f13.net

Just found a nice tidbit on a german online news source:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/83524

Digital Playground one of the leading US porn distributors just announced at the AVN adult entertainment expo that they will release all of their HD porn content on HD DVD.

The owner of digital playground, one of the biggests blue ray pundits, was quoted: "Sony is forcing us to release our movies on HD DVD." He stated that they actually wanted to release their new movies on Blue Ray to "sell disc to the mostly male owners of PS3s (hey he knows his target audience ;-)) but every single US Blue Ray disc manufacturer refused to master his porn movies. The manufacturers stated that the licence agreement with sony prevents them from mastering porn discs under threat of losing the licence to manufacture Blue Ray discs.

So no HD porn for blue ray owners, betamax all over again.

Only old farts and guys who want to watch lesbian porn with their wives buy porn on disc.

deja vu. Didn't we have a big pr0n discussion back when Digital Playground announced they will be releasing all hd movies on Blue Ray? Was that a different company? I'm pretty sure it was Digital Playground.

edit: There we go (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=5697.0). I guess the pron discussion was in another thread.

Actually, I'm interested in why they wanted to go with Blu-Ray at first.

Blu-Ray is a bit better format. The disks hold more information and can therefore be encoded with more detail or special features. Basically it's 30 gigs for HD-DVD vs. 50 gigs for Blu-Ray.

That being said - I have a HD-DVD.

There's nothing worse than internet porn.

And yeah, watching lesbian porn with your personal female of choice is...

Wait a second. What the hell am I responding to this for.

Oh well.


BRING ON THE HD PORNO!

Considering how difficult it is for mainstream entertainment to come up with people who don't look like Skeletor in HD, hi-def porn strikes me as a really, really bad idea.

Fuck that.  I want to see the bad boob job scars and herpes sores in vibrant, living color!

Actually, from what I hear another potential problem with Blu-Ray (besides the obvious one: any format Sony endorses is the kiss of death for that format) is that the data layer is much, much closer to the surface of the disc.  Scratches are likely to kill a Blu-Ray disc whereas they're just an inconvenient bitch for standard DVD's and HD-DVD's that sandwich the data layer between the label and the plastic disc.

The plastic between the read side of the disc and the data layer is thinner in Blu-Ray which is why they are using TDK's DURABIS coating to protect that side of the disc.

People still watch pron since it was taken over by big, oiled gay guys and botoxed injected silicon fuckbots? Eww.

I might have to buy that Pirates movie in HD-DVD now! I mean come on, it has Pirates and porn, what could be better?

I'm still waiting these format wars out, though the temptation to get an HD-DVD expansion for my 360 grows every day. BTW, is HD DVD backwards compatible with today's DVDs? What about Blu Ray?

It's a somewhat legit argument that the porn industry was a significant force in winning the VHS/Betamax war, but I don't see that nearly as relevant in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war, namely because of the internet.  I don't mean to marginalize their influence, but my suspicion is that a majority of customers (paying customers) get porn content online, not on media formats, with the major exception being rentals.  Not many people want to showcase their porn collection except to a few close buddies (or girlfriends), and it's easier to hide shit on your PC than a closet or whatever.  But yeah, one more nail on Blu-Ray.

The PS3 plays DVDs and CDs, if that's what you mean by Blu-Ray reading DVDs.  And if you're going to get a Blu-Ray machine, I can't think of a reason to get something other than the PS3.

Which is funny, since a LOT of the porn out there is simply DVD-rips.

When you say 'Out There' you mean 'In My Private Collection' ?

Of course. What do you think I am, some kind of internet trolling perv?

Amatuer porn FTW.  You just have to be careful since sometimes that 'my ex-girlfriend' vid came from a rejected high schooler instead of a drunken frat party/ mardi gras.  Oh Crap, DELETE DELETE DELETE.

Here is something strange, I noticed that I hardly ever see any Blu-Ray players, but instead I see alot of HD players out there, the 360-add-on  is not the most popular or advertised.

But I also don't see any reason to buy a blu-ray player other than the PS3, which comes with a Blu-Ray disc movie.  I see the PS3 everywhere, but I still have yet to see a Blu-Ray player on sale that is easy to find, and when I did, it cost like $800-$1000, so if I want Blu-Ray, I want to buy the PS3.  Unfortunately I like regular DVDs, like 'Pirates', and I have a DVD player, so I bought a Wii, so I can feel like I am actually doing something other than wasting my life.

I also hardly ever see Blu-Ray movies, but I have already seen alot of HD ones pop up.

and most HD DVD players are backwards compatable, AND some can also can make you old DVDs look HD quality, but sometimes it looks grainy.

Is it bad that I am truly hoping HD DvD wins even though I don't have a single "next-gen" DvD from either format? I am so sick of Sony pushing Blu Ray that I actively want it to fail just on general principle.

HD-DVD came out first so you would expect to see more stores carrying them.

Depends on the store. My local Nerd Nirvana store (aka Fry's) has an end cap of just Blu-Ray movies right as you walk into the main part of the store.

Yeah, it's bad. What? Is Wintel better?

It's not just a Sony thing anyways. The Blu-Ray backers consist of Sony, HP, Apple, TDK, Dell, Hitachi, Sharp, LG, Samsung, Pioneer, Disney, Paramount, MGM, New Line, Buena Vista, Fox, Lionsgate, and WB as one of the cross compatible holdouts.

HDDVD is a Toshiba, Intel, and Microsoft thing. With strong studio support from Universal (the last holdouts being Focus and Weinstein, who have jumped ship). And the aforementioned WB testing both waters. And even then, Microsoft is downplaying HDDVD now in favor of IPTV....And Toshiba is trying to push more Blu-Ray compatibility themselves.

[EDIT]

Btw, anyone who thinks Blu-Ray will go away merely because "HDDVD" is the phonetic equivalent of "VHS" in consumers' minds is an idiot. Consumers do not dictate the format, it's industry support.

Um, that's all of us - if you include girlfriends in the wives category. Oh and rentals ftw?

Blu-ray certainly has more consumer electronics companies support. It is likely to succeed, although if there's any real credible signs that HDDVD is pulling ahead significantly then you'll see alot of those companies like Pioneer, LG and Samsung offer products in both formats.

Apple has already committed to supporting both formats in 2005 - not long after they committed to BluRay support. Not sure why you put them in the BR camp? They were part of the commission that defined the HDDVD standard. Apple Press Release in 2005 confirming support for both standards (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/apr/17hd.html)

My bad about Apple. I added them later to that post.

You do not want to know where I got that info (read: wikipedia)

The only good thing I can say about either initiative so far is that HD-DVD seems much less concerned about saddling their format with crippling DRM bullshit. Other than that, whichever has the best selection of movies and cheapest players will get my dollars after I buy an HDTV (sometime in the year 2009 most likely).

The new LCD DLP sets look sweet.

There was an article in today's New York Times about the problems of High Def in pornography.  Classy like... (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/business/media/22porn.html?ref=business)

Seriously, that isn't a joke. If Hollywood movies and shows are any indication, then I don't even want to imagine porn in HD.

Negative viewer comment on HD Pr0n: That there beaver looks burned.

I hope HDDVD wins because blu-ray is a silly name.

Not that I care that much either way - the delayed format battle is saving me money on a player.

When I do get an HD TV it will be because Satellite TV output is increasingly HD anyway.

"Silly name"? And Riggs basically bringing....Politics into it?

That's retarded.

You guys should be condemned to watch shitty TV's forever. You don't belong in this conversation.

How about talking about the technology? I don't care wtf you like. Just pick one for a good reason.

/sigh

ok. Let's try again.

I don't care which wins because it makes very little practical difference. The biggest impact this will have is on the companies backing either format, and marginal DRM issues. So you might as well get political about it. The issue is basically one of industry politics.



Someone mentioned backward compatibility, that doesn't matter either. Players of the quality that people reading this forum will buy will likely have a separate laser for each supported legacy format, much like DVD players often do for CDs. Pretty much any optical disc player could be made backward compatible without enormous costs, just by adding more lasers.

I don't like DRM, but I know it's here to stay. In one way or another. So I don't talk about it.

As far as Blu-Ray technological advantages go, it has better capacity and is a better "platform" (for lack of a better word) for interactive content (BD-J vs HDi).

The "industry politics" (outside DRM), so to speak, seem almost non existent. Only two studios are exclusive on HD-DVD (that being Universal and Weinstein's indie oriented company). The big three backers are Toshiba, Intel, and Microsoft -- With Microsoft now distancing themselves from the disc war altogether, in favor of digital delivery.

HD-DVD also has porn support, at least from the smaller companies (big ones like "Vivid" are using both formats).

As for the names, I don't know... I don't think it matters. Look at all the silly names that have caught on in the electronics industry that weren't technical sounding acronyms like DVD and HD-DVD -- iPod, Tivo, Walkman, Wii, Vonage, Skype...

[EDIT]

Scratch that. I don't care about DRM as long as it doesn't break or destabilize my shit. And yes, Sony has been guilty of that. But movies are the least of my concerns.

I didn't talk technology for a reason. There doesn't seem to be a big enough difference to make me prefer one over the other. So I might as well go with which side has pissed me off the least, and right now that's HD-DVD. You mentioned interactive content in one of your later posts and that's not really something I care about. You also mentioned storage capacity, that might matter, but I'm having trouble seeing how for movies. Now if games go to these disks that'd be a slightly different story, but is the difference really enough to be that big a deal? I mean sure, Bluray holds about 10 gigs more stuff on it, but for movies that doesn't matter much I don't think, except for being able to put more episodes of a TV show on one disk. For games it means less DvD switching for huge games. That said a HD-DVD dual layer is 30 gigs and right now I have trouble imagining a game that big.

Games could easily become that big, simply because of hi def audio (+localized versions to boot).

This all goes without mentioning that 640k is never enough. ;)

They undoubtedly will become that big eventually.

But console games won't do so on this or the next iteration of hardware - after which we'll be posting threads about the next generation of media; and having one extra disc at install on a PC game doesn't matter.

Since you asked, better capacity means FUCKALL to me. I remember when DVD was first being touted, and it was going to have all this extra content like DIFFERENT VIEWING ANGLES and etc. etc. etc. Guess what? All that extra capacity didn't get filled with different viewing angles, it got filled with mostly useless shit that I look over once and forget. Or 15 billion Shamalamadingdong interviews about how it was such a twist to have the aliens melt in water. Other than deleted scenes, I don't ever tend to look at much extra stuff anymore. The LOTOR discs really killed that for me, because they did the format's capacity right. Everyone else was just filling discs with crap.

And as for my reluctance to upgrade formats AGAIN, I still own VHS tapes and Laserdiscs for movies I don't have on DVD, because I am getting sick of being expected to re-buy all my movies every time some fucking marketing executive wants to put an uptick on the stock price for a quarter.

Nothing has made me think either format is any better than the other, which means as I've said over and over, it'll come down to price of the player and content on the format. All that other shit is marketing bullet points in a war I give not a fuck about.

This is a good point.  I wonder if we can get Hollywood to loosen their purse strings enough to allow us to purchase the right to get our movies in any format we want.  I can see this leading to Phantom-esque digital download services.

We could, if Hollywood would just let us burn our downloaded movies to DVD in a format that didn't immediately make the damn thing locked into just that format.

But they won't do that, because they WANT to sell us Pulp Fiction in a new format every 5 years from now until the end of time.

They could. But I'm not sure I want a 30 gig game sitting on my hard drive. And with a console it'd be even more of a problem I'd think.

The trick I hate these days is the "20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes" shit, where 17 out of those 20 minutes are the same scenes you already saw, but slightly extended with one line of dialogue, or a longer pause inbetween people speaking, or other stupid shit like that.

Goddamnit! I already fucking said it! Blue Dragon is 3 Dual Layer discs!

Final Fantasy XIII will UNDOUBTEDLY be at least 25GB. Metal Gear Solid probably will as well.

And there'd be no shock and awe if Atlus stuff got that big by the end of this generation.

And?

And that's not good for a year old system?


Anyways...

Comparing DVD and HD games aside (which is completely retarded btw), I thought the debate here was HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray (as it pertains to films).

On that note, I'll be fair, you can't go wrong with any of them really. 50GB or 200GB capacity (BD) hasn't quite showed it's use as of yet. Not with films. Even with hi-def multi-region audio, a full 200GB isn't going to be tapped. 50GB maybe, especially if you count extras, documentaries, and the like. This could really become an issue considering that this is a region free media, and companies might want to put a bunch of languages on one disc.

[EDIT] Deleted creative vocabulary. I shouldn't make up words. Only a few here are good at that ;).

He's responding to eldaec and others that believe that a single dual-layer DVD is all that's needed to fit the content for this generation of HD console games or even the next.

So I guess what you're saying is that without the astounding capacity of Blue-Ray we'll be forced to swap discs in order to enjoy cinematics of effeminate Japanese man-boys?

That's a shame.

Hey! Behind those effeminate Japanese man-boys are the corny stories and formulaic gameplay we all love.

What Gulp said. I really don't give a shit about disc-swapping when I'm playing the game for 100 hours. And I really don't give a shit about effete man-boy Japanese NAMBLA fantasies.

It depends on how the games are built, for me. I wouldn't want to swap discs when I backtrack to old areas and zones in an RPG, for example. If they tried to include those zones you'd revisit on all discs though, then it wouldn't be a problem.

Still, more capacity is always better. Did you guys not have a PSX or DC or something? Hell, those didn't even pose a problem until later in their lifecycles anyhow. Hi-def textures and hi-def audio are problematic even for an action game. Those things require a lot of space. You couldn't even make one over 20 hours with those features on to one DVD.

Who makes 20 hour games nowadays? Oh, right, effete manboy Japanese NAMBLA fantasy fetishists.

Did you not buy a Wii and Zelda? Zelda is long. And that isn't even in HD. It'd be huge on the Xbox or PS3.

Or what? You'd rather have Fable?

Okami is long.

Bioware/Obisidian games last 30 or 40 hours. GTA lasts quite a bit.

15-20 is probably a sweet spot for me (as far as action games I'd like to pay for). DMC, MGS, Ratchet and Clank, and RE all fall under that category. RE might be a little longer. 10 hours or so a bit discouraging (at least if I'm gonna pay for something).

I like long rpgs. I got about 60 hours out of Gothic 2, and it was technically my second playthrough (I quit about halfway through last time when I heard about the Raven expansion in Germany).

But I like long action games, too. Finished X-Men Legends 2 after about 30 hours iirc, that was nice and could've been longer. Great game to jump into for small chunks of time. Thinking of playing it again with Iron Man and Deadpool now that I've unlocked them. Probably not, just wait to get MUA.

KotOR took me 60hrs light side, then 40 hrs dark side, enjoyed it all the way through.

Not sure I'm up to take on BG2 again, though. A lot to keep track of there, old tech...my girlfriend just got her first taste of Minsc and Boo last night while I was doing the newbie dungeon in BG2.

Anyway, 30 hours for XML2 seemed a little short to me, but it was still pretty satisfying...so I'd say anything less than 30 I feel a bit gypped.

BG2 + ToB can take an Obscene amount of time. I think I heard 200hrs+ bandied around at some point. I forget how much time I took when I played through, though I'm sure it was tons.

My girlfriend and I just played it through Coop. We started with BG1 and went through TOB. We played on average 3 times a week at 6-7 hours a time, let's call it 20 hours a week.(A couple of weeks we played less, on several saturdays we logged in 12 hours, easily.)  We started in early October and just finished a week ago. Though we did have almost two weeks off of playing due to her going home for Christmas. So yeah, 200+ hours is about right, and that's with me skipping a few quests and knowing exactly where to go and what to do for pretty much everything in the games.

I liked Fable.


Jade Empire and KOTOR were on the very cusp of being just too damn long. Not because they weren't fun, but at some point, they both started to feel like the designers were just throwing enemies at me to artificially lengthen the time played. The first X-Men Legends (and especially Marvel Ultimate Alliance) felt like that too.


15 hours is about the sweet spot. After that, most games just start throwing repetition at you anyway. Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid 2 were longer than that, but right up to the end of both games, there were still new bits of gameplay added, things that weren't just like the last 50 enemies I killed. Things like the knife fight with Wesker in RE4. I'm sure Zelda will be very similar, but I'm taking that game very very slowly.

I hate hack and slash just for the sake of elongating the games. It feels like I'm playing a goddamn MMOG solo.

I found the hack-n-slash mechanic of XML2 fun, though. I was a little too burned out at the end to replay /the entire game/ again with Iron Man, but hardly because the gameplay wasn't solid. It's hard to gripe about gratuitous hacking in a game that's all about gratuitous hacking :)

Juggernaut wins AGAIN! ;) I do admit the catchphrases were driving the old lady crazy by the time I was finishing up. Especially switching to Toad for his awesome SoW + dmg buff, then back to Juggy ("Yeah, whatever."). In fact, Toad's SoW buff kinda spoiled me when I started playthrough 2 on difficult with Iron Man...
You say it like it's a bad thing ;)