| Review:
MARCH 2005
RE-VISIT
Back again for another look at "the World's
Largest Collection
of Amateur XXX."
Just to go over the basics: Homegrown isn't a studio
but a label for a line of videos that's been going for over 20 years
now. Its feature product is "real" amateur action sent in from contributors all
over the world. This leads to obvious quality issues. It isn't studio
porn and these aren't pornstars. In fact, a lot of the talent here is
pretty rough. Outside of some zombie-sex fetish sites they have some of
the most unattractive girls (and boys) anywhere on the Internet. But of course
you'll find the odd babe too, which is part of the thrill.
The
other
quality
issue
stems
from
the
fact
that
this
stuff
is
being
produced
by
real
amateurs--literally
the
folks
next
door.
What
this
mainly
means
is:
(a)
poor
lighting;
(b)
handheld
camera
or
fixed
camera
positions;
and
(c)
no
editing.
These
are
home
movies.
And
the
pics
aren't
much
better
(being
small,
underlit,
and
sometimes
even
out
of
focus).
But
again
he
have
to
point
out
that
there
is a
lot
of
variety
here.
Given
the
nature
of
what
Homegrown
is
doing,
providing
a
forum
and
label
for
do-it-yourself
porn,
you
have
to
expect
hit-and-miss
results.
What
you
get
with
Homegrown
then
is a
dedication
to
real
amateurs
and
an
emphasis
on
quantity
over
quality.
The
latter
point
should
be
emphasized.
There
is a
lot
of
content
here
and
they
are
updating
daily
(in
fact
several
times
daily).
When
we
visited
the
stats
were
up
to
1,412
movies
and
110,247
images.
That
will
take
you
a
while
to
get
through.
Two
years
ago
we
called
the
site
design
"a
total
disaster."
It
hasn't
improved.
Somebody
needs
to
take
this
whole
damn
site
apart
and
put
it
together
again
right.
Good
fucking
luck
finding
your
way
around.
We
were
making
a
list
of
navigation
issues
but
finally
gave
up.
There
are
so
many
different
sections
and
categories--some
of
them
redundant,
others
dead--you'll
want
to
take
a
ball
of
thread
and
bag
of
bread
crumbs
with
you.
The
About
page
tries
to
give
an
overview,
but
only
describes
a
bit
of
all
that's
going
on.
For
what
it's
worth,
we
suggest
browsing
the
content
"by
rating".
This
will
give
you
results
for
the
most
popular
stuff
first
(the
ratings,
which
are
provided
by
members,
are
pretty
reliable).
Content
is
mostly
boy-girl
stuff.
Lots
of
blowjobs
and
creampies,
if
that's
your
thing.
A
few
of
the
titles
are
downloadable
but
you
have
to
jump
through
some
hoops
to
get
at
them.
Otherwise
you
should
consider
this
a
strictly
streaming
site.
In
part
this
is
because
the
clips
are
so
long
and
there
is
just
so
much
stuff.
And
to
give
them
credit,
the
streaming
here
was
the
smoothest
and
the
best
looking
we've
seen.
It
works
very
well.
But
it
is
streaming,
and
given
a
choice
we'd
much
rather
download
our
vids
so
we
can
keep
them.
We
are
also
a
little
concerned
over
the
price,
which
has
actually
come
down
from
$50
a
month!
Even
with
the
drop
it's
still
just
too
expensive.
Definitely
go
with
the
trial
first
to
see
if
this
is
your
thing.
You
won't
be
able
to
check
out
everything
in
just
three
days,
but
you
should
get
some
idea
of
whether
it's
for
you.
JANUARY 2003 REVIEW
Homegrown Video is a tough site to review. The Welcome page hits you
with a lot of big claims: The "World's Largest Library of XXX
Amateurs," quotes from Newsweek, U.S. News and World
Report and the Larry King Show, "all exclusive content," "daily
updates," "best customer service," "huge broadband
library," and more.
We'll try to sort this out. First of all, a lot of the mainstream
media plugs for Homegrown are for a label behind a line of amateur
hardcore movies that has been running since 1982. So this is sort of like a studio site, but it's also got a
lot more. Some of the content is exclusive, but there is also material
coming in from other solo performer amateur sites (the "neighbors") and
submissions from horny amateurs around the world.
As for the content itself . . . where to begin? There is a
lot
of stuff to get through. There
are over 700 video files, including a big broadband
section where whole movies are available for download (modem users have
their own section for smaller downloads as well, but there are no
thumbnails to go with these clips). Nearly 1,000 picture sets. An
incredible variety of material and models. For what it's worth, there does seem to
be a lot of basic one-on-one action, with creampies, anal, and
interracial sex. Full bush and mature lovers will also find some treats.
And there's even some gay/bi-curious action
if you look for it hard enough. In addition you will find a collection
of amateur cams, a small library of erotica, a chat room and posting
boards, a personals page, a video and toy store, and a selection of
licensed extras. All this and the site is posting several
updates daily!
The gang running the site seem to be quite involved personally, and
they have a lot of behind-the-scenes and party pics. There was a nice
sense of community. A lot of support
seemed available, though we didn't have to use it. A real effort was
being made to make the site easier to navigate, though not with a whole
lot of success (see our comments below).
As for quality, well, that's very up-and-down. Fans of the amateur
scene probably won't be expecting top models with big plastic boobs, or
high production
values. The video is pretty rough, ready and raw. We have to say the
picture quality in the vidcaps--which seemed to account for a lot of the
galleries--was below average.
Now on to site design. With this much content site design is very important,
and here it is a total disaster. In the first place, it's not
very attractive. The use of frames and slide-show options makes
viewing the pictures no fun. And the navigation! There are so many
sections there's even a special section for "new members" that
tries to explain how the links work--to no avail! There are at least 10
different sections of photo galleries (we're sure there were more, but
that's all they try to describe in the "new members" section), none of
which really makes very much sense as a distinct entity. The video
sections also seemed to overlap quite a bit. After trying to
surf through this site for a couple of weeks we still had no idea where
the strangely named links were going to take us or how to find what we
were really interested in.
We'll try to summarize: Tons of content covering a huge variety of
models and amateur action. Updates every day. Quality, as you should
expect from a site like this, is all over the map. You'll probably want to stick with the video--and
you'll want a high-speed connection to get through even a fraction of
it. Site design and navigation
are too crude for such a large site, and end up being quite user un-friendly.
Overall this is well worth checking out for anyone interested in the
amateur scene. Others might find it too much and wind up getting lost.
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