OCTOBER 2007 RE-VISIT

The latest re-vamping of this site, already the best value membership on the Net, offers some substantial upgrades but is mostly cosmetic. And the cosmetic part is actually the stuff we liked best. They've re-done their logo and changed the presentation of the members area so that it looks more like Amazon. Which is nice because it's like a storefront where you've already paid for everything. We didn't think anything was wrong with the old display, but this way you have more immediate options for where you want to go to, and these are easily accessible from a bunch of tabs at the top. The way your recently viewed scenes come up and the other personalized recommendations based on previous searches and ratings is also nice in this regard. It's a bit "busier" on the main page, but given how huge the selection is here, moving to this kind of interface was probably an essential development. We always liked just going to the most recently added DVDs, but you can still go to that screen quickly the way they have it now.

The more substantial changes add greater functionality but didn't affect us that much. The main one is the addition of a "Watch it Now" Flash player option which allows you to stream clips instead of downloading them. Nothing wrong with this--in fact we really like the Flash player for streaming video--but it's not something we use very much. We tend to download everything we like, and the previews offered through the thumbnail segments in the drag-and-click tool are good enough for us to decide if we want to download in the first place. But for those of you who do like streaming video, now it's here.

Another upgrade is the fact that they've added versions of the site in six languages other than English. Now you can use the site in French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. Which sounds great, but again doesn't affect us that much since we only know English.

Finally, you can do a lot of stuff with organizing and cleaning your personal history and favourites list(s) (plural because you can now manage thousands of titles in several of them). Again: Great functionality if you use it, but we don't.

It's hard to knock any of these changes. They're all improvements, though many of them didn't affect our enjoyment or experience of the site very much. Still, it's nice to see they're not sitting on their laurels but continuing to advance. As we began by saying, this is the best buy for porn on the Internet. It's still a great price and it's still adding five new DVDs a day, which is insane. The interactivity in the user reviews is used a lot and there's really a great online community of porn lovers and critics happening. Given the updates, if you've got the cash we'd advise joining for 10 months, which gives you the full DVD-quality downloads at the $9.95 a month price. In all likelihood you'll stay a member that long, which will make it a good investment.

DECEMBER 2006 RE-VISIT

This isn't really a new review, but there were a couple of things we figured we had to update. 

In the first place, there's been a change to the pricing structure. There is no more $9.99/month membership (unless you join for five months, in which case you get a discount). This is not really a big change, since what they've basically done is got rid of the cheaper membership alternative where you didn't get access to the DVD quality downloads (the $9.99/month package). Now you have to get the DVD quality downloads, but it only costs you an extra $5 a month. That is, IF you join through one of the links on this page. It's part of a "review site" deal they offer. If you don't join through one of our links, you'll pay $17.99/month. Still a good deal, but why pay the extra $3?

Now, don't read that "review site" membership deal and think we're just a bunch of whores writing a good review so we can sell cheap membership. Two things to keep in mind: (1) We've always ranked this site one of the best on the Net; and (2) We actually don't agree with "differential pricing." There should just be one rate for everyone, no matter what link you take to get there. But . . . that's the way they've got it set up. So we suggest you join at the review site discount.

The only other thing that's new is they've set up a review/comment function allowing people to post their own opinions on individual scenes. Even if you're not interested in the movie, these are fun to read. 

Bottom line: Still the best, and at half the price of the competition.

APRIL 2006 RE-VISIT

This is a short re-visit review, but it's full of important (good) news.

As you know, everybody loves this site. It was voted Best Overall Site in 2005 by the Porn Reviewer's Association. It gets top marks from everyone. And why not? Not only do they have great stuff at a great price, they keep getting better.

To wit:

(1) They now update with one new scene every hour, the equivalent of 5 DVDs being added every day! That's insane. You literally have to keep checking back several times every day to see all the new stuff they have.

(2) They now have "ultra-high resolution" downloads of 3500 kb/s. Of course they look great. The only catch here is that you have to shell out another $5 to get them. Taking your membership up to a whopping . . . $15 a month! Or only about half of what a membership for any of the other major video networks is going to cost you (or pretty much any other paysite these days, for that matter). But don't worry because if that seems like too much you can still join at the $9.99/month rate and enjoy the regular download options (which weren't bad).

And there you have it. As we said in our last visit: "They took a great site and made it better." Which means they're still the best, only more so. Now if only the other guys would start giving them some competition . . .

FEBRUARY 2005 RE-VISIT

We have to take our hats off to the people at VideoBox. When we first reviewed this site in 2003 (it was then known as ClimaxCorner) we gave it our highest ranking and named it the best site of 2003. Since then they've managed to hold the line on price--an amazing $9.95 a month--and improved in almost every respect. We're really impressed. They took a great site and made it better.

The first thing we noticed when we dropped in this time was that they changed the download interface. Why? As we said in our previous review, "This is the best video download interface we've ever seen." Why fix it if it wasn't broke?

To make it better. It was great before, but it's fucking wonderful now. Every scene is broken down into a page of sequential thumbnails. To download a clip from the scene of any size you just drag the thumbnail from where you want the clip to begin and then drag another thumbnail from where you want it to end. Once you do that you get updated information on the video size and running time of the download you've selected. Amazing. You could just play with functionality like that all day.

Next improvement: They're adding more content. One full DVD is going up every day. At the time of our visit they had 271 DVDs up. So think about it: That's 300 DVDs (if you were to join now) for $10!

And you're not losing on video quality either. You can download in three formats, low, medium and high-res Windows Media files. Because the low-res really does suck, and because the download selector lets you choose your own clip sizes to download, this actually makes the site very modem-friendly. But the rest of the civilized world will be able to grab the high-res clips which playback at 480x352 and 900 kb/s. Maybe not the very best out there, but still well above average (and the equal of most other good video networks).

More kudos: The site has great search functionality, solid support and an impressive editorial presence. They don't just quote