Get Ready for Really Blue Blu-Ray

Whether we're talking woodcuts, printing, video or whatever, porn has long enegized leading-edge technologies. Via CNET News comes this news about the Blu-ray technology for moving pictures:

The signs are pointing to a decisive victory of Blu-ray over archrival HD DVD when it comes to the Japanese smut industry. A PC World article writes that Sony, manufacturer of the Blu-ray Disc, has been offering more technical support to Japan's adult film companies. At the Adult Treasure Expo 2007 in Chibo, Japan, filmmakers attested to this and said that it's no longer as difficult for them to find mass production outlets.

Things are different in the U.S.:

In the U.S., HD DVD has an edge in the porn industry for a variety of reasons; it's cheaper, arguably easier to use, and the big companies backing it (Microsoft and Toshiba) have been more supportive of not-so-family-friendly titles than Blu-ray overlord Sony. Part of this is due to the fact that movie powerhouse Disney won't put its movies on Blu-ray if the disc technology's parent company partners with adult film studios.

More here.

Comments

joe | July 31, 2007, 11:07am | #

Didn't Sony refuse to support p0rn in the Betamax format, while the VHS people did, back in the 80s?

We all know how that turned out.

pat | July 31, 2007, 11:10am | #

That's true, and a comparison most folk make. 'course, back in the 80s, the vast majority of porn consumers had to go through video (or, y'know, theaters), whereas now the scales have tilted towards online content enough that I suspect it won't play quite as large a role in the HD wars as people often say it will.

Warren | July 31, 2007, 11:12am | #

Porn is a national disgrace. The Japs are totally kicking our ass. Their advancements into the fantastic freaky fetish make American porn look like National Geographic by comparison. We need to close the porn gap.

Reinmoose | July 31, 2007, 11:14am | #

Nothin like seeing a nipple in 1,000,000 line definition!

NAL | July 31, 2007, 11:17am | #

We need to close the porn gap.

*The porn-gap shuffle, we're in a heap o' trouble..."

crimethink | July 31, 2007, 11:17am | #

Uh, considering the increasingly flaccid market for fixed-media porn (as opposed to the Internet variety) that Reason has highlighted before, I doubt this'll have much impact.

Russ R | July 31, 2007, 11:20am | #

"...movie powerhouse Disney won't put its movies on Blu-ray if the disc technology's parent company partners with adult film studios."

Not exactly... Disney won't manufacture or package its consumer media products in facilities that also process adult content. This is to prevent a repeat of a 1998 mixup where adult content ended somehow ended up on a Disney movie.

"After a 1998 manufacturing mixup resulting in a split second of content from an adult film appearing on Disney VHS tapes of children's animated feature "The Rescuers," Disney created a series of measures that its replicators must take to prevent future problems. That makes it very difficult for the same facilities that stamp Disney's discs to handle adult entertainment."
Source: Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Col DuBois | July 31, 2007, 11:22am | #

"Part of this is due to the fact that movie powerhouse Disney won't put its movies on Blu-ray if the disc technology's parent company partners with adult film studios."

I know they're a private company so they can do what they want yadda yadda, but this provides yet another reason to hate Mickey's Evil Empire.

mk | July 31, 2007, 11:25am | #

I was under the impression that the Porn industry was kind of conflicted about either HD format.

Being able to count the blackheads on a porn actresses nose is NOT a feature.

Btw, I watched The Curse OF The Golden Flower last night on my Playstation 3. Wow.

digamma | July 31, 2007, 11:30am | #

Whether we're talking woodcuts, printing, video or whatever, porn has long enegized leading-edge technologies.

I hear this all the time, but is it really true? I'll give you the VCR, but what else? Did the success of the printing press have anything whatsoever to do with adult material. Pr0n hasn't really been on the leading edge of online media. I'd say Apple's done a lot more for the video downloading world.

Ron Hardin | July 31, 2007, 11:31am | #

High resolution is the wrong direction for porn. The reason that the erotic is erotic is that what is seen is nevertheless not revealed. More detail doesn't help.

Lessee, Levinas had a nice passage on it... hmm

The essentially hidden throws itself towards the light, without becoming a signification...

In other words the neuron that makes it interesting to guys is not susceptible to investigation by looking at the object it's interested in.

As Paglia wrote somewhere, the guy staring at porn in the bookstore is looking not for gratification but for answers. Which will not be forthcoming! The female genitals being essentially ``architecturally chaotic.''

Picasso got over it all very suddenly, late in his porn period, when the neuron finally stopped firing, and he could move on to something else, suddenly uncurious about women.

Cesar | July 31, 2007, 11:34am | #

I am really, really sick of the stupid format war. Especially since its bleeding into one of my hobbies (video games) with Sony and Microsoft trying to turn their game consoles into expensive uber-multi media centers. Thank God Nintendo is cleaning their clocks.

Lurker Kurt | July 31, 2007, 11:45am | #

Pr0n hasn't really been on the leading edge of online media

I believe it helped usher in eCommerce and secure online transactions.

Umbriel | July 31, 2007, 11:47am | #

Re porn industry HD ambivalence -- I think there was a quote from a porn director on BoingBoing a while back to the effect that there was a potential fetish market for HD porn. If something like HD blackheads or cellulite skeeves most people out, you can be sure that it's someone's fetish.

gaijin | July 31, 2007, 11:50am | #

Pr0n hasn't really been on the leading edge of online media.

I dunno...what do you think drew the average middle age dude online in the late 90's (creating the critical mass necessary to enable e-commerce)? I don't think it was slashdot on WSJonlne. Just sayin.

Col DuBois | July 31, 2007, 11:53am | #

Ron Hardin: That's really deep stuff. But porn is all about making a fantasy seem more real (otherwise, why not just save $$$ and use your imagination). Which is why porn migrated from VHS to DVD to higher and higher quality video on the Net.

You think if there were a technology to experience porn scenes in a 3-d, tactile environment, that that would be the wrong direction for porn?

Legate Damar | July 31, 2007, 11:54am | #

No love for the sailor scouts playing volleyball? C'mon y'all. THE SAILOR SCOUTS!

gaijin | July 31, 2007, 11:55am | #

You think if there were a technology to experience porn scenes in a 3-d, tactile environment, that that would be the wrong direction for porn?

you mean like this?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/24/gemotion-display-boasts-reactive-3d-functionality/

cliff | July 31, 2007, 12:00pm | #

"You think if there were a technology to experience porn scenes in a 3-d, tactile environment, that that would be the wrong direction for porn?"

Personally, I think that would cause the economy to crater. No one would would go to work.

Reinmoose | July 31, 2007, 12:02pm | #

Which is why porn migrated from VHS to DVD to higher and higher quality video on the Net.

Or it could just be that VHS is more expensive to produce than DVD now (I believe), it's cheaper to inventory, and their clients prefer it for its ease of compatability (can be played on computers as well) and probably half don't even own a VHS player....
I'm sorry, this is totally off topic and not relevant to your point :)

crimethink | July 31, 2007, 12:15pm | #

Personally, I think that would cause the economy to crater. No one would would go to work.

I think God or Evolution has already foreseen that problem, hence the male coital refractory period.

thoreau | July 31, 2007, 12:15pm | #

Um, if they don't want to show the blackheads on a pr0n star's nose or whatever, they can always just do a low-pass filter (or some similar image processing trick) to remove those details before burning it to disc, and then it won't show up at any resolution.

OTOH, I've been told by people who supposedly know a lot about image processing that skin tone has lots of high frequency information, and this confounded compression schemes. Supposedly it was solved by engineers and mathematicians with funding from the pr0n industry. But that could be an urban legend.

Timothy | July 31, 2007, 12:34pm | #

Anime pr0n: For when the women in flesh pr0n are just too damned realistic.

Episiarch | July 31, 2007, 12:45pm | #

Uh, for those of you claiming that most pr0n is online now, remember that much of the free pr0n that is found in the newsgroups or with file sharing is all ripped from...DVD or VHS.

Somebody is buying it and ripping it. Yes, tons of people get it free, but people do the same with music and tons of CDs are still sold. Plus, when you get it for free you have no choice about what you get and when. Some people aren't that patient.

I would say that it will not be THE deciding factor, but will have influence, and probably a significant amount.

Franklin Harris | July 31, 2007, 12:45pm | #

Who needs HD porn, anyway? I'm a guy, not a gynecologist.

Son of a! | July 31, 2007, 1:07pm | #

Personally, I think that would cause the economy to crater. No one would would go to work.

Or as Scott Adams put it: The holodeck will be mankind's last invention.

Anyway, on porn as a format driver: I thought I read somewhere that the adult movie industry is faltering because the amateur stuff is "good enough" for most folk, essentially free to produce and post, and accumulating at a rate the pros can't possibly match. Does that sound familiar (and/or reasonable) to anyone?

Col DuBois | July 31, 2007, 1:23pm | #

Son of a!

You're probably right. The same scenario is driving the reality show explosion.

Democracy and power to the people is great until you realize that the people have shitty taste.

Rhywun | July 31, 2007, 1:41pm | #

Thank God Nintendo is cleaning their clocks.

Hear, hear! Developers are scrambling to pay attention to it now, as opposed to their original plan which was to totally ignore it like they did the GameCube.

The holodeck will be mankind's last invention.

Heh.

gaijin | July 31, 2007, 1:54pm | #

Democracy and power to the people is great until you realize that the people have shitty taste.

At least those whose tastes are differenT than mine, eh?

Stephen The Goldberger | July 31, 2007, 2:21pm | #

I prefer dvds to vhs, and i'm sure i will prefer HD-DVD/blueray to dvd and vhs.


Just got to get hotter chicks and better makeup. The market will adapt to demand.

isildur | July 31, 2007, 3:52pm | #

That's not porn, that's Sailor Moon. You're not likely to find a more wholesome, family-oriented, upbeat show anywhere.

Now, unauthorized amateur Sailor Moon porn... that's another story.

Son of a! | July 31, 2007, 3:58pm | #

...unauthorized amateur Sailor Moon porn...

The first time I went to a sci-fi/fantasy convention, some guy who looked all seventy was walking around dressed as Sailor Moon.

Not porn, but it was disturbing, nonetheless.

wayne | August 1, 2007, 6:26am | #

"Being able to count the blackheads on a porn actresses nose is NOT a feature."

Maybe not, but being able to count the black roots on her snatch is.

Zoomie Junior | August 1, 2007, 8:43am | #

Son of a!
I see you've met Senior Sailor, not as obligitory as Sailor Bubba or Man Faye, but still a sore for sight eyes.

I'm still wondering what Sailor Moon has to do with HD porn. Had it been La Blue Girl, that'd make sence.

Son of a! | August 1, 2007, 9:44am | #

I see you've met Senior Sailor...

We always called him Popeye the Sailor Moon.