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Latest 3 user reviews in this niche. |
1. Hustler Mega Pass (1)
Network |
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| Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
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| Pros: |
- Large Network (access to 18 sites)
- Variation in site themes
- Supports download managers
- No obvious time-outs
- Site updates daily (one scene per day)
- Great price, great value |
| Cons: |
- Search function is limited
- Streaming starts automatically when scene page loads |
| Bottom Line: |
Hustler Mega Pass really isn’t a network in the true sense of the word as applied to online porn. I define a network as a collection of unique sites available through one umbrella site and that isn’t the reality here. Here there are 1500+ DVDs that are categorized into any of several possible niches. What I mean is that if there was a DVD titled “Anal Teens and Big Dicks” (that’s trademarked, BTW, for when I retire and start a porn company…) the DVD would appear on the anal-themed ‘site’ and on the big-dick-themed ‘site.’ That isn’t necessarily bad, but Hustler makes it worse by putting different scenes on each site. If, for example, one of the anal teens sported big breasts, that scene might only be available on the big breast ‘site.’ It appears, but haven’t confirmed it, that the complete DVDs may be available on the main Hustler site. The problem with that is that on DVD pages there are no tags so you have to open each scene to see any tags.
The ‘sites’ here are fairly standard, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. There are the sites that cater to those who like legal teens, amateurs, MILFs, Black women, classics, anal sex, transsexuals and even a site that showcases Hustler’s parodies. There is something for most preferences.
I realize that MiztaBlu recently did a review of the same network and found a lot wrong with it. I agree with some of those concerns, but I also have to add I didn’t experience the problems that he did. For example, I didn’t find audio or video playback problems. So far the videos are working fine for me. I’ve been a member here before and those older videos still work fine for me too.
One warning: all sites here follow a new trend. When you click on a scene it starts to stream right away. That’s bad enough, but what bugs me is that it continues to load even if you stop or pause the scene. To me, this seems like an enormous waste of bandwidth unless someone really wants streaming. And if someone really wants streaming just let them click a button to start that.
The network does seem to promote streaming since all the many streaming options are readily available while the download options must be selected through a pull-down menu. Streaming options are for MP4, FLV and WMV. You can also choose the quality of the stream. I prefer downloads so really can’t give any opinion on the streams except to say that they shouldn’t start automatically.
The sites are all well laid out and are easy to navigate. They’re divided by scene (labeled by performer) and also listed by DVD. Clicking a scene opens to the streaming and download options, and clicking on the DVD opens to large thumbnails of the scenes in the DVD. In an earlier review of VCA XXX, which is part of this network, I noted that a lot of the scenes are mislabeled or not labeled at all, and in some cases the thumbnails are wrong. That seems to be a problem exclusive to VCA XXX because the problem doesn’t exist on the other sites.
Downloads are available in a variety of formats and resolutions. The most commonly available format is WMV though most scenes are also available as MP4s. Resolutions vary, but HD isn’t available on many scenes. In this area, Hustler is really lacking. I download WMVs and I suspect the highest available resolution depends on when the scene was uploaded. Resolutions range from 320x240 at 1200kp/s, through 720x480 at 1300kb/s to 864x480 at 2100kb/s and finally through to 1280x720 at 3100kb/s. By far, the most commonly available are the 720x480. That’s fairly low by today’s standards, but subjectively they look good.
On the plus side, the network offers DRM-free access to a lot of good Hustler material. There are a lot of options for streaming and downloading and the video quality, while not the best available, is still pretty good.
On the downside, the site would be better organized if they just had one Hustler site with good tags that could be searched. The name Hustler has a lot of brand recognition among porn buyers so just offering 1500+ Hustler DVDs should be enough to entice anyone to join. Other minor negatives are the weak search function. Searching “anal” for example, brings up anal scenes but not DVDs. That may sound fussy, but I prefer to associate scenes with DVDs and this site can make that difficult.
The bottom line is that the good definitely outweighs the bad – and by a wide margin. Hustler makes some excellent porn and this site gives access to a lot of it. It could be better, and with a large catalogue I wish they offered more, but it is a good site offering good value and I’d definitely recommend it. |
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2. VCA XXX (1)
Pay |
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| Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
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| Pros: |
- Part of the Hustler Mega Pass network
- Access to many ‘classics’
- Looks like it hadn’t updated in two years, but it may be updating now
- Several formats and downloading options
- Supports download managers
- No obvious time-out issues
- Excellent download speeds
- Site bills at $19.95
- Bills through Epoch |
| Cons: |
- Many scenes are unlabeled for performers
- Many scenes have the wrong thumbnails
- VCA must have a huge ‘classics’ catalogue, so why so few here?
- The curse of the modern porn site: streaming that launches automatically
- Some dead links
- Many titles are incomplete
- Search / sort functions don’t work well
- No pictures
- Many titles are ‘bargain bin’ compilations |
| Bottom Line: |
I’m a big fan of ‘classic’ videos. I realize that’s a term open to some interpretation but my preference for classic starts in the mid-1980s and goes through the mid to late 1990s. I’m always open to taking a membership on a site that offers me some titles to expand my collection. So with this in mind I signed up for the Hustler Mega Pass network through VCA XXX. I should note that while the website is definitely called VCA XXX, on the site itself the banner says VCA Classics. The DVDs on the site seem to fall within my preferences. There is little here if your preferences are earlier than the mid-1980s.
The site is relatively small, offering only 111 DVDs as of this writing. It appears that the site stopped updating in 2010 but may have started again recently since there was one update per month in the first three months of this year. There is no update for April.
The site is obviously a video site, so no pictures are offered that I could find.
The primary page is divided into two main segments: one for individual scenes (listed by performer) and one for DVDs. Clicking on the performer in the scene section obviously opens that scene for viewing or downloading. Clicking on a DVD cover open that DVD’s page where you get one thumbnail of the star per scene. Clicking on that thumbnail opens the scene page for viewing or downloading.
Streaming options are for MP4, FLV and WMV. You can also choose the quality of the stream as Basic, Medium, High or Super. Super is not often available.
When you roll over the download button the options for that scene appear in a dropdown menu. Downloads are most commonly available as WMVs but sometimes there are MP4s on offer too. This site has very little in high-resolution on offer. My suspicion is that because we’re dealing with ‘classics’ the quality of the originals is a limiting factor. For that reason, correct or not, I’m won’t hold the lack of HD availability against the site.
The more-recently added videos (I download WMVs) are at 720x540 at 1200kbps and 30fps. WMV Codec is 9. Videos uploaded a while ago (as far back as 2003) are lower resolution.
The site (and all the other in the network) commits a sin that seems to be more common now: opening the scene page starts the streaming automatically. This presents the obvious, though easily fixed problem of being surprised when your speakers suddenly blare out the sounds of sex. That’s solved by turning your speakers off. But in my opinion the problem is bigger than that: the fact that the scene starts downloading as a stream hogs bandwidth and slows the downloading process.
I used Free Download Manager successfully and had no issues with timeouts. Download speeds were excellent.
The site is not without flaws. It is clearly an add-on to the network and not intended as a flagship site. The updates are sporadic. My biggest beef with the site is the size of it. VCA has a huge catalogue of titles so why not offer more and update more often? What’s worse is that many of the titles added when the site was new are bargain bin European compilations that Hustler put out.
Other beefs are in how the DVDs are presented. Each DVD opens into a separate page that provides one thumbnail per scene and lists the star. Or that’s the plan anyway. At least 25% of the scenes don’t list a star. This doesn’t make sense since these are the guys who uploaded it. Why not make the site complete and make sure names are associated with every scene? In some cases, the thumbnails don’t even match the scene. I saw instances where, in a movie from the mid-1990s the thumbnails were clearly from a movie a decade newer. In several cases, the five or six thumbnails were even taken from the same newer scene. It just looks sloppy.
There were some dead links for the highest resolution available which meant having to download a lower resolution. This isn’t a huge issue as I may have encountered a dozen of these dead links on the site.
Many of the sort functions don’t work well. If you select to sort by “Pornstars,” for example, you’re given a list of pornstars on the entire network, not just on this site. What’s worse though, is that all you get is a brief bio – there are no links to scenes or photos on the site or network.
TBP notes that there is a full trial. I can’t speak to that as I took the full membership but I wasn’t charged the $30 price listed there. I don’t know why, but I was only billed $20. I don’t know if that was a special offer or whether that’s the price now.
If this were a stand-alone site I couldn’t recommended it. It is too small, updates infrequently and has a lot of low grade material mixed in. I hoped for a better classics site from a company with Hustler’s resources. As a secondary site to the network it makes a decent addition but I do wish someone would create a better site than this. These older titles deserve better. |
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3. Porn Pros Network (4)
Network |
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| Status: |
Current Member for over 1 month (at the time of review).
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| Pros: |
-Large number of subsites with various niches and themes that are hard to find elsewhere
-These guys understand that most of the guys want to see more girls than other guys. The scenes are often packed with both genders but usually there seems to be more girls around
-Quite nice image quality in most of the videos. Especially the new Passion HD content is very nice. Up to roughly 720p in MPEG and WMV
-Large archive of scenes for quite decent price
-Models are almost always really hot on their major sites
-MassageCreep, Disgraced18, MilfHumiliation, TeenBFF, CrueltyParty and even CumshotSurprise and CumDisgrace are innovative and cool sites with uique content. Sometimes too unique ;)
-Technically works well, good download speeds with DL manager running up to four simultaneous downloads at 10+ megabytes per second |
| Cons: |
-Site navigation is quite awkward. Search doesn't really help and tag words are way too common and often mistaken. What good is tag "Ass" that 99% of scenes have?
-Not much for fans of photography. What they call high quality image sets are to me like low res screen caps
-Video options are unclear. You can usually choose MPEG, MP4 or WMV but there is no indication what resolution they are. Generally it appears that MP4 is the smallest one in image size and MPEG and WMV are the same while 1080p promised on the site is missing altogether
-Some kind of regional pricing. You get the actual price when you are to give the cc info, until that you are shown the USD price that is lower. I made a mental note to always check these things to the very end with a fake email address
-Some joke sites with plastic fake cocks and bucket loads of fake cum are quite ridiculous
-Scenes could use better preview images
-Relatively few anal scenes |
| Bottom Line: |
Well, this one is a mixed bag for sure. It has everything from boyfriend/girlfriend like gentle scenes to not-quite-milfs being bound to household appliances with colorful paper serpentine to ridiculously huge plastic dongs spraying fake cum all over groups of oiled ladies. Something for everyone I'd say as long as you are not looking for strictly girl/girl scenes or solo content. The production varies from overly goofy and ridiculous to the very smooth low sunlight lit scenes in different shades of white clothing and props.
Examples of the goofy side are Disgraced18 which stages younger ladies in scenes where they are loosely bound in ropes and cuffs in all the shades of rainbow and had sex with. MilfHumiliation which is almost like the aforementioned but the ladies vary from what I guess are teen mothers to older cougars. CockCompetition is a kind of a wheel of fortune game show where a guy with diamond studded teeth fucks competitors with half a meter long plastic dong. CumDisgrace is bondage gang banging with fake cum and a strange looking muscular guy wanking off on the background. CumshotSurprise is quite regular group sex with fake cumshots in the beginning and end.
On the classier side they have sites like MassageCreep which features massage scenes turned eventually into sex. TeenBFF has scenes which start out as lesbian action with a "boyfriend" joining in later. CrueltyParty is supposedly group of firls dominating one guy, a male stripper or whatever but with the exception of first few scenes is quite tame. 18YearsOld is quite regular one on one action.
In addition to the regular content of their sites, they have also added scenes from site Passion HD. Those are more X-Art kind of scenes with soft focus, low light, white clothes and slightly dreamy overall feeling. These scenes are very high quality in my opinion, feature hot ladies and are a nice distraction from general content on the site. The only problem is that they do not always quite match the theme of the sub site where they are placed. For example they don't have much disgracing when placed on Disgraced18 and on the CrueltyParty they lack the femdom theme.
Everyone doesn't necessarily agree with me but I could use more anal action on this whole network. There are many models on these scenes who are almost known for their performance on that aspect so let's have it all! Other minor nitpickings include photographers and other crew seen in background and corners of picture on sites like CrueltyParty etc. Nothing too bad production wise as long as one likes the theme of the content.
Technical side is a bit mixed case as well. Video is quite good when it is good but older scenes and indoor ones can be quite grainy and pixelated. Photo sets are just a side thought in my opinion, this is clearly a video site. Downloads work fast and videos are easy to dl once you figure out which version you want and find the scenes you like. The only effective way I found is to manually browse the site based on subsites and video download options have no indication of resolution. The 1080p promised on the header of the site seems to be missing.
The site updates roughly once a day with new material or remastered old scenes. While this is slightly slower than some of the most active sites, the rate is still perfectly acceptable.
As a bottom line, this site is certainly worth a subscription every now and then, especialy now that the new Passion HD content is being added. Backlog is decent, not huge like on some sites so it may not entertain for prolonged periods but is certainly worth going through. Somewhat clearer site design with better search and tagging might help as well as the advertised 1080p although the resolution itself doesn't always add to anything but file size. |
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