The first thing that I’m greeted by is how many AVN awards for best retail site that Adult DVD Empire has won (five, to be exact) and there’s even a picture of two of them. A little too much bragging going on here.

Once, I clicked on the “enter” button, I was directed to their home page, which is mainly about retail sales of DVDs (new and used) and toys and purchasing VOD. I like that they have per-minute deals (vs. monthly plans) — I can watch from 15 minutes to more than six hours for $4 to $35, a nice freedom of choice. And, the quality of the movies is quite impressive — very little buffering time and they’re downloadable. There have DVD rentals, but you really need to dig to find them. Definitely not the main crux of the site. You can rent unlimited flicks from two to eight titles at once (unlimited) from about $20 to $50 — this is kind of high compared with the competition. Or you can go for a la carte — pay for only what you actually watch. They do have some top studios, including Wicked, Red Light District and Digital Playground.

But once you drop some cash on buying a DVD, toy or VOD, there’s not much else to do. They have a page of the Welcome Girls — these are the girls like Bree Olsen and Stormy Daniels who appear on their front page and greet you when you initially go to the site. Empire Insider is a blog and it’s got some pretty up-to-date info on it. My favorite section was the Porn Star Podcast Interviews with girls such as Lisa Ann and Belladonna — hear them on the site or download to your iPod.

Adult DVD Empire is not terribly aesthetically pleasing — it’s very simplistic in the design, but makes for easy navigation.