Death of the DVD

[denneboom]

I Agree with Rex (again). I was a regular in the 3 or 4 adult video stores in Birmingham and would spend ?60 a month on two DVDs. Each DVD had 4 or 5 scenes on it.

Now I can join megasites with regular updates. Much much better value. I have not brought a DVD in 7 years.

Killergram ?25 a month. 3300 episodes. Daily update. (Still the benchmark for all British paysites)

DDF ?27 a month. 12,000 scenes. 4 new videos a day (1080p & 4k standard)

Reality Kings. ?18 a month 8,000 scenes. Daily update 1080p videos.

I pay for quality and choice and that what those sites give me.

?30 for a DVD with four episodes on it seems like a rip-off now.

I'm watching Blu-Ray quality on DDF for far less. Dont matter about the fake tits and tatts, theres that much choice I can pick and choose.

[frankthring]

I have been in this biz a long time....a very long time....over 33 years ! I also
have a ridiculously large library of smut (zillions of VHS and about 1000 dvds).
The main reason for the decline in the dvd worldwide is cost. Several people in
this thread have given examples. They are quite right. Lets forget a British
shop or the Brit market and enter a shop in, say, Berlin. These shops are huge,
the size of a big Tesco. They used to be full of dvds but half of every store now
is selling sex aids and tatty lingerie. Why ? Because at ?25-50 a dvd even
rich germans say enough is enough when so much porn is available on tube
sites.
Had the retail owners, in conjunction perhaps with the producers, worked out
a much cheaper way of releasing material, so as to combat the web, the dvd
market, whilst shrinking, would not be so small as it is.
I must disagree with anyone who argues that "big class production" porn is still
shot. It is literally is not. Possibly about 2 - 5% of the biz now. I do not consider
Brazzers as "high end" based on the old days. The sheer fact that their stuff
now stands head and shoulders production value above most porn, because
each scene is scripted, nicely dressed, uses a make-up artist (literally unheard
of in England now in my experience), shot in locations that fit each story etc,
shows how the biz has changed. There was a time companies would spend up
to ?200,000 to create a 10/12 sc 2 disc dvd. Not anymore. We have Marc
Dorcel on ever tighter budgets, Harmony in UK and the odd Italian-produced
epic and that's it. Few spend more than ?1500 a sc even on class sites.
No one hardly does trips anymore because the web companies want it cheap !
I was recently talking to a met-art style outfit that pay for many of their
stylised, classy looking slr BG scenes less than ?750. No line producer gets rich
from this !
I suppose I have to thank the happy days when a company, like Sin City or
Private would trust you, the director, with a pot of ?10-20-30,000 or more
and say "make me five scenes for dvd release". Today, in these blasted web
companies, every in house dude/techno geek thinks he is a director or talks
like one. Two years ago I had a US client wanting teen scenes; for the first
5 test scenes I got 90 comments (that's 30 each from the boss, his US
cameraman and his editor) per scene. For a profit of 200 euros a scene I
was supposed to digest 450 comments ! For a cheap gonzo ! Ye Gods !
That's what this stinking age of modern web-porn means !!

[kernal sandez]

Very interesting stuff reading all the replies. I guess life moves on . I`m very much old school,i remember meeting Zeta in a Private SHop in the early 80s1
Whether its VHS,DVD or streaming, i just miss the BIG stars we once had...

[denneboom]

I too lament the loss of the big stars, but they move on and retire sadly.

I think we don't have the platform for them here in this country. This is a shame because there are some great girls coming through.

There are 2 or 3 good sites, but when you have fat hairy old men in cheap hotel rooms getting their kicks and then selling their awful shit on Adultwork with low res PPV streaming, you realise that we will struggle to create any new big stars.

I'm sitting here with my credit card ready to buy quality well made films, but upcoming models find it easier to webcam, do clips and content share. They can sell the videos themselves and make a good living. It's killing the industry and I wouldn't dream of paying for that garbage.

I have said it before, producers in the UK make poor video's and then complain when people rip it off a torrent site for free.

Maybe our top talent needs to go America or Hungary to become big stars.

[muswell]

I remember the time when it was more expensive to buy a 200ft 8mm porno running 10 to 12 minutes than it was to get laid.
Ah the good old days!