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Hardware Blu-ray Opens Up to Pornographic Content
Marcus Yam (Blog) - August 1, 2007 9:30 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 58 comment(s) - last by Justin Case.. on Aug 2 at 7:54 PM
Sony now supporting high-def Japanese porn on Blu-ray Disc

Earlier this year, around the time of Consumer Electronics Show and the Adult Entertainment Expo, much of the online media claimed that the high-def format war was won by HD DVD thanks to the adult industry’s support for the format.

The reason for the adult industry’s support of HD DVD is multi-faceted. For one, authoring and replication costs of HD DVD are more economical due to the format’s similar manufacturing requirements to DVD. And secondly, Sony was resistant to producing adult material on the Blu-ray Disc format.

“Sony is not giving any assistance in the authoring or replication of adult content on Blu-ray,” said Vivid Entertainment Group founder Steven Hirsch. “Sony is somehow trying to keep away such material from the format, which I think is a mistake.”

Although HD DVD may remain the choice for adult movies in the North American market, things are completely different in Japan. The Blu-ray Disc format commands the high-definition market in Japan, and Sony is changing its stance on the allowance of adult material for that region.

According to news from the Adult Treasure Expo 2007 in Chiba, Japan, Sony will now be offering more technical support and assistance to adult filmmakers. Sony will also be sending Blu-ray equipment to a partnered company in Taiwan to handle production of the adult material.

“In Japan, there are some problems. Companies cannot press Blu-ray discs because they cannot touch adult-related contracts,” said Kiyotaka Konno, director of administration at Assist Corp., a Japanese company that authors and replicates DVDs for the adult industry in Japan, to the IDG News Service. “So we asked some makers in Taiwan to do the work, and then we import the discs back to Japan. The Taiwanese company was able to obtain a pressing machine from Sony and will start mass production in August.”

“HD DVD is popular overseas, but it faces a tough market in Japan,” said Takeshi Kobayashi, head of operations at Taisei Co. Ltd., which distributes films under the trade name Glay'z in Japan. “Sony is really pushing the industry to adopt BD DVD.”

A Sony spokesperson said that the company has not changed its internal policy – it will still not directly handle the replication of adult movies – but will now offer support to any filmmakers seeking to use Blu-ray Disc, regardless of content.

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Sony learning?
By Desslok on 8/1/2007 9:51:59 AM , Rating: 2
Looks like they learned from their BetaMax mistake of not licensing the technology to the Porn industry.




RE: Sony learning?
By xNIBx on 8/1/2007 10:19:05 AM , Rating: 5
Except things have changed a lot since betamax days. Less and less people actually rent or buy porn discs. Most people use the internet to either get free porn or pay for downloadable porn.

In fact, even less people pay for their internet porn these days. Most people just download it for free(especially with all these porn bittorrent trackers). The porn industry is having a hard time these last 1-2 years and things will only get worse for them.


RE: Sony learning?
By Desslok on 8/1/2007 11:19:55 AM , Rating: 2
Good point I did not take that into consideration. Thanks for brining it to my attention.


RE: Sony learning?
By JimFear on 8/1/07, Rating: 0
RE: Sony learning?
By The Sword 88 on 8/1/2007 1:58:29 PM , Rating: 2
Using bit torrent is not hard at all. Maybe for older people but all the gusy I know know how to use bit torrent


RE: Sony learning?
By Akazar on 8/1/2007 4:15:20 PM , Rating: 3
You are so wrong. Porn is still a Billion doller industry. The people who download using torrents is actually very very small compared to the rest of the world.

Let's keep it that way!

"First rule of Torrent Club is....."


RE: Sony learning?
By dm0r on 8/2/2007 10:36:21 AM , Rating: 2
took the words of my mouth.

ps: You do not talk about Torrents...


RE: Sony learning?
By AlmostExAMD on 8/2/2007 3:54:15 AM , Rating: 2
U can't be serious with that comment, Take a look at Private studio's now, They are now doing high definition multi million dollar porn versions of popular Hollywood movies!


RE: Sony learning?
By Justin Case on 8/1/2007 8:16:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Looks like they learned from their BetaMax mistake of not licensing the technology to the Porn industry.


Sigh... this is one of those myths that refuse to die.

Betamax didn't need to be "licensed", as doesn't Blu-ray. There was plenty of porn in Betamax, and no one can prevent companies from releasing porn in Blu-ray. Sony simply will not give or lease encoding and duplication systems to companies that publish porn. Those companies are free to invest in their own systems, though.

Apparently this is part of their agreement with Disney because, as everybody knows, Disney characters don't fuck. On the other hand, they do walk around with no pants on in front of their nephews.

The problem with Betamax (and the real reason why it failed as a consumer format) was that it took them years to be able to make tapes over 60 minutes. Feature films had to be split across two tapes, and you couldn't tape any TV show longer than one hour. Consumers didn't like this and video rental clubs liked it even less. VHS had worse quality but it was "good enough" and a lot more practical. By the time Betamax tapes over 60 minutes were released, VHS was already the "consumer" standard.

And that is why Betamax failed as a home video format.

Beta tapes are still used in broadcasting today (Beta Digital, SP and SX cassetes under 60 minutes are physically compatible with Betamax decks, and vice-versa, although the tape itself has different properties).


RE: Sony learning?
By whickywhickyjim on 8/2/2007 4:42:22 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
The problem with Betamax (and the real reason why it failed as a consumer format) was that it took them years to be able to make tapes over 60 minutes. Feature films had to be split across two tapes, and you couldn't tape any TV show longer than one hour. Consumers didn't like this and video rental clubs liked it even less.


BS. You have no idea what you're talking about. I had a betamax and you could definitely rent movies on one tape. A place called Erols in the DC and Baltimore area rented beta and VHS movies. I remember renting Buckaroo Banzai. My brother owned the lost boys on beta. My brother owned porn on beta. Only high quality blank beta media came with the high quality setting you're talking about. It could record a short time on very high quality, but you could also adjust the quality down and get more recording time. I think there were 3 settings, but it depended on what type of tapes you bought. Beta was great for editing. So much so, that there were still many studios using beta long after DVD was dominant and VHS had died.


RE: Sony learning?
By Justin Case on 8/2/2007 7:54:04 PM , Rating: 2
Did you even bother to read my post (or, God forbid, do some research)?

When Betamax was released, tapes were 60 minutes long. You don't have to be a mathematician to understand that you can't record a 100-minute film on a 60-minute tape.

Bigger Betamax tapes (and lower recording speeds) weren't introduced until significantly later, after VHS had been released, and pretty much won the war (video rentals preferred the single tape and home users liked being able to record a full show or sports match without interruptions).

If you had a Betamax deck in 1986, sure, you could even get 3-hour tapes. In 1976, no. And by 1986 it was obvious who had won the format war.

FYI, recording speed (and, consequently, quality) was determined by the deck, not the tapes. If anything, lower recording speeds would benefit more from high-quality tapes.

And no, there are no (serious) studios using Betamax (or VHS, for that matter). Betamax and VHS were both designed as home video formats. You are probably confusing Betamax with Beta SP (again, read my message above). Before Beta SP, the "studio" format was U-Matic. Betamax was a popular "prosumer" format between 1975 and 1982 (before Beta SP was available), due to portability, but this was long before "DVD was dominant" as you put it.

And of course, DVD is not even close to being a "studio" or "broadcast" format. It's a pretty low-end, consumer-oriented format. The standard studio format for the DVD era was (is) Beta Digital, with DVCPRO and DVCAM being the dominant "prosumer" formats (Digital8 is just DV data recorded on an Hi8 cassette).

Beta SP uses a much higher tape speed than Betamax (required by the added quality, and therefore bandwidth), so the tapes were even shorter. To deal with this, Beta SP tapes over 40 minutes have a different form factor. Here:

http://www.maxell.eu.com/Maxell%20Professional/Pro...

The cassette on the left (30-minute Beta SP) has the same form factor as Betamax tapes (and as much tape as a 3-hour Betamax tape). The 90-minute one is much larger.

For your information, I've been working in video production, post-production and broadcasting since the late 70s, and I still own a couple of Betamax decks (including a field unit).

However, my brother did not own porn on Beta, which I guess does put me at a disadvantage.


Not sure this is such a great idea...
By Martimus on 8/1/2007 10:14:44 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure why you would want ot watch porn in high definition. Those girls generally aren't very attractive, and now you will be able to see all their ugliness.




By TwistyKat on 8/1/2007 10:18:09 AM , Rating: 3
You're probably watching Russian porn. :-)


RE: Not sure this is such a great idea...
By Akazar on 8/1/2007 4:11:14 PM , Rating: 2
um..if you had a Huge HD TV and have watched HD DVD porn ...oh my...you have no idea...omg...it's amazing.

Trust me. It's something everyone should see at least once in their lifetime.


By Martimus on 8/1/2007 5:24:53 PM , Rating: 3
I don't know... After seeing the evening news in HD, and seeing how horribly ugly those anchors were when you had better definition makes me scared to see the skanks in porn in high definition.


Ass zits in HD!!
By Fnoob on 8/1/2007 11:46:47 AM , Rating: 2
Whoooohooooo! Oh wait, we need this why?




RE: Ass zits in HD!!
By Akazar on 8/1/2007 4:18:04 PM , Rating: 2
LOL

Just because it's in HD doesn't mean people all of a sudden forgot how to edit film.


RE: Ass zits in HD!!
By Martimus on 8/1/2007 5:26:15 PM , Rating: 2
Right, because the production budgets of porn movies allow for editing ...


makes sense
By Gul Westfale on 8/1/2007 10:17:02 AM , Rating: 3
pornography has always driven teh adoption of new formats; VHS, DVD, the internet (you don't really need broadband to send email, now do you?)...

so now porn is coming to bluray... i wonder though who would now buy a machine especially for that, given that people who have $500 for a movieplayer usually have computers and internet access... and getting porn on the net is more anonymous than getting it from a store, and more convenient than ordering it from a catalogue and waiting for delivery (or so i am told lol).

thus porn's impact on bluray sales is hard to estimate (no pun intended).

on a sidenote, does anyone remember sony saying they didn't really approve of porn coming to the PSP but saying there was nothing they could do about it? isn't sony the only company that makes PSP UMD discs? couldn't they have just NOT sold discs to porn companies? so they took the money and then pretended they didn't like it... :)




RE: makes sense
By timmiser on 8/2/2007 1:22:12 AM , Rating: 2
I think porn strengthens an adopted format but in my opinion, porn has always been late to adopt any new format. Both HD-DVD and BluRay case in point.


Wait, what's the fuss?
By nekobawt on 8/1/2007 12:45:36 PM , Rating: 3
Yes, Sony is supporting porn in the Bluray format. Japanese porn. In Japan. For the Japanese market. I fail to see what the big to-do is, aside from the fact that there's some pretty wacky Japanese porn out there (fetish website devoted to people crying while eating, anyone?).