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| Content Quantity: |
16/20 |
Content Quality: |
18/20 |
Updates: |
9/10 |
| Entertainment: |
15/15 |
Navigation & Design: |
9/10 |
Download: |
5/5 |
| Value for Money: |
14/15 |
Reviewer's Tilt: |
4/5 |
Total: |
90/100 |
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Like pretty much all of the other DVD download sites I've reviewed before, Screw is a pretty impressive site when viewed solely on its own merits.
Unfortunately for Screw, and all the other "smaller" DVD download sites that seem to exist out there, there are just so many similarities - including first and foremost a whole lot of shared content - between these sites that I feel direct comparisons are simply unavoidable, and particularly VideoBox and Adult Rated are simply leaving the rest in the dust in terms of volume, price and video quality (the latter assuming you pay the extra five dollars for the premium membership option both sites offer).
(Read the full review below)
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| Visit Screw |
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Site info valid on date of review
| Video: |
538 DVDs (approx. 4-6 scenes each)
Windows Media (wmv), Xvid (avi), Mpeg and multiple portable device formats (iPod, PSP etc.) available
Highest quality: avi 512x384, 1200-1500 kbit
No DRM protection |
| Pricing: |
1 month recurring: $29.95 |
Here I am, faced with yet another DVD download site - the seventh I've reviewed so far (not counting ZTOD and the few other studio or niche specific DVD sites). The first one I joined was VideoBox, well over two years ago (must be closer to three now, if not more actually) when it was it was still a small, but cheap, site with just a little over a hundred DVDs and a few new ones added every week.
A few months later I stumbled across VideosZ, which at the time had around 300-400 DVDs if my memory serves me correctly. Both sites seemed downright huge to me, afterall getting well somewhere between 150 and 600 hours of video for $10 or $30 a month respectively seemed like an incredibly good deal - and it was.
Why did I start my review of Screw with a little trip down memory lane to the not particularly distant past? Because here in 2007 VideoBox has more than 2300 downloadable DVDs, adds five more every day and still only charges $10 a month ($15 if you want full DVD video resolution).
VideosZ plus a few more - most notably Adult Rated and Adult Movie Club - are doing a relatively decent job of keeping up (although so far only Adult Rated comes really close in terms of volume, and a low matching price as well), but considering how many movies all these sites typically share because they are all leasing content from at least a handful of the same popular porn studios, it becomes quite obvious that aspiring competitors in the market for DVD download sites have their work cut out for them. And then some.
So far I've been able to find a lot of nice things to say about all of them - and I'm going to do the same thing with Screw in a moment - but a review site is supposed to be a buyer's guide, and as such I don't feel I would be doing my job all that well if I didn't do direct comparisons between these DVD sites, considering their sometimes uncanny similarities. And considering we are talking sites where volume and best value for money probably matters quite a lot, it looks like there's really just one site sitting solidly at the top right now, VideoBox, and it looks like it will be staying there for a while.
Nevertheless, there might still be a reason to take a look at the other DVD download sites as well. The sites may often have several hundred DVDs in common, but on all of them I have found quite a lot of DVDs the other sites didn't have - so the question is, do any of those DVDs look so interesting to you that they trump the 300-1700 extra DVDs you would get if you joined the largest of the sites?
I obviously can't answer that question for you, but I can say that on each and every one of the sites I have definately found unique DVDs I really enjoyed, and even the "small" 530+ DVD collection you get at for instance Screw, is still a pretty big load of porn afterall. But still, pay $30 for 600 DVDs when you can pay $10 (or $15 if you want the highest video quality of any of the sites) for 2300 at VideoBox?
Yeah, I know, this comparison is probably not fair to the owner of Screw who asked me politely to review his site, but as I mentioned above, I don't feel it would be fair to you either if I didn't mention it. These DVD download sites are simply so extremely similar in design and content that you gotta be prepared to be compared to the best if you happen to own one.
And on that (rather extensive) note, let's finally move on to the hard facts about the site at hand. At the time of writing, the video collection Screw consists of 538 downloadable DVD (and a new one is added every day) from around 15 porn studios and covering a pretty wide range of more or less popular porn niches, with things like anal, interracial and lesbian being particularly heavily represented, as they often are on these type of sites (and no complaints from me in that area).
I've done my best at trying to cross reference at least some of the DVDs with what the competitors have to offer, and like several of the other fairly new DVD download sites, it seems like the guys behind Screw have realized that if they can't compete on raw volume, then they can at least do their best to select some studios or DVD series that aren't all found at the other sites as well.
I came across a fair number of DVDs I didn't readily recall seeing before (though admittedly my memory in that department is probably reaching overload levels rapidly), though as I said somewhere above, whether Anal DVD X at Screw is better than Anal DVD Y at some other site is entirely a matter of opinion.
The site interface at Screw is up to the usual high standards for DVD sites, inviting, well organized and with extensive search and navigation options, and Screw additionally deserves props for offering a lot of different video options - three Windows Media (wmv) versions, an Xvid (avi) and an Mpeg version and finally no less than four different versions for portable devices (iPod, PSP, Zune and Pocket PC). Oh, and I left out the streaming version as well - as I've mentioned before I don't hate streaming videos quite as much as I used to (unless it's the only option), and in fact I find them quite useful for a quick preview, particularly when the video window is neatly integrated into the site as the case is here.
With regards to video quality, the best looking version is the Xvid option at 512x384, 1200-1500 kbit - certainly not bad at all (and the quality score would probably have been one point higher if it wasn't because I had just started upping the requirements slightly for a full 20/20 score, as an increasing number of sites offer videos in good quality).
The best of the Windows Media versions is slightly smaller in file size, but the quality is also considerably lower (although still pretty decent), 480x360, 1100 kbit. If your Internet connection isn't too happy about 150-250+ Mb scene downloads, the lowest quality Windows Media version tends to be a bit less than half the size of the best versions. That also appears to be the version that's used for streaming.
So finally, in brief summary, Screw is a great site - but when we're talking about DVD download sites, just being great might unfortunately not be enough.
Click here to visit Screw
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95+ Excellent
85-94 Very Good
75-84 Good
65-74 Acceptable
-64 Don't Bother
Full rating info here
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