Playboy started with the notion that it featured the “girl next door” - just naked. It was a brilliant conceit, as it made the women more accessible to the average reader. Theoretically, these weren’t unattainable models - they were the same women you’d meet at the grocery store or near the mailbox.

This was never really true, of course. Whether they live next door or in some mystical Babeland, the average guy has little chance to hook up with a Playboy model. Nonetheless, the concept of the “girl next door” continues, and technology has abetted it as seen in Playboy’s Sexiest Amateur Home Videos.

A collection of clips created by non-professionals, Videos presents 10 models as they pose and chat about themselves. The show introduces us to Lancaster, California’s Alyssa Lovelace, Jelena Jensen of Los Angeles, Verneesha Shea of Saratoga Springs NY, Las Vegas’s Marissa Renee, Sweden’s Anika Knudsen, Sasha Singleton of Huntington Beach, California, Pittsburgh’s Liza Hartling, Jessica Kershner of Seattle, Woodbury, New Jersey’s Giana Taylor, and Ashley Puida from Portland, Connecticut.

The videos exist as de facto auditions. The models sent them in so they could try out for Playboy’s Sexy Girls Next Door show. It places a few models in a mansion and watches the shenanigans develop.

Amateur shows us almost none of that, as it concentrates on the original audition tapes. That means some inconsistencies in the pieces because they’re created by amateurs, but most of them present the models in a mix of scenarios like swimming pools and bedrooms. Some get a little more creative and include things like car washing and cooking. The models also discuss themselves, with an emphasis on their turn-ons and why they should be selected for the Sexy Girls Next Door show.

Despite the non-professional status of the pieces, Amateur is quite good. For one, it includes a consistently solid roster of models. I’ll more directly address them in a minute, but here’s one exceedingly pleasant surprise: no implants! As far as I can tell, not a single model here sports “enhancements”. That’s a really great development.

Amateur is also occasionally a bit more graphic than the average Playboy video. We get more shots of the semi-gynecological nature than usual, as models like Shea give us a pretty open viewpoint. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your perspective, and don’t expect anything extreme. However, the photography is less in the “glamour” realm than usual.

On the negative side, the models’ comments are a distraction. They all try to talk dirty and be racy, but it sounds uniformly fake. None of them are very good actors, especially when they do lines like “you wanna get wet?” These are mostly porn-movie quality performances, and that ain’t good.

But given the highest quality roster of women seen in a Playboy product since the Women of Starbucks DVD, I can excuse this fault. Former Mormon Lovelace is very sexy and natural. She has a lovely face and offers a silly scenario on a trampoline.

In Playboy terms, Jansen is a little flabbier than usual, but she’s still in great shape for real world circumstances. She also has a fantastic chest and is very hot overall. Especially compared to the occasional phoniness of the others, she exhibits sexy and convincing expressions. She’s top-notch.

Shea seems a little stiff, as she’s less comfortable and more staged than the others. Nonetheless she has very nice body and an interesting face, though her braces kind of freak me out. Renee is gorgeous and possibly the best looking of the bunch. She’s not the most natural in front of the camera, and she wears too much makeup, but there’s a a lot of inherent talent to her.

Probably my least favorite model, Knudsen comes across kind of obnoxious. She’s good-looking but somewhat annoying because she tries a little too hard to be a naughty girl. She can be cartoony in looks and behavior and also reminds me too much of Paris Hilton. That’s not a good thing.

Then we go to the naturally sexy Singleton. An unusual mix of Asian and European heritage makes her distinctive and hot. A very sultry woman, she displays a great body and a hot attitude.

In the same vein, Hartling has an absolutely killer body. Her face is not quite as good, but she’s still exceedingly sexy. We get some hot public scenes for her at the beach and roller-blading, and she also offers a great shower piece. She’s a terrific model.

Another good segment comes from Kershner, a nice, natural babe. She has a cute face and tight body. You have to love a nude car waxing sequence too.

Taylor isn’t really my type, but I won’t complain. She presents a solid figure and pretty face but doesn’t remain memorable to me. Puida boasts another amazing body. Her face is a little awkward, but that body more than compensates. She also seems less staged feel than most, largely because she goofs around and doesn’t try to be such a vixen. She gives us very sexy expressions to finish off the DVD on a high note.

Playboy’s Sexiest Amateur Home Videos could have been a bust, but the folks behind it selected well. It includes a strong roster of models who make sure the material lives up to its title.

Playboy’s Sexiest Amateur Home Videos appears in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Since the videos all came from consumer sources, the quality remained generally sub-par throughout the DVD.

I don’t know if that she be regarded as a real complaint, since quality problems were inevitable. Nonetheless, the often weak source materials make this one of the less attractive Playboy videos. At best, the image could look pretty good. For example, Lovelace’s segments usually appeared reasonably distinctive and dynamic. Their main problems stemmed from poor lighting, as not all of them were shot in the best conditions.

Other segments showed considerably more significant problems. For instance, whites washed out some of Shea’s shots, and her segment suffered from serious jaggies and blocky edges. Knudsen’s parts also displayed similarly rough definition. Those two were the worst of the bunch, but they weren’t alone in their crude quality.

For those scenes and others, colors generally looked flat and lackluster for most of the pieces, and blacks were similarly inky and light. Low-light shots usually seemed thick and indistinct, as it could be really tough to make out elements in shadows. Sharpness varied but was never more than decent. Many shots came across as moderately soft and ill-defined. Again, Knudsen was the worst; at best, her shots looked like they were shot through gauze. Source flaws included video artifacting and defects like rolling bars and other forms of interference.

As I noted, this concerns were inevitable for a show made up of home videos. That said, I didn’t feel I could give the DVD a grade above a “D+”. The material was acceptable for what it was, but it lacked the definition and clarity to earn even an average grade.

Similar issues greeted the stereo soundtrack of Sexiest Amateur Home Videos. For the vast majority of the program, the imaging remained monaural. It spread out with stereo music during the short connecting segments that link the various models. Otherwise, all of the footage from the video clips themselves was monaural.

Unsurprisingly, the rough visuals came with equally crude audio. Speech was intelligible for the most part, but the models’ statements usually sounded edgy and tinny. Music was a non-factor except during the connecting pieces; the models’ segments included nothing other than source sound. That also meant effects were a minor component and they sounded just as distant and dinky as the speech. You’ll hear lots of wind noise and other distractions during the outdoor shots. Again, one can’t expect stellar audio from home videos, but this still meant I wasn’t comfortable with a grade above a “D+” for this poorly-recorded collection.

When we move to the DVD’s extras, we get a nice collection of materials. These start with Photo Shoots. They present video pieces that show the picture sessions for Liza Hartling (two minutes, 17 seconds), Sasha Singleton (1:54) and Anika Knudsen (1:50). Knudsen fares best here, as she’s the only one of the three who looks better than in her amateur tape. All three are pretty good, though.

Next come two Screen Tests. We get video material for Jelena Jensen (2:13) and Alyssa Lovelace (3:00). These are the kinds of professionally shot clips found in most Playboy videos. Both get a little silly at times, but I like the models and think these are entertaining pieces.

We also get an episode of Playboy TV’s Sexy Girls Next Door. This series takes the women who send in their audition tapes, plops them together in a big house, and watches them do all sorts of steamy activities together. None of the women featured in this DVD’s main program appear in the episode, as we find Chafera McMillian, Salina Satterblom and Kristin Jackson. Eventually the honchos at Playboy pick a “winner” who gets to do a screen test. This 26-minute and three-second show offers a Playboy take on reality shows, and it’s fairly interesting.

Next we discover a Photo Gallery. We get 60 high quality shots of the program’s models. It’s an excellent collection.

The set also offers some trailers. This includes promos for Women of Fear Factor, America’s Sexiest Bartenders, 50 Years of Playmates, No Boys Allowed 2 and the 2005 Video Playmate Calendar.

Despite the worst production values of any recent Playboy product, Sexiest Amateur Home Videos offers some good material. It presents a fairly high-quality set of models who give us many enticing scenarios. As noted, picture and sound are flawed due to the source material, but they’re about as good as we could expect for footage created on consumer-grade equipment. We also find some decent extras to round out the set. It’s not a good-looking or sounding product, but it includes so many great models and interesting settings that I definitely recommend it.