# Can Blu-Ray survive without porn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 25, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462 "2007-01-25T21:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/21 "2007-01-26T16:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] I have my doubts. I’ve heard it claimed that that’s what led VHS to overcome Betamax; VHS + porn \> Betamax + technical superiority. [/QUOTE] I think that’s a pretty difficult claim to support. I’ve more often seen it expressed as VHS + lower price \> Betamax + technical superiority. VHS players were priced substantially lower than Betamax, making them more affordable for the run-of-the-mill consumer. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/22 "2007-01-26T17:03:32Z")
[QUOTE=mrklutz] I think that’s a pretty difficult claim to support. I’ve more often seen it expressed as VHS + lower price \> Betamax + technical superiority. VHS players were priced substantially lower than Betamax, making them more affordable for the run-of-the-mill consumer. [/QUOTE] I think all of those are factors. How about this equation: VHS + lower price + porn + extra length \> Beta + marginal technical superiority ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/23 "2007-01-26T17:09:55Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] **Gazpacho,** “VHS technical superiority”? Hunh? Beta was the better quallity product. VHS had long playing times, at a degraded image. I don’t call that superior unless length is your only concern. [/QUOTE] I call extra length a huge huge technical superiority. If I want to record a two hour movie while I am not at home a 1 hour tape flat out will not work. No amount a picture quality superiority will make it work. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/24 "2007-01-26T17:14:58Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] I call extra length a huge huge technical superiority. If I want to record a two hour movie while I am not at home a 1 hour tape flat out will not work. No amount a picture quality superiority will make it work. [/QUOTE] OK. Under your definition, length wins. Under mine, it has a much lower value. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/25 "2007-01-26T17:48:32Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] OK. Under your definition, length wins. Under mine, it has a much lower value. 🙂 [/QUOTE] There is a size doesn’t matter joke in here somewhere. In general I think that picture quality does not matter to people as much as some think it does. Most restaurants and bars I have been to lately that have wide screen TVs have them set up incorrectly. The normal aspect ratio broadcasts have been stretched to fit the screen so every body looks short and fat. I have been to people’s homes where this is the case it drives me nuts but no one else seems to notice or care. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/26 "2007-01-26T17:49:37Z")
Even when VHS later offered improved video quality with Super VHS, no one really cared much. S-VHS players were even backwards compatible with VHS tapes, so it didn’t even incure a huge format change cost. HiFi was another story. People were willing to buy new hardward for hifi VHS, and later for Dolby Surround, THX, and confusing morass of home theater systems. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/27 "2007-01-26T18:04:24Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] There is a size doesn’t matter joke in here somewhere. In general I think that picture quality does not matter to people as much as some think it does. Most restaurants and bars I have been to lately that have wide screen TVs have them set up incorrectly. The normal aspect ratio broadcasts have been stretched to fit the screen so every body looks short and fat. I have been to people’s homes where this is the case it drives me nuts but no one else seems to notice or care. [/QUOTE] Argh! that drives me insane. My BIL (who weighs 400 lbs) finds this perfectly ok and forces everyone to see the TV like that. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/28 "2007-01-26T19:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I think all of those are factors. How about this equation: VHS + lower price + porn + extra length \> Beta + marginal technical superiority [/QUOTE] Yeah, I’d buy that. I suspect of those factors, porn would probably be the lowest weighted of the three. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/29 "2007-01-26T20:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate] > [@](#): > > The company will not allow its disc-replicating subsidiary, Sony DADC Global, to handle adult film titles, it said this week. In markets where Sony operates around the world, it won’t duplicate any movies that are above a certain rating or that have not been certified by a local motion picture association. So Sony isn’t saying that porn can’t be put on blu-ray, it’s saying that THEY won’t put porn on blu-ray. Someone else will step in to do it, and life will go on. [/QUOTE] So are they saying that all those “unrated” DVDs (I’m thinking Team America here) won’t be available on Blu-Ray? Or it will, but not now? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/30 "2007-01-26T20:44:19Z")
[QUOTE=Apos] Blue-Ray and HD will both die at the hands of broadband and DVRs, I predict, and it won’t even take more than a few years for it to happen. [/QUOTE] I suspect that the marketplace will find room for DVRs and broadband to coexist with Blue-Ray and/or HD-DVD. My DVR doesn’t let me play it on any set in my house, for example, to watch the movie both in my exercise room (okay its the boiler room with some excercise equipment in it) and in the family room and the bedroom. A DVD does that with ease. And even 500 gigs will fill up quickly with a selection of hi-def movies. DVR is great for timeshifting. Broadband downloads are great to allow access to a wider variety of programming. Of note is that the great Steve Jobs is positiioning to play both sorts of formats: iTunes/video iPods/appleTV but also adopting/promoting the Blue-Ray format, no doubt with plans to have your Mac be so equipped as a media center or perhaps soon to see HD TVs with Mac and integrated BluRay as well as broadband access inside. Porn will go with the broadband appoach but I doubt that too many porn-o-philes are that keen on paying that much more to be able to see every pore and hair follicle or razor burn anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/31 "2007-01-26T22:34:42Z")
[QUOTE=CurtC] So are they saying that all those “unrated” DVDs (I’m thinking Team America here) won’t be available on Blu-Ray? Or it will, but not now? [/QUOTE] The article I linked says that SONY has decided that SONY won’t be in the business of copying/producting adult content on Blu-Ray. The article mentions that someone else (not SONY) will have to do the pressing. Sony isn’t banning porn. They just aren’t recording it themselves. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/32 "2007-01-28T05:54:49Z")
But my question wasn’t about porn - it was about mainstream movies, many of which now get released on DVD as a somewhat different version than what appeared in theaters, and therefore unrated. Sony (are they the only one pressing movies onto Blue Ray now?) will only make the version of the movie that was released to theaters? No director’s cuts, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/33 "2007-01-29T19:38:32Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] Sony has a lock on production of discs? I swear they are always shooting themselves in the foot. [/QUOTE] Sony doesn’t have a lock on the disc production, exactly. HD-DVD discs can be produced with little retooling of existing DVD factories, while Blu-Ray discs require an entirely new manufacturing set up, so it’s cheaper to produce HD-DVD discs than Blu-Rays. HD-DVD has a significantly lower amount of storage space than Blu-Ray. HD-DVD players do have an advantage that if a film is properly encoded, you can slap an image of anyone else’s face over that of the actors. If someone has a factory that can make Blu-Ray discs, they can make porno Blu-Ray discs, but they won’t be able to use the Blu-Ray logo. Porn may _not_ drive the adoption of technology like HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs (most of the porn producers make more money from selling access to downloadable movies and the like), _but_ the perception that porn is the driving force might cause the death of Blu-Ray. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462/34 "2007-01-29T19:52:19Z")
[QUOTE=CurtC] But my question wasn’t about porn - it was about mainstream movies, many of which now get released on DVD as a somewhat different version than what appeared in theaters, and therefore unrated. Sony (are they the only one pressing movies onto Blue Ray now?) will only make the version of the movie that was released to theaters? No director’s cuts, etc.? [/QUOTE] It is just a press release not a detailed statement of how they would go about deciding what to press or not to press. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-survive-without-porn/389462.md?page=1)