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Content
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| Quality : |
16.0 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
15.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
9.0 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
3.5 / 05 |
| Download : |
1.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
58.0 / 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 New
New Update!
As of Aug 15th, 07, price of a site is no longer factored into the overall score/rank. |
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1. Lots to see.
2. New stuff seems to come regularly.
1. Could be easier to get around.
2. Videos are streaming only.
3. Quality needs work.
4. You only "rent" the videos, they expire rather quick.
"They offer a lot to see, but you have to be okay with paying to just rent the movies." |
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Today we're going to take a look at a site called MaleFlixxx.tv, which I actually already looked at a while down the road for an express review. Sites like theirs are very tough to review, because they're based on a PPV-type format that requires you to rent each and every video or scene you want to check out.
The tour and member's area look pretty similar, and look decent enough (pretty much what you'd expect compared to most any DVD site you're used to seeing). They offer up a lot of content that's updated daily I believe, all in the male/gay niche of course. You buy packages of credits to become a member, and they range from $10 for $10 worth of credits to $70 for $100 worth of credits (saving you some cash).
To browse the site, they offer a few options it looks like. They have a list of categories along the left including solo, twinks, Latinos, bisexual, and more. You can also browse through their studios, stars, and themes (which offer such selections as Jocks, Muscles, Hungarians, etc.). Beyond that, there's a power search where you can make a combination of selections to help nail things down even more. Once you've found some content, it looks like they have a bookmark section where you can save your favorites (by my guess at least). The one thing I definitely saw as missing when I was browsing around initially were dates on any of their scenes; they'll show you what's new today, but it's tough to trust websites at times with their claims ;-) (though we've heard updates do in fact come daily here).
As I usually look at the photos first, I noticed most scenes have a little "photo gallery" icon next to them. It links to the generic movie page, and I usually didn't see any photos available (or linked) from there which was odd.
For videos, you've got options, though they're not always clear. Find their options and settings link before you check a video out to set everything up. They offer different video types, but only if you change stuff up in this section. You can choose between Real Video, and Windows Media Video, and also input bandwidth settings ranging from 56kbps to 1100kbps. When you're ready to see some dudes in action, rentals come in two options: a five-day rental (that I believe you can download with DRM restrictions according to their site) and a two-hour rental (streaming only) for a little over half price. On top of that, you can rent the whole video with the same terms and save a little bit over the scene-by-scene price. Average costs are around $2 for a two-hour scene rental (maybe a little less than $4 for the five-day option), and $10 for a 24-hour full-DVD rental (or $15 for the five-day version here). I think the price is based on video length from what I could gather.
The first thing I tried was a two-hour scene rental, which plays in your browser. My settings were set to WMV at 1100kbps, and I think I left the player at the default. The video page pops up after confirming you want to purchase it (so turn your popup blockers off), and you have to enter your user/pass for a DRM license even on in-browser videos for some reason. Once that's done, you're watching a pretty good-looking video at 640x480 and 1200kbps! However, I was messing with the settings and somehow changed my player size and I'm now required to scroll to see the whole video and can't really change it back too easily. Beware if you used a tabbed browser and don't change too many settings!
I also tried a five-day rental to check out their downloadable vids, and honestly was quite disappointed. While the streaming videos come from an actual streaming server, these are in fact downloaded instead, but not in any traditional manner. There's no download link anywhere; it basically just changes the semantics of how you get the video. They go into it a bit in their support section, but when I followed the (difficult) instructions to find this downloaded video, it didn't seem to work for me. The quality is the same as the others, which is definitely quite nice, but don't rent them for longer just to be able to download it as it's not quite what you think. They basically still only play in your browser, unless you can figure out where the file is, which is disappointing as mentioned.
What this all boils down to is a nice site, with a lot of content, regular updates, and good-quality video, all with a bad pricing structure for users. I understand that they probably have exclusive contracts with these studios and are worried about copyrights and whatnot, but in the end it's just more expensive for us for an inferior experience (lack of downloads, and with such time-limited restrictions). If they must go with this DRM or streaming-only technology, I'd much rather see a flat rate in place to be able to view everything when you want to. The settings and navigation are also a bit clumsy (I opened up a second IE browser and it forgot all my settings), though they're trying to do a lot so I give them some leeway there. The site here isn't really as bad as my score reflects, it's just that it's way too expensive for what you get in comparison to other porn available out there unfortunately which is a big part of what we look for.
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 12-03-07 |
Maleflixxx.tv has been pumping away (figureatively speaking I guess) and has put out a lot more content than was here at our last visit. They now offer over 4,000 DVD's, which is looking good considering it's all gay content. The rest of the site seems to be pretty much the same as our first visit. Besides the higher cost than usual, which is still a bummer, I'd probably like to see quality updated next. It's not bad, but is getting to be more average as more sites are raising the bar in terms of quality. Otheriwse, there's still a bunch to see, if you don't mind paying for the privilege.
Score increased from 78.0 to 79.5.
| 2nd Follow-Up Review |
Review: 10-27-08 |
Maleflixxx.tv has continued to update reguarly since our last visit, and they now offer over 5,600 videos which is pretty impressive. Beyond that, not much has changed here, which means there's a little room for improvement these days. The quality is my main issue, as it's still at the same level it was a couple years ago. The rest of the site remains good enough, but unchanged as well. They still offer a decent collection, but it's a bit expensive, and I'm not so sure that it's worth it since there are video sites out there with much better quality for the same price (or less!).
Score increased from 79.5 to 80.0.
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