The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized : Featured

The Sin in Sin City ... and the Low-Brow in High-Def

Brian Braiker — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:12:02 GMT

Today in breaking Vegas news: the Adult Entertainment Expo has kicked off in earnest, if you can use that word to describe anything the adult industry does. The porn show and the gadget show usually occur concurrently, planets in parallel orbit, peeking at each other from a safe distance. The vast majority of CES's show space is at the Las Vegas Convention Center. But there is a fairly large number of exhibitors located a quick bus ride across town at the Sands Hotel. As it happens, the Adult Expo is also being held at the Sands hotel this year--and by a delicious twist of fate, about 100 yards away from the "Sandbox Summit" for child-friendly technology. Ah, Vegas, you saucy minx of a party hostess you.

In the interest of, uh, hard news, I finagled myself an Adult Expo press pass and sauntered around the exhibition space (and boy howdy, do these people ever live up to their status as official "exhibitors"). Now this is a family CES blog, so I am going to really try to keep things relevant here. As I sauntered around the floor, failing utterly to not look completely awkward, I saw just as many flat screen TVs on display as there are scattered about CES. And, weirdly, I kept noticing signs for HD-DVD. Two thoughts instantly occurred to me:

1. I wonder if Warner Bros.'s recent decision to go with Blu-ray is going to have ripples through the porn world. And ...
2. High-definition porn? Eeeew.

A year ago, some media folks were inclined to think that porn was going to be the deciding factor in the high-def format wars. This, of course, assumed the industry was as big--and therefore as influential--as it claims to be, which it probably isn't. (When VHS beat Betamax as the dominant home video tape format, one theory was that Betamax lost because porn cast the deciding vote for VHS--also probably not true.)

Now that Warner Bros. has chosen sides in the latest format war, it seems likely that Blu-ray will emerge the dominant technology. But here in the Hustler booth is a big HD-DVD sign. I asked Drew Rosenfeld, Hustler Video Group's creative director, if he now regretted having apparently cast his lot with HD. "At this point, we're thinking of shifting gears and going completely Blu-ray," he says. The industry has been reluctant to fully embrace Blu-ray, he says, because it's more difficult and expensive to replicate (that is, to put the content onto disc). Hustler has so far released one DVD on the format, he says, and they've had to have the discs replicated in Taiwan--a hotbed of piracy, which is a massive scourge on the industry. He anticipates releasing "a full range of Blu-ray products" by mid-year.

Bruce Whitney at Adam & Eve Pictures says his company has been slow to jump into the high definition market precisely because there wasn't yet a single dominant format. "We've been unsure how the high-definition market is going to work out," he says. The company, which also had a few HD-DVD logos up in its booth, has released four titles on HD-DVD and none on Blu-ray (the first Blu-ray release won't come before May, says Whitney).

In this way, Adam & Eve is part of a broader industry trend, says Justin Bourne, an associate editor at Adult Video News, the trade publication that sponsors the Expo. "I think, just to be safe, the industry is going both ways," he says with no trace of irony. "[Warner Bros.] will have an effect, but I don't think it's going to happen for a while."

The old aphorism is that porn peddlers are the earliest of high tech adopters (also seen at the Expo: a vibrator that plugs into your iPod and buzzes in rhythm). But this time around the adult industry needs to take the same wait-and-see approach the rest of us do. Fortunately for them they know a thing or two about staying power.

I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Let You (Directly) Buy That: D.A.V.E. Portable Media Server

N'Gai Croal — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:28:39 GMT

Seagate's D.A.V.E., pictured on the right

What is it?

D.A.V.E. (Digital Audio Video Experience) Platform

How much will it cost me?

To be announced, but the rumor mill claims under $200.

Who makes it?

Seagate.

Why should I care?

It's a portable hard drive that connects wirelessly to a slew of devices--perfect for those memory-starved iPhones.

How would you describe it?

When I first saw D.A.V.E. at hard drive manufacturer Seagate's fall press tour in New York City, they didn't have a working model to show me. Now they do, and it's one of the subtly coolest things we've seen at CES 2008. It's a 60 gigabyte hard drive with built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi, a Web server, and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) support. What that means in plain English is that you can store a vast amount of content on the drive--data, photos, music, movies--then easily access it on your mobile phone, iPhone, PDA, laptop, TV or Playstation 3 that supports Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The demo I saw showed D.A.V.E. working in conjunction with both an iPod Touch (pictured above) and a car stereo, and it was sweet to be able to play a movie or listen to a song stored on a separate device without needing a wire (though if necessary, there is a mini-USB connector). Even better, multiple devices can access different files--or the same file--simultaneously.

What's confusing me is that Seagate currently has no plans to offer D.A.V.E. directly to consumers, even through its own Web site. Instead, it will be teaming up with companies like Harman/Becker for car stereo systems; PortoMedia for selling digital movies, TV and music at kiosks; and Sanyo for use with its camcorders. I can't for the life of me believe that retailers would turn away this product or that it couldn't at least sell D.A.V.E. directly through its site, because all it would take is a couple of video clips of this gadget in action and geeks would be lining up to score one--especially iPhone users. Nevertheless, Seagate execs are sticking to their guns on this strategy, but I hope they'll change their minds.

When can I get my hands on it?

Last quarter of 2008.

What's your verdict?

Buy...if only Seagate would sell it to you directly.

Gearing Up in Las Vegas

Brian Braiker — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:00:03 GMT

What does the Xbox have in common with the digital video recorder (DVR), high-definition television, the DVD, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the compact disc and the camcorder? Each bit of technology made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show, arguably the largest tech-related trade show on earth.

Next week 140,000 geeks and gadget freaks will descend on Las Vegas and (largely) eschew wickedness for widgets. Gambling will take a back seat to gawking at gewgaws from Jan. 7-10 as some 2,700 exhibitors unveil 20,000 new products spread over 1.8 million square feet of convention hall. And what happens in Vegas, contrary to conventional wisdom, will likely not stay there. If device makers and content providers have their way, it will be beamed, streamed, Bluetoothed, plasma-screened, GPS'd, microscopically USB'd and otherwise hardwired into your home, office and car before too long.

Drooling yet? Relax. The tech world won't entirely transform next week, analysts say. "I expect this to be much more evolutionary than revolutionary," says Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research. So what can the average consumer get excited about at this year's show? Here are the people and trends to watch out for:

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