Thanks from Bluebird

[hiwatt]

Last of the week. And in a torrid first half, lots of thrills, spills and excitement. BB Rovers missed some clear opportunities, not being 100% prepared for the pitch. Second half, much improved performance, and with Cynic City's disallowed goal (offside), looked like evens going into the last minutes.

Then everyone calmed down, remembered that it is all just about having fun and making a few bucks along the way, shook hands and headed for the nearest bar.

Guys, there's been strong stuff said and tough responses back. That's playground life. When all's said and done, the constructive posts of the week have genuinely helped the BB Tech Team to iron out glitches and market test the site architecture. As BB said in its very first post on all this: sincere thanks for the helpful comments. We hope that customers problems have all been sorted out quickly and couteously, so that guys can enjoy their viewing.

It will soon be time for the next generation of the site to go live, where the Contributors will see that their input has been received, heard and acted on.

Constructive comments will always be gratefully received. Artistic views are free opinion - and you'll have seen that BB has never made a post which takes up a position on consumer taste. Nothing is for everyone.

We had to draw lines in the sand when personal or potentially litigious posts were made. The producers are supposed to be colleagues not piranhas.

As for Paul Chaplin flaming. Well, he's my boss and I think he can be an arrogant s.o.b. He certainly doesn't suffer fools gladly. People can moralise all over the place about what any adult producers and talent do. Or the cast of Eastenders.

But you know what. He said he's gonna make some good quality adult entertainment and put it out there in the market - and he's done it. Everyone agrees about that. It's just up to the millions of porno fans out there in the wide world as to what happens after that.

Get behind the granstanding PC headlines. Bluebird is nearly 100 people worldwide- all ordinary guys and girls - who are just doing their best to make adult entertainment as well as they can. A guy may or may not want to buy their product. But they're sincerely doing the best they can to make good entertaining stuff. End of story.

So how about we just leave the business models, flamings and behind the scenes crap out of it and focus on the meat.

And Terry, Sam, SuperRandy and all the mailslingers who post on here. You ever want to come by the studios for a beer and a chat - you are always welcome.

[Cenobitez]

Hiwatt,
How about various sizes of films ?

Bluebird has come up a few times in general conversation this week, and people's biggest gripes was as follows.

1, No File information.

Download Size was the main one, as one of the guys was on a 3gb a month limit, so he wanted to know how many MB, also wanted to know the resolution, I also guess bitrate and encoding type would be useful to some.

2, All files was one size, and they didnt know the size.

People wanted the option of downloading 1 or all of the sizes available.

HD, SD, PSP sizes ?

3, Unfair pricing via EU, US, UK (this was the big one).

Can this not be normalised ?

I couldn't think of a reason other than laziness or your billing company needs a slap for not doing auto conversions for this.

4, I noticed on my 2k and XP machines, your menu doesnt work properly.

1 of them it closes and opens randomly, and the other its ugly colours but works find on Vista, so I think some testing in IE5.5, 6, Firefox, Safari and Opera should be added to the list for testing as you go.

5, My mate on a mac (yeah one of them), was whining because it was all WMV format and he wanted a more mac friendly format.

If the only DRM/Protection you have is the watermark, is a MPG or Divx/Xvid option a possibility ?

Anyway I tried to be constructive and provide an opinion as well, hope this is helpful, oh and wheres my bloody invite

[hiwatt]

Thanks Cenobitez.

Yep, new Site release will provide all that info on file types, sizes and runtimes.

The differential Regional pricing is not an accident, it is intentional. The simple fact is that British cars cost more than US cars. A UK adult DVD costs around ?24.99 (obviously some cheaper, some pricier). A US adult DVD costs around $29.99. It used to be ?1:$1. For now its 1:2. The BB downloads are priced to match DVD regional prices: the dollar/? exchange rate is why you get the differential.

Menu testing: thanks - passed on to Tech boys.

Macs: yep - BB made a decision not to go Quicktime at 1st generation of Site because it's free and easy to download the wmv patch on any Mac.

3rd generation of site will see something a whole lot better than Mpg or Divx.

Blessings to you from the Bluebird Angel ! LoL

[marcusallen]

"No such thing as bad publicity"
Seems to be the BB code.

I've read some of the posts - not all - and methinks that overall BB should be highly satisfied.

Of course there are always two sides to every story and some posters have a serious axe to grind. Whether or not this is the place to try and resolve issues, is open to debate, but then this is the ONLY place some people have in which to air their grievances/praises.

I would only say that with their bankroll, BB productions should be on a par with Private. That remains to be seen. As with anything else in life, the old adage remains true:

Don't tell me, show me http://bgafd.co.uk/forum/smileys/rules.gif
http://bgafd.co.uk/forum/smileys/rules.gif

[Edited by moderator]

[marcusallen]

Attempted a smiley on my post - disaster!

The last line reads - Don't tell me, show me.

[Cenobitez]

Hey

Not sure I agree with the regional pricing, comparing to a physical product when your selling a digital media is kinda moot.

Majority of DVDs are bought on the internet (by my guess) and I suspect a great many from Euro and US sites sold are vastly lower prices than a UK Shop which is what your prices are modelled on. Now your NOT a shop your on the net so you have to work with local prices which is internet prices.

I hate to say it but when I find scenes on BB i want, I won't be paying UK prices, it will be US prices, just the same way as when I buy DVDs i buy at US prices.

Anyway hopefully with those fixes and the menu issues it whould all go nicely, If i remember when I'm on my other PC/Laptop or Macbook I'll make some screen shots

[hiwatt]

Cenobitez wrote:

Now your NOT a shop your on the net so you have to work with local prices which is internet prices.

Well we kind of think we are a shop on the net and that we have exclusivity on BB content, so if consumers want our product they have to pay exclusive prices.

If you are happy to re-route through the US and pay US prices that's cool, since Bluebird America is a $cost operation.

BB Angel Kisses

[Cenobitez]

You have a point, no doubt, exclusive will always sell.

I do the same thing myself, but still I try to adopt wallmart philosphy of selling 100 at $5 rather than 10 at ?5

You better control that Angel, she's gonna start charging me soon

[mark]

hiwatt wrote:

> Thanks Cenobitez.
>
> Yep, new Site release will provide all that info on file types,
> sizes and runtimes.
>
> The differential Regional pricing is not an accident, it is
> intentional. The simple fact is that British cars cost more
> than US cars. A UK adult DVD costs around ?24.99 (obviously
> some cheaper, some pricier). A US adult DVD costs around
> $29.99. It used to be ?1:$1. For now its 1:2. The BB downloads
> are priced to match DVD regional prices: the dollar/? exchange
> rate is why you get the differential.

OMG, I can't believe you're comparing selling online porn to selling cars.

In case you forgot, the internet is global. That means I can happily buy US DVDs and US porn site memberships with my credit card no matter where am I in the world.

Just be honest, you want to make as much money as possible and thought you could get away with charging what you hope will be your 'hardcore' british customers twice the price.

And you wonder why people seem to have issues with you lot?

[jimslip]

You said:

"I would only say that with their bankroll, BB productions should be on a par with Private"

You are right but as I recall, Mike, Private shot in almost every exotic location in the world. I remember being on million pound Sunseeker launches in Ibiza, on huge yachts, on fiords. They filmed in Tahiti, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand. South Africa to name just a few.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Bluebird shoot most of their stuff in a studio.

That was Private's whole marketing angle, beautiful girls in exotic locations. Mind you, you have to ask yourself, where are they now?