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Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

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Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#141

Post by kylepdm »

zw123456 wrote: post #87

I am old enough to remember when the wife would call me at work on a Friday and say hey, stop by the video store and get a movie for tonight and I'll stop and get wine and take out. What was special was the "Dave" at the video rental place (it wasn't blockbuster but whatever). I don't recall the guy's name, but he always remembered me and what we liked and had great suggestions and sometimes if you said, nah but how…

I feel like the difference isn't so much that you have AI recommendations or that of a human, but rather the entire environment is fundamentally different.

With Netflix or whatever Streaming Service you have you have an immense catalogue coupled with ease of access to get ratings/critiques/etc. There is so many things to choose from and it's so easy to just say "no" to a suggestion, and likely that thing you said "no" to will still be there tomorrow. Why not just keep browsing?

With the video store of old it's so much more purposeful. You pick up a movie, and you feel incentivized to watch it because you literally just paid for it. You paid for that one Movie, not access to the entire store (which you also need to physically go to, and then come all the way back home with a tape or dvd). Also the ubiquity of movie/tv reviews was not as present so you don't necessarily feel like you're making a bad choice.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#142

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

Apocryphon wrote: post #76
mikeocool wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I recall a brief moment in the late 2000's where the mom and pop shops had a bit of resurgence (or at least a stay on their execution) -- when Netflix DVD's by mail had put most Block Busters out of business, but before every movie was readily available on streaming services. If it was Friday night, and you'd just sent back your netflix disc -- or you were looking to watch something that wasn't at the to…

Feels like even without streaming or even Netflix’s original DVD-by-mail delivery service, Redbox could’ve eaten brick and mortar movie rental stores.

I don't recall Redbox existing, at least in my area, during that time.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#143

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

amyjess wrote: post #136
bombcar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd even rent VCRs and DVD players, which was a big deal early on when they were multiple hundreds of dollars.

They'd rent video game consoles too. Speaking of which, I miss video game rentals. I spent so much time as akid at Blockbuster looking for games to rent. Even now, I'd like to be able to play with a game for a few days before committing to paying for the whole game. (and of course, I say this with a hundred unplayed games in my Steam library...)

Before video rental stores, we rented a film projector at the public library and movies on reel-to-reel film. Small selection of old stuff like Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, etc.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#144

Post by another_story »

zw123456 wrote: post #87

I am old enough to remember when the wife would call me at work on a Friday and say hey, stop by the video store and get a movie for tonight and I'll stop and get wine and take out. What was special was the "Dave" at the video rental place (it wasn't blockbuster but whatever). I don't recall the guy's name, but he always remembered me and what we liked and had great suggestions and sometimes if you said, nah but how…

I think what a lot of us are missing is human interaction, especially with strangers. No one is going to reminisce about that time the Netflix algorithm recommended a movie to them. Interactions with others, the stories and sense of community that can come out of it, not to mention building social skills, is being lost.

We're making a better world for consumers, but sometimes I wonder if it's a better world for people.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#145

Post by sailfast »

zw123456 wrote: post #87

I am old enough to remember when the wife would call me at work on a Friday and say hey, stop by the video store and get a movie for tonight and I'll stop and get wine and take out. What was special was the "Dave" at the video rental place (it wasn't blockbuster but whatever). I don't recall the guy's name, but he always remembered me and what we liked and had great suggestions and sometimes if you said, nah but how…

What's the website equivalent of Dave? Surely it has to exist somewhere? Maybe it's not personalized for you but it's close enough for a lot of people?

I've visited a TON of taste-making sites and some used to be OK at suggesting what to watch, but it's been tough to find good ones lately, and I'd pay good money for somebody to sort through all of the cruft for me.

You've got your "decider" and other sites, but something more personal, or at least human curated in terms of "here is the canon of this genre" or "if you liked this you'll 1000% like this other thing"

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#146

Post by davidw »

cmckn wrote: post #67

I was in Bend a few months ago and swung by the last Blockbuster. I rented a movie (and bought a t-shirt), and had to sign up for an account. I received a laminated paper Blockbuster card with an account number scrawled in Sharpie on the back. I wouldn't have guessed that the store was still calling out to these old servers; that's pretty cool. The movie cost 99 cents to rent, which I thought was surprisingly cheap.…

I live a few blocks from that place. It's kind of weird all the attention it gets.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#147

Post by bloomingeek »

Don't know if it's been mentioned or not, but what killed the video store for me was the late fees. Hollywood Video had a parking lot drop box that was good up until midnight. I worked the overnight shift so I would drop the seen vids at 9:15pm and then drive off to work. Almost every time they would charge me a late fee! When I would call them on the fee, they always dropped it, making me wonder about the other people who wouldn't protest.

Also, many times I witnessed exasperated parents and grandparents paying a huge late fee because their kids forgot to drop them off.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#148

Post by tablespoon »

laumars wrote: post #74
tablespoon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then, and what we've become accustomed to, with VHS being 240 lines, DVD 480p, etc. It's like reminiscing about the first iPhone and then looking at one and realizing how damn small it actually was compared to modern versions. I think the "what we've become accustomed to" is the most important factor there. Back in the VHS/NTSC days, without experience…

Really? I did. - Tapes would get chewed by the player - Took an age to find the right recording (you’d spend an age constantly rewinding) - Tapes would degrade the more you used them - sometimes they wouldn’t even sync vertically with your TV. Requiring all sorts of fun and games tuning your hardware - audio was often muffled and sounded like it was played through a sock - if you shared a household there was always t…

> Really? I did.

I was talking about video quality, not that other stuff.

> - if you shared a household there was always the risk that someone would tape over your favourite recording

This is actually significantly worse now, since most households lack the ability to "tape" anything.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#149

Post by throwaway675309 »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #11
kerblang wrote: post #3

It's sort of bizarre that an entrenched, widely despised corporate behemoth thoroughly deserving its own demise has turned into an anachronistic mom-and-pop shop that just gets by. But isn't this the worst of both worlds? It's dystopian nostalgia. Maybe I just have too much of a grudge against the 1980's...

Yeah I personally hated blockbuster because they sent me to collections over like $9 in late fees I didn’t know I had. People have fond memories but I have nearly none of video rentals. Long lines, poor selection, and over priced… along with bullshit “late fees,” I can say I am happy they failed. Truly video rental stores were not great, and I dunno why people remember them like they were.

A lot of the people who have fond recollections of video rental stores are because they were kids at the time, going to the video store was associated with Friday nights and family movie time for a lot of kids.

I'm sure their parents who were responsible for rewinding the tapes, late fees, etc. remember the video stores less fondly.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#150

Post by tomc1985 »

vlunkr wrote: post #31
awacs wrote: post #26

Growing up in the 80s with VHS, Betamax, Laserdiscs (if anyone recalls), and being a dj in the late 90s when the thought of a "USB stick instead of traveling with all this vinyl was an impossibility", makes this whole nostalgia tour a fun one. I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then, and what we've become accustomed to, with VHS being 240 lines, DVD 480p, etc. It's like reminiscing about…

It's interesting that when we revisit older movies, all the way up to the 90s, we're watching them at much much higher quality than we did originally. Special effects, costumes and sets are all much more believable when you're viewing them on a little grainy screen. I think some older movies are unfairly judged by how they look on hardware that couldn't have existed at the time.

The Blu-Ray release of Star Trek TNG suffers from this a ton -- it was great seeing one of my favorite childhood TV shows in high def but it made all of the costumes, makeup, and sets look so fake!
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