The VideoBox Blog

One of the biggest criticisms about the premium upgrades is they’re too expensive. We’ll talk to Evil Angel and Vivid, but first I’d like to get a sense on what pricing model would you guys find… non offensive? Of value?

 

Our constraint is the studios will insist on a revenue share of all their content, which means they won’t allow it to be mixed in with the general VideoBox content. It’ll have to be priced in a way that they can track it.

 

Subscriptions

We could ask for cheaper subscriptions, but there are a couple downsides with that model.

 
1. It could get annoying as we expand into more premium studios, and include content from other paysites. You probably wouldn’t want to manage 20 subscriptions.

 
2. Our billers can’t handle this complexity.

 

iTunes?

A much simpler model would be something like iTunes, where we charge one token per scene to watch/download. You’d buy tokens in fixed amounts (like $20 for 20 tokens) from our billers, and we keep track of the balance. Much simpler technically.

 

Then we could just have one area of “premium” content, and make it less prominent. And what do you think would be a fair price to pay to watch or download a scene?

 

Note: under the token approach, VideoBox basic would still exist in its present form.  You’d pay a subscription price for unlimited downloading of 5 DVDs per day.  We would just have an additional area (which would be token-based) for higher end or niche content.

 

Just Say No?

And finally, we could just say “no thanks” to any content that we can’t license without revenue sharing. The downside there is VideoBox will remain fairly constricted to mainstream LA professional porn.

 
Thoughts?

I have a question… how do you use VideoBox?  In other words, how do you navigate?  What do you watch?  What do you wish were better about the experience?

 

I’ll go first.  I’m not a typical user, since I’ve been around from day 1 and it’s free for me   But here’s what I do:

 

First place I usually go is “Top Scenes This Week”.  Most of the time, I see something that is new and looks good.

 

If not, I’ll check out the recommendations.  One nice thing about recommendations is we filter out everything you’ve seen before, so you know it’s all fresh.

 

And sometimes I look at videos I found while at work.  Since I work at one of the few places where you get yelled at for *not* looking at porn, every now and then I come across something cool and add it to My Favorites, to be watched later.

 

Also, I always watch Flash.  I never download, unless I’m going somewhere without an Internet connection.

 

My Pet Peeves

 

There are a couple things that keep VB from being porn nirvana.

 

Sometimes I’m in the mood for a style of content that we just don’t have (and that’s cause we can’t license it — more on that later).

 

And sometimes what I’m looking for is so specific, like just the right angle and position, and there’s just no easy way to find it.

 

How about you guys?

As many of you know, I did a number of interviews while at the AVN show this January. Additionally, 2,142 of you know that the audio on my Chayse Evans interview was less than stellar.

I have a conundrum. I’ve been trying to edit the Jada Fire interview for a while now and the audio is suffering from the same problems as the first one. As far as I can tell, I have three options. The first is to just give up and transcribe the interview to a text format. There’ll be no questions about what was said and everyone can enjoy it. The second option is to publish the final cut with my super crazy compressed audio that is mostly able to be understood but sounds like Jada and I are underwater. From the feedback I’ve gotten from my coworkers, it’s pretty distracting. The third and final option would be to leave the original (loud) audio and insert subtitles so that you know what’s being said even if you can’t hear it. I don’t think that’s ideal either.

But these interviews are for you and I want to do what makes you guys happy. So, I’m putting it up for a vote.

I’m the first to admit that while I’m pretty hip to the stuff the kids like, I’m not what you’d call an early adopter. I tend to think that most new technologies are useless until proven otherwise and ignore them until I cannot afford to any longer. Which is why I don’t use Twitter. And why I’m now curious about it.

So I have a few questions for you. If you’d be so kind to answer and elaborate in the comments if necessary, I’d be much obliged.

Do you use Twitter for any reason (reading or posting or both)?

• Yes
• No

View Results

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If so, do you follow any porn-related Twitterers?

• Yes
• No
• N/A

View Results

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Either way, would you read a VideoBox Twitter feed (written by me)?

• Yes
• No

View Results

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As an FYI, I’m leaving Tuesday morning to go visit my family for Thanksgiving, so my internet access will be pretty limited. Happy Turkey day to all of you who celebrate it!

Because the post about porn libraries yielded so many interesting responses, a new question has emerged from the VideoBox team: How do you use the Flash player?

Do you watch the Flash player instead of downloading scenes? Do you use it to preview scenes before you download them? If you don’t use it at all, why not?

The blog has really helped the folks at VideoBox get a better understanding of our members and we’re always curious to know more (especially because a lot of us are porn fans ourselves).

So…tell me about your porn library. How large is it (how many files you have, how many gigs they take up)? What makes a video worth downloading and saving instead of just streaming it from the site? Do you ever re-watch scenes you’ve downloaded?

I had a great vacation and it’s nice to be home. Since I had a little time to think on my 14 hour plane rides, I started trying to come up with new ideas for the blog. Things that you guys will find interesting. I had a few notions (more lists, interviews with members, more in-depth pornstar posts, guest writers, podcasts, etc.), but it occurred to me that the best way to find out what you want to read is to ask you.

So I want to hear from you about this blog. How it’s going, what you like, what you don’t and what you want to see next. You don’t necessarily have to give me ideas for posts (though I’m always open and appreciative of them). I just want to open the forum to your thoughts about where the blog should go next.

We’ll be debuting our redesigned Flash player within the next week or so on VideoBox and I’ve got a preview of the design and functionality exclusively for blog readers.

The Design
A little sleeker and easier on the eyes, the new design tightens up the player a bit while delivering all of the features you’ve come to expect from it.

Click for larger image


What’s New
The new player also comes with a few changes:

• The playhead is now separate from the filmstrip, so you can look ahead in the movie without being flung back to where you were.
• The controls no longer show up over top of the video.
• The volume control is more intuitive and easy to use.

I’m interested to hear what you guys think about the new design. Now and after it launches.

The lovely and amazing Gianna Michaels has offered Dave, our man in the field, an interview for the VideoBox Blog. So let’s try this again!

Leave your interview questions in the comments and I’ll choose the best 20 or so to have Dave ask Ms. Michaels. Be creative!