That was just such a great read, many thanks to the OP.
Nothing beats depth of experience and passion, to give you an insiders view.
I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
51–60 of 79 posts
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
"It's the only reason I still have a DVD player, unfortunately." Don't blu-ray players play DVDs?
Most, but it is not (AFAICS) a required portion of the spec - I'm pretty certain you'd need something similar to the multi-laser strategy that CD/DVD combination drives use.
The Blu-Ray Association says[1] that they expect it to be the case in practice, but that it's a market decision for each implementer, which sounds like it's not a requirement.
[1] - http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_backwards_compatible
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#53Hulu 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.
As much as I dislike a number of practices in Hollywood, I don't think that the international distribution problem is a consequence of their contractual terms, but on how distribution rights are region-specific, so Hollywood may not be able to grant distribution rights in a market they already gave an exclusive distribution contract to someone else for.
I would love nothing more than for this to be a trivial problem to be solved by negotiating with one (albeit enormous) loose group of companies, but I don't think that's the problem here.
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're willing to steal movies via torrents, wouldn't you also be willing to get a VPN to watch Netflix?
I'm not a piracy advocate, but this doesn't offer any advantages over torrents. You still don't have a legitimate licence to view the content, so at that stage you might as well just torrent it.
I do not accept the legitimacy of arbitrary region restrictions. It is still the moral thing to do and much faster/easier than torrenting.
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they need to "operate" in India or anywhere else in the world. They just need to allow people to sign up for their service irrespective of where they're from and access content, just like, you know, how the rest of the internet works. My guess is that they're being held back more by Hollywood's licensing conditions rather than individual countries' laws.
Unfortunately, distribution networks and related contracts are very complicated legally, not even going into local laws and other legalities. Netflix itself has a few good sized teams of developers dedicated just to creating tooling to help navigate the legal nightmares regarding distribution agreements and their streaming services. I'm pretty sure the studios would much rather be able to have a very few global relea…
Sorry, I don't get it. Are you saying that the studios are forced into this situation because of earlier contracts they've signed with cable networks? Aren't contracts signed separately for each new movie that they create?
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#56Where 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.
Well the problem is the rental store can't let people hold on to the movies, so they need some sort of incentive system to stop people forgetting to bring it back. Online of course doesn't have that problem.
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#57Hulu 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.
If you can't get it otherwise, you won't hear me complaining about how you get it. I say get it however you want.
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
As much as I dislike a number of practices in Hollywood, I don't think that the international distribution problem is a consequence of their contractual terms, but on how distribution rights are region-specific, so Hollywood may not be able to grant distribution rights in a market they already gave an exclusive distribution contract to someone else for. I would love nothing more than for this to be a trivial problem…
So you're saying that studios sign away all current and future distribution rights for all current and future movies that they create to an exclusive distributor for a particular region? It's not done on a per-movie basis? That is so crazy...
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#59Hulu 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.
Also, I've recently bought a USB Bluray drive, and I'm really surprised at how hard they made it to play a freaking Bluray movie on a PC. Even the proprietary and expensive software like PowerDVD is crap (does not play every movie). How can they make things this annoying knowing that there's a free alternative (BitTorrent) that always just works?
Re: I worked in a video store for 25 yrs – what I learned as the industry died
#60Great article. Independent video stores were/are interesting places to visit, it's a shame they're struggling to survive.
I also feel the same about music shops and games arcades. The human element is a big part of what makes the experience compelling. I especially miss games arcades, they gave me some of my fondest childhood memories.