High Def DVD Format Wars: As Goes the Porn Industry

Oh, what the heck. Mote technology news.

It is Beta vs. VHS redux in the fight for dominance in high definition DVD formats. In this corner we have Sony, once again, with the higher quality but more expensive Blu-Ray format. In the other, is HD DVD a product of Toshiba labs and supported by the the trade industry, DVD Forum.

This story pretty much writes itself. But it does get better. Just as in the Beta-VHS wars of the 1970's and 80's, the multibillion dollar porn industry will get the first and most influential vote. But this time, Sony may have taken themselves out of the running altogether. Rumor has it that Sony has vowed to pull the license of any replication house that goes... um, blue.

At last week's Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas (which coincidentally -- nudge, nudge, wink, wink -- runs alongside the Consumer Electronics Expo), the opinion was nearly unanimous that HD DVD would be the way the industry is going.

Studios cited Blu-ray's expense, a dearth of replication houses and market share as the key drivers. "Blu-ray has superior quality, yes," said a spokesperson for porn outfit Bangbros, "but HD DVD is easier to produce, cheaper to produce and there are more HD DVD players in homes than there are Blu-ray players, for example in the Xbox 360.”

But there may be something more at work. Adult movie producer Digital Playground says it's going with HD DVD because Sony won't allow XXX movies on Blu-ray and will lift the license of any replicator who goes astray. Interestingly, last spring Digital Playground was vocal in its support of Blu-ray for its greater capacity and its presence in the PlayStation 3 game console, so whatever it ran up against must have been a serious deal-breaker. There's no confirmation that Sony is in fact enforcing a no-smut policy, but if it is, Sony must know it's putting itself at a disadvantage. How much of a disadvantage is open to question. Porn's influence vs. other market factors may be overestimated to begin with, and these days the most convenient access to dirty movies is online rather than in the curtained back room of the DVD rental store. For the time being, this race remains too close to call.