| Type |
Site - Score |
Feedback / Review |
Date |
Review
1951
|
Pornstar Network
(0)
90.0
|
| Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
|
| Pros: |
- 175 studios (some major, some niche)
- 9000+ DVDs
- Many individual scenes independent of DVDs
- Some exclusive sites
- Updates daily
- Adds new studios
- Supports download managers (IDM for me)
- No obvious time-outs for files
- TBP / PU special membership makes it really worthwhile |
| Cons: |
- Not all sites update
- Like other DVD mega-sites, there is a lot of crap to sort through while looking for the gems |
| Bottom Line: |
I wrote a review of this site about a year ago after my first membership here and after re-reading that I can say that it all still applies. I know that I’m not the only PU member who regularly visits the same sites so my perspective in this second review is to give some thoughts about whether it is worth joining a second or later time. I’ll cut to the chase, the answer to that is certainly yes, but it isn’t as easy a decision to make as with some other sites.
PSN suffers from a similar problem to other DVD sites, namely the availability of new material to keep updating the site. Like Videobox, PSN uploads five DVD titles per day. Unlike VB though, PSN doesn’t put the complete title up at once. You may see a DVD that you really want only to find that the scene you really want is due to be posted later. The good news is that you usually won’t have to wait more than a few days to get all the scenes in that DVD. The problem with that uploading schedule for both PSN and VB is that they have to upload a lot of crap to keep to it. The good news is that, in my opinion, PSN uploads less crap than VB.
The site is large, with over 9000 DVDs already posted from 175 studios. The studios range from the biggest of the big names like Elegant Angel and Private to more niche oriented studios. In short, there is likely something here for everyone. It appears that PSN continues to add studios because, as I noted in a comment a few weeks ago, they are now the only site I’m aware of that has Max Hardcore DVDs available for download. Yes, Max is polarizing, but I still think it reflects well on PSN to licence and make available these titles, even if they are the edited American versions.
The site continues to offer downloads in multiple formats, with AVI, H.264 and MPEG being the most common. The H.264 files come in at 720x540 and look decent so only true ‘size queens’ will miss higher definition scenes.
I use Internet Download Manager and had no problems. The links didn’t time out in the time it took to download them and download speeds were as fast as I see with most porn sites.
One problem that I perceived (and am open to being corrected on if I’m wrong) is that there is some overlap within the sites themselves. Take the site Sperm Cocktail which offers a lot of Brandon Iron’s material including his series “A Good Source of Iron.” Sorting the site by DVDs gives you all the DVDs obviously, which you can then click on and download the individual scenes from each. You can also sort by scene which appears to includes a lot that isn’t on the DVDs but that is mixed in with the same scenes that are on the DVDs which means that you will likely end up downloading some stuff twice. This is no big deal if you don’t care to associate a scene with the DVD it is from, but for those of us who like to organize by DVD it can be an issue.
While this likely won’t happen if you join, I will point out that both times I did I had initial problems and I’ve read of others having similar problems. The first time I joined they had just started offering the full access to TBP/PU members and I got missed. This time after paying my fee I was given limited trial access. The good news is that on both occasions customer service was helpful and resolved the problems quickly.
One advantage to a rejoin is that during your first time through you’ve likely downloaded all the material you wanted from the several sites that no longer update. Most of these are solo model sites where the model has left the business. This is an advantage on a rejoin because PSN still has a download limit of 100 files per 24 hour period and many of the files on the older sites are small so you can hit the limit. I’m no fan of limits but I have to admit that the one here is pretty reasonable. It would have to be a rainy, hung-over Sunday to hit the limit.
One point that bears mentioning even though it is a repeat of what I said in my original review is that if you want to join this site it is very important to join through TBP / PU. Joining through TBP / PU makes what might be a decent membership and makes it a great one. The difference is that joining through here gets you access to the otherwise-optional Moviez material which is really the bulk of the good material on the site.
In my opinion, PSN is definitely worth a re-join. They continue to expand and even add new studios. They offer a great collection of mainstream American porn along with a good mix of lesser known European material and even some niche stuff. I’ll definitely be back again too. |
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10-31-12 08:51am
Replies (0)
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Reply
1952
|
N/A
|
Reply of
graymane's Poll
I suspect that since we're likely a fairly broad cross-section of society in terms of nationality, age, interests, education, work experience and incomes that we're probably a wide swath regarding intelligence too. So on that alone I chose average.
Having said that, please indulge me on a bit of a rant: one thing that always impresses me about the quality of posts on this site is that even if English isn;t a posters mother tongue everyone follows bacis rules of grammar and punctuation. And no one regularly posts in 'text speak,' which, in my opinion, is usually the mark of someone who isn't all that bright when it is used in a context that doeasn't require text speak. And part of not being terribly bright is the inability to discern when one should and should not use 'text speak.' I don't read or participate in too many other forums on any topic, but I really like that it is rare that we see someone post something in text gibberish.
So on that point alone, regardless of where each of us falls on an IQ scale, we're above average.
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10-31-12 08:49am
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Reply
1953
|
N/A
|
Reply of
Khan's Poll
I think the late H.L. Mencken summed up precisely how I feel about professional sports: "I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense."
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10-29-12 03:05pm
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Reply
1954
|
Naughty America
(0)
|
Reply of
slategrey's Reply
Thanks for the tip. I'll poke about in IDM and see if I can find something like you suggest.
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10-22-12 06:00pm
|
Reply
1955
|
N/A
|
Reply of
Khan's Poll
I would have selected the option for 'what the hell is this?' but since that's been answered I can say yes. I'd really like to see more of these.
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10-20-12 08:05am
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Reply
1956
|
Naughty America
(0)
|
Reply of
hodayathink's Reply
Thanks for sorting out the logo. I assume it isn't related to the fact that these are Flash files because the lowest of the Flash resolutions (480) allows IDM.
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10-20-12 08:04am
|
Comment
1957
|
Naughty America
(0)
|
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10-20-12 05:34am
Replies (4)
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Reply
1958
|
Wank Pass
(0)
|
Reply of
Cybertoad's Reply
Thanks for the comments Cybertoad. The time-out is actually one minute, but your point is well taken: this is a very unusual way to restrict downloads. Like you, I've never seen it before and it is VERY annoying! I might (and I stress 'might') have been able to live with it if there weren't the other issues, particularly that a lot of the scenes are really short so you have to wait a full minute between downloads that take 30 seconds. And the video quality itself isn't great. I'm no "HD snob" but this is lower quality than I'll accept.
This is a pretty crappy site and PU members will do well to avoid it.
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10-20-12 05:31am
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Reply
1959
|
N/A
|
Reply of
Khan's Poll
I've never heard of this. Where is it on the user's page?
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10-11-12 04:18am
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Reply
1960
|
Ultimate Surrender
(0)
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Reply of
exotics4me's Reply
I had no idea that Kink used to have download limits. I'm glad I stumbled on them after those were lifted because I probably would never have gone back. I agree that they could improve their navigation. One thing they're doing on The Training of O lately is to name day 1 something that isn't related to days 2 through 4 so you have to work to put the sets together.
10GB a month... I'm glad that's gone!
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10-08-12 03:00pm
|
Reply
1961
|
Young Legal Porn
(0)
|
Reply of
Vito's Comment
I used Free Download Manager and it worked fine. But that was a while ago so I can't guarantee that it will work now.
Good luck!
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10-08-12 11:18am
|
Comment
1962
|
Pornstar Network
(0)
|
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10-08-12 10:20am
Replies (0)
|
Review
1963
|
Wank Pass
(0)
60.0
|
| Status: |
Current Member for less than 1 month (at the time of review).
|
| Pros: |
- Access to 44 Sites
- Interesting niche content
- Updates daily
- Site might be good for people who use streaming rather than downloads
- Photos available |
| Cons: |
- No usable search function
- No Stars named
- Meaningless file names
- Doesn’t support download managers
- Many scenes appear to be clips but the others in the series aren’t readily identified
- Must wait one minute between downloads
- Files only available in one format and size
- Scenes stream and play automatically
- Photos vary widely in quality
- No zips for photos |
| Bottom Line: |
There are certain porn niches that I really like; two of those are public nudity and group sex parties. This network has several sites that offer material in those niches and since those sites that have this material are relatively rare I often take a chance when I find one. But given the reviews posted here and the information at TBP I should have avoided this site. I’ll skip right to the bottom line now: with a narrow exception, do not join this site!
I’ve said many times that I think for a porn site to be great it has to have good porn, the site needs to be well laid out and finally it has to be easily accessed or downloaded by the user. A lot of sites hit two of those targets but fail on a third and don’t become great sites. They’re stuck at merely good. It is arguable that this network offers good porn. I think they do: some of the material available is interesting and looks pretty good. But on the overall layout of the site and the ease of access by members this site falls flat.
The network is made up of 44 sites. Unlike a lot of other networks that follow a formula, this one has unique concepts for many of the sites. Most of the standard porn niches are covered, like teens , MILFs and cumshots, but rarer niches are also covered here, like feet, pubic hair, drunk girls, BBWs and femdom. What drew me in were several sites that feature a strip club motif and sites with public nudity and group sex parties.
While I like many of the unique niches available here the scenes themselves are just mediocre. In most cases the scenes are quite short. Many of the niche sites have scenes that average less than five minutes. The layout of each site is the same: there are 16 medium-sized thumbnails per page with a short, mostly useless description. Clicking on a thumbnail open that page where the scene starts streaming and playing automatically. This is a pet peeve of mine: I don’t like that it hogs bandwidth and I don’t like the audio surprises that come with sites like this. There is an option to download the scene too. The downloads are only available as mp4s and only in one resolution. That resolution varies from fairly low (720x480 at 1500kb/s) to fairly decent (1280x720 at 3500kb/s). I didn’t download a lot of material so I can’t really say how much is at the higher resolution.
I have a number of complaints about how the downloads are accessed. First, the file names are meaningless, consisting of just a number. I can live with that, but many of them include “part 1” as part of the title, obviously implying that there are other parts. I really don’t like scenes broken into parts in 2012 because for the vast majority of user it simply isn’t necessary, but to make matters worse, if the scenes actually are in clips the other clips in the scene aren’t identified. How do I find them? The name gives no clue and there isn’t even a usably search function if the names had any meaning.
The biggest flaw in downloading is something I’ve never seen before on a website. The site doesn’t allow download managers (which isn’t unique but still a very annoying) but the strange thing is a restriction that you have to wait one minute between downloads. This might not be such a big deal if the scenes were all 1GB files, but since many of the files are only 10MB or less that download in a few seconds, it is annoying to have to wait a full minute to download another. If you aren’t willing to provide reasonable access to your members then I think you really need to rethink your business model.
One bit of good news is that the network does update regularly with at least a dozen clips being added each day.
I can’t tell if the scenes are exclusive or not. I’ve not seen them anywhere else but given the wide variation in quality and the fact that they look like the same kind of clips that are available elsewhere I’m inclined to think that they aren’t exclusive. But I’m certainly open to correction on this point.
The site also offers photos. I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at them but I can report that the quality varies quite a bit and the site commits the serious sin of not allowing zipped downloads.
As for a recommendation, I’d only recommend a membership to a narrow group: you like the niches they offer, and you only like streaming video. If you’re a photo guy or you prefer to download videos, my recommendation is to avoid the site. It is disappointing to see some unique porn but to have access limited to it by some bad decisions. I definitely won’t be back. |
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10-08-12 08:51am
Replies (6)
|
Reply
1964
|
Pornstar Network
(0)
|
Reply of
rearadmiral's Comment
Just to set the record straight, after a bit of a wait the support team resolved my issue and my membership is active. I still think that there is a problem with how the TBP discount is handled by the site. I've joined twice and had membership problems twice and others report similar issues at TBP. The good news is that they have good customer support.
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10-06-12 07:05am
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Comment
1965
|
Pornstar Network
(0)
|
|
10-05-12 01:25pm
Replies (2)
|
Reply
1966
|
Gay Video Base
(0)
|
Reply of
gaypornolover's Reply
At least become bisexual. As Woody Allen said, it doubles your chance for a date on a Saturday night!
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10-05-12 09:14am
|
Reply
1967
|
N/A
|
Reply of
Khan's Poll
"Too much anal"... Hmmm... I know what those words mean individually, but when grouped together like that I simply don't understand them... ;-)
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10-05-12 09:13am
|
Reply
1968
|
Gay Video Base
(0)
|
Reply of
gaypornolover's Comment
This is funny stuff! Maybe the trend to implants has crossed over to gay porn!
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10-03-12 01:55pm
|
Reply
1969
|
N/A
|
Reply of
Cybertoad's Poll
I'm not sure my answer will accurately answer the question, but even though I don't store porn on my PC harddrive, it is still pretty full. I store all my porn on externals.
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10-03-12 01:50pm
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Reply
1970
|
Wicked Pictures
(0)
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Reply of
pat362's Reply
Good point. I recall seeing a "VOD Coming Soon!" claim on a site and I thought it was EA's own site, but it may have been Adult DVD Empire.
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10-02-12 04:31pm
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Reply
1971
|
Wicked Pictures
(0)
|
Reply of
pat362's Reply
Good point... but Elegant Angel could also rent it via VOD on their own site I suspect.
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10-02-12 12:52pm
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Reply
1972
|
Wicked Pictures
(0)
|
Reply of
pat362's Reply
You're probably right. I hope they paid Lexi a small fortune for the movie, and particularly the anal scene. I also hope that Elegant Angel makes a ton of money off of this too. Studios making money from making good porn is good for the talent, good for the studios and good for those of us who actively buy porn.
One thing I don't get is how online sales and DVD sales are related. I agree that they may want to drive DVD sales for a while, but that presumes that there is more money to be made there. But is there? I don't know what the markup is on a DVD, but a VOD must be mostly profit since the cost of making the movie is amortized across all sales so a VOD's cost to the company is bandwidth on their own site or licencing fees to Adult VOD sites. I'm guessing that I'm not the only person who doesn't but DVDs and is sitting here with my credit card ready to give someone money who will let me see the movie as a VOD or download.
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10-01-12 04:57pm
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Reply
1973
|
Brazzers
(0)
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Reply of
elephant's Comment
Jeez... that's taking regional pricing to new highs (or lows...).
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09-30-12 01:42pm
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Reply
1974
|
Wicked Pictures
(0)
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Reply of
pat362's Reply
I don't really know Wicked all that well and I didn't know that most of their titles are on the site. Had I known that I would have definitely included that as a 'pro' since it really shows the studio's committment to the internet.
I was also pleased to see the full-movie option available. I prefer scenes, but I did download a few full movies of some older titles with stars that I like.
On an unrelated note, I'm disappointed to see that Elegant Angel hasn't made "Lexi" available to VOD sites yet. I was looking forward to seeing Lexi Belle's first anal scene this weekend. It looks like I'll have to wait a while longer.
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09-30-12 01:41pm
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Reply
1975
|
Young Legal Porn
(0)
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Reply of
Drooler's Comment
I'm sorry to hear that you're not satisfied with the network. I haven't rejoined recently but I probably still will. I was watching some of their stuff this morning and the videos are really well done. The women on the network are really amazing too. I hope that as your membership goes on you'll find more satisfaction.
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09-30-12 11:59am
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