Blu-ray Association spokesman Andy Parsons, a vice president of Pioneer, suggests that adult’s notion of itself as a technology Taste Leader is exaggerated, even if the industry helped decide the VHS-Betamax war in the 80’s.
“Adult content should be appreciated for what it is,” Parsons told Variety, “but it is not mainstream and it will not drive the mass market.”
Porn was much less mainstream – in fact, producing it had not yet been decriminalized in California – when the first porn shot on video was released in 1979. Parsons sounds like he is defending Blu-ray sponsors’ moral choices to not work with the adult industry with unsupportable business justifications.
Porn is King of Flimsy Justifications, Blu-ray; don’t mess with it.
The Variety story is notable for its reliance on the opinions of four big companies: Wicked (whose Camp Cuddle Pines Powertool Massacre was the first porn out on HD DVD), Digital Playground, Vivid, and Evil Angel. All have chosen HD DVD, though Digital Playground once sided with Blu-ray and Vivid is hedging its bets by releasing Debbie Does Dallas…Again on both new formats.
The problem is, as one Porn Valley Observed reader points out:
“For every one Pirates, there’s at least another hundred titles like Fuck My Gaping Asshole Vol. 3,459, and the companies releasing them range in opinion from ‘Sure, we’ll do HD eventually’ to ‘Nope, no plans for HD.'”
That does not mean that those four are not industry leaders with sensible plans for the future, but their sales are but a fraction of those of the combined smaller companies that have no immediate plans for either new format and/or that only care about shooting for VOD, cable, and Internet.
And don’t forget that companies that edit for HD might not actually be shooting in it, and the Variety story does not address the questionable demand for HD content on the web.
It also uses “camp” six times to describe technology representatives. I think Variety should ankle that word.
The bottom line is that anyone in adult who has made a choice has gone with HD DVD, and it seems as though the technology has chosen porn (by way of less restrictions and a cheaper price) rather than porn having chosen the technology.
(Thanks to Jamie Lynn for providing a face for the name.)
Previously: Concentric circle jerks of porn profits; Wicked decides on HD DVD; Pirates: “For the love of God let me die.”
See also: HD DVD pressing the flesh (variety.com)
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