Ultimately, price was a tremendous factor in the adult film industry’s selection of VHS instead of Betamax as the preferred video format. Even though Betamax was arguably technically superior and offered better picture quality (not to mention that it was introduced a year before JVC’s VHS format), Sony’s video cassette was more expensive and had a shorter recording capacity than VHS tapes. Sony engineers decided to limit recording time on Betamax tapes to one hour, compared to VHS’s two to four hour capacity, because they didn’t want the picture quality to degrade.

The adult movie business discovered that VHS tapes were also cheaper to manufacture. While longer recording times for VHS were a prevailing factor in higher consumer adoption of the format during the later years of the VCR era, the adult film industry initially flooded the marketplace with scores of adult movies on VHS, leading many people to purchase VHS-compatible VCRs. "With the major [studios], they weren’t going to respond until there were enough VCRs out there to make a difference," Asher said. "Adult also has a much lower threshold. We’re a little more motivated for a lot less dollars than the majors. Because of adult, people were buying VCRs, and because of that, there were enough VCRs out there that the mainstream finally said, ’Okay, there’s a secondary market here, a second chance to sell people a movie.’"

The immortal adult film "Debbie Does Dallas" became a hit on home video.

With greater adoption, the prices for VCRs and VHS tapes began to fall from unattainable prices to more affordable levels for the masses. And eventually, the price of movies became much more affordable. "The business got smart and they started doing compilation tapes in the early 80s, which could be produced and sold cheaply," Jacobs said.

With access to the consumer easier than ever thanks to the VCR, the adult industry exploded. "Easy access for the consumer is what it’s always been about," Jacobs said. "The adult industry is a very purchase-driven industry. "It’s not a rental-driven industry like the mainstream."

According to a report on porn chronicler Luke Ford’s Web site, by 1983 three quarters of all video rentals and sales were adult movies. The number regarding adult film rentals and sales have always been tough to pin down, since much of the commerce is done through independent outlets and

grey market channels rather than through major retailers and rental stores. Nevertheless, the U.S. pornographic film business, which is centred in the San Fernando Valley region of Southern California, exploded as a result of the VCR.

As Asher previously mentioned, before the VCR revolution, the adult business was nowhere near as big as it is today. Adult films were then shot on film, and average costs were reportedly in the range of $500,000, which would be ridiculously expensive for an adult film today. Another advantage that came with the new technology was that adult films were cheaper than ever to make on video.

In "The Other Hollywood," a history of the adult industry, former porn star Tim Connelly recalled that when the biz changed over from film to video, "the production costs became a tenth of making a film, and they pushed out the same number of copies, raking in huge profits."

"What also happened is that there were a thousand guys out there doing it instead of five or 10 guys," Asher said. "Adult is very competitive. There are only a handful of major studios. With adult, there’s so many guys out there doing so many things, you have to come up with some way to differentiate yourself. In adult, 11,000 movies get made each year. If you’re just one of the thousands, you’re not gonna stand out. So everybody has to have some kind of niche; that’s why you feel you have to be the first to do everything in this industry."