Japanese porn industry embraces Blu-ray Disc

Japan's adult film industry already has 10 movies out on Blu-ray Disc. More are on the way, said Yoshimasa Nozu, a producer at Total Media Agency Inc. His company plans to release at least one more movie per month on Blu-ray for the rest of this year.

In contrast, only one adult film has been made on HD-DVD in Japan so far -- Perfect Slave Rin, by Glay'z productions.

"HD-DVD is popular overseas, but it faces a tough market in Japan," said Takeshi Kobayashi, head of operations at Taisei Co., which distributes films under the trade name Glay'z in Japan. "Sony is really pushing the industry to adopt [Blu-ray]."

Price is one issue. HD-DVD movies sell for $51.37 each in Japan, while Blu-ray Disc movies cost $41.60. The main difference is that every HD-DVD comes with a DVD as well, so users who want to buy the new format but don't yet have an HD-DVD player can watch the DVD until they buy a new player.

Sony's PlayStation 3 also presents a challenge for HD-DVD. The game console comes with a built-in Blu-ray player, giving adult film producers an incentive to put their movies on Blu-ray. Japan has long been a stronghold for Sony in the game console arena, and despite stiff competition from Nintendo Co.'s Wii, it has sold 4.3 million players worldwide. That puts at least the same number of Blu-ray Disc players in people's homes.

Microsoft, which is part of the HD-DVD consortium, has tried to counter Blu-ray in the game console market by offering an add-on HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360. But since the players aren't built-in, Xbox users can opt to forgo them, unlike PlayStation 3 users.

HD-DVD does have an advantage when it comes to the cost of stand-alone players. Toshiba's HD-A2 costs just $234.99 and comes with five free mainstream HD DVD movies on Amazon.com. A similar machine by Sony, the BDP-S300, costs $499, the same as a PlayStation 3 with a 60GB hard drive. The two devices also include five free movies.

Several U.S. porn studios have also come out as strong supporters of HD-DVD. Wicked Pictures in January released the first U.S. feature-length HD-DVD adult movie, Camp Cuddly Pines: Powertool Massacre, while the first Blu-ray Disc title in the U.S., Vivid Entertainment Group's Debbie Does Dallas... Again, didn't follow until nearly four months later.

Still, despite the head start, HD-DVD isn't exactly taking the porn industry by storm. Several U.S. companies interviewed earlier this year have not made good on their plans to release titles in HD-DVD, while Blu-ray Disc appears to be gaining ground with its new initiative to work with Japanese adult film makers. The result could be a shift in Blu-ray's favor. U.S. adult film makers said they would use whatever makes sense, and only favored HD-DVD early on because the format is less expensive to make movies with and they received extensive help from HD-DVD backers.

A friendlier face from the Blu-ray Disc camp appears to be working for Japan's porn industry. Perhaps it could work in the U.S. as well.