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Porn industry plays huge part in format war?

Back when VHS and BetaMax were slugging it out to become 'the' standard in home entertainment, VHS got a huge boost (often cited as the biggest boost) to its cause with the backing of the porn industry. Nowadays, HD DVD and Blu-ray are in their own format war and experts agree that once again, the porn industry will have a huge effect on the success of either format.

"If the porn industry wanted to break the logjam of HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it could," James McQuivey a principal analyst at technology research firm Forrester, said. "If they said 'We are going to go with HD-DVD' you would see a few million homes immediately go out and buy HD-DVD players. They have that power." He also credited the adult industry will paving the way for newer technologies such as video streaming over the Internet.



Porn companies have had a problem with Blu-ray after its backer Sony Corp. moved to block the production of porn in the format. Blu-ray ignoring the adult industry is heavily influenced by The Walt Disney Co., according to Steven Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment Group. Vivid did find a replicator willing to produce Blu-ray porn however, and it is believed the company will release "Debbie Does Dallas ... Again," on the format in April.

"We have been able to find a replication facility to do our title but it wasn't easy and it has deterred us for the most part from releasing titles on Blu-ray," Hirsch said. "That can be potentially problematic for Blu-ray." Other adult entertainment companies feel pushed towards the HD DVD format. The founder of adult studio Digital Playground, known as Joone, says that the Blu-ray backers are making a big mistake by not embracing the industry.

"The reason they should want to work with us is that they are in a war with HD-DVD and in a war you would want as many people in your corner," said Joone. "In general we need to have one format because it cuts down the confusion in the marketplace for the consumer. HD-DVD has helped us tremendously to get titles out."

Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Apr 2007 16:03

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• 15 comments

• Pop_Smith

  Quote:Porn companies have had a problem with Blu-ray after its backer Sony Corp. moved to block the production of porn in the format. Blu-ray ignoring the adult industry is heavily influenced by The Walt Disney Co., according to Steven Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment Group. Vivid did find a replicator willing to produce Blu-ray porn however, and it is believed the company will release "Debbie Does Dallas ... Again," on the format in April. Interesting.... I thought $ony said that they would pull any company's etc. rights to produce Blu-ray disks if they were caught producing adult films on its format.

  6.4.2007 16:17 #1

• alphabit

  Didn't Sony learn the first time? Ahhhhh, Daaaahhhh, The adult film industry ran Sony's Beta format out of the tape wars. Now Sony is going to alienate the adult film industry? WAKE UP!!! Sony, HELLO!! If you want to win this format war, embrace all that will use your format and make a player and a burner for under $100.00. First one to do that will win.Gee Sony,If you don't learn from your mistakes in the past,you are bound to repeat them! And it really doesn't matter who's format is better. Beta had a better picture and tapes were smaller. In the end that did not matter at all. It was who's was the most economical and the variety of media available. Don't screw this one up, Sony!

  6.4.2007 17:45 #2

• Moomoo2

  Old news. ++: Internet=Porn these days, no?

  6.4.2007 18:13 #3

• janrocks

  Surprisingly we sell more "adult content" dvd's than any other type.
  The adult film industry has a huge output, and with the other major studios that have gone for HD-DVD, and the ones who intend to release on all formats then there is a distinct advantage.
  This isn't cut and dried yet. It will take at least 3-5 years to see any sort of outcome, by which time spinning disks could well seem as old fashioned as video tapes do now.
  There is more than a suspicion that both these formats will fade away because of the economic realities inherent in all high end formats, while dvd soldiers on until the next new format arrives.. Probably some sort of flash card with no moving parts. It's quite possible now to release media on memory cards.. any format you want.
  

  
  
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  6.4.2007 18:23 #4

• vinny13

  I think the Blu-ray will still win the battle because of the PS3. If people want high def movies and own a PS3, they're going to buy Blu-ray discs. If M$ wasn't so greedy and included a HD-DVD player, the battle probably would have been over a long time ago.

  6.4.2007 20:20 #5

• killaklan

  sony will lose the format war AGAIN if they dont allow porn to be produced blu ray
  
  Quote:Blu-ray ignoring the adult industry is heavily influenced by The Walt Disney Co.wtf since when did sony start listening to disney, if I were them I'd tell disney to suck my d***
  
  this "war" is driving me crazy, I don't want to buy either format player until a clear winner is instated

  6.4.2007 20:21 #6

• NexGen76

  Porn Industry will have little impact on either side because this is not 25 years ago there are so many ways to get porn today.

  6.4.2007 22:39 #7

• Dela

  Quote:Old news. ++: Internet=Porn these days, no?Nope, new comments from porn industry, wasn't reportinmg on Blu-ray's position on porn or anything that has already been reported, instead giving quotes from Digital Playground founder, Vivid founder and Forrester analyst.

  7.4.2007 03:48 #8

• 26r0cK

  Haha oh hearing about this just makes me laugh. Because I seriously can't picture people watching porn on big HD tvs with surround sound quality, sitting excitedly on the couch +10ft away, ...with the rest of the family in the kitchen lol. I kinda think porn on the internet just seems more then enough and not neccessary for HD unless you really would like to see all that fine sharp details. Just dload and watch on computer. :P

  7.4.2007 04:38 #9

• Smee342

  Originally posted by 26r0cK:Haha oh hearing about this just makes me laugh. Because I seriously can't picture people watching porn on big HD tvs with surround sound quality, sitting excitedly on the couch +10ft away, ...with the rest of the family in the kitchen lol. I kinda think porn on the internet just seems more then enough and not neccessary for HD unless you really would like to see all that fine sharp details. Just dload and watch on computer. :Pobviously ur not one of my neighbors lol, anyways i for one would love to see porn on HIGH Def muahhaha "play it loudly and proudly or dont play it at all"
  
  lol Porn FTW

  7.4.2007 23:12 #10

• georgeluv

  yeh i really want to see some nasty porn stars blown out vage in High Def.....
  
  the first format to get cheap burners and cheap media will win, duh. not who gets the cheapest player first.
  
  the porn industry doesnt even need to press blueray disks, you can fit 2 hours of Blu Ray compatable video on a normal dvd if you do some fancy authoring.

  8.4.2007 07:03 #11

• alphabit

  Absolutly correct -what georgeluv said-
  Quote:the first format to get cheap burners and cheap media will win, duh. not who gets the cheapest player first

  8.4.2007 15:12 #12

• NHS2008

  Quote:Porn industry plays huge part in format war?
  No! It's the gaming Industry!
  

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  9.4.2007 07:54 #13

• wetsparks

  Frankly I would rather have disney in my corner than the porn industry. disney puts out movies that people love no matter who you are, black-white-asain-arabic-cacasion-cristian-muslim-jewish-whoever. what does the porn industry sell to? 18 year old and older, that cuts out a huge market, mostly single, lots more people gone.

  13.4.2007 22:06 #14

• procode

  I was manufacturing, and distributing to Hospitals and Goverment Departments, 'additional parts' for Video Recorders (of all brands), before, during, and after, the 'so called video wars' ..
  
  It was, without any doubt whatsoever, the TV Rental companies, such as 'Radio Rentals', who owned many companies at that time (Visionhire, Rentaset etc), making the decision to RENT OUT VHS, rather than any of the other machine types, simply because they could buy them massively cheaper than any other (less cash investment, for more machines), that caused the populous to demand media in that format ..
  
  I saw the demand for VHS 'additions' shoot ahead, and they REALLY shot ahead ..
  In about three months I was selling more 'items' for VHS, than all the other machines put together .. !!
  
  Porn at that time was mainly on the UMAX (Sony) and VCR (Phillips/CES) formats, and often put there, from film, in studios .. ;)
  
  Phillips had a good start in the race for users though, being as their machines had already been adopted 'World Wide', in big businesses, and education, both further and higher ..
  
  However, the helixical transportation mechanism, seriously let the VCR down anyway, IMVHO ..
  
  UMAX (TV Studio Televisors, telecine tranfers), and Betamax (household video recorders) tapes were interchangable, and without doubt, the better machine, they were well made (and weighed a ton), , whereas VHS were light and at the price they were worth (ie cheap) .. ;)
  
  Procode ..

  16.4.2007 14:46 #15