Review Replies (7)
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Replies to the user review above. |
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1
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badandy400 (0)
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I like that they keep the site dull. It makes if very easy to use. This way I spend more time enjoying the videos or doing other things, and less time spent actually on the site trying to build up my download queue.
Having pictures would be nice, but the only way they could really do with would be to use screen shots, which would be pretty pointless. Besides, with a name like Videobox, one must expect that videos would be the focus.
I do like your point of compounding genres. It would be nice to say "teens" then reduce to "teens" and "blondes" for example. But what the hell do I know, I am trying to download their whole site!
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01-02-09 08:46pm
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2
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moonbyrd (0)
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Either I misunderstand, or the comment about not being able to compound categories is not correct. At least I can narrow the listings down in whatever view by clicking the categories on the left.
However, it could be useful to be able to also exclude categories, which is not possible in the Videobox interface or on any other site I have visited - say, if you want gangbang but not anal, if that makes sense. Or brunettes but not big boobs. etc.
Also none of the males are identified, and here the exclusion could be actually useful. You could want scenes with a certain female pornstar but without a certain male whom you do not like. Or vice versa.
There are some genres that are singularly useless, such as gonzo, which the Videobox crew uses to tag almost everything including things that are not actual gonzo, e.g. vignettes and wall-to-wall sex in general.
My biggest problem with the videos is the aspect ratio which is currently always incorrect unless you use a software that has a manual setting, but apparently no one else is bothered by that.
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01-03-09 02:31am
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3
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TrashMan (Disabled)
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VideosZ seems to have more of an emphasis on tagging, especially after making it possible for users to edit tags. So yes, I agree that VideoBox lags VideosZ in this category. However, for people who are more interested in collecting content from specific actresses, VideosZ lags VideoBox. Yes, I do agree with your comment that VideoBox should take a page from VideosZ and have actress pages with head pics (it would make this a hell of a lot more organized), but VideosZ has some major issues in leaving out cast lists and not tagging videos with actress names. It would be nice to see VideosZ open up tagging to actress names.
I think if you are going to do a direct comparison between the two sites (which is what I also did in my review) you also need to look at technical aspects of the site. This is where VideosZ is playing a major game of catchup.
*VideoBox offers more friendly download formats (640x480 WMV, 480x352 WMV, 320x240 WMV, 640x480 MP4 and 320x240 MP4) than VideosZ (480x360 AVI), and VideoBox's streaming capabilities are much more preferred than VideosZ's.
*Also note that VideosZ has the remnants of older download formats. Everything is not standardized. They still have downloads in the very old AVI/MPG formats, and downloads in the previous DRM-WMV format (the most annoying of all)
*The VideosZ login process requires image verification while VideoBox does not.
*VideoBox helps it users make decisions in downloading content as they allow users to rate every movie and and scene, as well as comment on each. VideosZ has neither.
*VideoBox does a better job in linking users to other videos in a series with the pull-down menu available on the video page, where as with VideosZ you have to click a link to get a list of the movies available from a series.
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01-03-09 03:30am
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4
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OttifantSir (0)
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REPLY TO #2 - moonbyrd :
What I meant by compounding genres:
I find a clip of an Asian brunette in a gangbang performing double penetration, blowjobs and cumshots. I have never seen the actress before, but she is HOT! and I want to see if I can find more of her. Having no name, I have no way of finding this actress at Videobox. Except go through all those genres scene by scene and see if I find the actress that way. And that could be 10,000 scenes. If I could compound those six genres/tags into a more specialized listing, I could have as little as 20 scenes to choose from, with a much greater chance of showing one with the actress I want.
As for the exclusion of genres/tags, Videosz has that.
What, more specifically is your problem with the aspect ratio? You might send me an e-mail to explain and ask questions, or use the forum.
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01-03-09 04:12am
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5
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moonbyrd (0)
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REPLY TO #4 - OttifantSir :
It still seems to me that the Videobox interface is already doing what you want: start with the whole collection, pick Asian > brunette > gangbang > double penetration > blowjob > cumshots and you end up (in this example) with exactly one scene: in this case, Explosions #1, scene 6. If the tags are describing the content correctly, that will be what you want.
As for the aspect ratio: the files are encoded as 720x480 pixels which is what the source material is; however, for example Windows Media Player assumes the pixels are square although the actual aspect ratio should be 4:3 or 16:9 and the files should contain this information (for some reason this seems to work only in the Barely 18 series, which is widescfreen and shows up correctly). This is mainly an annoyance. I can use VLC media player and set the aspect ratio manually to 4:3 or 16:9 as the case may be.
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01-03-09 09:43am
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6
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OttifantSir (0)
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REPLY TO #5 - moonbyrd :
I have just finished testing what you claim about the ability to compound genres in Videobox. I have used five different browsers to do so: Opera (my main browser), Firefox, Epiphany, Galeon and Midori. All were latest stable version.
Not one of them were able to reproduce the pattern which you describe. It may be that the pattern/ability you describe is specific to a certain operating system or browser (which in the case of Internet Explorer at least, is one and the same). Running this informal test on an Ubuntu 8.10 system is not reproducing the results you speak of.
If that feature is specific to a single browser or operating system, it is definitely a con against Videobox in my opinion. More oppinions on the matter are definitely welcome
The faulty aspect ratio is a bit puzzling, as I have watched movies in several different formats and aspects from Videobox in several players, including VLC, and I have not found any of them to have this problem. If you are running Windows, it may be due to an incorrect codec, but in the case of VLC, where the player has built-in codecs for almost everything, that is still really puzzling.
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01-03-09 12:57pm
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7
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moonbyrd (0)
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REPLY TO #6 - OttifantSir :
This is somewhat bizarre. The site works as I described with Firefox (both 3.0 and 3.1 betas). Just to make sure I logged in using Opera (version 9.63) and it works with it as well. So I guess we live in different realities. Or maybe there are alternate user interfaces people are directed to based on some weird logic, as I don't see why you would make up what you claim.
Same with the aspect ratio of the videos. (What I described applies only to the newer ones with 720x480 pixels starting from some time in early 2008, the older ones are 640x480 and don't need correction - unless they are widescreen, but I don't feel inclined to try to find older widescreen videos just for testing).
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01-03-09 02:49pm
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