Jonathan Takiff writes at www.philly.com – While normally front-runners with new technology, the adult entertainment industry is decidedly “split” on shooting and showing its’ wares in 3-D. So found trade reporters at this year’s just ended Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

3-D porn is busting out bigger in Europe than in the U.S., declared AEE’s keynote speaker Michael Klein [pictured], president of Larry Flynt Publications. His Hustler Video division is now making in-your- face versions of all new releases.

Also offering a thumbs-up for the reach-out-and-touch tech is Digital Playground, which released its first 3-D Blu-ray in November, the adult comedy “Jailhouse Heat” and seen it rise to the top of the porno sales chart. Yes, the YouTube-placed trailer for “Jailhouse Heat” is viewable in 3-D using the old-fashioned analglyph (red and blue lens) glasses. But the production was actually shot with the same camera used on James Cameron’s “Avatar,” said company executive (Ali) Joone, and requires a full-fledged 3-D TV/Blu-Ray setup with active shutter or polarized glasses to fully enjoy at home.

Less excited about stereoscopic sex, Vivid Entertainment has released only the Italian-produced “Cathouse ’45” in 3-D Blu-Ray to modest sales. But Vivid makes the product hard (or at least pricey) to get. The offering is bundled in a three-disc set with conventional 2-D DVD and Blu-ray versions.

Vivid decided against making its sex farce “Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody” in 3-D (as previously announced) because the epic, containing more than 500 special effects, was already going to be the company’s costliest to date and the 3-D version “ultimately didn’t’ make sense financially,” related company co-chairman Steven Hirsch in an AEE interview with trade reporter Jeff Berman.

Also “holding off” on 3-D is Pink Visual. President Allison Vivas believes that consumers are reluctant to use their “family-centric,” living room-situated 3-D TV for viewing hardcore stuff. She also argues that the technology is better suited for action and horror movies than porn because “the things that can come at you” (in 3-D porn) “are the things that a male viewer does not want coming at them.”