The Format Wars: Gay Porn Gets Its (Very) Close-Up

While more than a few studios, including Titan Media and Factory Videos, are shooting on high-definition film, the conventional wisdom that porn is not something you necessarily want to see in that much detail has been one of the reasons that no one has been releasing in HD. The other, of course, is the format wars that have plagued Hollywood, still recovering from it's 80s Betamax hangover. The result has been a good number of films shot in HD, but almost none have actually released titles in it (which is sort of like watching HD programming on a non-HD television).

This week Raging Stallion became the one of the first to take sides and will issue its GayVN-nominated, forty-scene GRUNTS trilogy just as soon as it can figure out pricing. Given that the original six-disc set was one of the industry's highest-priced (and highly coveted) releases, it won't be cheap. Meanwhile, European studio High Octane announced that it would release its latest in HD-DVD, as will Boykakke films. Titan Media's Bruce Cam will be signing his final film and first high-definition film, Breakers, this week in the Castro.

As for those unforgiving high-definition revelations, when you've got a big screen to fill and nothing but Katie Couric's raisin face to look at, I guess you deal with the occasional ingrown hair.

-- Mike