Harmony Video Shame

[axis45]

Anyone else bought the licensed r18 american Evil Angel or Anabolic dvds distributed by Harmony in the UK-this company is an utter disgrace,cheaper nastier more grotesqely inferior conversions from the original american ntsc versions is hard to imagine.
What is worse is that they are making a mint ripping off the guillable british consumer as all the sex shops are full of these dog copies.
The conversion from ntsc to pal needs a little money spent on it to ensure a decent reproduction but believe me when I say they have spent next to nothing on this process..in fact a very cheap..probably a few hundred quid consumer level standards converter..I return their utter contempt with interest and would urge everyone to purchase the original ntsc versions from the US..cheaper too.

Kind Regards
John.

[Jay@YourChoice.co.uk]

Hi,
I fully agree. Only the original EA pieces have all the neat extas, fetish menu's etc.
Your Choice has a lot of the latest titles, and the PAL versions from Shiva, which are the straight linear transfer.

But two DVDs from this section and get a third for just a fiver.

[Zorro]

232 Evil Angel films on attached link enjoy:

[Phil mCc]

Hard to believe they are allowing this and I am sure the will be running from Pal not NTSC. The original master may well have been tho and possibly the conversion was not digital or even RGB. I know these guys really well and they would not allow this to happen. They are alway going on about quality and their own productions have shown a mayor attempt to take the UK market up a step. They also have spent milions on rebuilding their shops to make them consumer freindly and get in the right stock legally.
Like I said I know them very well and I will get you an answer,

Sometimes people forget to complain and without customer feadback how can they fix what they don't know is broke, send me a direct e-mail and with the titles details and where you got them I will sort it.

Phil McC

[eroticartist]

most American masters are NTSC any region and the quality is brilliant on any modern DVD player

[axis45]

Hi Phil,
Thanx for reply but I really don't know what they could say to extract themselves from this hole,what titles and where did I buy.??? Dosen't really matter take your pick,every R18 copy,bought from any UK sex shop,usually Anabolic or Evil Angel in PAL that has been converted from the original NTSC is of noticeably inferior quality to the NTSC copies of the same film.
Bring um Young #12 and Down the Hatch #6 to name but two,obviously they are watchable but are more akin to a very good video than a DVD,and the public are paying top whack for these films too.
Sorry, I don't buy for a minute that this is an oversight,it smacks of cutting corners,converting on the cheap and hoping that noone will notice.
Kind Regards
Axis 45

[Bruce Barnard]

Purely from a punters perspective Harmony have always been bang on the money. They respond to e-mails regarding any delivery problems within hours, their home produced product has a glossy sheen sadly lacking in the majority of native smut, and their shops have set the template for selling porn to the UK masses. Light, airy, taking porn way from the clich? that sex shops are dark, dingy dives appealing to rain coaters and deviants.

Oh, and the DVD quality on their releases I?ve seen seems OK as well.

After decades of rip offs, where a number of high profile British smut peddlers seemed to adopt the Barnum approach to selling filth to the Great British public, this represents a refreshing change.

Your Choice provide a top quality service, but their geographical location means they aren?t taking as much risk as Harmony (despite Jay, Patricia et al being diamond geezers, suffering major legal hassles and deserving awards for their commitment to free sexual expression).

Which begs the question: given that the smut business is now legit, how come Your Choice haven?t made the leap to retailing on the high street?

[Officer Dibble]

"Which begs the question: given that the smut business is now legit, how come Your Choice haven?t made the leap to retailing on the high street?"

Maybe they don't want to fritter away any 'wedge' they may have left over from the golden years? All the contacts I have in the shop line are not really doing anything. They're just scraping by. Glad I didn't get into it.

There's a lovely big shop near me. It's not a Private shop, but the company, which owns it, has offices registered in Essex. And one of the directors used to work for...well, you get the picture. The shop used to be a British Leyland car showroom would you believe? It's very well kitted out and choc-a-block with stock. One side is a kinky outfit department and the other is given over to videos/DVD's and mags. The video section used to occupy about 25% of the department area. The rest was given over to mags and books covering all sorts of weird and wonderful sub-genres. Over the last couple of years this has changed and now videos and DVDs account for about 75% of that departments retail area. I went in for a reccy the other day. The impression you get when you go in is that it is a large, modern, retail area festooned with an overwhelming selection DVD?s and videos. Rows and rows of them. They've got everything now, from bizarre transvestite dwarfs to banal housewife humpers.

I used to experience a frisson of excitement when I walked into a sex shop (even my brother's) you could always expect a small but fascinating selection of interesting and exiting merchandise. When I walk into to the big glitzy new one I feel nothing, numb. I can hardly work up enough interest to pick up a DVD and have a closer look at the back cover (but I do anyway, just so's the assistant will think I'm an ordinary punter.) I don't feel the slightest inclination to buy anything - there's sea of R18's before me but they are all pretty much the same flavour. American and British gonzo style efforts with scraggy mirthful looking protagonists grinning idiotically out from the box over. I get the feeling that even they don't think the double DP, mega spunk, gaping anal scene pictured is the least bit erotic. They just seem to be there to have a laugh and make a few quid. I don't know their faces and I don't care, they all look about as sexually stimulating as a trip to the dentist. I make my excuses and leave feeling down hearted.


Officer Dibble

[Phil mCc]

Mike,
I think they may well be Beta SP Pal masters converted in USA from the original NTSC, Then sent for mastering here in Pal. I was real surprised how many companies in the States still master on Beta last year. It is getting better as they are gradually changing over to DV-Cam or Pro-DV. I think I know where the problem is happening and like a super sluth I am on the case....How's the weather in Accapulco,

Phil McC (Jim Deans)

[Bruce Barnard]

Dibble, perhaps you can solve a mystery for me? After devoting a year trawling through the good, the bad and the sometimes painfully ugly world of the UK sex industry, I?ve yet to meet a single smut peddler who acknowledges they make decent cash selling gash. Frequent forum posts here by industry veterans, which bemoan the lack of fresh girl meat for the filth grinder seem to confirm this. Some folks motivation will always be a pathological love of watching slutty chicks bump and grind, but personally I?ve found the distorted, pink blur of watching people fuck soon loses it?s aesthetic appeal after a short time.

In short, if it ain?t about the sex, and it ain?t about the money why do people still seek fame and fortune on the yellow brick road to Planet Porn? Back in the day there was probably a certain ?outlaw? vibe to being a smut peddler, but since restrictions were dropped knocking out fuck films is no more transgressive or radical then making music videos.

Pure and simple: what?s the motivation homez?