A few weeks ago in that thread, I said that pornography has no bearing on who wins the format war and I stand by that statement. There's a ton of other options that you can masturbate to today so it's not like HD is the only game in town.
Porn will make very very little difference in this "Format War"... The Battleship played an important role in wars before WWII and nations that relied on that due to past experience soon realized that aircraft carrier was the wave of the future... Physical media = battleship : download = air craft carrier...
With internet down loads, the physical media doesnt matter... in the time of VHS vs Betamax, the physical media was the only way you could get it. Also the first tapes were ridiculously expensive and most people rented... Porn might take the credit of deciding that war, but there were other factors involved.
It may or may not be small, but ANY advantage HD gets is a toe up in the format wars. Somewhere I read that the numbers are 50-50 in terms of player or disc sales, dont remember which. So this can only help HD-if indeed they will license porn.. Maybe theyll only see a 5-10% sales hike, unlike the huge sales of porn when VHS came out... but, numbers are numbers. And dont kid yourself-there are those to whom watching it on a PC just wont do. Also, today, unlike previous incarnations, kids didnt usually have their own VHS machine or their own DVD player. But today they do have their own PSPs. What if little Johnny got hold of a Blu Ray DEBBY DOES DALLAS into his PSP? In other words, KIDS now control the content of their very own consoles-which must worry SONY a bit.
I still remember (at the right age of course, 17) being told I did not have to wait till my perverted mind took advantage of bed/pillow/etc.
Of course this brought on odd looks and odd conversations. (That, of course, happened with both guys and girls.)... "Why do I need a video?" "Wait, do you actually......you know?" "Oh, yeah (which actually meant: no)" "What mag do you use?" "I don't, I just use my imagination." "Dude, that's sick......What do you imagine?" "I don't know......stuff." "You've never done it, have you?" "Nope." "That is SO UNNATURAL."
The problem is that weather or not you watch porn or hate it due to religious reasons. The fact is that porn is a multi billion dollar business and Sony is playing the holier than though card by not embarrassing the industry that can make Sony money. I do not think that consumers are going to back away from Blu-ray because they choose to let porn into the mix. This may not give HD-DVD the win but it gives them a corner on a market that could help them sell HD players.
Even if its not a huge shot in the arm for Toshiba the fact is that even if its 4 - 8% that may still an increase in sales. And it could also lead to those consumers buying standard movies from WB and Universal. So it isn't just a matter of just selling porn because those same consumers are going to watch mainstream movies as well.
Maybe back in the late 80's most kids did not have VCR's in the bedrooms but that did not stop them from digging into daddy's porn when no one was home! But kids today have there own VCR's, DVD players, PSP's and PC's, I do not see parents buying there kids a Bluray player right now. Then again if they know the xxx titles are there and they are going to try to watch them. They just do the same thing kids did when they got into dad's 8mm film or VHS, they waited for mom and dad to be gone or went to a friends house! I honestly do not think that Sony is going to care if porn is being watched on there machines in SD or HD. Sony's main concern at this time is to sell as many players and software titles as possible. They may chose to stay away from porn on Blu-ray but again that does not mean consumers will not watch XXX SD-DVD in there new Blu-ray players. I do not think Sony is concerned about what little johnny may or may not watch on his PS3 or Bluray player. If they where that concerned about it then why did they try to keep it off DVD? Let us not fool ourselves, in the end its all about the money! And sometime down the road if Bluray wins the war, you will see XXX movies on Blu-ray it will happen sooner or later.
Not to mention if consumers can download xxx movies of the internet they can allways burn it to Blu-ray or HD-DVD later on. So weather or not Sony wants to keep porn off Blu-ray. The simple fact is they can't especially since consumers can simply burn it to a Blu-ray blank!
for some demographics ( I'm thinking under 35 or 30) I don't think it's a big deal. They'll get their near instant graitfication at the university bar or thru a broadband connection. For older demographics, I think it will be a little bit more substantial.
yes, things aren't the same as they were in the late 70's early 80s so it won't be the killing stroke it might have been then, but it will probably always be another aspect of life support for the format- especially when cheap chinese players get into circulation.
One other point- Porn generally has whiplash fast production turnaround. It's not like a film studio that may announce an intention and then 8 months later they start to trickle content out. These titles can and probably will be released at a brisk pace very soon (within Q1, I would expect), and if there is any market there, they will keep coming (sorry).
That's just odd. Image Entertainment/LaserDisc Entertainment always had to have their porn LaserDiscs pressed by Pioneer USA, because 3M wouldn't touch it, and Japanese censorship laws wouldn't allow it to be made there. I can't see how Sony could have any kind of veto, content-related or not, over what gets run on a BD pressing line.
Honestly, I don't think as many people are into HD porn as we think. While I don't claim to understand the appeal of porn, I figure it's mostly about the thrill of it. DVD for porn had a natural advantage over VHS for countless reasons. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray really only offer superior image and sound quality as an advantage, and I don't see it being perceived as a replacement for DVD porm, least not at $500 a player.
maybe not at $500 a player- but when the cheaper $250 Chinese players come out... This won't be THE factor but it will have some impact- especially over time The fact that one format will have this capability over the other represents a 'feature' that is intrinsic and will be looked at as a value for some % of owners or future owners.
I believe the reason Bd nixed adult content is due to their relationship with Disney and their desire to keep that company happy and exclusive as long as possible. At least that is what I've read elsewhere. Don May Jr of Synapse was posting last year that he was having problems with Sony over intentions to publish some of their catalog (like Thriller aka One eye) over issues of content.
I think that is a little naive since porn has always driven new technology, at least as of late. Examples are in fact VHS and the internet. Also, keep in mind that the porn DVDs made complete use of the promised technology that few of the major studios(if any) did, such as multi-angles and such. If they do the same with HD-DVDs (fully exploit the capabilities), which I think is likely, then for me the question is not if porn will have an impact, but more like what level.
Basically I think there could be something to this issue. Porn is more prevalent than most people will admit to. C'mon--everybody's got a flick or two tucked away in the back of drawer somewhere. I do. You do. Everybody does. We just don't like to talk about it! When I was a teen, I used to babysit for a very pious couple; the dad was a reverend in fact. And when I was looking for something one day of course I came across his stash...and it was Italian porn, no less...! Believe me, the reason the interest gets better and better every year is because people come here to look at porn. Millions of people. And porn does drive the improvement of technology; people just can't get enough of it. So yes, it's gonna make a little difference in the format war. I'm not saying it will absolutely kill off BluRay, but it will make a difference.