Format War Heats Up

Posted on Jan 14, 2007

If you’ve been struggling to decide whether HD DVD or Blu-ray is right for your next-generation video needs, consider this: The porn industry has apparently chosen HD DVD as its preferred high-definition format. Sony, beware: The same people who probably gave VHS a win over Betamax in the last major format war have taken sides.

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Ars Technica:

Like consumers, the adult film industry has a choice to make when it comes to HD DVD and Blu-ray, the two formats vying to be the successor to DVD. A couple of stories on the subject have surfaced recently; the first claims that Blu-ray disc manufacturers don’t want the porn industry releasing content on Blu-ray, while a second story says that adult filmmakers have decided to cast their lot with HD DVD.

Adult film producer There Joone told Heise Online that his company, Digital Playground, would be going with HD DVD for future HD releases. Joone reportedly said that none of the Blu-ray manufacturing facilities would press discs for his company, saying that Sony had threatened to pull their licenses if they produced adult content.

In September 2005, Ars ran an opinion piece looking at the economics of the next-gen optical formats. One argument by the guest op-ed writer was that Blu-ray was a considerably more expensive format. In March of 2006, Image Entertainment said it was concerned about the costs associated with Blu-ray.

Those concerns are being echoed by the porn industry, less than a year after it had apparently decided to go with Blu-ray. A spokesperson for one adult studio told TG Daily that HD DVD is easier and cheaper to produce and that it was the industry’s belief “there are more HD DVD players in homes than there are Blu-ray players, for example in the Xbox 360.”

Other adult studios agree. Another industry source told TG Daily, “Only bigger studios can afford Blu-ray, and even then it’s not economical.”

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