Sony to the skin trade; thats BLU, not blue

[pixelthis]

Deja vu all over again, we learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
Sony has annouced that a subsidery of theirs will not be allowed to press discs of a naughty nature. http:\\www.computerworld.com has the story on a link.
This is the same thing they did with beta, and it was cited as a contributing factor in Betas demise.
Some porn companies have annouced that they will use HD for their high "end"
presentations.
bravo to Sony for sticking to their guns, or is that "bravia"?
Sheese:1:

[Woochifer]

I think the "porn led to the demise of Betamax" story is nothing more than an urban myth. The Betamax was behind the eight ball from the very beginning because:

1) JVC managed to sign up a much larger coalition of manufacturers to support VHS, by imposing lower licensing fees and fewer restrictions than Sony did on its Betamax partners (which basically consisted only of Sanyo, Toshiba, and Zenith). More VHS players on the market meant more shelf space dedicated to VHS products, and more advertising by more manufacturers.

2) Betamax's standard 90 minute recording time IMO absolutely killed the Betamax at the retail level. In the standard playback mode, the early Betamax tapes were limited to 90 minutes of recording time, whereas VHS gave you two hours. This was a dealbreaker for many customers who might have wanted to record a two-hour movie, but could not fit the entire movie onto a single tape. It wasn't until the slower extended play modes and longer tape lengths were introduced later that Beta VCRs allowed for longer recording times, but by then the perception had already been established and even after Sony responded to market demand, VHS retained the advantage with its longer recording time onto a single tape.

By the time studios began releasing movies for home video, Betamax was already approaching a 3-to-1 market deficit. Porn wasn't going to break Betamax -- it was already broken. In much the same way that porn was never going to save HD-DVD, its epitaph got written a long time ago when the industry and the studio support gave Blu-ray an insurmountable market share advantage. Porn or not, Blu-ray's main competition now is the DVD, where there's no shortage of support from porn studios.

[bfalls]

Part of the reason Sony will not replicate porn is due to the fact it's prohibited by Disney, who does a lot of business with Sony. Disney takes great lengths to ensure there are no surprises when your kids view their movies. I really doubt the decision will hurt Blu-ray too much. Who really wants to see porn in high def anyway? Maybe some things are better left low def (silicon ripples (yes I said ripples), enhancement scars, etc)

[Woochifer]

Part of the reason Sony will not replicate porn is due to the fact it's prohibited by Disney, who does a lot of business with Sony. Disney takes great lengths to ensure there are no surprises when your kids view their movies. I really doubt the decision will hurt Blu-ray too much. Who really wants to see porn in high def anyway? Maybe some things are better left low def (silicon ripples (yes I said ripples), enhancement scars, etc)

I doubt that this will be much of an issue simply because Sony's not the only Blu-ray duplicator out there, and as volume increases, I'm sure the number of duplicating houses will increase accordingly.

And I'm with you, HD has already proved overly revealing with mainstream networks (a list came out last year of female celebs who are better off in SD). The NY Times wrote a story on the lengths that porn stars and directors now need to take to hide blemishes, cellulite, scars, and yes, zits in the wrong places. Those imperfections are apparently not so easy to disguise in HD.

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

The said the same thing about DVD.

Darn, they need to hire even better-looking women. Boo-Hoo, how shall we survive?

[pixelthis]

I think the "porn led to the demise of Betamax" story is nothing more than an urban myth. The Betamax was behind the eight ball from the very beginning because:

1) JVC managed to sign up a much larger coalition of manufacturers to support VHS, by imposing lower licensing fees and fewer restrictions than Sony did on its Betamax partners (which basically consisted only of Sanyo, Toshiba, and Zenith). More VHS players on the market meant more shelf space dedicated to VHS products, and more advertising by more manufacturers.

2) Betamax's standard 90 minute recording time IMO absolutely killed the Betamax at the retail level. In the standard playback mode, the early Betamax tapes were limited to 90 minutes of recording time, whereas VHS gave you two hours. This was a dealbreaker for many customers who might have wanted to record a two-hour movie, but could not fit the entire movie onto a single tape. It wasn't until the slower extended play modes and longer tape lengths were introduced later that Beta VCRs allowed for longer recording times, but by then the perception had already been established and even after Sony responded to market demand, VHS retained the advantage with its longer recording time onto a single tape.

By the time studios began releasing movies for home video, Betamax was already approaching a 3-to-1 market deficit. Porn wasn't going to break Betamax -- it was already broken. In much the same way that porn was never going to save HD-DVD, its epitaph got written a long time ago when the industry and the studio support gave Blu-ray an insurmountable market share advantage. Porn or not, Blu-ray's main competition now is the DVD, where there's no shortage of support from porn studios.

I was there, and you're right, the 90 min thing was a big deal breaker.
As much as I liked beta, I had the idea of timrshifting, and couldnt timeshift movies with beta.
Also another poster says that some stars look better in SD, which brings up a theory.
The reason some TV stars flub on the big screen is that film is inherently hi-def,
and someone who looks good on the small screen might not translate well on the big one.
So now that EVRYTHING is HD, its gonna be like when sound was introduced, a lot of actors will be out of business.
And sure theres always gonna be porn, but I heard a few years back that some porn made it to disney tapes, surprized some fifth graders.
Anyway porn industry types are the junkyard dogs of the industry, they can surrive:1:

[nightflier]

The NY Times wrote a story on the lengths that porn stars and directors now need to take to hide blemishes, cellulite, scars, and yes, zits in the wrong places. Those imperfections are apparently not so easy to disguise in HD.

And here I was trying to enjoy a late lunch and catching up on some discussions...not anymore. Well, whenever there's an industry in trouble, there's always another willing to take advantage of it: I suspect that makeup artists and plastic surgeons will be busy with a whole new clientèle.

By the way, the detail and blemishes issue isn't only a problem for porn, I'm sure. I can guess that a lot of regular movie stars will look less attractive in HD. Yes, the big screen was perhaps the first triage, but at home, people can pause and rewind, too. And I'm going to guess that Eva Longoria and Orlando Bloom are going to to cause a lot of remote-control wear in the near future.