As much as we like to talk about the ongoing format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD and our readers comment on it, the simple fact is that very few of us actually own either format yet. This is definitely related to the high prices and growing pains early adopters are subject to but the fact is neither one is available in significant quantities yet. As more manufacturers prepare to jump in to the battle this holiday season they may not be able to because of their shared reliance on blue lasers. Only a few companies worldwide produce them and none have been able to get very good yields. Even Sony, who produces blue lasers for themselves and others, has predicted a shortage as they seek to roll out the Playstation 3 and BDP-S1 and according to this article, have suspended shipments to others. For manufacturers who have to rely on someone else for a supply, this could mean a delay until 2007 before many players and drives are launched.

http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/08/29/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-on-hold-for-blue-laser-shortage/

Avert Your Eyes!High-definition porn has arrived. That’s bad news for HDTV.

By Brendan I. Koerner
Posted Monday, Feb. 2, 2004, at 5:52 PM ET

Anyone who caught yesterday’s Patriots triumph on a high-definition television can attest to the technology’s upside. An HDTV’s ultrasharp pictures are a boon when it comes to spying the precise contours of Joe Andruzzi’s gnarled fingers. But that degree of clarity isn’t necessarily a plus when watching less spontaneous fare. Viewers who think that, say, CSI star Eric Szmanda is a paragon of male perfection might not like the HDTV shock of realizing that—horrors!—the heartthrob sports layers of orange makeup, not to mention a dermatological blemish or two. If HDTV is sharp enough to reveal a G-rated entertainer’s humanity, the technology’s harsh gaze must be all the worse for those who make their livings in the nude. So when DirecTV announced last week that it would be broadcasting pay-per-view adult movies in HDTV, starting last night after the Super Bowl, one had to wonder whether the company’s decision-makers actually bothered to watch some samples. A big part of the allure of porn—at least the relatively highbrow variety that DirecTV shows—is that the participants appear to share few of our species’ physical foibles, thanks to clever lighting, makeup, and surgery. Your spouse may suffer from a dearth of gym time or the occasional bout of acne, but Kobe Thia’s on-screen personas are always in tip-top shape. (Caveat clicker: Kobe Tai’s home page is relatively tame, but it contains links to much raunchier sites.) 

DirecTV is obviously familiar with porn’s track record as a driver of nascent technologies. The adult industry’s decision to embrace VHS in the early 1980s, for example, helped kill Sony’s Betamax, despite the latter format’s superior quality. The infant Internet grew quickly thanks to erotic chat rooms and bulletin boards to the chagrin of AOL, which sought to sell the online world as family-friendly. Since fewer than 6 percent of American living rooms boast HDTV sets and many of the most popular network shows (e.g., The Simple Life) still don’t use HD cameras, the industry understands that viewers need a nudge to join the revolution.
http://www.slate.com/id/2094788/

Porn industry mulls next-generation DVD

Reuters
Published on ZDNet News: January 9, 2005, 3:50 PM PTAs goes pornography, so goes technology.

The concept may seem odd, but history has proven the adult entertainment industry to be one of the key drivers of any new technology in home entertainment. Pornography customers have been some of the first to buy home video machines, DVD players and subscribe to high-speed Internet.

One of the next big issues in which pornographers could play a deciding role is the future of high-definition DVDs.

The multibillion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year, giving it tremendous power to sway the battle between two groups of studios and technology companies competing to set standards for the next generation.

“It’s sort of like the buzz around the campfire,” said Peter Warren, DVD editor at industry bible Adult Video News.

One side of the divide is a standard called Blu-ray backed by consumer electronics heavyweights like Sony, Philips Electronics and Thomson and movie studios Fox and Disney. Blu-ray offers storage up to 50 gigabytes, enough for nine hours of high-definition content.

On the other side of the fight is HD DVD, which has much the same structure as current DVDs and, backers say, is cheaper and easier to manufacture as a result. Supporters of the disc format and its 30GB capacity include companies like NEC, Toshiba and Warner Home Video.

Adult film producers want the higher quality picture as well as extra space for creative expression–like giving viewers choice of camera angles.

Pornographers weighed in on the coming battle last week at the industry’s Adult Entertainment Expo, which ran parallel with the largest U.S. technology fair, the Consumer Electronics Show, and had many of the same technologies–sometimes a generation ahead.

Sentiment about the format rivalry varies, depending largely on the size of porn producer.

Smaller outfits seem to prefer HD DVD for its lower cost, while larger outfits tend toward Blu-ray for the capacity.

“We’re kind of riding it out a little further to see where the trend goes,” said Jackie Ramos, an executive in the DVD division at leading porn producer Wicked Pictures. But if he had to choose, Ramos said, “Blu-ray technology sounds pretty attractive.”

Paul Hesky, chief operating officer of Multimedia Pictures, one of the smaller groups, disagreed.

“Most of the DVD manufacturers in my business do not want the Blu-ray format because it requires new capital investment,” he said, adding, “I know for sure one format or the other will be out (on the market) by this time next year.”

Others say they want to see what consumers prefer.

Adult Video News’s Warren said HD DVD production would be a “fraction of a fraction of the price” of Blu-ray, but that the latter format could not be dismissed.

“Blu-ray is going to be very expensive for anyone to do but it is going to be a player,” he said.

Blu-ray supporters, however, argue that the increased cost of its processes is negligible.

Hollywood has begun lining up on both sides of the battle as they have watched the growth of DVDs slow. They will want a new standard in place soon, to accelerate again.

Many are watching the porn industry to see what happens.

“That whole business has driven technology adoption of several platforms,” said one major studio executive. “A better, more intense experience is a good thing for porn.”
And those on the bleeding edge move forward again…

Probubly will be a lot of responses here from people who:

ttp://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5518574.html

HD comes on strong at AVNThe Other Vegas Show XBox360 has killer app at lastBy Charlie Demerjian in Las Vegas: Saturday 07 January 2006, 18:26

WHILE COMPANIES waffle and debate how to screw consumers harder over high def video, the porn industry is doing HD now, with harder screwing on it, not with it. Several companies had HD titles here and there, but I only found one, Lurid, that was all HD.

Lurid specializes in HD porn, and they currently have 13 titles out and counting. There are a lot of problems with doing HD, and much of the industry is doing it basically wrong. It has come a long way from the state of affairs of last year, and HD cameras are much more available. The problem is that editing equipement is not, and most companies don’t have the expertise, money, or will to do it on their own. This leads to movies shot in HD, then downsampled to be edited on normal rez machines. It is then upsampled and burnt to DVD, giving you pretty awful quality.

Lurid on the other hand does everything start to finish in HD, giving you quality that I can’t use snappy saying about for fear of angering the moral minority, but think slogans for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Needless to say it is HD all the way through, shot in 1080i, and downsampled to 720P for production and print. They are shipped on two DVDs, one in standard def, the other with a WMVHD movie on it as a file. The next thing for them to tackle is the consumers, or dumb sheep as I like to call them. They see an HD sicker on something, and assume it just works. If they buy a plasma TV and it does HD, they assume that their DVD player will do it. Wrong. Lurid was giving away an XBox360 on their stand because it is one of the only consumer devices out there that can do HD movies at the consumer level. In the above picture, they are streaming smut from a MCE05 PC to an 360, and as you can clearly see from the pictures, the quality is great. You can see every little [not a chance that this will make it in, so I will censor it myself], and the donkey too. Without Microsoft and the XBox360 team, we would not have true high quality filth, thanks guys.

If trends hold, this year there are a few like Lurid at the beachhead of HD, and by AVN 2007, everyone will be there. While the big boys are making a lot of noise about standards fights, screwing consumers, and the like, porn is there now. You can buy it all day long, inexpensively and technically correct. Who is the leader again? µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=28821

Porn industry to have big influence on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray
Posted by Dennis on 10 January 2005 - 09:44 - Source: News.com

GristyMcFisty lets us know about an interesting article over at News.com. It seems that the porn industry may have a big influence on the future of high definition DVDs. As most of you will know, two DVD formats are currently being promoted: Blu-ray (backed by companies such as Sony, Philips and Disney), offering a capacity of up to 50GB and HD-DVD (backed by companies such as NEC, Toshiba and Warner Home Video), offering a capacity of up to 30GB.

The porn industry releases over 11,000 DVD titles per year and thus they have a lot of power to influence the battle between two groups. But, currently the porn industry has no favorite. Smaller outfits seem to prefer HD-DVD for the lower cost, while larger outfits tend toward Blu-ray for the capacity: 

The concept may seem odd, but history has proven the adult entertainment industry to be one of the key drivers of any new technology in home entertainment. Pornography customers have been some of the first to buy home video machines, DVD players and subscribe to high-speed Internet.

Pornographers weighed in on the coming battle last week at the industry’s Adult Entertainment Expo, which ran parallel with the largest U.S. technology fair, the Consumer Electronics Show, and had many of the same technologies–sometimes a generation ahead.

“We’re kind of riding it out a little further to see where the trend goes,” said Jackie Ramos, an executive in the DVD division at leading porn producer Wicked Pictures. But if he had to choose, Ramos said, “Blu-ray technology sounds pretty attractive.”

Paul Hesky, chief operating officer of Multimedia Pictures, one of the smaller groups, disagreed.
“Most of the DVD manufacturers in my business do not want the Blu-ray format because it requires new capital investment,” he said, adding, “I know for sure one format or the other will be out (on the market) by this time next year.”
Others say they want to see what consumers prefer.

Hollywood has begun lining up on both sides of the battle as they have watched the growth of DVDs slow. They will want a new standard in place soon, to accelerate again.

Many are watching the porn industry to see what happens.
 

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11186

May 02, 2006 5:27 pm ET

Porn industry may be decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD battle
By Lucas Mearian, Computerworld

Just as in the 1980s, when the Betamax and VHS video formats were battling it out for supremacy, the pornography industry will likely play a big role in determining which of the two blue-laser DVD formats — Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD — will be the winner in the battle to replace DVDs for high-definition content.

Ron Wagner, director of IT operations at E! Entertainment Television Inc., in Los Angeles, said his company has already chosen the Blu-ray Disc format, in large part because of talk in the porn industry favoring it over rival HD-DVD.
Wagner said that while attending last year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual conference in Las Vegas, more than one panel discussed “several major players in the porn industry going the Blu-ray route.” He said the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD rivalry was also the buzz around NAB 2006 last month.

“If you look at the VHS vs. Beta standards, you see the much higher-quality standard dying because of [the porn industry’s support of VHS],” he said. “The mass volume of tapes in the porn market at the time went out on VHS.”
E! Entertainment is using Blu-Ray discs primarily for Sony’s XDCam applications for acquisition of television programming materials. The television network, which has more than 85 million subscribers to its celebrity gossip and entertainment news, said it is not considering optical formats for long-term data archiving, but will stick with magnetic tape for now.
The pornography industry, which generates an estimated US$57 billion in annual revenue worldwide, has always been a fast leader when it comes to the use of new technology, according to analysts.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/05/02/pornhd/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Sex Drive

Imagine yourself on a big squishy couch inside a closed booth at the adult entertainment trade show in Las Vegas. Against one wall, a gigantic high-definition television set shows gorgeous people, almost life-sized, having sex somewhere luxurious and tropical. Against another, a slightly smaller flat-panel TV displays the same video in standard definition.

The noise of the show floor pounds outside the walls and yet you feel you’ve reached an oasis. A bottle of water appears at your side, and you sink into the cushions and prop your feet up on the coffee table while the on-screen couple shares an orgasm.

All the while, you’re deep in conversation with the president of an on-demand adult entertainment company, talking excitedly about compression algorithms, encryption, bandwidth, user-interface design and the future of video delivery.

Hot!

Susan Keil is the president of Entice TV, which launched its internet protocol television service (or IPTV) in January, and her enthusiasm for her company is contagious. I came away from our interview feeling smug about having business-caliber DSL in my home office — I usually get about 5 mbps incoming — and tempted to buy an HDTV set even though I rarely have time to watch it.

Entice TV, one of the first IPTV services, offers full-length videos from a number of adult production companies — in high definition, with 5.1 surround sound, and in wide screen, if the source material allows. The studios set their own prices for rentals, purchases and subscriptions, on top of your monthly ($5) or annual ($30) Entice TV membership fee.

Susan points to advances in compression and standard digital media tools as the foundation of the company’s services.

“The bandwidth is there now, and only getting better,” she says. “We’re able to deliver content without any proprietary hardware. There’s no physical set-top box to buy. It’s all standard.”

While Entice TV didn’t develop its compression algorithms itself — it uses the “imediasee” platform developed by Broadline Media — the compression is one of the reasons Entice TV is making waves in adult entertainment.

On a standard 1.5 mpbs DSL connection, it takes about 15 minutes to download a full-length feature in standard defintion. (Susan says a high-definition feature-length movie would take at least two hours at those speeds.)

Entice TV is adding progressive downloads in the near future, which will let you watch a video while it downloads. You’ll need at least 1.5 mpbs for standard defition. But with extra speedy DSL like mine, you can just about watch the stream in high-def.1
It’s as discreet as it gets, too. “Entice TV is basically a direct point-to-point communication between distributor and viewer,” Susan says. “It’s as private as e-mail.” The point? So far, one-to-one communication is not subject to the same content regulations as one-to-many communication like broadcast, cable and satellite.

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70327-0.html

High-Definition Porn On The Rise

Smarthouse Team - Thursday, 23 March 2006

The porn industry is leading the way in adopting High-Definition recording, having already released two record-selling skin flicks.

There are many reasons why high-definition video will be a universal success. For a start, everyone is clamouring for it. Electronics manufacturers are churning out affordable HD-Ready TV sets, Hollywood can re-sell its back catalogue (again) in a new format, broadcasters can charge extra for HD channels and slowing DVD sales will be replaced by soaring HD DVD/Blu-ray sales. Good news all round then. But it’s all for nothing if consumers don’t buy into it, too.

As far as content is concerned, porn gives sport a run for it’s money as one of the most desirable categories of HD programming. So it should come as no surprise that the first movies to be filmed, edited and released in high-definition are skin flicks.

With hindsight, it’s impossible to ignore the effect the adult entertainment industry has on emerging technologies. When Sony launched its Betamax VCR in 1975 it ignored the adult sector entirely and uptake was slow, as even early adopters (generally young men) stayed away.

It wasn’t until JVC launched VHS, and the adult industry embraced the format, that the home market exploded. The VCR turned out to be Japan’s biggest single export, Deep Throat became the most profitable film ever and Betamax eventually limped into obscurity. Fittingly, Deep Throat was also released recently on a HD format for the Xbox 360.

Cable TV providers quickly realised that people wanted to watch adult films in the privacy of their homes, and when satellite broadcasters came along, they made sure there was plenty of pay-per-view porn on the menu. More recently, DirecTV has begun showing adult movies in HDTV to American audiences. HDNet and INHD are set to follow suit.

While Hollywood considers the risks of copy protection and hardware manufacturers squabble over formats, the adult industry has already begun moving over to HD production. Digital Playground is leading the way in this field and has recently launched its second high-definition release, Pirates. Since their first adult HD feature, Island Fever 3, Digital Playground now shoots all of its films on Sony’s HDC-950 1080/60i cameras to futureproof its catalogue.

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Home_Cinema/DVD_Players?Article=/Home%20Cinema/DVD%20Players/M5S2T9R7

arse_scenic
scores
Site Design/Navigation: 8
Content Quality: 9
Content Delivery: 9
Content Quantity: 8
Total: 8.5/10
pros
(+) No pixellation, no blurriness.
cons
(+) Buffering and downloading could take some time
High-definition porn, who would’ve thought? Gone are the days of grainy, clandestine porn films that make you stop in mid-wank because you…

When porn meets technology, some terms get ridiculously warped. “DSL” could mean dick-sucking lips for those oral afficionados, and ATM doesn’t dispense cash for people with a fetish for sluts taking it from ass-to-mouth. As for the title of this site…GET YOUR BRAIN OUT OF THE GUTTER! The first two letters simply mean High Definition, okay? And that, in turn, means the videos have clearer quality than your average porn video offering which can still blur and pixellate at some points. So why settle for a hot slut starring in a porn site that pixelates her curves to high heavens when you can get BOTH a hot slut and high-def?

The HDTV Hotties members area comes in jewel tones of purple with a comprehensive lay-out. There’s a navigation box on the right-hand side of the page that has all the links you’ll ever need to navigate the site, and right below that you’re presented with a list of viewing options in case you want to start testing the high-def quality of the videos straight away. Image previews are available and occupy two-thirds of the main members page, with the episode titles serving as links too. Below that is an index of XXX Videos with links and preview images. Since hi-def is a relatively new concept in porn, the site thoughtfully provided a Requirements box so you can gauge if your PC can play WMV HD. There’s a little disclaimer on top of the viewing page that says: “because of the extremely high quality and size of these HD movies your download times may be more than you are used to. The quality and size will also be way more than you expect so it is definitely worth the wait!”
You know what they say, all good things cum to those who…

There are currently around 20 episodes, and HDTV Hotties has to catch up with other sites that offer a bigger archive. But the quality sure can’t be beat. Plus, there are 3 photo sets for every episode with almost 20 images for each. You also get free stuff via XXX Videos like Back Seat Suck and Fuck, Boat Bangers XXX, Couple Fucks Teen, Desperate Teens XXX, Dude’s Lucky Day, and several others.

HDTV Hotties focuses more on the quality of their videos than on the content, unlike other HD offerings concentrating on a specific porn niche. This is not to say that you don’t get raunchy stuff in here because there sure are some scenes that will make you sit up and notice. It’s just that the clarity makes all the difference sometimes, and you won’t have to worry about blurring when your fap-fap-ing hands are all ready to do just that as you watch. There are undies galore and solo girls and lezzie scenes and hardcore video and photo sets that I predict will steadily build up a formidable archive once the HD craze picks up. So word to the wise: if your PC isn’t set up to accommodate WMV HD, you’d best start now so you can brag about the quality of your porn collection to your friends who still have to use a magnifying glass to jerk off to theirs.    

High-definition porn, who would’ve thought? Gone are the days of grainy, clandestine porn films that make you stop in mid-wank because you have to look closer at the screen. HDTV Hotties is here to revolutionize porn viewing so you’d better not get left behind.

http://www.pornsavvy.com/porn-site-review/hd/hdtv_hotties

Follow The Porn
Lloyd Garver Says That’s What  You’ll Be Doing In Home Electronics
April 26, 2006
——————————————————————————–
  
(CBS) Like it or not, in the next few years, you’re probably going to be following the lead of the porn industry. I’m not talking about wearing high heels to bed or making noises like a wounded rhino. I’m talking about video technology.

If you are into electronic home gadgets, you may already have a High Definition television in your home. Now you’re probably trying to decide which of the two formats for recording and playing HD DVDs you should buy. Toshiba has the HD DVD format and Sony has the Blu-Ray format. In the spirit of corporate stupidity, the two formats are not compatible, and based on the history of the Betamax versus VHS war, only one format will survive. The porn industry recently made a commitment to Blu-Ray, so mainstream movie companies will probably be closely behind them, so to speak.

Hollywood knows now that it would be foolish to ignore technologies used by the porn industry. Pornography customers were among the first to buy home video players so they could watch their porn on their own TVs. This was a much more comfortable environment than some seedy movie theater. Hollywood studios didn’t pick up on this right away. In fact, some studios fought home video all they way to the Supreme Court before making it one of the most profitable aspects of their business. Adult entertainment fans were among the first to buy DVD players so they could watch their porn on DVDs rather than videotape. And when the mainstream studios were saying that nobody would watch movies on the Internet, the porn industry blazed the trail there, too. It’s no coincidence that porn’s Adult Entertainment Expo runs at the same time and place as the largest U.S. technology fair, the Consumer Electronics Show. Surprise, surprise, they’re both held in Las Vegas.

Why does the porn industry have such an influence on the rest of the movie and video business? They have a huge audience, and porn fans will buy the latest equipment. In 2005, the porn business had sales of approximately $12.6 billion. That means that not only is that creepy guy who lives down the block a fan of porn, but so is that nice couple who live next door. So, when all those new HD DVD (or Blu-Ray) players are in the porn enthusiasts’ homes, regular movie companies don’t want to get caught with their pants down. They’ll want to use a format that the vast porn audience will already be using.

So, I guess the prudent thing for consumers to do is to wait. See if the porn industry really dictates the technology, and see which format survives before purchasing those expensive new machines that will be able to record and play HD DVDs on your TV.

But I’m not betting against the porn industry. It seems to get bigger and bigger each year, just like its stars. The industry releases about 11,000 videos on DVD each year. That’s 11,000 different porn movies annually. Obviously, this far exceeds the number of “legitimate” movies that are released. Forgetting the commercial aspect for a moment and just thinking about the writing and producing of these movies, 11,000 is a staggering number. Are there really 11,000 different pornographic stories? Per year? How different can each of those 11,000 videos be? How many variations can those clever porn writers think of when it comes to, “Come on in. My husband’s out of town?” Since stories are secondary in pornographic movies, could there possibly be 11,000 different positions? What are the other 10,977?

I don’t have HD TV, but I’ve seen it in stores and at friends’ houses. It’s great, especially for sports and movies. But I’m not sure how it would enhance watching a porn video. Will it make the siliconed breasts look even more unreal? Is it going to make that motel wallpaper look any cheaper? Do you really need to see men with pale legs and black socks in High Definition?

Apparently so. Both the adult and the tech companies are banking on viewers grabbing this technology faster than a porn star can take off her nurse’s uniform.
——————————————————————————–

Lloyd Garver writes a weekly column for SportsLine.com. He has written for many television shows, ranging from “Sesame Street” to “Family Ties” to “Frasier.” He has also read many books, some of them in hardcover.

By Lloyd Garver
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/26/opinion/garver/main1548040.shtml