Randy Blue review - impartial and objective gay site review by gaydemon.

Randy Blue

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Randy Blue has been around for a while now, and it'ss one of our favorite sites here at Gaydemon for many reasons. The variety and quality of the men, the large collection of content, the regular updates. All the videos here are large and good amateur quality, the pics are also downloadable and good quality. And photographer Randy Blue is at the heart of this site. He's a real person (I've met him several times) who's got an eye for fit horny guys of all types and does photo/video shoots of them in solo and hardcore scenarios.

The Randy Blue member area is intuitive and easy to use, but it's also packed with features and links to updates. Running across the top of the page is the member menu, with fast links to all the important sections in the site. Next comes the site news followed on the left by the new Live Show menu and on the right by the latest episode. Beneath is the latest video updates, pic updates and live show archives, and then the latest DVDs added to the site. All updates include the dates they were added. At the bottom of the page are text links including one to support and one to your account info.

There are 349 videos inside Randy Blue. Each is offered in both streaming Flash vids and downloadable WMVs. The WMVs are offered in full scenes in 3 sizes, the largest of which is 640x480 with a bitrate of about 1 Mbps. These look good at their original size and only lose a little quality if you go full screen. The Flash videos are are also available in 4 sizes, the largest is similar in size and quality to the WMVs, and can be played in clips. A cool feature about the Flash vids is that they can be fast forwarded before the videos are loaded, and another helpful feature is that the player can determine your connection speed and choose the appropriate transfer speed or you can choose it yourself.

One feature you may not be so thrilled about is that Randy Blue uses DRM. It's not intrusive as some sites DRM is - you don't have to input your username and password and hit play over and over and over. I cannot find the terms for the DRM so I can only guess that the videos you save will only play for the duration of your membership.

There are a lot of pic sets - 799 sets plus each video comes with a set of vidcaps. The digital stills come in 2 sizes, large @ 768x1024 and medium at 640x480. Each pic set comes can be browsed as a thumbnailed gallery or as a slideshow, and there is a zoom tool which allows you to click a pic and get closer, seeing details bigger and better. Because Randy Blue is a photographer who is really into the guys he photographs, he catches the action and the models' best looks, and the sets have a good mix of closeups, full body shots and medium shots. The vidcaps are shown in galleries only and the pics are the full size of the videos, which is 640x480.

The Randy Blue model index allows members to browse models by date they were added to the site, by name or by a variety of niches including hung, muscular, twink, black, hairy - you get the idea. Each model's page tells a little about the model and links to all his pic sets and videos. Models who have more than a few vids and pic sets will have a scrolling bar under the content, and if you pull it to the right, more vids and pic set listings will appear.

The Randy Blue models are a mix of amateurs, guys who were amateurs till they started shooting for Randy Blue and now have some videos under their belts, a few pornstars and semi-pro or pro models. All the guys here are fit, lean and mostly athletic. There are some who are muscular, some twinks - this is a good mix of types of guys overall if you like variety but want well-lit videos with fairly good production values and plenty of action.

There are a few more features inside Randy Blue. One is the new Live Shows. These are done by schedule and you can watch and talk with actual Randy Blue models as they do their thing. So far, there are 5 archived live shows in case you missed them. There is also the DVD section where you can watch over 90 DVDs in the same video sizes and options as the exclusive vids. The DVD section is often updated and each video includes all the scenes from each DVD. Last is the bonus content page. This is where members will get access to 18 bonus sites, 4 ezines and a link to Flirt 4 Free, which is fun but charges by the minute if you want full nudity or action.

The bottom line is that Randy Blue has tons of content, more than one update per week as well as a live show about once a week. The videos can be streamed or downloaded, and they look good, but DRM is used on the downloadable movies. There are nearly 800 pic sets featuring big pics and all the bells and whistles. You can browse content by type - pics or videos - and there's a model index that allows you to browse by model. You can even read Randy's blog to find out what's new. I consider Randy Blue one of the few sites on my "Must See" list, and if you've never visited, I suggest you head on over and check it out!

Things we liked:

• Cute, athletic guys
• Lots of content
• Regular updates
• Good search features
• Model index
• Dialup vids available

Things we didn't like:

• Site uses DRM
• Had to update my Media Player for downloadable vids

Membership prices: ( billing by Paycom  )

• Monthly: $24.95 (recurring)
• Monthly: $39.95 (non-recurring)
• Other: $74.95 (4 months non-recurring)

Reviewed on 2007-09-03

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