05 Jun 2007
Gay DVD Shack
site reviews > Videos > Gay DVD Shack
The tour of Gay DVD Shack has a bit of a generic feel to it and plenty of pink, which doesn't really say "man" to me. The site is done in almost a reality style, but not quite. I see photos from pic sets and videos I've seen before, and others I haven't. But don't let the tour fool you - it isn't as interesting as what the member area here has to offer because the member area is mostly a DVD library that has a good selection of videos offered.
When members log into Gay DVD Shack, pretty much everything they need is on the menus on the left side of the page. Near the top is the list of DVD categories, a keyword search box to search the DVDs and a dropdown list of Studio names. Below that are a couple of featured DVDs and at the lower left are the photo categories. In the middle of the page is a menu with some site options, 2 featured DVDs followed by the latest movies added to the site, listed with cover and date added to the site. And on the far right is the main menu and a list of the 4 most popular DVDs in the site. There are 3 advertising banners at the bottom of the page that do not intrude with the content.
There have been 5 full DVDs added to the site in the last 6 days, and there are currently 150 DVDs inside the site. These DVDs are in a variety of niches, but since most of them are listed in more than one category, the easiest way to see what's there is to click All DVDs on the menu on the left. That leads to 10 pages with 15 titles listed per page.
Something you might want to know is that the member area of Gay DVD Shack, while a good place to watch DVDs, actually contains the same DVDs and pic sets as do several other gay sites owned by the same company. The complete list of these sites are Nasty Boys, Absolutely Male, Gay DVD Shack, Gay Movie Action and Males Online.
Each DVD has its own page. Ogaymn the top is the boxcover, title, description plus a list of the niches that apply to the scenes and some legal stuff. Below, each scene is listed showing 6 vidcaps and links to 3 sizes of videos - 56k, 300k and 700k. There is no list of stars, which is a shame, and nothing showing the running time of each scene.
The movies are WMVs and are streaming only and offered on a popup with an embedded player. Unfortunately the player shows the best quality videos - the 700k versions - at screen size of 352x300. That's a shame, because though they look pretty good, in reality these videos are all around 720x480, and I'd have rather seen them full sized. Still, if you click on the video once it's playing, you can zoom to full screen. While the vids don't look as good full screen, it is an option if you prefer bigger videos.
The 300k videos are mostly a little higher quality, offered at 372k and shown at the same size as the 700k vids. And for those on dialup, the dialup versions are not too bad to look at, shown at a screen size of 176 x 120 and playing at around 48k. The sound was good on all the movies I watched, and there is no DRM, but I still wish the videos could be downloaded, and offering clips wouldn't be a bad thing.
One issue I run into periodically with DVD video sites is that some DVD scenes come out rather dark when they are captured. That is the case on a few scenes inside Absolutely Male, but if you keep your brightness and contrast turned up, you shouldn't have a problem.
Gay DVD Shack also offers a good number of pic sets in various categories. While only 3 sets are listed in each of several categories (Asian, Glory Hole and Hairy Chest), there are just over 300 sets listed in Hunks and over 450 sets in Solo Male.
The photos inside Gay DVD Shack can be viewed in your choice of 3 resolutions: 800, 1024 or 1200. They are pretty good quality and the photography ranges from good amateur to semi pro. I did run into some issues. One is common in sites owned by larger programs - the people who organized the pic sets into categories didn't really know much about gay porn. As a result, easily half the models inside hunks aren't really hunks - they're more like amateur guys or aspiring models. The 5 pic sets in the bears section are mostly not bears and so on. The photo sets are browsable in thumbnailed galleries with no slideshow or downloadable zip file options.
Gay DVD Shack also offers 3 sites listed in Live Chat, all of which charge money for going one on one. These are the same sites you'll find listed on banners at the bottom of each of the pages inside the site.
Please note: while this site offers a free lifetime membership - like other similar membership sites - they will require the payment of membership fees to actually get access to the content. In this case they charge a hefty $39.95 per month!
While I've been spoiled by some DVD sites that offer their DVDs at very high quality and full size, Gay DVD Shack still has a lot to offer. With 150 DVDs - which means over 400 total scenes - there's enough porn here to keep members busy week after week. The video quality is average and vids play smoothly with good sound. And though most of the videos and pic sets fall into what I'd consider the general gay porn category, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The photo sets mostly seem to be studio shoots, with the guys more obvious about posing for the camera than you see in amateur shoots. The bottom line - guys who like variety in their porn and don't mind average quality videos should find a lot to keep them busy inside Gay DVD Shack.
Things we liked:
- Large collection of DVD content
- Videos use no DRM
- Dialup vids available
- Regular updates
Things we didn't like:
- Videos not downloadable
- Videos could be bigger
- Picture sets are old
Click here to visit Gay DVD Shack
Membership prices (Independent )
- Warning! It is free to join this site but you can NOT download or view any content without a membership:
- Monthly: $39.97 (recurring every 30 days)
Sorry no comments!
Sorry, there are no comments for Gay DVD Shack.
Be the first to add a comment, please fill in the form below!
Add a comment