DVD format war could be decided by adult film industry
Steve Safran January 13th, 2007
It was porn that decided the VHS - Betamax war. Adult content drove VCR adoption. It drives Video-On-Demand and internet downloading. And it could be porn that decides the hi-def DVD war. That “other” Vegas convention last week, The Adult Entertainment Expo, was featured in an interesting interview on CNBC. Vivid Entertainment Steven Hirsch Co-Chair says that, while Sony Blu-Ray is the better technology, Sony is not cooperating with the adult film industry. On putting out its first adult title on Blu-Ray, Hirsch said “It was difficult and (Sony) tried to block us.” Hirsch says porn may go to HD-DVD by default if there isn’t more cooperation from Sony. Does this sound familiar? It would be remarkable if the adult industry again decided a format war being staged by Sony. Could the same mistakes really happen again?
5 Comments Add your own
1. Nick Geidner | January 13th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Porn has always lead the way in new technologies. Well not all new technolgies, they had nothing to do with the artificial heart. But on video and computer technologies porn has always been up front. I remember back in 1995 or 1996 going to porn sites to learn the newest HTML stuff. They have since stopped doing cool cutting edge stuff on the internet, but they have been doing cool DVD stuff. I don’t think they will have as much power in a format war now as they did during the VHS/Beta decision, but they are still driving trends in media even though in most cases they are ignored.
2. Dave | January 13th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Hats off to Sony. It may not be the best business move but I still applaud them. I hate the porn industry. Too many lives are screwed up by it… Sorry for the preachyness.
3. David | January 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Good point, Dave:
“How the Web Prevents Rape”
-www slate com/id/2152487/
4. FrankM | January 14th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
The porno VHS revolution was all about getting moving pictures into your home without having to own a projector; explain why you have one; and operate it with one free hand.
HD-DVD won’t decide the newest format war, as there are already many delivery methods available. (Already mentioned in the article).
5. baker | January 16th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
picture this: it’s 1999 and i’m pitching an article idea to my editor about the porn industry driving streaming media technologies and live event productions at a scale never seen before in the industry. he loves the idea, it’s a go. the meeting ends with our senior editor stating, “i never thought i’d ever hear the phrase ‘gang bang’ in an editorial meeting.”
as it turns out, no vendors were willing to talk to us about their involvement in porn. go figure.
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