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

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

#61

Post by madeofpalk »

Asbostos wrote: post #29
microtonal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 servi…

I have a feeling that the idea of owning things is going to become a crazy old-people's complaint. Perhaps younger generations will be happy with their remote-wipeable phone apps, viewed-then-gone movies, hired rides in someone else's car, etc. Maybe these things are becoming so numerous and cheap compared to our income and other costs (housing) that people won't care anymore.

There's no sense of ownership when I flick through and partially watch a dozen movies before settling on The Hunger Games on a boring Monday night.

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

#62

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

gedrap wrote: post #30
incarnate wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Movie Recommendation as a Service (MRaas)? Or curation - if it isn't out there yet it will come. Something with humans, since it would be easy to imagine algorithms getting stuck in a very narrow genre (like when you give a Pandora channel too many songs and it ends up with the same 20 tracks or covers thereof). Plus giving you that commitment to see the movie through. Or just head to reddit[1] or equivalent communit…

>>> Movie Recommendation as a Service (MRaas)? Or curation - if it isn't out there yet it will come. I think it's not the same, if you are talking about an online service. It's all about the physical interactions, anticipation. Getting out of home, browsing the DVDs, bringing it back home, etc. It's the same with, e.g. books. Browsing the local bookstore compared to going through the lists in Amazon (I live in a coun…

I'm not sure we're social enough though.

Content industries have killed themselves by selling content as objects-you-own (or rent briefly.) Even Netflix etc work on this model. And torrents are just objects-you-steal.

If the content industries had done more to sell content as an element in a social network - share with friends/family, meet strangers, enjoy relationships of all kinds - they wouldn't be so threatened by P2P. The breakout franchises - Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars - all have this personal and social element. Direct-to-DVD crap movies totally lack it.

Ironically - or maybe not - P2P provides more of that social element. People make requests, comment on uploads, build reputations, and sometimes organise private sharing clubs.

I'm sure torrenting wouldn't have become as popular without that social sharing element.

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

#63

Post by chris_wot »

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!

Yeah, not if you are an Australian. At one stage you couldn't even get Star Trek TNG on iTunes.

There's a thriving industry in Australia of people designing services to bypass geoblocking measures. It's pathetic that I can't watch a movie just because of my nationality. Hell, one day I wanted to buy the Dragon Book on compilers, I put in a U.S. address and I got an email from Amazon telling me that I couldn't purchase the eBook because I'm not an American. They asked for a U.S. passport. And they never refunded me.

Consequently, Australians pirate more content than pretty much any nation on earth. Yet when we get the content, we pay up. Whenever I hear someone say that pirating content is a crime, I think - discriminating against me because I'm an Australian should also be a crime.

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

#64

Post by chris_wot »

msravi wrote: post #37
lostlogin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah you can. Various sites like Unotelly offer a way. Different devices in the house can see different content on various services. It's the gold standard. I'm paying for the service so copyright holders can hardly get too mad. If they weren't being dicks they could have the $5 a month I give Unotelly too.

Ok! Didn't know about this. One other VPN I tried (a year or so ago), was real slow and Netflix was unwatchable. They do have a free trial, so will give this a go.

Also try GetFlix.

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

#65

Post by rincebrain »

msravi wrote: post #58
rincebrain wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I believe it's on a per-movie basis, but is exclusive for that distribution region (not necessarily one country).

That just makes the problem of getting bulk licenses in multiple locations worse, though.

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

#66

Post by saiya-jin »

chris_wot wrote: post #63
ryan-allen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Yeah, not if you are an Australian. At one stage you couldn't even get Star Trek TNG on iTunes. There's a thriving industry in Australia of people designing services to bypass geoblocking measures. It's pathetic that I can't watch a movie just because of my nationality. Hell, one day I wanted to buy the Dragon Book on compilers, I put in a U.S. address and I got an email from Amazon telling me that I couldn't purchas…

I don't think you guys can seriously compete with countries like Russia, India etc. where apart from all you mention there is financial side too (for many at least).

But I wholly agree that unless pirating will make things HARDER/content less appealing, it will be ripe. Currently it's the opposite, and I see no good reason to not just get a 1080p yify torrent with proper subtitles from scene 1-2 days after bluray release (sometimes even before). There is something about having my few TB external HDD full of my personal collection of movies and documents...

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

#67

Post by saiya-jin »

toyg wrote: post #32
e2e4 wrote: post #10

Initially video stores have cut into the profits of movie theaters. However, it is interesting that currently theaters (while still struggling quite a bit) seem to be coping better than the video stores.

That's because the fundamental differentiation has already happened there: "going to the cinema" vs "watching at home" has been a choice for 30+ years now. Who had to die because of that, died already. Despite Hollywood's lamentation, it's unlikely that cinema numbers will ever get significantly worse than they are at the moment, unless someone (Oculus?) manages to somehow replicate the big-screen experience at home…

it's already a worse experience (noisy, annoying kids, ringing cell phones, too loud for some, not ideal placement of most seats etc.), but it's a social experience. 3D might be an exception, for now, and it's still a rather niche market.

same as people buying shots at bars vs drinking same alcohol at home for 20% of the price.

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

#68

Post by pjc50 »

gexla wrote: post #19

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…

What might do this would be some sort of microtheatre: just as people go to the "third place" of coffee shops rather than entertain at home, start a social trend for collectively viewing films in the equivalent of someone else's very well-appointed lounge. Not necessarily on a fixed schedule either, but adhoc choice by those present.

Unfortunately the licensing fees required for this would be prohibitive. It's expensive enough having Sky Sports in a pub.

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

#69

Post by benten10 »

kristofferR wrote: post #21
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...

I'm pretty sure the movies you're looking for is on PassThePopcorn. They have 121,937 movies in their collection, and thousands of their members are the same kind of movie geek as the author of this article.

Does it still need invitations? I uhh, would be grateful for one, if ANYONE had it..

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

#70

Post by gedrap »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #62
gedrap wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> Movie Recommendation as a Service (MRaas)? Or curation - if it isn't out there yet it will come. I think it's not the same, if you are talking about an online service. It's all about the physical interactions, anticipation. Getting out of home, browsing the DVDs, bringing it back home, etc. It's the same with, e.g. books. Browsing the local bookstore compared to going through the lists in Amazon (I live in a coun…

I'm not sure we're social enough though. Content industries have killed themselves by selling content as objects-you-own (or rent briefly.) Even Netflix etc work on this model. And torrents are just objects-you-steal. If the content industries had done more to sell content as an element in a social network - share with friends/family, meet strangers, enjoy relationships of all kinds - they wouldn't be so threatened b…

That's an interesting point. But virtually social (I just made it up, not sure if it's correct but you get the idea), I believe, is very different form physically social.

I think in case of video stores, it's quite similar to coffee shops.

I have some good quality coffee beans, a decent machine, so I can totally make coffee that's good enough to compete with most of the coffee shops for a fraction of price and time that has to be spent. That's similar to Netflix. Quick, convenient, often good enough.

But still, I like to go to a coffee shop from time to time (which is similar to going to a video store). It takes much more time, it's not as convenient (can't just go straight from bed in my underwear), but there's something rewarding about the whole thing. Dressing up, getting out of home, all these things makes this as a sort of ritual.

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