sgknox.com – Thursday, January 11th, 2007:
Has Sony gone mad? Prominent adult movie producer Digital Playground (site) says it is forced to use HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, because Sony does not allow XXX-rated movies to be released on Blu-ray.
Knowing their audience quite well, the adult entertainment industry holds their annual get together in Las Vegas to coincide with the CES. There is also a very pertinent crossover between the adult and tech industries – porn has a tendency to drive, and be driven, by technology. Which means HD DVD when it comes to high-def.
Quite famously in the war between Betamax and VHS the latter won especially because the adult industry preferred it. If you’ve been around long enough, you probably remember that the very early home video rental stores were primarily responsible for driving Betamax out of the market. And those stores carried almost exclusively pornographic content.
Thanks to Jayson for finding the Sony story!
Bet this had something to do with the decision:
http://www.sgknox.com/2007/01/11/no-porn-on-blu-ray/
Well, porn films rarely use the full DVD resolution. Most are made with prosumer cameras, with the rare few being professionally produced. But then the latter tend to use overly-professional and artificial-looking actresses, and I don’t mean only in the silicone area – they act weird too, too weird for my liking anyway.
What’s very High Def going to bring? I dunno… Clips pulled from the net are good enough most times… You only watch these flicks a couple times, at most, and only a few select scenes…
VHS won over Beta probably because of porn, but there was no Internet then. I think porn will not be a decider in this new format war, just because there is an internet, and you can get all your kicks from it… Well, almost…
mmmmmm… pron.
2,
You got it right. And do you really need MORE resolution when watching porn? I HATE seeing razor burn down below… I prefer if they left it natural and just clipped the excess…
mmmmh seeing stretched out snatch in 1080p glory!!
#3, Srsy??
Does this have anything to do with Pelosi and the tuna stink?
I’m not so sure I want to see porn in high def, only because, well, have you ever SEEN some of these porn stars up close (other than crotch shots, of course)?! Standard-def TVs hide a lot!
9. I have to agree. Porn is bad enough on DVD. Yech!
VHS did not win over porn over Beta. Titles were offered in both formats.
Porn film makers are often on the cutting edge. They were some of the first to put their films on videotape. They were the first ones to put their movies on CD, and DVD. Now a new technology comes out and Sony doesn’t want a huge industry to use Blur-Ray, let them. They will lose the battle.
Sony shoots its self in the foot yet again. I guess these bozos can’t do anything right.
Ah history is about to repeat it self. And Sony never learns from it. They want to sound like they have high moral standard by not allowing their media formats to be used for pornography, as if their form of root-kit DRM was high moral fiber.
Gee you’d think Sony would want to make some money and let pornographers use Sony’s media, after the bad press and beating they had in 2006. I mean really, why dose Sony care what people watch on their $600+ Blu-Ray players anyway? You’d think after paying so much money on such a device, I should be allowed to watch anything I want.
#2:
There really is no such thing as “full DVD resolution” since there is no fixed resolution for it. Even Hollywood movies don’t necessarily use “full DVD resolution.” considerinf DVDs were created to just replace VCRs using “standard Def” video at 4:5. With DVDs you can set whatever quality you want as long as it can fit on the media.
All Blu-Ray and HD-DVD do is give you more room to store it on. Even that media still uses MPEG2.
#11
Blur-Ray! I hope that wasn’t a typo.. that was funny!!
I’m glad all this technology is going towards a good cause. You would think bald fat men would be happy with their wife and forget about watching a female and male on the boob-tube. I understand someone that hasn’t married yet, but if all these porn-nerds were into getting a better education or learning just think how much better society would be, (sorry I guess that’s the leftist line and they usually are the porn-nerds).
I haven’t really noticed any of the PBS videos or History Channel video coming at even DVD quality, that I would see much differance anyway. HD-DVD is another way to take our money without really doing anything, do you really think that much content will be improved by HD-DVD? Hollywood isn’t going to put the money it needs to into making these video better, they are just interested in stopping the pirates and home copies. Really, I don’t need or want to see Brittany Speers in HD-DVD. Now days there actors look like they’ve been on all night binges, which they probably have, when you see them. Blah and Bah….. 🙁
I actually saw dozens of PS3s for sale at my local Best Buy. Went to CompUSA and saw them offered as part of a package (you had to buy games with the console). Initially, I was tempted to buy one and then thought why? What games are must have for the PS3? I could not think of one. Blu Ray? I already own an Xbox 360 and have bought the HD DVD player for $200. $600 for a slightly better DVD player? Besides the HD DVD player, you can buy a DVD that upgrades standard DVDs to near HDTV quality for a $100.
As far as not going with porn, Directv make more off of porn than any other product. I have to admit I am sorely tempted to short Sony. The market has put a lot of expectation into the sales of PS3, and I have zero interest in buying one, and this is from a guy who owns several HDTVs, one wii, two PS2s, and two Xbox 360s. Can anybody give me a good reason to buy Blu Ray or a PS3?
#16 Can anybody give me a good reason to buy Blu Ray or a PS3?
No.
and…
anyone who credits the porn industry with the video revolution, the Internet, or the home computer, is living in a fantasy world as vivid as that of any porn film…
Not that that would be a bad thing.
#17
While i don’t know about the vcr vs betamax, but it’s very well know that the porn industry was one of the first types of business online at all and was an early adopter of SSL encryption to accept credit cards online. I’m sure if you google it you can find reports. I know I’ve seen graphs showing the market share adult websites had early on and how they were the first sites that took online payments.
As far as sony denying ANYONE from using blu ray, srsly, wtf? When you introduce any new thing, you want as many people to use it as possible. It’s the exact reason why most other sony things never happened. They either don’t allow places to use their device or have huge licensing fees to use it. It happens every time and it flops every time.
The victory of VHS v. Betamax is certainly not debatable among business historians. During the original release period of both formats, only VHS allowed full-length recording of a football game.
If anyone should take credit for VHS over Betamax it’s the NFL.
Digital Playground released “Pirates” on HD-DVD last year.
The porn industry earns more money than the NFL, NBA and MLS combined.
Plus bear porn in hi-res is beautiful! You can see every hair from their pelts.
Sony being moral… *ROTFLMAO* Root kit anyone?
Blu-Ray is dead!
(Seriously, isn’t porn what got both VHS and streaming media started?)
So a person can’t buy a Blu-Ray burner and blank disks, and create whatever the hell commercial content he wants? How does Sony stop you? Do the burners come with a EULA? Do you have to sign a contract containing a morals clause in order to purchase a burner?
Oh, what the hell. One of the two formats had to go. It might as well be Sony’s.
Hi,
Well if this is true then Blue-Ray is doomed to fail as a HD movie playback format.
Perhaps they could concentrate on the data storage market where they may be the better option.
Just about every new storage format has to get the backing of the porn “industry” to become popular and accepted.
In any event dual-format players and recorders will appear (as with the various DVD formats) so it will be a moot point in 12 – 18 months.
Kind Regards
Simon
I think that Sony makes a big mistake again. Not the first in the last time, and surely not the last!