Posted Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 12:11 AM PST by
How do you know when a home video format is about to take its next big leap towards mainstream acceptance? When it becomes embraced by the adult industry, in this case giant Vivid Entertainment, which is planning to release its first adult title on high-def in 2007.
Vivid, considred the leading studio for adult entertainment (and also home to the Julia Roberts of porn, Jenna Jameson), plans to support either Blu-ray or HD DVD -- or perhaps both -- with an as-yet-unnamed launch title sometime early next year, reports Home Media Retailing.
'We are very interested in [the two high-def formats]," Vivid co-founder Steven Hirsch told HMR, though the company will initially remain conservative in its approach to the next-gen formats. "While adult is always looked at as the new driver in technology, at some point it has to be affordable. [Blu-ray and HD DVD are] not there yet, although we are willing to take a chance because we feel the market will be very soon."
Though porn continues to be a billion dollar business and has been unquestionably pivotal to the success of all prerecorded home video formats beginning with videotape in the 1970s, it has yet to achieve any measure of critical or mainstream respectability. But even if we're not planning to add "Adult" to the beginning of High-Def Digest any time soon, we'll be the first to welcome the support of the adult industry for the next-gen formats -- if only because it has historically been a surefire sign of eventual mainstream acceptance.
In any case, we'll certainly keep you posted on this story as the new year approaches. Stay tuned!
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