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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

#71

Post by ryandrake »

microtonal wrote: post #11
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 servi…

Actually, if you have a DVD or Blu-Ray disk, you only own a piece of plastic. As for the movie encoded upon it, you have no ownership rights--only an extremely limited license to do a single thing with it (decrypt and read it for the purpose of immediate viewing) using one of a limited number of industry-approved reading devices. That doesn't really satisfy any reasonable definition of ownership.

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

#72

Post by spdionis »

saiya-jin wrote: post #67
toyg wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

3D niche? I can't go to any movie anymore cause they are all fg 3D and I hate it. My head hurts horribly after onw of those.

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

#73

Post by tracker1 »

msravi wrote: post #55
tracker1 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There are distribution deals with studios for all distribution to a given location and/or media within different regions. There is some content that is negotiated individually, others en-mass. It is often per-movie, but this only makes things more complicated, not less.

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

#74

Post by illumen »

There was a really big video store across the road from me. They made most of their money via porn I heard. Normal movies were 1 buck per day. It was very busy up to a year ago.

Then it moved down the road, a bit far for me to walk when I felt like being on the couch. So I stopped going.

It's still very busy though.

It also has a good website where you can look stuff up online. It was also convienient to grab a bottle of wine/beer and popcorn etc at normal prices (not insane cinema style prices). They have stuff which the big online video distributors have and it is more convenient in many ways.

But then again, this is Berlin... and there are still plenty of vinyl stores and such like. In a lot of ways it's the city time forgot.

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

#75

Post by toyg »

racl101 wrote: post #36
toyg wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"Who had to die because of that, died already." - one of those casualties would be the p0rn theater. Back then you could go to a theater and watch chicks swallow John Holmes' member in all its widescreen glory. Then when VHS came out, it was championed by the p0rn industry and away went most of those kinda cool, albeit seedy, p0rn theaters.

> kinda cool

... you've never been in one, have you? :)

I grew up in a neighbourhood that had one. It attracted unsavoury (but mostly harmless) characters, and was pretty squalid inside and out. There was nothing cool nor weird about it.

What is funny is that it survived VHS pretty unscathed: because of its secluded location, it remained popular amongst the clientele looking for, er, "social" experiences. Neighbours fought political wars of attrition for decades, limiting its advertising and so on, but it resisted fairly well (likely helping itself to massive tax evasion -- even policemen don't want to be seen near such premises). It closed only when the owner died.

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

#76

Post by racl101 »

toyg wrote: post #75
racl101 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Who had to die because of that, died already." - one of those casualties would be the p0rn theater. Back then you could go to a theater and watch chicks swallow John Holmes' member in all its widescreen glory. Then when VHS came out, it was championed by the p0rn industry and away went most of those kinda cool, albeit seedy, p0rn theaters.

> kinda cool ... you've never been in one, have you? :) I grew up in a neighbourhood that had one. It attracted unsavoury (but mostly harmless) characters, and was pretty squalid inside and out. There was nothing cool nor weird about it. What is funny is that it survived VHS pretty unscathed: because of its secluded location, it remained popular amongst the clientele looking for, er, "social" experiences. Neighbours…

Yeah I've been in one. Not in the U.S.

It wasn't like Fred Willard playing with himself. The people there were civil, still, it was surreal. .

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

#77

Post by icebraining »

incarnate wrote: post #7
ryan-allen wrote: post #5

I would pay someone like this for a quick chat on a Friday evening to help me choose a movie. I'm old enough to remember going in to a video store and having a chat about what I should watch next. The engaged staff quite often would send me on my way looking forward to watching the movie, and I wouldn't stop watching half way through either, I'd commit to it because it was a real recommendation by someone I talked to…

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…

It already exists and it works pretty well: http://criticker.com

The predicted scores usually fall within 2-3% of what I decide to give (in a blind test, that is, I decide before looking up the prediction).

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

#78

Post by radmuzom »

msravi wrote: post #39
radmuzom wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you propose the studios which owns the movies satisfy all the laws in India? It may not be possible to get a censor board certificate for each of the movies in the collection of Netflix. The cost of opening up them to vandalism (if they have offices in India) or lawsuits alleging "hurting the sentiments of the people" is too high. One reason I use torrents (even though I am willing to pay for good content) is…

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.

No, Indians cannot sign up for any service irrespective of where it is hosted. If it is illegal, it can be blocked by the government (whether that is just or logical is a different issue, but I am not talking about that here).

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

#79

Post by msravi »

radmuzom wrote: post #78
msravi wrote: post #39

Earlier 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.

No, Indians cannot sign up for any service irrespective of where it is hosted. If it is illegal, it can be blocked by the government (whether that is just or logical is a different issue, but I am not talking about that here).

Sure, the government can. But that doesn't mean Netflix tries to satisfy the laws of all 196 countries in the world. Netflix is a US company, and they only need to satisfy US laws.

And FYI, viewing of pornography is NOT illegal in India. I will not be breaking any Indian law by viewing a risque movie hosted in the US and streamed by Netflix.

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