C1R review

C1R review | Mr. Pink's Porn Reviews
MrPinks.com review date - 07/19/2012

Overview:
Channel 1 Releasing has been one of the top names in gay hardcore since first stepping on the scene in 1998. Co-founded by notorious director Chi Chi LaRue, C1R (as it is casually known) is one of the few genuine powerhouse studios in gay hardcore, pumping out hundreds upon hundreds of DVD releases featuring the hardest and hottest all-male sex you can imagine. With sub-studios Rascal Video and Catalina Video, and best-selling titles like Mixed Thoughts, Mountain Jock, Piss N Boots, and the Powertool series, C1R brings its operation online on this, its official base on the 'net. By snagging yourself a $24.95 monthly membership, you're guaranteed access to… well, I'm honestly not quite sure. C1R's tour pages promise all members five "free" movies every week, 30 free VOD (video on demand) minutes, which definitely suggests that isn't your average buy-your-way-in-and-get-everything porn site. The HD logos flying around are promising, though, and it's hard to imagine C1R's website being anything but totally fulfilling. We are, after all, talking about the USA's preeminent gay porn studio. What could possibly go wrong?

Pros:
C1R is many things to many men, but most obviously it's an enormous collection of gay hardcore that covers everything from fairly tepid (i.e.: "romantic") oral-only scenes to bareback, S&M, group sex, "straight" guys, jocks and bears and daddies and twinks, and plenty of interracial fuckin'.

Dozens of gay porn's top studs are here and many of them are exclusive to C1R; Mitchell Rock, Blake Riley, Cameron Marshall, Brent Everett, Johnny Hazard, and Jimmy Durano, for example. Although not exactly overflowing with information, the performers are given profile pages that supply members with their basic bio stats and links to all their C1R work, whether they're exclusively contracted to this studio or not.

C1R is definitely a site that knows how to give its members plenty of options. Aside from the weekly-rotating selection of free movies, there are live webcam shows, multiple blogs, Q&A sessions with Dirk Yates, archived webcam shows, freely accessible "webisodes" and so much VOD content you'll never have to bother with regular rentals again.

Cons:
At 26 cents per minute, viewing C1R's VOD content gets really expensive really quickly. Minutes are deducted as soon as you start viewing, without providing you with a confirmation window to make sure you really do want to spend your minutes on a scene you may assume will just be a free preview. The free minutes given to members are great, yes, but they're only good for thirty minutes of viewing, valued at $5.95.

The Free Movies provided to Premium Members every month are changed every week and may or may not make repeat appearances. Providing folks who pay $24.95 for monthly access a mere quintet of titles makes C1R even more expensive to enjoy than previously thought. Also, the galleries that are online can only be viewed by Premium Members.

Video quality across the various archives is generally quite poor. Resolutions usually peak at a paltry 640x480 pixels and regularly present the videos with hazy, choppy, distorted, heavily pixilated images. Adding insult to this particular injury: C1R offers absolutely no downloadable content.

Aside from requiring you to keep paying through the nose for its VOD content, C1R also has the balls - no pun intended - to remind you that you're 'this' close to a bunch of other "specials" and "bargains." Advertising is so prevalent on C1R that it's nigh impossible to ignore and will no doubt annoy the shit out of everyone but Premium Members.

Conclusion:
Channel 1 Releasing has firmly established itself as the king of the gay hardcore retail DVD market, but claiming the same position among its online competitors would be extremely presumptuous and almost certainly inaccurate. C1R's two membership options are both quite disappointing, with free members essentially only allowed to take a quick look around the site before handing over money for the VOD content. Those who join the Premium program receive five free DVD titles per month and a variety of other content, but still aren't given more than 30 minutes of viewing time for their $24.95 monthly payment. With not a single downloadable movie in sight, so much advertising it'll almost instantly tick you off, expensive upgrades and minutes packages - $5.95 to stream one-third of a feature? Fuck that! - and, contrary to tour page claims, no High Definition content at all, C1R is definitely a premium (read: expensive) offering that gay hardcore fans with likely find too difficult and costly for regular use.