Hirescovers.net Reviewed

Hirescovers Review

Slogan: Your Home For Everything Cover Related; One Site, Three Galleries; United By Covers

Administrator(s): Bazzah

Moderators: corky, kylumi, Irrob, B3ARStyLE, ubl6612, *Krafty*, CyberClown

Engine: IP.Board Version 2.3.1 IInvision Power Services); Coppermine Photo Gallery

Access: Registration required to view site/Subscription pr Proving Yourself required to access covers and artwork

Language: English Only

Types of Covers Offered: DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, Masters Designer, Console Covers, Scans, Competition Entries, Thinpaks, Inserts

Forum: Yes; News, Site Rules, Prove Yourself, Cover WIP, Design Artists, Requests, Cover Show Off, Console Art (Covers & Labels, Console WIP, Console Show Off, Console Requests, Console Templates), Discussions (Mayhem, Movies, Welcome, Suggestions, Technology, Movie News), Help Desk (Skallys Skoolyard, Tips and Tricks, General Art Help, Requests, Site Help), Error Reports

Upload Process: Via The Gallery

DVD Disc Labels: Yes

Keyart/Cost: Yes/Subscription or Proving Yourself

Posters/Cost: Yes/Subscription or Proving Yourself

Site Advertisements: Ad Banners, Google AdSense/Search. Scattered through the site.

Newsletter: Yes

Statistics: Our members have made a total of 48,200 posts. 13,009 registered members

Extras: HiRes Accesories Shop via CafePress, Arcade, Chat Applet, Blogs, Lo-Fi View, Textures, Resource (Fonts, Templates, etc.) Downloads, Site Themed Wallpaper

Full Access Subscription cost $12.00 and gives you unlimited access to the entire site so if your favorite artists are regular cover posters here then Hirescovers.net may be your one stop shop for covers. Some of the featured artists include CaveManLawyer, CyberClown, Demonology, Dweez, Global Cinema, Golemeye, Irrob, Kylumi, ubl6612. The subscription lasts for a year and can be set to auto-renewal. The price of the subscription is very reasonable especially if you download a lot of covers.

Hirescovers has also made console/game covers an integral part of the site. It offers a separate subforum for console covers and also provides an area for console cover WIP’s. Currently, there are about a hundred or so console covers available, hopefully this number will grow with time.

Another great aspect of the site, is it’s Cover of the Month feature. Covers that go through the WIP process on the site and then are uploaded to the gallery are eligible for this monthly title. Covers of the Month are announced on the 5th of every month. At the moment, no prizes are involved, but instead, just recognition. I found this to be a great way for people to get involved in theWIP section and also provide incentive for them to upload their covers. Maybe in the future, HiRes will throw in some prizes to the winners! HiResCovers also often hold cover competitions, providing an even higher level of interaction for its members.

The HiRes Accessories shop offers users the opportunity to purchase HiRes logo items, including t-shirts, hats, mugs, and much more. The items are produced by CafePress and are a little pricey but if you want some HiRes gear, this is the place to go!

My main criticism for HiRes would be forum clutter. The forums are divided into many different categories and sub-forums. Specifically, it looks like the Discussion, Helpdesk, and Error Reports forum categories could be stripped down and put into one category. It just seems a little bulky as is, but that’s just my opinion. Other than that, the forums seem to be very active and the moderators seem to be quite helpful in providing advice, help and critiques. Another small criticism, involves the look of the gallery not matching with that of the rest of the site. This might be a theme limitation in Coppermine, but, ideally, the site would look much more cohesive if the themes matched.

Ultimately, Hirescovers offer a large amount of covers to subscribers that are high quality, covers are added daily and some of the most well known designers upload atHiRes. A large amount of poster art and keyart is available for download by subscribers. Also, the growing number of console covers is plus for people interested in that type of artwork.

Pros: Many recognized names upload at HiRes, Cover of the Month and Competitions add heightened participation by members, Accessories shop provide logo products, Subscriptions is relatively cheap if you download a lot of covers.

Cons: Crowded forum and gallery, gallery theme different from the rest of the site.

Reviewed by iCoty.

9Covers.com Reviewed

Site: 9Covers.com

Slogan: The Advanced Cover Site.

Administrator(s): Sandman

Moderator(s): spartanstew, flyers2thecup, amelandbor

Engine: vbPortable (A CMS for VBulletin)

Access: Registration required to view site/Subscription required to access covers and artwork

Language: English Only Covers

Types of Covers Offered: DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, TV Show, Foreign Films, Asian/Anime, Game Covers, Scans, Music, Thinpaks, “The Pit”

Forum: Yes, Featured Artists, WIP’s, Proving Grounds, Uploads, Requests, Site Errors, Cover Help (Q&A, Resources, Artwork), Discussion (Speak You Peace, Cover Chat, Movie News Discussion, DVD Bargains, Front Page News)

Upload Process: Via Forum Threads

DVD Disc Labels: Yes

Keyart/Cost: Yes/Subscription

Posters/Cost: Yes/Subscription

Site Advertisements: Yes, 3 on Homepage. Scattered through the site.

Newsletter: Yes

Statistics: Threads: 10,348, Posts: 28,039, Members: 4,162

Extras: Specific section for special interest covers (e.g. Children Learning Videos, Sports Related, Documentary, Computers), Slashdot News Feed on Homepage.

9Covers has been open only for a few months but has since grown to have a large base of users and a steady flow of cover submissions. When you first register, you have access to the forums but no access to the cover gallery, even previews of covers are restricted. However, they do offer a small Preview/Sample section of 10 or so covers for you to look at. However, Sandman (site admin) has indicated that soon site previews will be available for view by all members, not only those who have upgraded status. The shoutbox is also restricted to users with upgraded status. You are able to gain “Upgraded Member” status through 2 ways: 1. Proving Grounds, and 2. Subscription. The subscriptions are broken down by months (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year), and cost$5, $10, $15, and $20 respectively. Once an upgrade is purchase, they guarantee instant access, however, the purchase is non-refundable.

The upload process is done through the forums. Newly uploaded covers from regular members are then reviewed and then uploaded to their respective forum and receive their own forum thread, much like Generetic. Level 1 Upgraded members are allowed to post directly into the cover forums. Furthermore, you must accompany a preview image of your cover along with your upload. The preview, according to the site rules, must be done in the Imandix Cover Creator program. “The Pit” is similar to “The Bin” found at Replace The Case in that it offers users to submit covers to “The Pit” gallery that are not up to the regular upload standards. The site has ZERO tolerance for submitting work that is not your own. Submitting anothers work will result in an immediate ban.

[Update: Users are allowed to submit work that is not their own, however, they are not allowed to take credit for it. If the cover artist is not known at the time of upload then the cover artist is left as unknown. If someone takes credit for a cover that is not their own then they are immediately banned.]

“You must upload your covers to the appropriate forums. Custom Covers get posted into the Cover Uploads Forum in the sub-forum Custom Covers. And just in case you missed it, that would be in the same forum that you are reading this. If you have different versions of covers for the same movie or it is a series of movies then you would post in the Custom Cover Sets Forum. And remember that when you get to a Level 1 membership you will no longer be posting here but directly into the appropriate forums. Posting in the wrong forums will not be tolerated.”

9Covers dubs itself as being the advanced cover site, however, I did not find much that was anymore advance over other cover sites. Overall, the look, layout, and feel of the site reminded me of Generetic. The homepage felt especially similar to Generetic. Not allowing all users to view at least previews of all the covers on the site would, for me at least, be a deterrence to purchasing any type of upgrade membership, as I would not know what type of content is available. The sample cover page seems a bit outdated and wasn’t all that impressive. I am very sure that there are covers on the site that would be much more attractive to sample than the present samples. One suggestion, would be to keep the samples automatically updated and synced with newly uploaded covers. Although the admin Sandman did suggest that previews will soon be open to all, this may be a good alternative until that code is implemented. Another problem that I had with the site was that you are not able to see images that are posted in the forums. This is one aspect I disliked about Generetic and one that I dislike about 9Covers.

[Editors Note: It was brought to my attention that the meaning of "Advanced" in their slogan is in reference to the vast amount of Hi-Def (HD-DVD, Blu-Ray) covers that are available.  Also, it should be mentioned that free previews will be implemented soon and that the front page consists of 2 Hi-Def cover previews that change every few days]

Discussions in the forums seem to be active, and new covers are posted daily. The last time I checked, 83 unique members had accessed the site within the last 24 hours and actively, there were 49 members online. The userbase is very important in making a site thrive and it looks like 9Covers has a good and active userbase that participates in both the forums and cover uploading.

The Featured Artist section provides featured artist with their own subforum. The subforums have their own rules and are managed by the featured artists. Featured artists include: DWAbernath, Demonology, Chefjoe, Georgieboy26, CORSAGAV, Kraal, and LEGO. Demonology is arguably the most notable of the bunch and has created some great covers. DWAbernath is best known for his many collections, including his Horror Collection of which includes over 200 covers, comic book collection which is a continuation of template that Moonshadow created.

Pros: Active site with an active user base, new covers are uploaded daily. Zero tolerance when it comes to taking credit for work that is not your own.

Cons: Restricted preview access to both the forums, covers, and artwork until upgraded status is attained. Static sample cover page. Bulky ad placement.