Hustler Unlimited, formerly Hustler (0)
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Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
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Pros: |
-Quite large collection of Hustler's DVD's available for download
-Streaming is clearly taken care of. Scenes have up to 12 different choices of video format and bitrate available which is clearly excessive
-Photography is very professional in the picture sets taken from Hustler's magazines
-Some old DVD's are really good content wise, for example those directed by Pierre Woodman during his Hustler days
-No download limits
-No DRM anymore
-Decent download speeds even overseas |
Cons: |
-Some scenes not downloadable with no explanation
-Many DVD's have only few scenes available even though the DVD is listed as released on the site. Sometimes scenes appear later but as there is no clear update calendar, it's hard to tell when
-Photosets are small and not downloadable as zip files. To furtheer complicate the matter, all the images are behind two clicks from the thumbnail gallery view and all images within a set have the same name forcing you to manually rename them if you want to save them on your HD. Photos older than few years are small messy scans
-Where is the rest of the magazine content? That's the first think one'd expect when joining Hustler site
-Video quality ranges from mediocre to poor. The later pseudo HD scenes have blocky compression artifacts although some are actually decent
-Some scenes are only downloadable at lower quality compared to stream
-Models are mostly average looking with some bigger stars in between |
Bottom Line: |
Cons continued:
-Slow update rate compared to other, cheaper DVD sites
-Scenes lack contrast, are poorly lit, not crisp etc.
-Regional pricing. They try to charge you more just because you are outside US. There's a workaround for that but then you lose your TBP special price
-They try to trick you into buying something you did not ask for. It's quite sneaky actually that there is a pre checked sale for another sites trial that is quite cheap so you wont probably notice it at the checkout but it rebills after few days at full price
-No real subsites despite the advertising. The "sites" are just scene categories
-Wmv as the only download format. Limiting what can be used to view the clips
I had high hopes despite the reviews, when joining Hustler's site. After all, Larry Flynt and Hustler are like #1 hard porn company in the world, quite the same as Playboy is to the softcore. However the site was a big disappointment to me.
Everyone's probably seen a Hustler DVD or two and knows that they are your run of the mill generic American porn (nothing wrong with that) with some parody thrown in between. They also have a long backlog with more interesting stuff (Woodman etc.) I was interested to see. However, all but the latest DVD's are ruined by miseraable presentation. When browsing deeper into the past DVD's you soon find yourself staring at a grainy video aize of a postage stamp. Come on Larry and guys, you have the DVD's! Hire some kid to re-rip them into something viewable. Generally I'd say that the older material seems better here also but I cannot really enjoy it in that form.
Same applies to photos. The photography is good but the presentation fails after few last years. They've obviously made it nearly impossible to download them on purpose.
Downloading is another issue. There is no full DVD download but you can only download individual scenes. Sometimes you cannot download the scenes at all with no explanation but they have the nerve to give you a link to buy that DVD (for example the Avatar parody I read they are sueing people over the net for pirating). WTF? Didn't I join the site to not have to buy them? Sometimes you can download only lower quality cleap even though the streaming version is available with better image.
That brings me to the "HD" content. Some of the newer scenes are available in 720p format that is quite ok but from time to time you feel like you are watchin lego porn when some freaky, blocky compression artifacts take the resolution away. Could these be just DVD resolution that's been upscaled?
Take my review again with a grain of salt. I found I do not like Hustler DVD's. They seem too basic and cheaply produced. Scenes are poorly lit, low in saturation and blurry. I don't know the word but they are the opposite of crisp and vibrant.
NOT recommended as it is. If they fixed the download issues and brought the existing content to a good DVD quality level, it wouldn't be half bad site. |
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