An effort by two rival camps to establish a unified format for high-definition DVDs reportedly reached an impasse yesterday, increasing the likelihood of a format war that draws comparisons to the video tape format wars between VHS and Beta two decades ago and has caused some to wonder about what, if any, role the adult industry might play this time around.
Daily Variety reported Tuesday that Toshiba executives walked away from a format meeting in Japan last night concerned that a compromise on technical standards was impossible.
Toshiba leads a coalition that backs the HD DVD format, which utilizes the same structure as conventional DVDs but provides enhanced storage capacity. The similarity in structure allows HD DVD discs to be manufactured on the same equipment with only a few minor adjustments.
Blu-ray, the alternate format developed by a group led by Sony, offers a new data architecture that allows for increased data storage and transfer rates, but requires new replication equipment.
Adult industry lawyer Greg Picconelli thinks that the adult industry will play a significant, and possibly lucrative, role in establishing which format takes hold.
Adult content is commonly acknowledged as the primary reason that home video players became popular, with some suggesting that adult content was at least partially responsible for the emergence of VHS as the victorious tape format when it challenged Beta for market share during the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Picconelli, a partner in the Los Angeles based law firm Picconelli and Sadro, believes that adult will be even more influential in this new format dispute as mainstream content producers have already begun to take sides in the format war.
“How many DVDs are likely to be adult titles when high-definition DVD players hit the market?” Picconelli asked rhetorically. “It will roughly parallel the entrance of the VCR. The only difference is that the adult business has some serious clout this time around, even more so than before.”
Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount, and New Line have all come out in support of HD DVD, while Disney has joined Sony, which controls an enormous catalog of mainstream movie titles of its own, in backing Blu-ray.
All agreements between the studios and the format groups are non-exclusive, meaning the majority of titles will likely be released in both formats if a uniformed standard isn’t reached soon.
While Blu-ray is generally acknowledged as being technically superior, HD DVD is considered a more cost effective solution that is often described as “good enough.”
There is no public knowledge the adult industry is being courted by either format group, and Picconelli’s claim the adult industry will play a factor in determining which format becomes accepted is virtually his own.
Christian Mann, the Video Team owner who had already started his career in adult when the videotape format wars began in earnest, rejects the concept that adult content had anything at all to do with the establishment of VHS as the dominant format. “The consumers were the ones that made VHS happen. True, adult content fueled the growth of home video, it was the reason people first began buying video players, but we were doing what all the studios were doing – releasing tapes in both formats.”
Sony announced the Betamax home video system in 1975, followed by JVC’s introduction of VHS the very next year. The two incompatible formats dueled for approximately a decade before Betamax faded off the market. The videotape format wars are frequently cited when discussing any competing formats, including the HD DVD and Blu-ray debate.
Mann points to Sony’s decision not to license their technology to other manufacturers while JVC, the originators of the VHS format, licensed their technology aggressively, which fostered a competitive market that drove prices of everything from the VHS player to VHS tapes down. “Beta was honestly a better technology, but VHS was a better deal,” Mann said.
Mara Epstein, national sales manager of Metro Interactive, remembers that when she began her career in adult sales in 1985, adult VHS tapes retailed for $55 to $65. “That was near the very end. Betamax was gone about a year after I started working.”
Epstein, who once worked at a company that sold adult Laser Discs, said that, “adult can and will be sold in any format that exists. The only limitation is the popularity of the format. The Laser Disc never gained broad support for some reason, but whatever that reason was, it was the consumers who decided not to support it.”
Industry pioneer Al Bloom, currently director of marketing for California Exotic Novelties, remembers that around 1980 blank VHS videotape stock was two dollars cheaper than blank Betamax videotape stock, resulting in a five-dollar differential in retail prices between the two formats. “Sony didn’t quite understand that if they sold their tape to the adult duplicators at a cheaper price that the format would have probably survived because the technology was better. They didn’t understand that people were buying these things to watch porno.”
Bloom doesn’t think that adult will have the same influence in this new potential format war. “I don’t think the technological shift is nearly as great this time around. Back in the ancient 8mm days people were used to silent seven-minute reels, usually black and white, though there was some color reels out there. Then with videotape you could get a full hour with sound and color.”
Bruce Mendelson of Legend Video rejects the very notion that there are similarities between the high-definition DVD format and the videotape format wars. “I don’t think it has that type of analogy. I’m not sure that high-definition DVDs are even another format – it’s an enhancement of an existing format,” he told AVN.com.
Yet no matter which format wins out in the end, the adult industry will be prepared for the transition. Some companies have already begun to shoot in high-definition, a popular format for cable, though the video must be downgraded to an appropriate format for existing DVDs before releasing it to retail.
The AVN Awards Show honored high-definition releases for the first time at the 2005 show, with Digital Playground’s Island Fever 3 earning the honor. The video had been shot in high-definition, then packaged as a two-disc set, one a traditional DVD and the other a disc that contained a high-def version of the video in Windows Media 9.
Windows Media 9 provides the backbone for one of the video technologies that will be supported on either high-definition format. MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, the video code used by existing DVDs, will also be supported by both HD DVD and Blu-ray.
Evil Angel spokesperson Tricia Devereaux, who last week announced Evil Angel’s plans to shoot their first high-definition video next month, has heard from a number of adult companies that are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to adopt whichever format arises. “Which format are our consumers going to be able to view things best on? Which players will be available first, which player will be standardized? Whatever happens, we’re going to be ready for it.”
Either high-definition DVD format offers enormous gains in storage capacity. DVDs hold 4.5G of data, while DVD-9 discs can hold 7.92G of data. Last week Toshiba announced that they had developed a new triple-layer HD DVD disc with a 45G data capacity – enough for 12 hours of high-definition video. Blu-ray currently has a 50G data capacity on a dual-layer disc.
The extra storage space will allow enhanced graphical interfaces and other software applications to be incorporated on each disc. Devereaux has already begun talking to various developers about the possibilities the new formats will provide. “High-definition discs in either format will have menus that are built directly into the disc allowing a menu to overlap the screen while viewing a movie, so that a viewer can preview a chapter while watching another,” Devereaux notes. “We’re really excited about all of the new functions we’ll be able to incorporate into our work because we think that it will enhance the overall experience.”
Toshiba aims at shipping out HD DVD players during the fourth quarter of this year, though analysts express skepticism that they will meet their mark while Sony intends to debut Blu-ray with the 2006 release of Playstation 3. Whenever high-definition players do hit the market, adult titles will most likely be sold in either format.
Perhaps more important, or at least just as important, is the matter of traditional DVDs. Both high-definition formats have the option of encoding a portion of the disc as a traditional DVD so that the same disc can be used in either a conventional DVD player or a high-definition player.
Mike, who asked that his last name not be used, heads Legend’s DVD department and oversaw the company’s transition from VHS to DVD, which he says happened seemingly overnight. “It seems like the transition happened very smoothly and very fast. First we started releasing DVDs a few months after the VHS, then we moved to day-and-date, and now people VHS is on its last legs. I think high-def will be just like that.
Then, echoing virtually everyone involved, Mike adds, “But I hope they come up with a hybrid format. It might take longer for high-definition to take hold if consumers decide to wait it out. No one wants to own a Betamax.”
