Mainstream entertainment firms are looking closely at the adult industry’s response in deciding whether Blu-ray or HD-DVD will succeed the existing DVD format for high definition recording.
MacWorld magazine said this week that entertainment industry bosses meeting at the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas spoke about the adult industry’s support of Blu-ray and its influence over mainstream entertainment firms.
Ron Wagner, E! Entertainment Television’s director of IT operations, said mainstream companies are watching the porn industry closely when it comes to the issue. Already, his company has chosen the Blu-ray format because of the porn industry’s support over the rival HD-DVD format.
The cable network is using Blu-ray discs mainly for Sony’s XDCam applications for acquiring television programming materials. But he said E! is not considering optical formats for archiving programs and will continue to use tape for the time being.
Digital Playground, which is said to have produced the most high definition movies in the industry over the last three years, said it chose Blu-ray for its interactive titles because of its greater capacity.
Blu-ray is a recordable DVD format that uses blue and violet lasers on disks that can hold up to 27 gigabites of memory, compared to regular DVD disks which hold 4.7 GBs and to HD DVD disks which hold 15 GBs.
Digital Playground co-founder Joone said that since Sony chose Blu-ray, it guarantees his studio would have an instant home audience.
“Technology-wise, we’ve chosen Blu-ray, which doesn’t mean we won’t support both formats… but as far as having really cool technology and a lot of storage for future proof, Blu-ray is a good format,” he said.
Gartner Inc. analyst Paul O’Donovan said the adult industry’s support of either DVD format will influence the future of those technologies in the marketplace, adding that Sony’s support for Blu-ray is even more influential.
Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, said his studio is using HD-DVD because it came out first, but that he plans to begin using Blu-ray when it becomes available.
“The adult industry has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology,” Hirsch said.
He credited the industry for influencing the battle between Beta and VHS videocassette formats in the 1980s.
“It was the adult industry who jumped right in and were putting movies on both VHS and Beta. We pushed the actual technology more than anyone else.”
But Steve Duplessie, founder of the research firm Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., said the porn industry’s influence on the Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle will be minimal, saying the influence by consumers will ultimately decide the issue.
