Porn Valley- Chances are, most of you are still here, reading, and that partly explains the appeal of the adult film industry. Adult films exist for one reason and one reason alone: titillation. Name your particular kick or kink, and they offer just the thing for you. That’s how it’s become a multibillion dollar business.

But while the adult film industry has long paralleled Hollywood, with its big stars, big directors and big grosses (most earned on cable or home video), it’s long been a leader technologically as well, especially when it comes to DVD. If the vast majority of skin flicks are quickly produced low-budget films, DVD has encouraged an ambitious minority to try and keep up with the mainstream with relatively lavish budgets, fancy effects and special edition DVDs.

“We’re still battling the perception that porn has a certain quality level,” says Ali Joone, owner of Digital Playground and director of the indeed surprisingly ambitious, months-in-the-making adult feature “Pirates,” which was recently released on DVD. “The first reaction I get from people who watch `Pirates’ is often, `Wow, I had no idea porn could look like that.’ So it’s a stepping stone for us to change people’s minds and to expand our distribution. Not everything has to be the same. We can create movies that are adult themed and deal with subject matter that maybe Hollywood can’t, and have an outlet for it.”

“Pirates” premiered in September on the big screen at Hollywood’s legendary Egyptian Theatre, a first for any adult feature, and advance DVD sales took Digital Playground and Adam & Eve–major players in the adult market who co-produced “Pirates”–by surprise.

“It’s flying out the door,” says Adam & Eve producer Meredith Christopher. “For Adam & Eve, it’s the biggest-selling movie we’ve ever done.”

You won’t find “Pirates” in Wal-Mart, Blockbuster or on Amazon. Make no mistake: It’s a XXX film. Yet it aims a little higher, throwing in some cool sets and costumes, more than 300 special effects and even a little humor. In fact, the film debuted on DVD in the same quality as any recent Ridley Scott special edition: on three well-packaged discs, including a high-def version of both the feature and the making-of footage, plus a commentary track.

Which demands the question: If it’s titillation that draws people to “Pirates,” who is sitting through a commentary track or making-of feature?

“I think that people, once they get involved in the movie, want to know as much about the movie as they can,” says Steven Hirsch, CEO of Vivid Entertainment, probably the best known adult entertainment company. “`The New Devil in Miss Jones’ [which contains three commentary tracks] is an interesting movie and serves its purpose, but they want to know all of the elements that went into creating it.”

The original “The Devil in Miss Jones,” directed by Gerard Damiano and released in 1973, rivaled his previous work, “Deep Throat,”, www.xxxdeepthroat.com in both notoriety and profits. But “Devil” also had a real story and a dark edge more in line with Sartre than silly pizza delivery scenarios. Joone notes that the usual adult budget is between $20,000 and $25,000. Hirsch says that Vivid consistently spends $150,000 on a film, and that “The New Devil in Miss Jones” cost over $300,000.

“We’re pretty sure what kind of money we’re going to make from producing a typical adult movie,” says Hirsch. ” [But] there is a bigger payoff for bigger films. It’s about building a brand, and to do that it takes many years of continuing to put out high-quality movies.”

There’s high quality, though, and then there’s “Pirates,” which features sea battles, marauding CGI skeletons and an entertaining script that could possibly even stand on its own, minus the sex. To that end, Joone and Digital Playground have been experimenting with alternate cuts of the film.

“I have a version with no sex in it, and it’s 90 minutes long,” says Joone. “I call it the NC-17 version–some nudity, a little sex, but very light. It’ll be able to be sold in Blockbuster and all the normal distribution channels. As an artist, you want as many people to see your film as possible. That’s why I put a lot of story and characters in it.”

“If you take the sex scenes out and make them `Sex and the City’ soft,” says Digital Playground president Samantha Lewis of that show’s boundary-pushing sex and nudity, “you’ve still got a great movie. We’ve got some mainstream studios interested in possibly distributing an R-rated version.”