OFFICIAL
77.0
pretty good |
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Content
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| Quality : |
15.0 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
11.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
14.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
7.5 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Download : |
2.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
54.0 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
7.5 / 10 |
| Features : |
3.0 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
14.0 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
3.5 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
7.0 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria
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| Editor: Duke |
Initial Review: 07-01-08 |
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1. Hardcore vids, nice mix of themes.
2. Monthly backroom exclusives.
3. Flash vids load/buffer quickly.
1. No downloads, only in-browser.
2. Update details are lacking.
3. High price, some upsells.
"A well-balanced collection of Hot House studio movies but the movies are only in-browser." |
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Hot House Backroom is the site of the production studio Hot House Entertainment. Owned by Steven Scarborough these guys produce hardcore gay DVDs and Steven has won several industry awards. See what info can be found with a few minutes of research? Anyways this site showcases a nice amount of their material and as a guest you can browse the collection to see what titles, men, and themes are included. The navigation is the same for guests as it is for members and there are even some vid trailers to sample before joining.
The Goods:
- Hardcore Vids, Nice Mix of Themes. Though I've seen larger collections this is a decent sized site in terms of number of movies, scenes, and models. What most impressed me is the long list of niche 'themes' that are covered. They hit all the popular areas but also more micro-niches like foreskin, military, smoking, rimming, etc.
- Monthly Backroom Exclusives. A separate section is dedicated to Backroom Exclusive videos. In fact, it's the top navigation box on the site. These are organized by month and they do add new titles each and every month. So the overall content here is a mix of these exclusives along with the other Hot House titles.
- Flash Vids Load/Buffer Quickly. Flash is the format they've chosen to go with and each movie listing has as simple "watch it now" link that opens the Flash player in a new window. This is a format I've been seeing more and more and the files load and buffer very quickly on my cable internet collection. For in-browser movies Flash is my preferred format.
The Bads:
- No Downloads, Only In-Browser Format. While the Flash movies function well they have nothing beyond that for members. There is only one quality level which is only average. Nowadays surfers have the expectation that they're going to get downloadable choices from a video site so when they aren't there it stands out as a very noticeable negative.
- Update Details are Lacking. Aside from the monthly Backroom Exclusives breakdown there isn't much update info to be found. They have a recently released list without any specific dates. Also, the individual scenes have long descriptions and niche details but they aren't date stamped either.
- High Price, Some Upsells. The monthly price of $39.95 is definitely on the high end of paysites. It does recur at five bucks less but that's still expensive. To go along with this they also have some DVD sales links throughout the site.
Conclusion:
Hot House does have some nice positives and along with that some negatives that hold the site back. The fact that this is a studio collection makes it an interesting collection of movies and the "exclusives" are a nice touch. Simply put the biggest things that hurt the site are the streaming-only format and high price.
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