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Author Topic: Blockbuster's future in question Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 04-10-2009 09:38 AM                     I don't think Wal-mart is the devaluer in this case. It's more Redbox and those other vending machine rental things. Personally I think the studios need to do something to disallow these $1 rentals as it is devaluing their product. I mean really, why buy a blu-ray or dvd if I can rent it for $1. I can rent it 16 - 30 times (depending on retail price) instead of buying it. Obviously these things can rent so cheap because they have no overhead cost and are just revenue sharing with the store that it resides in.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-10-2009 10:59 AM                     Because the people who own and stock those $1 rental machines are buying a lot, lot more discs than we are.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-10-2009 11:18 AM                     The obvious drawback with Red Box is those vending machines hold only so many movies. Title selection is limited and numbers of copies per title is also limited. Even if you reserve a copy online there's no guarantee a copy will be in a particular vending machine by the time you get there to retrieve it. You may be "S.O.L." if you want to rent a widescreen version of a new DVD release. Red Box machines are popping up in many Wal-Mart locations in part because of the void left by Movie Gallery. It was one of the video store chains Wal-Mart incorporated into its stores, but went out of business not long ago. McDonalds operates the Red Box business and has over 8000 vending machines installed at locations of McDonalds, Wal-Mart and a number of other grocery store chains. To me, Red Box seems pretty convenient if you want to impulse rent a 2nd or 3rd choice movie after you found out the one you really wanted to see was not available. Trouble is you may be scanning down to 5th, 6th and 7th choices and grumbling to yourself about settling for Pink Pather 5 with Steve Martin. Yeah, it's only $1. But what are 2 hours of your life worth?  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 04-10-2009 02:05 PM                     Wrong. When you rent a redbox movie online, you actually reserve (and pay for) a copy at a specific kiosk. All the kiosks are wired, so you can see online whether or not the movie you want is available and where. Once reserved, it's held until the due date.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-10-2009 02:30 PM                     quote: It's pure, sophisticated technical genius is what it is. quote: Sure your buck could've earned .000006381 cents in a money market account during those 5 hours, but imagine how much more relaxed you'll be knowing you have your movie waiting for you. That's worth the tension relieving power of a hot stone massage and an avocado facial. At least. Hahaha It is always good to see a company with a sense of humor.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-10-2009 06:20 PM                        I now have a system in place where I am pretty much assured to get my hands on Blu Ray copies of new films by being at a Blockbuster store to exchange my online rental discs I had watched with the new movies on the day they are released when the store opens. The possibility of Blockbuster going out of business is something I wish will not happen but I have to face the possibility of joining Netflix. If that should ever happen, no more new movies until my turn for them comes up in my queue at Netflix. I have started to look around for a local rental store and probably rent from one I had done business with before. The store is about five miles from my house and the cost for a two night rental is $4.00 for a Blu Ray or DVD. They have an excellent collection consisting of the GODFATHER trilogy, CASABLANCA, and many older movies as well as new movies all on Blu RAY . It is my intention to join Netflix if Blockbuster goes out of business and use Diamond Head video for movies I want to see right away on Blu Ray. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Mike Heenan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1896 From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 04-10-2009 07:46 PM                     What is this rush to see new films on Blu Ray/DVD the day it's released? Is it going to hurt someone to wait an extra day or two (or week)?  |  IP: Logged Cameron Glendinning Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 845 From: West Ryde, Sydney, NSW Australia Registered: Dec 2005 posted 04-10-2009 08:03 PM                     quote: John Wilson Anyone in the Sydney area should check out fellow Film-Techer Michael Barry's fabulous DVD GALLERY in Double Bay. Yes it is a great collection, especially blu ray, but have you actually been or hired anything there recently? In my opinion Blockbuster seems to employ a far more intelligent and better trained staff than Michael does! Have you ever been told that you are not the sort of person we want to to have on our books? This is when you return your weekly movies several weeks late?(and pay your late fees promptly) Now that never happens at Blockbuster or Video easy. Sure the 15 year old staff don't know much about the movies made before they were born. I guess thats because most business like paying customers (I use to average $12 per week, every week since I joined). I now spend that money on buying blu rays. Since the 10th of Feb my personal collection has grow, and Micheal still hasn't returned my call with an answer and is $96 poorer. Personally I have never experienced ruder customer service than at the DVD Gallery. EzDVD has given me a discount card! Its nice to know that my money is still wanted somewhere.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-10-2009 08:23 PM                        There is no problem waiting to watch a rental movie if I can be assured I will get a copy that will not freeze up on me doing the middle of a movie because of inproper handling by previous users. This has happened so many times with discs others had watched that I had rented from Blockbuster and other rental outlets I had used. This is the reason I always make an effort to either buy a copy or be the first to watch a rental movie on DVD or Blu Ray that interests me. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-10-2009 10:25 PM                     Hmmmm, Claude is starting to sound like me when I received a used film print. Stupid idiot previous projectionists! I feel your pain Claude. That being said I have found a solution to the dilemma. I simply rip the DVDs or blu-rays to a hard drive, and if the rip is successful, I can then watch it on the tv direct from a laptop. No more getting to the last 20 minutes of a disc and the player locks up!  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-10-2009 11:01 PM                     What are you doing to rip a Blu-ray movie? Shit, I can't even get a straight answer on how to get a decent screen grab for Photoshop fun. It's possible with 1080p Apple Quicktime movie trailers. But not so easy with Blu-ray. Maybe Apple allows it because of all that totally ass-tastic severe lossy compression on their 1080p movie trailers. Yeah. 1080p can look "digital perfect" running at a bit rate of only 9 million bits per second. Nevermind the source stream has a bandwidth 150 times that level. Regarding rental Blu-ray discs, I always inspect the playing surface before putting it in my PS3. Any oily finger print smudge will be enough to cause the disc to fail to load.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-11-2009 03:24 PM                        Bobby, I never had too much trouble with discs that were smudged. The problem I have noticed with used rental discs especially those that have been in circulation for awhile have been surface scratches. There is usually no problem if the scratches are fine but I have noticed discs that had severe scratches. that should have been taken out of rental circulation. Brad, Like film prints, You are right about the idiots who do not handle brand new rental discs. with proper care. Like the video rental slogan BE KIND-REWIND, there should be a slogan something like BE KIND -NO SMUDGE-NO SCRATCH but even if they did, I do not think it will be effective because many people do not care about the next person who will rent a disc after he or she had watched and trashed it. So Sad -Claude  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-11-2009 04:14 PM                     I think some people have the retarded notion they can keep doing stupidly abusive things to discs because Blu-ray has a "scratch resistant surface." The discs can still be scratched. Some people have the habit of laying bare discs out on tables and other surfaces rather than keeping the discs in the cases. I've seen people stack bare discs on top of each other. Both habits are stupid. I expect that sort of thing from children and teenagers. Any adult should know better than to pull that crap. Nevertheless, I see video store personnel handling Blu-ray rental discs in this very manner. I saw store clerks doing this at our local Hollywood Video location. To top it off, I'm pretty sure they keep the actual rental discs stored in paper sleeves behind the counter, obviously an attempt to fight disc theft. They're keeping the discs in some sort of thin thing like that; it just looks like paper. Unfortunately those sleeves scratch the playing surface of optical discs. Does anyone else dislike those CD/DVD disc holding "albums" with all the plastic sleeves? One of my coworkers has all his DVDs and CDs stored in those things. And he wonders why his discs end up ruined. Those things scratch the hell out of discs. I will never place a store bought disc of any kind into such a damaging product. Maybe it's not such a big deal to put some cheap CD-R dubs into those plastic sleeves as long as you have the original retail CD stored safely and ready to make another copy when that CD-R gets ruined. Lots of people were pretty annoyed with the "save the earth" paper packaging for Baraka. That packaging quickly disappeared. Maybe that might turn the original crappy cases into a collector's item. Now Baraka is available on Blu-ray in a standard blue plastic case.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-11-2009 06:12 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson They're keeping the discs in some sort of thin thing like that; it just looks like paper. Unfortunately those sleeves scratch the playing surface of optical discs. They're not paper. Possibly Tyvek or something similar. NetFlix stores and ships DVDs and Blu-rays in those things (stuffed inside the thinnest of paper envelopes). I have yet to have a NetFlix Blu-ray rental that has been anything but flawless, even when the sleeve itself shows obvious signs of plenty of handling.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 10:13 PM                        There are also machines that re-surface disks. They can remove hairline scratches of the type you would get from using sleeves. Professional automatice models cost a few thousand dollars. I'm sure Netflix has a battery of them.  |  IP: Logged

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