So for now, downloads are being eliminated as part of the membership baseline. Because of the immense improvements and costs associated with a new codec.
I've read somewhere that companies distributing video content using AVC and HEVC codecs have to pay royalties to MPEG LA.
AV1 was developed by Alliance for Open Media (Google, Netflix, Amazon, etc,) to be royalty free alternative to HEVC.
I would assume using AV1 would lower the costs, instead of increasing it.
mirdumar SLR isn't paying royalties for use of AVC or HEVC.
doublevr If we lose some random complainers for rising the bar it's okay
Holy shit I'm dying lol. I know stuff like this rubs some people the wrong way but I think it's great. I'm glad you have a vision and are making it happen.
I do understand the frustration for those affected by the decision to remove the HBR original downloads, but I can't imagine there are a lot of them. I used to download a lot of my favorite videos (I have ~ 3TB) and was annoyed when the download limit was imposed. Even then though, I couldn't justify downloading the original files because of their huge size. I'm guessing that the majority of people who care that much about peak quality are the same people who would pay extra to get it, while 99% of the customer base doesn't care and just wants to watch some cute naked girls in VR.
I mean, these forums are in no way representative of the general customer base. I visit occasionally and it's always the same people on here. Just because there's like 20 people complaining about losing a feature, it doesn't mean SLR is going bankrupt. And those who are saying that they're ending their subscriptions... ok? That was always an option. Most people just cancel subscriptions when they aren't getting what they want. They don't make entitled posts on niche forums. Again, I do understand the frustration but there's constructive criticism and then there's whining.
So I just want to take a moment and say thanks to the SLR team. This is by FAR the best pornsite I've ever used. In fact, it's the only one that I've felt compelled to subscribe for more than a month or two at a time (I'm yearly). The fact that you have your own video player is awesome. I know Heresphere might be a technical marvel (and I used it for years on my pc) but I sincerely prefer DeoVR. The layout and usability is just way better for anyone who's not meticulously adjusting the settings. Being able to one click AI passthrough is just chef's kiss.
The commitment to trying new things is what I appreciate about SLR. I thought passthrough was whatever when it was coming out, but now that I have a Quest 3, holy shit. Passthrough is most certainly the future. And the fact that AI passthrough is available on every video I watch is absolutely incredible and worth every cent of my subscription. It's not perfect, but it's currently the worst it will ever be. And as long as it's good enough to convince the lizard part of your brain that there actually is a naked girl on your bed, that's what matters to me.
Aaaaand I'm super excited to see if SLR can get involved with guassian splatting. If SLR can do what BraindanceVR is doing or even make something better, we will all be living in the future.
All in all, I'm super excited to see what's coming in the next few years. It's great that you have a vision and I wish you nothing but the best.
Thogapotomus It's great that you have a vision
The vision is making as much money as possible. You are delusional if you think it's about anything else.
If the company wants to create something new and charge more for that, fine. But to take away something I've already paid for is wrong. It's not a vision, it's a scam.
onyxone Well, nothing wrong with making as much money as possible, in fact, every company should maximize its profits for its shareholders. But selling a subscription and then take away parts of that after you've sold that subscription is a scam indeed. Kinda sounds harsh but I don't see how you can sugar coat it. You sell a service and after you've received the money you deliver a downgraded version of the service you were selling. Like people asked here rightly, how is this even legal? And what stops them from putting everyhing beyond 4k VR after a double paywall? I mean now it's the HBR version, but what's next? Like somebody said above, what stops them from stripping down your rights to just a forum login and putting EVERYTHING behind a double paywall?
But yeah just like @Thogapotomus said, what else can we do than complain, we're just a few forum users here anyway. Nobody is going to start legal action against SLR of course. So we just b*tch a bit about it here. People who have a monthly/yearly subscription can stop but the lifetime guys can't do much at all. I guess that's the risk of taking a lifetime subscription.
Raising the bar...improving the visual quality...investing and innovating in newer tech/ format...investing in "inferior spatial" formats...etc...
All of this means nothing if the cast and the overall theme of the contents are of low standards to say it respectfully, and it seems SLR is going that way for whatever reasons they have, well, it's their business anyway.
What we're against is taking down features or locking them behind a pay wall, the same features that attracted us and made us subscribe in the first place, the same features that were an essential part of our subscription plan, you can't justify this no matter what you say. End of the story.
mirdumar SLR said something a couple of months ago about AV1 being a better codex because you can get more information for less GBs. So it cost SLR less to stream these videos in AV1. That is the main reason they are going to it.
I get that SLR would want to spend less to stream their videos. That makes sense. They claimed it will look better too but it's more about saving bandwidth.
The thing that is bullshit is now changing people for something that cost them less to do.
Thogapotomus This is not about SLR features or them being innovative. This is about SLR using AV1 as an excuse to try and weazel out of their contractual obligation to allow downloads while hoping they won't get sued because it's a porn site.
fenderwq Exactly this, the AV1 Codec excuse was the first step in their road map.
Next step is using this paywall as new excuse to turn the site into a streaming only service. Wait for it and mark my words. That's their end game if you guys still not convinced.
Next year or so, they will say that the PPV feature is not usable by most and it's now a burden and costly for us to keep regardless of truth, and so on and so on to all the other features (traps) that used as a reason for many of us to subscribe until it's a a streaming only site. You'll own nothing and be happy style.
And it will work for them for a while then it's game over, why, because of competition and alternatives that didn't follow suit which will attract the likes of my mentality, since we want to own what we pay for and enjoy it as long as possible and no one on earth can change that for us.
I already found a more suitable place for me and my FREE mentality. Thankfully, I'll not deal with this nonsense anymore. Only 2 months of patience and I'm good to go. And I always put my money where my mouth is.
Funny enough, before this decision, I was thinking of a lifetime subscription. Lucky I didn't pull the trigger, and thankfully I'm now fully aware and SURE where this site is going unfortunately. Even if they reverse this decision, I can't trust nor invest in it anymore.
VRXVR Funny enough, before this decision, I was thinking of a lifetime subscription.
Last time I had to renew my subscription, lifetime was at $299 which is what I had paid for my first 13 months and hence seemed like hell of a deal. But I decided against it since I thought supporting the content I like with yearly payments is the more sustainable deal in the long run for both sides. But now, quite the opposite of you, I think time's ripe to go all in and be done once and for all with the financial support.
Contractual obligations... Can you show me what contract you signed and where it talks about download provisions? I mean, how much money have you got wrapped up in this to make you so annoyed? If you're a lifetimer then I get the pain, but it's not illegal. And even so, a lifetime sub is pocket change for someone who has the means for a high end pc, vr equipment and any of these scripted sex toy setups.
Plus, of course they want to move to streaming only. Surely you guys who frequent this forum should have realized that long long ago. And why wouldn't they? Hosting multiple download files plus all the original ones has to add up. Streaming is just better for the vast majority of users.
It's worth noting that you can still sub to all the individual sites that you get included in your membership here. Their websites have their original files available for download. But even if you only want two different sites, you're gonna pay more than for jusr SLR.
The image of someone hitting up a lawyer over porn downloads is hilarious ha. But if there was some contract and you had thousands invested then sure. But when they ask you for damages and you say, $100 a year (or $300 for a lifetime sub) you're gonna look insane.
Yes, this sucks for those invested in HBR downloads on SLR. No, it's not illegal to remove them to better their business. No, SLR doesn't care that 100 users out of thousands are gonna be sad.
I know I'd prefer them to spend resources on new features than hosting petabytes of data that most users will never even realize is there. Or care, for that matter.
SchnuppiLilac Yes, maybe because both of us have different usage scenarios. I think you're mostly or only stream if I recall correctly. For me, it's all about download the highest quality possible and enjoy its clarity on my PC.
But what's distance me apart from most folks here is I truly have very high standards, for example:
1- Pure VR only: I don't care at all about PT Videos or the newly introduced "Immersive Flat" videos or the future yet to come "Volumetric" because as of writing, pure VR is still the most mature, high quality, diverse and cohesive format compared to all the others I mentioned. So, I don't download them nor stream them at all.
2- Naturally beautiful girls only: The cast should be without tattoos, fake boobs, underweight, overweight or strong and obvious tan lines...etc.... Otherwise, I'll feel... "uncomfortable" to say it respectfully.
3- Professionally made only: The video should be free from any technical issues or human-error related issues, otherwise it's worthless for me. This is why I stream them first, if they are ok, then I download.
4- Original high bitrate videos only: With HEVC encoding and with minimum resolution of 5760x2880. I don't care or download any other codecs or any lower resolutions because they are pure garbage in terms of visual quality or can't play smoothly, so they are worthless regardless of the cast and theme.
You can see how much "narrow" my download options are.
My first year here (2022) I downloaded a lot of SLR Original old scenes to be honest because of the beauty of the girls and overall themes, this continued till mid 2023 but with much way lower downloads because of the degradation of the cast and content and technical issues and human-error present in the videos.
But I still had faith the content will get better for SLR and other Studios, so I renewed my subscription for the second year to 2024 which was even worse in terms of contents, I spent mostly streaming some scenes that I liked despite the undesirable cast.
Then, because of some new studios like "VRSUN" with their high quality professionally made scenes and their stunning girls I renewed my subscription for the third year to 2025 just because of that alone, because it's renewed my faith.
This is why I thought of a lifetime subscription this year, because of both the new attractive price and how rarely I am downloading now.
And here we are in my final year of 2025 and things even worse than already is in terms of cast and content, adding to that I have to pay for my now rarely download content in order to play them in a high acceptable quality, it's over for me, there's zero reason to renew my subscription.
I have an 8TB Storage dedicated to pure VR Porn only, do you know how much is used in these three years as of writing, only 3.5TB and this number didn't change for months now. Just as indicator to how much worse the content is now.
Sorry for the long post, but otherwise you'll not get the picture.
Best Regards.
Thogapotomus Hosting multiple download files plus all the original ones has to add up.
Thogapotomus I know I'd prefer them to spend resources on new features than hosting petabytes of data that most users will never even realize is there. Or care, for that matter.
The download files are the same files that are used for streaming and the high bitrate files are the master files that SLR will keep hosting anyway. None of those files are going anywhere.
If hosting costs were actually a problem SLR would be deleting the mountain of unwatchable, barely viewed videos they host that were produced by clueless creators. They also would not be adding a bunch of 2D videos that no one is going to watch.
It's a real shame to have this format removed because VR requires very high-quality videos to see the details, and when it comes to porn, that's essential. No one wants to see blurry things or compression artifacts. I have eyes to see, and hopefully in the best way possible. Also, the RTX 5000 allows you to decode 12K videos now, and this resolution will require larger files. The porn industry is still a pioneer in this field and maybe SLR will miss the mark by trying to save money on this.
However, I don't understand if this format has completely disappeared or if we have to be robbed and pay more?
Thogapotomus 1- We are talking about porn here, you can watch it legally for free nowadays. What brought us here is the high quality VR Porn format that deserved to be subscribed for regardless of our financial status if it has reasonable price.
2- SLR could have saved thousands of terabytes by keeping only 2 types of files, the first is the Original high bitrate files and the second is the highest resolution files that's Re-encoded from the Original high bitrate files which also used for streaming BTW and get rid of all other file options in 4K and 6K ...etc...
Everyone have at least Quest 2 and everyone have more than enough internet bandwidth to handle resolutions like 8K @60FPS with 30mbps bitrate cap, so there's no any need for them, yet they still keep them for whatever reasons. You ignored all of these facts and just jumped on the HBR files throat.
They also can get rid of useless video formats like "Immersive flat" that almost no one cares about on a VR dedicated website.
It's Sex Like Real (Virtual Reality) NOT Smartphone Like Real (Flat with depth only, that's barely noticeable on Smartphone screens).
And BTW, Almost ALL Film Studios in general and Porn Studios in particular keep their Originals, that's a known fact since the dawn of filmmaking. Why? To use them for special editions, compilations and remasters to name few, just like what SLR is doing now.
So by your logic, will never get any of these old gold films in glorious 4K and 8K nowadays and will never get any SLR AV1 Remasters from SLR's old superior contents. So revealing them to subscribers to download will cost them nothing, they're already there and they're ESSENTIAL for them to keep as long as possible.
3- Like most of the hosting VR Porn sites like SLR, which we can choose from. I already found one with almost the same contents and the same subscription price, but without the restrictions and the headache.
4- We're not talking about the "legality" of the action/ decision, but more about the "deceiving" factor of it for those whom subscribed because of the HBR files.
5- What new "features" you talk about beside the "stream only" fate of this website? Please enlighten us. Most of the things they mentioned are either immature low quality tech/ video format or stuff that most of us don't care about if you read many threads on this forum.
6- You seem not to care about many things here if they are taking a way, I really want to see your tone when one of your "precious new features" will be taking away after you got used to it because of some random nonsense reason SLR will come up with in the future.
7- And no, I'm not seeing things from my prospective only. I never even criticize the addition of "Immersive Flat" videos and other questionable stuff before the decision of PPV. It's their business after all.
I started criticizing because of the only reason we subscribed for is taking away from us, yet SLR prioritizing other wasting resources stuff most of us don't care about.
Bad april fools joke this?
TimedDemo 100%correct
Thogapotomus It's clearly stated when you sign up. No, you don't physically sign anything when buying a subscription, but signing up with those terms does carry legal weight. That said, of course taking legal action over a lifetime subscription isn't practical and that is just being exploited here. Still, there are ways to resolve issues like this without taking them to court.
As others have mentioned, hosting isn't the real issue, AV1 support is coming regardless, and there are likely plenty of underused lower res formats already. SLR has also already greatly reduced the number of downloads included, so there is no abuse factor anymore either. Besides if their claim is true, that barely anyone downloads anymore, then this shouldn't even be a concern.
The truth is, none of that is what is actually at play. This is about SLR wanting to turn the platform into a walled garden and charging absurd prices for downloads that users have technically already paid for through their subscription.
Yeah, it may very well be true the costs for hosting all the formats isn't an excessive burden and that they still need to be stored regardless of download availability.
VRXVR 4- We're not talking about the "legality" of the action/ decision, but more about the "deceiving" factor of it for those whom subscribed because of the HBR files.
Agreed, it does suck. But @fenderwq just mentioned SLR hoping no one would sue them, which is a bit of a stretch and why I responded to it.
VRXVR 5- What new "features" you talk about beside the "stream only" fate of this website? Please enlighten us. Most of the things they mentioned are either immature low quality tech/ video format or stuff that most of us don't care about if you read many threads on this forum.
The ones I mentioned. AI passthrough and guassian splatting. Plus I think the drive feature is actually really cool even if I doubt I'll pay for it. Have you seen what VR porn looked like 8 years ago? It was literally immature low quality tech. But things get better. They just have to start somewhere.
VRXVR 6- You seem not to care about many things here if they are taking a way,
I care, in general, about removal of features, but you're right that it doesn't affect me. Nor does it affect most users, apparently. They aren't going to reverse the decision unless it hurts the company somehow though, and it doesn't seem likely to be the case.
VRXVR I really want to see your tone when one of your "precious new features" will be taking away after you got used to it
So sinister sounding lol. I can't imagine what I'd be so attached to honestly, but I get your frustration.
fenderwq This is about SLR wanting to turn the platform into a walled garden
This seems accurate. But well, when you have the nicest garden... SLR certainly wouldn't be the only company to do so. As of now though, no other site even has their own video player. The ability to just load up DeoVR and easily consume the content is second to none at this point. The ability to click a video and to easily be able to scan the entire timeline to see the content preview is a godsend and has saved me an untold number of hours. I'd probably use SLR just for that alone.
