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'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

theguardian.com

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Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#71

Post by daveoc64 »

petard wrote: post #7
grishka wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and also the physicality of the process of playing that media. Opening a file or a stream just doesn't feel the same as taking a cassette or a disc out of its box and inserting it into the player. Vinyl records take that aspect to the extreme because the songs themselves are visible on the surface of the record and you yourself put the needle next to the song you want to play.

In addition to that, the physical experience works almost always. In the digital world, you might have a connection problem with your router, Spotify app (replace with your app of choice) freezes and so on. The reliability is what I miss most.

I think that there might be rose tinted spectacles in use here.

Tapes (both audio and video) wore out over time and could get chewed up.

CDs and Vinyl records could get scratched or could crack.

I can recall spending a long time trying to sort out problems with CDs or VHS in the 1990s or 2000s, but can't think of a time where Spotify didn't work for longer than a few seconds.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#72

Post by chuckadams »

acuozzo wrote: post #65
demondemidi wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprised you didn’t throw My Dinner with Andre in your attempt at sounding sophisticated.

That's a damn good movie. Wally Shawn is a national treasure and Andre Gregory is captivating to listen to in that role. With that being said, I wonder if it would have been a podcast if it had been made today.

For the longest time I thought that the title referred to Andre the Giant.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#73

Post by supertrope »

Dalewyn wrote: post #46
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on who you ask, requirements per 4K UHD stream are about 25-30Mb/s. This is not a number that any kind of modern wifi should have difficulty keeping up with. I have absolutely no problems with 4K UHD streaming over wifi; mixture of Wifi 6 and 6E throughout. In fact, Wifi 6E is usually faster than wired GigE.

I routinely cap out at ~10MB/s over 5GHz Wifi 6 (wireless AX). This obviously depends on your hardware and environment, but needless to say I always just connect good old copper if I need speed. Also: Do not trust those " mbps over wifi!" claims on marketing, they're all worthless horseshit. The numbers are derived from ideal conditions you would never find in the real world.

I agree that those "AX9000" marketing numbers are fake.

>This obviously depends on your hardware and environment

This is the key point. If you have:

A high link rate client.

A high link rate access point.

Line of sight between the two, same room.

A low utilization and interference channel.

No one else heavily using your Wi-Fi.

Non-bad drivers for Wi-Fi.

Then TCP throughput of about 1/2 to 2/3 link rate is possible. 1200 Mbps link rate yields 600-700 Mbps speed tests. Some applications have small TCP windows so their throughput drops on 5 ms latency wireless versus Yes if you plug you always get 920 Mbps throughput.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#74

Post by basisword »

throwup238 wrote: post #60
mu53 wrote: post #26

One of the things that I will miss about physical medium is the permanence of the data. A famous movie from 2006 had a racist joke. I remember it very clearly because of an argument at the time with my friends watching it. In 2021, I bought the movie on google. I looked for clips, but I couldn't find a copy of that racist joke. Its as if it never happened. No public mentions of editing the movie or clip to be more "i…

It’s what made me drop Hulu/Prime and start pirating and buying (usually second hand) physical media for a lot of my content again. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia which actively lampshades all of the themes being censored now has so many episodes missing from streaming services it’s almost one per season. And they’re some of the best episodes! I’m actually surprised Archer is still around.

>> It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia which actively lampshades all of the themes being censored now has so many episodes missing from streaming services it’s almost one per season. And they’re some of the best episodes!

I thought this was untrue so I checked. On UK Netflix there are at least 5 missing episodes and there's no indication they're missing. They're unavailable to purchase on iTunes too (although unlike Netflix, it numbers the episodes correctly so it's clear there are missing episodes). Appalling. I didn't think I would ever return to physical media for video content but...this is making me seriously consider it.

Edit: As an example of why this stuff shouldn't be censored, I'll explain my recent experience with NYPD Blue. The full thing (uncensored, I think) is available on Disney+. In the first few seasons, I was horrified at the racism. But, it served as an illustration of something that was shown on primetime TV in a specific time period. Personally I wouldn't have thought this type of content would have been broadcast in the early 90's and it was a good reminder of how far we've come. It's the same when watching old British comedies. There are lots of jokes that serve as a good reminder that things have changed for the better, even if it doesn't always feel like that. We shouldn't be erasing history.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#75

Post by dpritchett »

adzm wrote: post #28
mu53 wrote: post #26

One of the things that I will miss about physical medium is the permanence of the data. A famous movie from 2006 had a racist joke. I remember it very clearly because of an argument at the time with my friends watching it. In 2021, I bought the movie on google. I looked for clips, but I couldn't find a copy of that racist joke. Its as if it never happened. No public mentions of editing the movie or clip to be more "i…

> No public mentions of editing the movie or clip to be more "in-line" with today's environment. well, what was the movie?

I’d guess Click: https://screencrush.com/rob-schneiders-racist-stereotyped-ch...

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#76

Post by Ferret7446 »

mu53 wrote: post #26

One of the things that I will miss about physical medium is the permanence of the data. A famous movie from 2006 had a racist joke. I remember it very clearly because of an argument at the time with my friends watching it. In 2021, I bought the movie on google. I looked for clips, but I couldn't find a copy of that racist joke. Its as if it never happened. No public mentions of editing the movie or clip to be more "i…

I'd love to hear about a physical medium that can reliably store data for decades. All of the ones I'm aware of lose data within years; so much for permanence.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#77

Post by GauntletWizard »

__s wrote: post #41
mu53 wrote: post #26

One of the things that I will miss about physical medium is the permanence of the data. A famous movie from 2006 had a racist joke. I remember it very clearly because of an argument at the time with my friends watching it. In 2021, I bought the movie on google. I looked for clips, but I couldn't find a copy of that racist joke. Its as if it never happened. No public mentions of editing the movie or clip to be more "i…

The Office took out a shot of a character is in blackface https://deadline.com/2020/06/the-office-blackface-scene-crea... of Montreal edited out a line "I’m just a black she-male" from Women's Studies Victims https://www.reddit.com/r/ofMontreal/comments/j0kqqn/what_do_... This goes back to radio edits, https://genius.com/Zager-and-evans-mr-turnkey-lyrics has the line "Mister Turnkey, I forced that girl in Wichita Fal…

I have no problem with the edits. Artists are allowed to bowdlerize their own works. Consumers should have the choice to edit their own copies to make the same edits - I fully supported "Cleanflicks"[1] attempts to sell edited "Family Friendly" versions of movies - Clearly labeled.

What really scares me is the inability to tell when an edit has been made. We're being gaslight by the media companies, erasing history.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CleanFlicks

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#78

Post by GauntletWizard »

daveoc64 wrote: post #71
petard wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to that, the physical experience works almost always. In the digital world, you might have a connection problem with your router, Spotify app (replace with your app of choice) freezes and so on. The reliability is what I miss most.

I think that there might be rose tinted spectacles in use here. Tapes (both audio and video) wore out over time and could get chewed up. CDs and Vinyl records could get scratched or could crack. I can recall spending a long time trying to sort out problems with CDs or VHS in the 1990s or 2000s, but can't think of a time where Spotify didn't work for longer than a few seconds.

Most of all they got lost. My family had an entire spindle for lost DVDs, that we'd set the cases down somewhere and couldn't find where. When we did find those cases, we usually just replaced one DVD on the spindle with another that was misfiled in the discovered case.

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#79

Post by daveoc64 »

mauvehaus wrote: post #17
daveoc64 wrote: post #11

I live in Bristol, so I'm not far from 20th Century Flicks (featured in the article). They have some things I'd like to rent (and that are hard to find elsewhere), but ultimately I'm still put off by the prospect of having to pay late fees!

Inquiring minds want to know: does their sign take advantage of the FLICKS/FUCKS ambiguity with the right font, and if so is this wordplay on 20th Century Fox?

You can see their logo on their website - https://www.20thcenturyflicks.co.uk/

There is also Street View - https://maps.app.goo.gl/SiJXmz8wYWaN9KNC8

Re: 'We're the last bastion of rental': video stores resisting rise of streaming

#80

Post by Gud »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #77
__s wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Office took out a shot of a character is in blackface https://deadline.com/2020/06/the-office-blackface-scene-crea... of Montreal edited out a line "I’m just a black she-male" from Women's Studies Victims https://www.reddit.com/r/ofMontreal/comments/j0kqqn/what_do_... This goes back to radio edits, https://genius.com/Zager-and-evans-mr-turnkey-lyrics has the line "Mister Turnkey, I forced that girl in Wichita Fal…

I have no problem with the edits. Artists are allowed to bowdlerize their own works. Consumers should have the choice to edit their own copies to make the same edits - I fully supported "Cleanflicks"[1] attempts to sell edited "Family Friendly" versions of movies - Clearly labeled. What really scares me is the inability to tell when an edit has been made. We're being gaslight by the media companies, erasing history.…

Is it generally the artists themselves doing it or the publishers?
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