Before you continue reading, I want to make sure that you know that we are talking about ThisVid. Not the vid, or that vid, but ThisVid! I know, not my strongest opener, but I couldn’t resist it. My apologies. Honestly, it has been a while since I saw a site this simple. It's not trying to impress anyone. It is just there. It exists, and people can check it out. That’s it. No fancy bells, no whistles, no endless menus of options. Just videos, a lot of them, and a very basic way to look at them.
You know the drill by now if you're into this niche. Guys in stockings, skirts, heels, wigs, and makeup, pulling off a look that's equal parts bold and hot. It's a niche that lives on variety, and that's exactly where ThisVid has something to show off.
Gay crossdressing videos actually worth digging through
The gay crossdressing section on ThisVid holds around 6.900 videos. That's a solid number for a niche this specific. It's not the biggest collection on the internet, but it's more than enough to keep you busy for a long time. If you watch a few videos every night, you're looking at years of content. I know that is not always the case, since a lot of you are quite picky with your porn, but I can be a bit optimistic. Sometimes.
What makes ThisVid a bit different is its whole vibe. It feels more like a community-driven site than a polished studio showcase, so a lot of what you'll find is amateur stuff. Guys filming themselves trying on outfits, couples having fun with a wardrobe change, and the occasional more produced scene mixed in. If you like your crossdressing raw and real, with the authenticity that only a shaky homemade video can deliver, you'll feel right at home here.
Considering that it is an amateur-heavy collection, I was expecting a ton of bleed due to sloppy tagging and a category full of stuff that doesn’t belong. Yeah, there is some bleed from other niches, quite a decent amount of it actually, and you will find yourself scrolling past videos that have nothing to do with the niche and scenes that someone tagged too generously, and the odd video here and there where you will question what the fuck the uploader was thinking.
However, I still have to be fair towards ThisVid, and that is that it is surprisingly not that bad. Most of what you'll see is still the real deal, and the unrelated videos are scattered enough that they don't take over the category. A quick look at the thumbnail usually tells you whether a video fits or not. So yes, you'll have to use your eyes a bit, but with 6.900 videos to choose from, you can afford to skip the ones that don't make the cut. We both know that the gay crossdressing niche can be a lot worse than it is on ThisVid.
The filters are really not that useful
There are only a few things that grind my gears when it comes to crossdressing porn. The first one is when the tagging is really out of hand, where the videos have no reason for being in this category, and the second is that I cannot filter them out through the site’s settings. Unfortunately, this is where ThisVid is a bit disappointing, because the filters are almost non-existent. You have one dropdown menu, and it gives you four options: public sorted by top rated, public sorted by most popular, private sorted by recent, and private sorted by top rated. That's it. No quality filter, no duration filter, no date filter, no way to combine tags.
Oh wait, no, my bad. There is also a “recent” option, which only shows when you pick one of the other fucking options, because that is apparently the default one, which I didn’t notice until I was quite some time into this review. Maybe this one is on me, since, to be fair, it does say “new videos” under the “ThisVid” logo. But honestly, I bet you didn’t notice it either. Maybe I am getting old for this shit.
Still, the only interesting options are the public and private split, unless you are browsing ThisVid on a regular basis. Public videos are the ones anyone can watch, while private videos are locked by their uploaders and aren't open to just anybody. So if you're browsing as a guest, the public options are where you'll spend most of your time. The private side is more for people who are deeper into the community and have access to that content.
As for the rest, you're on your own. With 6.900 videos and some bleed in the mix, the lack of filters really hurts. There are no options to filter only HD videos, or to filter actual videos and not some trailers that are a minute or two long with all the best action cut out. You have to do everything manually by looking at the thumbnails and timestamps on them. If you are just about to browse ThisVid for the first time, I would honestly start with the top-rated and most popular instead of the default recent option. That way, at least you will filter out the garbage that was downvoted by the community instead of having to do that part of the work yourself.
Another site with a fullscreen ad surprise
If something is free, you are bound to run into some ads. Sure, some sites have ads that are not in your way. They leave you alone, both while browsing and while trying to watch videos. However, on ThisVid, you are going to be fighting both of those. One of the most annoying ads is the kind that prevents you from opening a video when you click on the thumbnail, forcing you to click the “continue” button. You know what I am talking about, and I bet you fucking hate it too. Luckily, this is easily avoidable, as you can just open the video in a new tab with a middle-click on your mouse. If you are browsing on your phone, you can select the “open in new tab,” which is a bit more annoying, but still doable.
Unfortunately, that is not all the fighting you will have to do with ads, as once you are on the video page, another ad will strike you from the shadows, but at least it is a bit less aggressive. It only plays when you hit play on the video, so it doesn’t jump at you the moment the page loads. You press play, sit through the ad, and then you get your video to wank to. I know it is not an ideal scenario, but that is the price of free porn, and an ad-blocker will take care of it in case you are really annoyed. Still, as much as I hate ads, if something is given to you for free, in a great amount, I would suck it up if I keep coming back to watch stuff.
The player could definitely use an update
The video player on ThisVid is about as basic as it gets. You can play, pause, adjust the volume, change the resolution, and preview the thumbnail when you are about to jump somewhere in the video. Honestly, it could be worse, as I have seen players on some websites in recent years that can’t even do that much. The resolution option did give me a good laugh, since when I checked it for the first time, I could choose only between 240p and HQ. Damn, 240p really takes me back.
Because of all the things that ThisVid offers, I have to say that it is definitely a strange mix. On one hand, there is a really good number of gay crossdressing videos, with a raw amateur feel that a lot of fans of the niche will love. The bleed is there, but it is not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. On the other hand, the site feels like it has a lot of things missing, and that even a minor update could fix so many things. The filters are close to non-existent, the player is basic, and the fullscreen ad on every click until you learn the trick is a pain in the ass. If you’re patient and don’t mind a bit of digging around, ThisVid has a lot of potential. However, if you want your content served on a platter, which is kind of expected in modern times, I would go somewhere else. I will call you a lazy bum for that, since there are some amazing videos here, but I will understand if you don’t feel like doing manual labor in the heavily automated days we live in.
