Quoting kovacs01:

Quote:
from what I hear the porn industry is on board with HD-DVD.  That was one of the major deciding factors in the VHS/Beta war so thats one major feather in the cap of HD.

Nope it was recording time, as someone who worked for a video retail store during the 80's.  Back then very few of the customers coming in wanted quaility.  They wanted to record three movies on a 6 hour tape or be sure and get their favorite football game on one tape.  At that time porn was readily available in either format.    Plus Sony would only license the Betamax format only to a couple of manufactures while everyone was making a VHS player and a whole lot cheaper that what you could purchase a Sony for.  If anyone killed Betamax it was Sony's failure to understand the overseas markets.  They thought just because during the 70s and 80s everyone had to have a Sony TV at any price they could do the same with Betamax.

That thing scares me.

More shots in the format war.

Bill Hunt over at The Bits has the news that Microsoft bought off Paramount and Dreamworks to only do HD-DVD. But "the films of Steven Spielberg are not part of this."

Microsoft Pays for HD-DVD

How's your stock now Skip?   

Quoting Tracer:

Quote:
Quoting kovacs01:

Quote:
from what I hear the porn industry is on board with HD-DVD.  That was one of the major deciding factors in the VHS/Beta war so thats one major feather in the cap of HD.

Nope it was recording time, as someone who worked for a video retail store during the 80's.  Back then very few of the customers coming in wanted quaility.  They wanted to record three movies on a 6 hour tape or be sure and get their favorite football game on one tape.  At that time porn was readily available in either format.    Plus Sony would only license the Betamax format only to a couple of manufactures while everyone was making a VHS player and a whole lot cheaper that what you could purchase a Sony for.  If anyone killed Betamax it was Sony's failure to understand the overseas markets.  They thought just because during the 70s and 80s everyone had to have a Sony TV at any price they could do the same with Betamax.

Actually, he is right about the porn industry going with VHS over Beta.  At that point in time, the average porn movie was 70-80 minutes long.  They could include 20-30 minutes of previews and advertising on a standard 2 hour tape, which was ideal for them.  The Beta was completely out to lunch as far as standard speed time went.  I've had several friends over the years who either owned or ran video stores back in the early days of rental, and each and every one of them has told me that the Adult Section in the back of the store is what kept them in business over the long haul.  They very often had waiting lists to rent titles in the X-rated section.  I have read many, many times over the years that the porn industry is wait put VHS over the top as a format because it was a billion dollar industry long before mainstream movies generated that level of revenue.  One of the porn companies even sold their own brand of blank tape that was much better quality than any of the mainstream companies was selling at the time.  I've still got several of them that are clear and sharp even after 20 years.