Site Info Explained
Most of the information in the site info boxes should be self explanatory, but especially the video box may contain elements you would like explained, so that is what you will get here. Some of the information is pretty extensive, but I thought it best to make sure as many lingering questions as possible would be answered.
I can also recommend the Porn Buyer's Guide for additional information, especially for questions relating to video.
As noted all site information is valid on the date of review unless specified otherwise. Where possible without rejoining I will generally update site information every few months.
Pictures:
How many pictures can you find in the member section of the site (approximately) and what type are they - photos or video stills?
Size (resolution) of the pictures will be listed as well (with the longest side, eg. 1280px, as they can obviously be both vertial or horizontal), usually with largest and smallest in case they differ (which they often do on especially older sites where recent pictures are typically larger and better quality).
Video:
Here you will find the total number of videos on the site listed. As with the picture content this is a close approximation unless the exact number is easily calculated or counted.
I obviously only count full movies, scenes or whatever is appropriate, and do not include all the segments they are often split into to make downloads more managable.
You will also find the available video formats listed - most sites will typically use Windows Media (wmv), DivX (avi) or mpeg on their recent videos while some of their old content may be in RealPlayer or QuickTime format.
Very few people on reasonably modern computer systems should run into any problems playing videos in wmv, DivX or mpeg format. On Windows computers Windows Media Player should play the videos without any issues, the possible exception can be DivX where you may need to download and install a so-called video codec.
Most sites only offering DivX movies (and I do not think there are too many of those left) will provide you with the necessary information and link if needed, but in general most porn sites seem to be moving to at least having wmv videos as an option - many of them using it as the main or only format, and that should guarantee close to zero issues, even for the technically challenged.
Unfortunately I have never owned a Mac computer, so I cannot give the Mac users among you any info here. I imagine you are very unlikely to run into problems here as well though. Even DRM protected videos should be playable if you download and install the Mac version of Windows Media Player from Microsoft (you may very well be able to find the necessary info on the porn site in this case as well).
If you have a Linux system you probably stopped reading this long ago, since your technical knowledge likely greatly surpasses these simple basics - and in case it does not you may have to do a little digging as well if you should happen to run into any problems. I have not had a Linux system for the last five years.
If the videos are DRM protected (only relevant with Windows Media files) it will be mentioned in the video info box as well. DRM (Digital Rights Management) means that you will have to provide an active username and password when viewing the videos in Windows Media Player.
You can read more about DRM in the Porn Buyer's Guide.
Most sites offer their videos in multiple qualities so both dialup and broadband users can choose the most suitable option, and this will be noted in the video info box as well along with the details of the highest video quality.
You can read more about how I rate video quality on the Scoring Categories and Criteria Explained page as well as in the Porn Buyer's Guide, but here are some basic guide lines.
Video resolution: The higher the resolution the sharper the image. I consider 320x240 borderline unacceptable in this day and age - it should only be there as an extra download option for dialup users (perhaps along with a few even lower resolutions).
400x300 is more or less acceptable for full screen viewing, 480x360 even better but 640x480 is where I hope an increasing number of sites are headed over the next year or two. This quality almost approaches DVD quality and is generally very crisp and clear.
A select few sites are also experimenting with the resolutions of HDTV - typically 720x480 and higher, and while the quality is stellar the video files are very large and generally only for people on fast broadband connections.
Bitrate: This is a technical term for how many bits - how much space - one second of video or audio uses. In general the higher the bitrate the better the video quality - 1000 to 1500 is often used for high quality videos.
A high bitrate can partially help make up for a video resolution that is a bit on the low side.
HD videos can have bitrates as high as 10,000+, improving the quality even further but also making the file size swell up accordingly.
Other:
In this box you will find information about additional things that play a more or less significant part on the site. This will typically be live events in the form of shows and chat, and active message boards are also likely to be mentioned.
Exclusive Content:
Does the site shoot or buy photo and video content you cannot find anywhere else or do they offer stock content you may have seen before on a number of other sites?
I was debating whether or not to make this a scoring category, but there are several examples of excellent sites that do not use exclusive content but are still worthy of their high scores - mainly because they have so much or so afterall fairly uncommon content that most members are highly unlikely to have seen much of it before.
In general though I consider exclusive content a plus - often a big one.
Bonus:
Does the site include any extras? Access to other sites from the same company for instance, or a number of "3rd party plugins" (this term will be used to cover typically streaming videos or limited access to other sites).
Pricing:
Probably an important category for those of us who cannot afford to throw money around left and right - one of the reasons some of you landed on a review site in the first place I am sure.
This box will list the monthly membership price as well as any other pricing options, typically discounts when signing up for several months.
For more information on pricing and other aspects of joining a paysite, please see the Porn Buyer's Guide.
Notes:
Any additional things worth paying attention to.
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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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