Reviewed 2009-08-04 l Last update on 2015-06-08
What you have here is a stock of DVD titles, in various categories, and the promise of some things which are not quite accurate. The tour says 500+ DVDs, but the count in the members area is actually only 37, and the site states that figure once you are inside. You've actually got 165 solo and hardcore scenes, from 20 studios, and three resolutions in which to view them; as streams or downloads in WMV format. Its not bad for what you're paying and daily updates are promised.
The site works very much as a video on demand site, except you only pay a membership subscription to access it then you pay no more to view.
You start off with 20 box shots of the most recent additions, a list of categories to the left, where you will also find drop-down lists of studios and niches, and there is a search box too. Its easy enough to find the content here; you can arrange it by DVDs (37) or by scenes (165). There are also top lists, most viewed/downloaded, and new releases. Simply make your selection and then see whats on offer.
With each movies page you have the box cover again, you are told the studio and the names of the models, and these link to pages where other appearances or other productions from that studio are laid out for you. You can then download the entire movie or any of its scenes. Were told that the download rate is super fast and it is at around 100kbps, so not bad at all. There are three resolutions to choose from and you are told the file size, so you can work out for yourself what's the best sized scene for your connection speed. The mid range version came out at 450kbps @ 512 x 384, when I was in the site, and the quality here was fine, with full screen options available. The top DVD quality came out at 1.40Mbps @ 640 x 480.
It was good to see some new studios represented here; at least studios that were new to me. There are some well know ones like Video 10, but also more obscure ones that will give you the chance to find some unusual content. Just because there are new or little known studios doesn't mean the quality isn't any good though, and I had no complaints about any of the scenes that I sampled.
Its also neat to be able to find content by category and there were 28 in the list, including an option to view all the scenes in one list. The content therefore is varied. From twinks to hunks and older guys, and from spanking (one movie) to Latin (three movies).
All in all your content count may not be as big as the tour first suggests I for one didn't find 500 + scenes let alone DVDs, but the quality is fine, its easy to access the content and as long as the updates are presented as promised, the site is set to grow very quickly.
Moving around is easy. Your left menu stays with you and you always have the category lists, the drop-downs for studios and niches, the lists of the top scenes and so on. You can also cast your vote on each one and bump it up the top lists if you want. It would be nice to have more information about the studios, when the DVDs were released, who directed them, and some more info about the stars; its all rather basic in that respect. There are no screen caps either, apart from those that advertise the scene, which are big and clear. And, if you don't like or use WMV then you're not going to be very happy as that was the only player I could find.
Gay Download Key is simply designed too; the static left menu and banner means that you can always get to where you want to go from wherever you are, and there are links to home and support constantly with you at the top. Each movie can be broken down into scenes, where you are told the run time and file sizes, there are basic descriptions and you can view front and back covers.
Its all rather basic really and concentrates on the movies rather than the frills and thrills that other sites add in to their video lists. But this does mean that it is easy to use and pages are quick to load.
I get the impression that Gay Download Key is rather thin on the ground and I wonder how long it will take for us to reach the 500 promised DVDs. As far as I can see the site started in July 09 and had been adding one new title a day; so its going to take anther year or so to reach the target. But that does mean that you will have a new full length DVD to download every 24 hours, and you're not going to complain about that are you? Well, don't, its a very reasonable offer!
