This studio is one of the larger porn studios and can afford the added cost to make Blu-ray discs. Digital Playground even has advanced CGI effects to tell its story on its “Pirates” video. Many of the smaller porn studios perhaps cannot afford Sony's licensing fees to make Blu-ray discs and that's why they chose HD-DVD to begin with. This article is a year old:
Porn Industry May Decide DVD Format War
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245638,00.html
Article quote:
"As Ramos puts it, Wicked chose HD DVD primarily because of Blu-ray's prohibitive expense and lack of market share, as well as the fact that it is generally cheaper and easier to produce using the format."
Adult Films: The 'X' Factor In HDTV DVD War - December 25, 2007
http://www.tvpredictions.com/adult122507.htm
Article quote:
"Despite much hype, adult movies are having little impact on the high-def disc war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. That's the conclusion of an article by Investor's Business Daily. The newspaper notes that the adult industry has not released many titles in either HD DVD or Blu-ray, partially due to high replication costs for the latter. In addition, porn fans may believe the high-def discs, which cost up to $50, are not worth the price."
Although you would think the cost would go down as the BR format is accepted. Or be stuck with high licensing fee's for many years making it unaffordable to make professional discs for small runs (perhaps Toshiba would do the same). This is IMO the meat and potatoes of the whole HD thing. Which format is affordable to make and produce professional Hi-Def discs for small labels or even the average person. We already have the tools for regular DVD, perhaps people will stay with that format until the situation changes.
I don't know what the exact costs are for content creation and production for Blu-ray / HD-DVD discs, but it would good to have the information.
I only remember that when Sony controlled CD manufacturing in the 1980’s it was next to impossible for small bands to make CD’s. Perhaps because it was a new format still gaining mass acceptance. Nevertheless, this was the way the big record companies controlled the content for many years beyond what it should have. It took MP3 to stop their rule at the expense of sound quality. It's hard to imagine such an era now, but we had to stay with making records and cassettes until CD burners came around on home computers in the mid 1990’s. And these were not "professional" discs. But it did force the price of CD manufacturing down for small runs.