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Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

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Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#71

Post by mxuribe »

bombcar wrote: post #33
_fat_santa wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, there are really two Blockbusters. One is an evil corporate behemoth, the other is the neighborhood video store that lives on in our memories. These guys aren't keeping Blockbuster running so much as they are keeping the nostalgic memory of it going. TBH I'm a bit surprised no one has tried to buy the Blockbuster brand from Dish and restart the company. I feel like you could effectively run one much…

Double so since something like Redbox could have definitely used the brand.

They could have bought the Blockbuster brand, and combined it into a gawdy 80s style amalgamam of purple (you know, blue plus red)...and called it something like BoxBuster! And beyond dvd rentals, sell Roku devices. But, alas! ;-)

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#72

Post by causi »

TylerE wrote: post #68
causi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid I'd watch Futurama on DVD with commentary and think "Wow I bet one day I'll be able to pause any movie and click on anything and get all the info about it." I can't believe we went the opposite direction.

This is one thing Amazon does well. Pause almost anything and it will show you the actors presently on screen (with headshots, which you can click on to get more info. They'll also name the song playing, if any.

Eh, that's not really anything you couldn't do with google almost as easily. I mean real multimedia. I want to pause Lord of the Rings, click on a sword, and get the passage where the sword is described in the book. I want to click on a character and get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the costume. I want it all.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#73

Post by thewebcount »

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.

Yeah, likewise. What I'm noticing in the comments is people who say, "My parents would take me there on Fridays..." seem to be nostalgic for it, but for those of us who were adults, we ran into the things you talk about.

I distinctly remember 2 specific problems: 1) Being unable to get the latest release you wanted to watch. This was a big problem when video stores (not just Blockbuster) would only get in a few copies of new movies. Eventually Blockbuster got some sort of deal with the studios where they would get in something like 100 copies of the latest releases and the problem became #2:

2) Being unable to find anything but the most popular movies. If you wanted to watch that slightly less popular artsy film (but not anything as obscure as a foreign film, just not a (lowercase "b") blockbuster movie), they'd only have a few copies of it, and they'd inevitably all be rented out whenever you wanted to watch it.

I just remember going around the entire store and saying, "seen it, seen it, seen it, don't want to see it, seen it," etc.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#74

Post by laumars »

tablespoon wrote: post #65
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…

> 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 the risk that someone would tape over your favourite recording

- and even just getting the same content recorded was a game of chance. If the TV network was early or late airing your show or movie, there was a good chance you’ll end up missing some of it (back then there wasn’t an EPG so you had to programmed the VCR to start at a specific time rather than the start of a specific show).

Not to mention my younger brother kept jamming Lego into the VCR (but at least that’s not the fault of the technology).

I hated VHS. Switched to DVD the moment I could. Even though my computer wasn’t powerful enough to playback DVD properly I still massively preferred it.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#75

Post by jacobsievers »

laumars wrote: post #70
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…

> I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then I don’t think anyone has forgotten how crappy VHS was/is. At least with vinyl, the sound quality was good even if the medium was bulky. But VHS just sucked in every way imaginable. Even in the 80s I hated VHS. It was the best we had but it always felt like a game of chance whether your recordings worked. I don’t miss a single thing about recording…

I don't know, VHS Hi-Fi wasn't bad. It had a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz and signal-to-noise ratio about 70 dB.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#76

Post by Apocryphon »

mikeocool wrote: post #58
WalterBright wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local video rental proprietor told me when she was closing up for good was that Netflix destroyed her business.

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.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#77

Post by TylerE »

causi wrote: post #72
TylerE wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one thing Amazon does well. Pause almost anything and it will show you the actors presently on screen (with headshots, which you can click on to get more info. They'll also name the song playing, if any.

Eh, that's not really anything you couldn't do with google almost as easily. I mean real multimedia. I want to pause Lord of the Rings, click on a sword, and get the passage where the sword is described in the book. I want to click on a character and get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the costume. I want it all.

Googling opens you up to spoilers.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#78

Post by michaelcampbell »

jacobsievers wrote: post #75
laumars wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then I don’t think anyone has forgotten how crappy VHS was/is. At least with vinyl, the sound quality was good even if the medium was bulky. But VHS just sucked in every way imaginable. Even in the 80s I hated VHS. It was the best we had but it always felt like a game of chance whether your recordings worked. I don’t miss a single thing about recording…

I don't know, VHS Hi-Fi wasn't bad. It had a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz and signal-to-noise ratio about 70 dB.

I've known guys in the past that kept audio recordings on VHS, just for that reason.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#79

Post by dannyisaphantom »

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.…

That's so cool and sounds like an awesome experience. I keep my Mom's original Blockbuster laminated card in the back of my iPhone case :) Just checked the print date and its from 9/24/04. Great piece of nostalgia.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#80

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

Dig1t wrote: post #6
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...

I grew up in the 90's and have nothing but warm fuzzy memories of renting a movie on Friday night and watching in the living room with my family, eating popcorn and candy. I think there's probably a lot of people who have that from their childhood.

Parent is referencing how Blockbuster put all the local video stores out of business, like Walmart and Main Street America.

It happened with record stores, too, via Tower Records and other national chains I can’t remember now

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