all his reviews, including the ones on Rocco's films. This issue with Rocco's films having lighting or audio problems has been discussed occasionally on the message board, as well, though apparently the problems are not as bad as they used to be.

If Rocco himself were here on ADT, talking up his films, I would bet you that people would be bringing up these A/V issues. As it is, there is no publicity from him or anyone at Evil Angel about his titles here on the message board, except their release dates. If you do see his name come up, it's because a fan has brought the topic up. Sometimes the comments about him and his films are positive, sometimes not.

As an aside, the audio for any DVD is clearer when I play it on my computer, than when I play it on my DVD player, probably because my TV is 11 years old.

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Edited by - valrievomit on 6/2/2004 9:28:43 AM

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-T.C.

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I rented a legitmate, genuine copy of Riot Sluts at my local store, I've been watching porn for a long time and can tell the difference between a US and Canadian version.
I'm not the only one that has said they've seen titles on the shelves before the official release date. Someone in Long Island said they rented Size Queens (PXP again) 3 days before the official release date.
It comes as no surprise to me that PXP has no idea when their very own product ships out the door.

Edited by - M.B. on 6/2/2004 2:34:48 PM

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I DO NOT work in the adult industry in any way shape or form, if that's what he is implying.

I never said you were in the industry....

I've been accused of being a "so-called" pirater by Jules before, just because I disagreed with him on the watermark issue, that somehow makes me a pirater, yeah right.

dude, I never accused you of being a pirater, you just raised the same concern a pirater would.....so I likened you to that mentality.

if he's so upset about it why does he keep licensing his movies to this company? (Valentine Video) He doesn't mind because he's making money off it that's why. If he REALLY cared about his product, he wouldn't let someone butcher his movies on dvd ,or vhs for that matter. Talk about hypocritical.

For your information, I havent licensed my last few movies to canada, mostly because of territorial issues, but the technical issues are a big concern as well.

M.B., what are you doing to combat your hatred for most porn? why dont you get off your couch and come to LA and share your vision? or are you destined to remain an "armchair pornographer"?
I'm done responding to this off topic shit.

And to get this topic back on line, I just saw a movie last night from red light that had the same halo effect, and I know this director to shoot with a vx-2000, so it is not the camera causing this it seems

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Regards,
DW

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You say you want to compare the extent the improvement, but I think there are simply to many unknowns in comparing two different movies to make any good conclusions from a random screenshot. Sure, you can see if there is a halo or not, and so what?. There shouldn’t be any halos in anybodies movie in the first place! You basically don’t know why a movies looks the way it does, unless you know everything about how it was made from lighting to lens to DVD duplicator. You don’t even know why your own movies looks the way they do.

If you want to make any judgement about the general quality of a DVD, I think you need to sit down and watch it, and only use screen shots to illustrate very specific things.

I’ve tried to make the perfect screenshot from the perfect movie, but no luck yet. Maybe I’ll be back later.

Edited by - ingenmann on 6/3/2004 12:11:28 AM

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Camera: Sony DSR-PD100a
Frame Rate: 30P
Exposure: Auto
Focus: Auto
Color Balance: Factory Preset Tunsten
Filtration: Tiffen SoftFX 2

If you look at the edge between her breast and the very overexposed white sheet, you will notice that the edge is soft. Partially this is because of the soft filter used. But even without the soft filter, I believe the edge would be soft because of the lens's inablity to resolve, and bleed from areas of over-exposure on the CCD.

You might also notice a bluish cast in the whites and an orange cast in the foreground. I like to mix colors of white light to give more dimension to the lighting. In this case one of our kickers has a 1/2 CTB gel and the other was a 1/2 CTO. If I had it to do again, I'd use a 1/4 CTB and 1/4 CTO.

In particular, look at the top edge of the white area where her skin is very deep in the shadows; there's a little blue halo there that I don't think can be blamed on the soft filter or gelled light.

Edited by - TonyC on 6/2/2004 9:00:30 PM

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Look along the inside of her right thigh. See that soft white line? That's a specular highlight from the white sheet on the shiny surface of her skin. Only because her skin is in shadow is it dark enough to show this highlight, otherwise the highlight would be lost in the tone of her skin.

-T.C.

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The fact that you don't see it isn't because you have an HDTV. Many of the people who are seeing the problem also have HDTV's. It also appears that the many of the people who are seeing it on thier HDTV's actually know something about those sets and have them properly set up (hint: if your TV is set at the factory settings for Brightness, Contrast, Color, Tint and Sharpness, then it is not setup properly).

On the other hand, I'm only barely seeing the problem on one of my HDTV's while it is very apparent on the other HDTV (but the one that it is apparent on has been setup professionally using calibration equipment. So that's the one with the more accurate picture.

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The only reason I called you those things Jewel is because of your wording in your response and your reference to peoples equipment being cheapy! Nobody is blaming you for not seeing the problem, but I do blame you for making ignorant comments!

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In this image take a close look at the area along the lower left edge of her breast, right where it's against the nearly black background. Also look along the right edge of each of their right arms. If you look closely, you 'll see little blocky halos of color that from the arms showing up in the dark background. (it's going the otherway too, but it's harder to see in the texture of the skin).

This is a product of the spacial compression (the 5:1 DV codec) that is needed to get a full-color, full motion picture on to that little MiniDV tape. All MiniDV cameras, DVCAM cameras, or DVCPro25 cameras use this codec. More expensive cameras have better lenses, chips and A/D converters, but the DV codec puts an upper limit on the quality that any of these camera can deliver.

As I said before, the DV codec is barely enough to get the job done. It was developed as a consumer product, designed to use the smallest amount of resources (processor speed, data through-put, storage) possible. It has 1/2 color information and approximately 1/10th the data of 10bit uncompressed video. Working in the DV codec leaves very little margin for error; every little fuck up is that much less data left for what you want to do. Conversely, no matter how hard you work, the DV codec puts an upper limit (a very low upper limit) on how good your work can look. That's why it's only ever used in situations where budget is more important than every other aspect of the project, or when a small camera is the only way to get the shot.

-T.C.

Edited by - TonyC on 6/3/2004 3:52:55 PM

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Duplicators only copy the original data information. Since this is all digital information, that obviously can't be the problem?

Edited by - sanchez_1960 on 6/4/2004 7:12:51 PM

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- Saki [faqs]

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