Review of House of Taboo
| Date | May 13, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Author: | |
| Score: | 87 / 100 |
| Pricing: | $29.95 for 30 days then $29.95 recurring every 30 days $34.95 for 30 days (non-recurring) $49.95 for 60 days then $49.95 recurring every 60 days $59.95 for 90 days then $59.95 recurring every 90 days |
House of Taboo
Summary
Porn-power
- Very good-looking models, all young and juicy. There are 5 different "perversions", spanking, bondage, naughty doctor / nurse, latex and extreme water sports. All on-topic, but served with a glow of glamour.
- The pictures of this site are great, big, sharp and professional. Videos are also good, both in camera-technique and resolution.
- At 30 bucks a month, I for one would expect more content. However, this is a fetish site, working with relatively narrow niches, and that counts in their favor.
- Based on the tour I would guess around 8-10 monthly updates, but it doesn't seem entirely consistent. Still, 8 updates per month is not bad for a fetish site with so unique content.
- The tour has previews of each category that give a pretty exact idea of what you will find inside. The "what's new" section of the tour displays the real recent updates.
- Very simple layout, very easy to find what you are looking for.
- The only complaint in this department is that all the picture-only sets still display a link to the video-section of the update. -Which is useless and annoying. Site speed and everything else is great though.
My opinion
House Of Taboo is a fetish site, which has spread it's focus out on 5 different "perversions", as they so fondly call them. The idea behind the site seems to be bringing high quality professional photography and beautiful girls together with fetish. This is something I rarely see, and I applaud the idea. -Often in the fetish world you are forced to accept low quality, or mediocre models. That is not the case in the House of Taboo!
Unfortunately, I don't think the site offers enough content. -If for instance you are mainly interested in the 'diabolical docters and nurses', you will be disapointed to find only 9 updates in the category, 3 of which have no videos. The site attempts to cover several micro-niches, which makes it a great place to test your desires, but a not-so-great place to satisfy them once you know what truly turns you on.
There are many different models, and every single one is a babe. That is not at all common in this niche, so it counts as a big plus in my head. -But as so often in the dark world of S/M, dominance and humiliation: The hotter the girls, the less hardcore and bizarre the action. -Don't get me wrong, this is definetely hardcore, but it is not the sickest shit you can imagine. There's plenty of spanking, bondage and pissing, but the site is a funny combination of S&M and glamour porn. -The pain seems simulated, and not in a way that pretends to be reality. -Great for beginners, but again the serious fetishist will not be satisfied.
Picture sets typically contain 130 photos, give or take. Each one professional, well lit, and set up for the best shot. There is a huge variety in the shoots, some take place in dark dungeons, others in bright hospital-settings. The spanking section alone is as diverse as lesbians lightly flicking each others pussies, and guys using nine-tailed whips until the poor girls butt-cheeks are red and bruised. I saw girls spraying injected milk from their ass, and latex-clad lesbians in a shoot with a dog! -Which I should probably mention did not take part in the action though... -It's not that kind of site ;)
The extras section contains pictures from 5 fetish parties, each offering about 30 pics. -Not a lot of action here, yet interesting to have a look at. Furthermore there is a section where you can to submit your own S/M and fetish related stories, or read the stories of other users. Currently there are only 12 stories, but all of them very long. Finally there is a link to the DDF-shop where you can buy DVDs, clothing, dildos and other props used in the videos on this and other DDF-sites.
Most updates have videos along with the pictures, however I would guess around 30% are picture-only.
Tech-stuff
Pictures are about 1600x1100 pixels, by default, which is more than enough for crisp full-screen. They are also available in 2 smaller sizes, 800x530 pixels and 430x280 for dial-up users. ZIP files are availabe for each page of pictures within a gallery, but not for the full picture shoot. That can be a nuissance if you want to download the entire gallery, since most galleries are spread out on 7-9 pages.
Videos are 480x270 pixels for the best format, and that gives a good picture quality, even in fullscreen mode. They are a cut into chunks of 2-5 minuttes, and available for download in three formats: Windows Media Player WMV, Quicktime MOV and DivX AVI. They are also available for download or streaming in their full length in VMW format, at a bitrate that should stream smoothly for most users, yet gives a decent quality / viewing experience.
Navigation on this site is easy, there are 5 different categories on the main page. Within each category there is a gallery of thumbnails, each representing an update, and roughly showing what you can expect to find inside. Once you click on a thumb, you will be taken directly to the first page of the picture gallery, where you have the option to switch to the video gallery. Thumbnails are big and clear. The design itself is well-suited for fetish. -Dark greys and an aggressive dark red color give the right mood for the dark end of sexuality.
Unfortunately, I don't think the site offers enough content. -If for instance you are mainly interested in the 'diabolical docters and nurses', you will be disapointed to find only 9 updates in the category, 3 of which have no videos. The site attempts to cover several micro-niches, which makes it a great place to test your desires, but a not-so-great place to satisfy them once you know what truly turns you on.
There are many different models, and every single one is a babe. That is not at all common in this niche, so it counts as a big plus in my head. -But as so often in the dark world of S/M, dominance and humiliation: The hotter the girls, the less hardcore and bizarre the action. -Don't get me wrong, this is definetely hardcore, but it is not the sickest shit you can imagine. There's plenty of spanking, bondage and pissing, but the site is a funny combination of S&M and glamour porn. -The pain seems simulated, and not in a way that pretends to be reality. -Great for beginners, but again the serious fetishist will not be satisfied.
Picture sets typically contain 130 photos, give or take. Each one professional, well lit, and set up for the best shot. There is a huge variety in the shoots, some take place in dark dungeons, others in bright hospital-settings. The spanking section alone is as diverse as lesbians lightly flicking each others pussies, and guys using nine-tailed whips until the poor girls butt-cheeks are red and bruised. I saw girls spraying injected milk from their ass, and latex-clad lesbians in a shoot with a dog! -Which I should probably mention did not take part in the action though... -It's not that kind of site ;)
The extras section contains pictures from 5 fetish parties, each offering about 30 pics. -Not a lot of action here, yet interesting to have a look at. Furthermore there is a section where you can to submit your own S/M and fetish related stories, or read the stories of other users. Currently there are only 12 stories, but all of them very long. Finally there is a link to the DDF-shop where you can buy DVDs, clothing, dildos and other props used in the videos on this and other DDF-sites.
Most updates have videos along with the pictures, however I would guess around 30% are picture-only.
Tech-stuff
Pictures are about 1600x1100 pixels, by default, which is more than enough for crisp full-screen. They are also available in 2 smaller sizes, 800x530 pixels and 430x280 for dial-up users. ZIP files are availabe for each page of pictures within a gallery, but not for the full picture shoot. That can be a nuissance if you want to download the entire gallery, since most galleries are spread out on 7-9 pages.
Videos are 480x270 pixels for the best format, and that gives a good picture quality, even in fullscreen mode. They are a cut into chunks of 2-5 minuttes, and available for download in three formats: Windows Media Player WMV, Quicktime MOV and DivX AVI. They are also available for download or streaming in their full length in VMW format, at a bitrate that should stream smoothly for most users, yet gives a decent quality / viewing experience.
Navigation on this site is easy, there are 5 different categories on the main page. Within each category there is a gallery of thumbnails, each representing an update, and roughly showing what you can expect to find inside. Once you click on a thumb, you will be taken directly to the first page of the picture gallery, where you have the option to switch to the video gallery. Thumbnails are big and clear. The design itself is well-suited for fetish. -Dark greys and an aggressive dark red color give the right mood for the dark end of sexuality.
Conclusion
If you know exactly what your perversion is already, then I would guess you're better off on another site. If on the other hand you are interested in peeking into some of the darker sides of sex, this site is a great place to start. Even with the not-so-overwhelming amount of content, HouseOfTaboo manages to cover a large portion of the planets in the fetish universe.
My recommendation would be to take a single months membership, and get a soft introduction to the fetish world. Then when you're ready for more explicit stuff, and you know what turns you on, switch to a site specializing in that micro-niche. This is great fetish porn, but it has a strong side-taste of glamour, and the serious fetishists I know do not appreciate that ;)
My recommendation would be to take a single months membership, and get a soft introduction to the fetish world. Then when you're ready for more explicit stuff, and you know what turns you on, switch to a site specializing in that micro-niche. This is great fetish porn, but it has a strong side-taste of glamour, and the serious fetishists I know do not appreciate that ;)
Visit House of Taboo
Porn-power
18/20
Content quality
19/20
Value for money
15/20
Updates
8/10
As promised
9/10
Navigation
10/10
Surfability
8/10
Total Score
87/100
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