Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The XXX Factor

DQ reader Ross Paton sent an interesting e-mail to me this week, and in it he discussed the X factor in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war.

Well, the XXX factor, anyway.

It has long been argued that the reason VHS won out over the superior picture quality of Betamax was because the adult film industry adopted VHS as their format of choice.

There's a long discussion to be had about porn driving all kinds of technology, but many people have already written about that. But the basic reasoning is that people who want to see "adult entertainment" will basically pay any price for easier/better access, so they become a dream market for new technologies.

Will that matter this time? It's possible that digital delivery has already transcended any physical storage medium, but it's reasonable to believe that it will still be a factor. And it would be interesting to find out if the adult film industry is being courted by either format.

At this point, there are a few thousand bad joke opportunities with "courting" of the adult film industry, but I'll leave those to you. Here are a list of ideal words to use for rhyming purposes: rock, sock, knock, angina, and anything that rhymes with "boobies."

Ross also wanted to clarify that while he thinks porn may well drive the format war, he is not personally an early adopter of same.

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