Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 79 posts

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#11

Post by microtonal »

infinii wrote: post #9

While vinyl records have made a resurgence from near extinction. It's unlikely the same will happen for the video stores as music seems more timeless and collectible than movies.

Moreover, I think you will be hard-pressed to find someone who will argue that VHS or DVD provided better quality than Netflix et al.

Obviously, Blu-Ray provides better quality than today's streaming services, but the format never really took off in a big way among the general population.

It's a bit of a shame, since with Blu-Ray, you at least own something. It'll still work when somebody pulls the plug on some service.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#12

Post by coderdude »

Hulu and Netflix are all you need, entertainment-wise. Haven't watched traditional TV in ages and it has for sure had a positive psychological impact on me. Not related to the article (like I'd know, I commented first before reading), but I did want to take this opportunity to preach.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#13

Post by martin-adams »

dsq wrote: post #8

Where I live the video rental places gouged their customers with late fees. A minute after 48 hours you were stiffed with another 48 hours. I and my wife are very busy. Most of our subscription went on late fees. Just for that greed I'm not sorry they closed.

The irony is this very thing was the trigger that started Netflix. Their own practices that consumers hated helped create the very thing that killed them.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#14

Post by msravi »

coderdude wrote: post #12

Hulu and Netflix are all you need, entertainment-wise. Haven't watched traditional TV in ages and it has for sure had a positive psychological impact on me. Not related to the article (like I'd know, I commented first before reading), but I did want to take this opportunity to preach.

And for those outside the US, bittorrent is all you need.

Seriously, I really don't understand - Hollywood is losing a ton by not allowing Hulu and Netflix to screen internationally. They end up pirated anyway - why the US-only restriction? I'm in India and would gladly pay Netflix the $10 fee - but I can't.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#15

Post by zuron7 »

msravi wrote: post #14
coderdude wrote: post #12

Hulu and Netflix are all you need, entertainment-wise. Haven't watched traditional TV in ages and it has for sure had a positive psychological impact on me. Not related to the article (like I'd know, I commented first before reading), but I did want to take this opportunity to preach.

And for those outside the US, bittorrent is all you need. Seriously, I really don't understand - Hollywood is losing a ton by not allowing Hulu and Netflix to screen internationally. They end up pirated anyway - why the US-only restriction? I'm in India and would gladly pay Netflix the $10 fee - but I can't.

Can't stress on how true this point is. In Bangalore, India, just a few years back we had maybe 3-4 video rentals in the vicinity (2 - 3 km radius), but now there are none. Unlike the US there aren't any streaming options either. So where are all those users going?

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#16

Post by kspaans »

msravi wrote: post #14
coderdude wrote: post #12

Hulu and Netflix are all you need, entertainment-wise. Haven't watched traditional TV in ages and it has for sure had a positive psychological impact on me. Not related to the article (like I'd know, I commented first before reading), but I did want to take this opportunity to preach.

And for those outside the US, bittorrent is all you need. Seriously, I really don't understand - Hollywood is losing a ton by not allowing Hulu and Netflix to screen internationally. They end up pirated anyway - why the US-only restriction? I'm in India and would gladly pay Netflix the $10 fee - but I can't.

It's not the exact same thing as the movie rights industry, but check out this series of posts about fiction book publishing: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-m... (particularly http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-4-t...)

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#17

Post by hellofunk »

executesorder66 wrote: post #2

I find it interesting that the author never even mentions people that torrent movies. He complains that Netflix and Hulu don't have such a large collection as some video stores, especially rare movies. But I have never not been able to find a very rare movie via a torrent. And it is rather unusual that this large contributing factor to the downfall of his industry is never mentioned.

I still buy DVDs online for many movies I cannot find anywhere on the net using any method. It's the only reason I still have a DVD player, unfortunately.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#18

Post by busterarm »

tasdev wrote: post #3

Interesting read. Reminds me of another article I read here about a store closing down whose link I can't find. I dislike that my children will never experience the video store like I. Streaming just isn't there. The quality isn't good enough and the cost is, in my opinion, too high.

I absolutely loved my local video store and owe a large part of my viewing tastes to it.

Had it not been for that store I wouldn't have the appreciation that I do for foreign films, trash cinema, exploitation films and direct-to-video.

I outgrew my local rental's small collection quickly and was an early adopter when it came to torrenting and streaming. I still miss the store - the process of discovering a movie was at least half the experience.

The best I can do to get close to it is browse the IMDB release list every 6 months and then get every movie that sparks my interest. Binge watching 40-50 movies is cool, but not the same.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#19

Post by gexla »

It seems like there would be some sort of hipster twist you could add to a video store to keep it going. Maybe the video store component becomes sort of a background prop, but it would be something that few other places could duplicate.

My most memorable moment in a video store was walking half through the swinging doors of a section which immediately electrified the senses of a 11 year old boy. Video boxes floor to ceiling covering 4 walls showing mostly naked people. I got a split second view before I got a tug on my collar followed by a reverse warp out of this fascinating world.

Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died

#20

Post by iofj »

ryan-allen wrote: post #6
gkop wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you and I had the opposite thoughts about torrents. My thought was, "Ya know, the really good indie movie rental places are special; they have films I can't even find [seeded] between TehConnection and Karagarga". Maybe I should look at other trackers...

The pay per view rental model like iTunes often has a lot of harder to find movies. A few times for me it's the last port of call when I can't find a title anywhere digitally, at at least then you're getting the best quality sound and picture!

As a non-American I'm really frustrated that what you don't get is translations. Disney movies for the kids have been translated into 100 or so languages, yet buying one on iTunes gets you English and -maybe- Spanish.

And then when you get to Europe, they suddenly have English-French languages on the same page.

It'd be really nice if when I bought a movie that they're selling the translated version for would be accessible everywhere.

Same problem on Amazon, Google play, iTunes, even Netflix.

Post reply on HN