Ratings & Reviews
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All the reviews and ratings from this user. |
| Type |
Site - Score |
Feedback / Review |
Date |
Review
1
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VideoBox
(0)
65.0
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| Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
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| Pros: |
-Pretty well organized, easy to search and sort
-Straight forward join/cancellation
-One of the largest collections available
-Very fast download speeds |
| Cons: |
-Video quality leaves much to be desired
-Premium channel prices cost as much membership direct from distributor
-Numerous recycled scenes (especially lately)
-Mostly outdated content unless its a premium channel |
| Bottom Line: |
Time to post a new review for 2015.
I would no longer recommend this site to most users. I am a long time off and on member for at least 6 years (I know because I have files that I downloaded from them dated 2009), and I've finally decided to call it quits on this site.
I rejoined yesterday to download a few new scenes they added over the past year, but was surprised how exactly they changed. They now no longer offer high resolution downloads on around 99% of their catalog. Previously they offered between 4 and 5 different formats. Although a few years ago they added typically 1 HD resolution DVD every couple of days, their highest resolution was in WMV for 99% of the videos. At anywhere from 2500-4000 kbps bitrate this was very good quality. Now the highest they offer is an MP4 that is around 1100 bitrate. For those not savvy on video quality, just to put it simply, the downloads look no better than you can find for free on many tube sites.
Coupled with the numerous duplicate scenes, erroneously encoded files that show up pixelated once downloaded, and a lack of new content due the changing industry. Videobox just seems out of touch with the demands of its customers.
Here are my ideas that might improve them:
-They should stop offering 5 DVDs per day if many are going to be duplicates.
-They need to find more exclusive content. I'm sure there are studios that are sitting on 4-6 year old content that they are willing to lease or sell to VB... especially in the foreign markets (Europe, Russia, Japan, Brazil).
-There are many American studios that have thousands of DVDs in their catalog but aren't making new videos in 2015, or may have a website that has not been updated in over 6 months with a new scene. Just a few examples off the top of my head: RedlightDistrict, Anabolic, and Vouyer Media. They should try and get some more of that.
-In 2015 ALL of their content, NEW OR OLD should be available in HD or at least DVD quality (3000+ bitrate). They seem to be heavily promoting things like the Roku... but do they seriously think people are watching that subpar video quality on their HDTV?
EDIT: I want to add this to the review since I didn't make it clear initially. The changes affect the streaming quality also, not just download quality. See comment section below.
They do a few things right such as the easy organization of the website to find what you are looking for, but the download quality and lack of new content not readily available elsewhere no longer makes this site a good value. |
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03-20-15 07:02pm
Replies (7)
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Review
2
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VideoBox
(0)
70.0
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| Status: |
Current Member for over 1 year (at the time of review).
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| Pros: |
Decent price for unlimited downloads, multiple resolution formats, high resolution available, tons of content, various genres, steady server, good download speeds, very simple signup and cancellation |
| Cons: |
Nothing is exclusive, terrible video support when they do make mistakes, declining quality of material, dated content, multiple re-posts and bargain bin compilations, for the price of the premium channels its often better to go direct, site ownership does not play to their strengths |
| Bottom Line: |
This site's strength is that it has a ton of content with 5 new DVDs added per day. At the date of this review they have exactly 12,880 DVDs which is just massive in comparison to other sites. They also offer multiple formats and the download times are pretty fast. Most, but not all of the the major DVD distributors at least have some DVDs on the site.
The problem that frustrates me the most though as a long time off and on member from since 2008 is that they want to make the site something its not. They have spent a ton of time and money over the past 2 years focusing on changing a website hundreds of members have grown comfortable with instead of perfecting what they are good at (downloads) and improving and updating the content . They are trying to make an experience sort of like a Video On Demand (VOD) site which plays to bringing you slightly dated non-exclusive content but a massive selection, quick streaming, etc. But the fact of the matter is this isn't a VOD site, its a download site. I have a VOD site I use (which has more content, streams faster, and has pay per minute), so when I sign up to VB its to download a scene not to stream it.
But to this effect VB has hundreds of DVD scenes that stream correctly, but the downloads are broken. You can send 1000 messages or emails to the support team, and no matter what, the problem will not be fixed because they simply don't care in my opinion. They drew you in with a monthly membership fee, and they figure you can keep paying to watch it as many times as you want, even if the download is scrambled, garbled, noisy, has green frames, or is simply half length of what it is supposed to be when streamed.
What annoys me the most is some of my favorite video companies like Jules Jordan, Red Light District, Platinum X, and Lethal Hardcore have tons of scenes that I've wanted to download and they are broken. Lately EVERY single time they upload a "new" Jules Jordan scene most of the scenes are broken. The WMV HIGH (which is their highest resolution) has corrupted encoding, so you are left with only low resolution MP4. If I send a support email it is ignored. If I or somebody else leaves a comment about the scene being faulty in the comment box below each scene, an administrator purposefully and quickly deletes the comment within an hour or two. This says they know about the problem, see people complaining about it, but just don't care.
A main problem is their dated content that they simply keep reposting, sometimes within the same week they upload the same scene 2-3 times. There is an ongoing joke in the member comments area about a scene by the pornstar Kat on a pool table that has been uploaded by the latest count 10 times already in varying lengths.
This site is becoming less useful each month and I keep telling myself to stay away and only sign up for 1 month a year and download all the scenes I liked from the past year rather than waste money renewing each month to have them add 10 scenes I liked (though only 6 of them actually work). That's the way I'd recommend anyone else to use this site. Find a better VOD site if you just want to stream because they will have more content, and newer DVDs. |
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12-22-12 09:44am
Replies (3)
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