View Full Version : Blockbuster Video leaving OKC Market. Store closing start mid feb



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Jesseda
01-27-2013, 12:40 PM
Just found out that allthe blockbusters in the okc are closing in the next 2 months.. I am not surprised by it but its sad that they are no more.

ShiroiHikari
01-27-2013, 02:50 PM
They should've run a better business, then.

Sorry. I had nothing but bad experiences with Blockbuster so I'm not all that sorry to see them go.

GaryOKC6
01-27-2013, 05:33 PM
They should've run a better business, then.

Sorry. I had nothing but bad experiences with Blockbuster so I'm not all that sorry to see them go.

Good riddence. I dropped my blockbuster membership 3 months ago. They closed the stores in my area and then acted like they had stores 8 miles away thet would serve me the same. Oh really? I switched to redbox. There are 5 of them with in a mile of me. I reserve them on the internet and pick them up. Oh did I mention that it costs half as much now. All I can say about Blockbuster is.......seeeeeee yaaaaaaa!

venture
01-27-2013, 06:07 PM
The Blockbuster by mail service was pretty good and I always enjoyed the instore exchanges. However, I've since replaced them by just getting Showtime, HBO and Starz with their on demand/online options that covers pretty much anything I would want.

jn1780
01-27-2013, 06:40 PM
Good riddence. I dropped my blockbuster membership 3 months ago. They closed the stores in my area and then acted like they had stores 8 miles away thet would serve me the same. Oh really? I switched to redbox. There are 5 of them with in a mile of me. I reserve them on the internet and pick them up. Oh did I mention that it costs half as much now. All I can say about Blockbuster is.......seeeeeee yaaaaaaa!

Its simply of case of having your business model become outdated and not adapting fast enough. I'm sure Coinstar (Redbox) can employee the same number of people that it takes to keep 1 or 2 Blockbuster stores open and keep half of the city's Redboxes going. I wonder how many technicians and suppliers Coinstar employs here?

kswright29
01-27-2013, 07:01 PM
A Roku box with Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu are the way to go for me. No driving, no returns, watch when ever you want. I love that thing.

BBatesokc
01-28-2013, 04:21 AM
I still visited Blockbuster from time-to-time at SE 44/Shields. They usually had some sort of special going on and lots of $.99 movies. However, the 7-11 across the street often had the same movies I wanted and it was just more convenient.

I agree, they were king when VHS was around and remained dominant until RedBox, and online streaming caught on. Too bad they didn't adapt fast enough or see it coming or they could have remained king.

bombermwc
01-28-2013, 07:05 AM
I didn't realize there were any left....i guess that's a good example of how little people visit them these days.

SoonerDave
01-28-2013, 07:24 AM
Its amazing to me to have seen the birth, maturation, and now, ultimate demise of an entire industry in just the span of about 30 years. Blockbuster is a dying dinosaur, and I'm amazed they've stayed open this long. I think physical media as a distribution mechanism for digital content, aside perhaps from the desire to own a given title, is simply going away IMHO.

GaryOKC6
01-28-2013, 08:01 AM
A Roku box with Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu are the way to go for me. No driving, no returns, watch when ever you want. I love that thing.

I have a Roku with Netflix as well and I really love it. For me that was the beginning of my love affair with Blockbuster. I liked being able to return my rentals to the store and reorder online with Blockbuster. Now that the removed that element. There is no reason to keep the blockbuster membership. I had become friends with the local BB store personnel and they were always telling me horror stories about working for blockbuster. They did not value their employees much at all.

RadicalModerate
01-28-2013, 08:17 AM
Its amazing to me to have seen the birth, maturation, and now, ultimate demise of an entire industry in just the span of about 30 years. Blockbuster is a dying dinosaur, and I'm amazed they've stayed open this long. I think physical media as a distribution mechanism for digital content, aside perhaps from the desire to own a given title, is simply going away IMHO.

I still recall a long discussion my brother and I had, many, many years ago, when video rentals were in their infancy and "the current big thing." The gist of the conversation was that movie theaters would have to make some monumental changes in order to survive. We talked about how they could build plush new theaters--like those in the olden days, rather than the little tacky viewing rooms in multi-plexes. We wondered just how large the screens could get and how much the sound systems could be improved. We thought about them having actual good food . . . and even adult beverages (such as those we were enjoying during our discussion! =)

Apparently, the same conversation was taking place among people with the backing, the drive and the fortitude to actually do something with the idea.

Although--thanks to Netflix--we almost never go out to the movies, I salute those visionaries who were able to transform a concept into reality.

(Frankly, I thought all of the Blockbuster rental locations were already closed . . . are they getting rid of the "Blue Boxes" as well?)

Anonymous.
01-28-2013, 08:23 AM
Although RedBox is still fairly popular, it has a short life span.

The way of the movie and tv world is switching to online streaming.


DVDs and discs in general will be a thing of the past soon, if not already.

zookeeper
01-28-2013, 08:30 AM
Times change and Blockbuster didn't, but I have a lot of happy memories of taking the kids to Blockbuster. It was always fun to walk the aisles and see all the latest in VHS tape. My daughter called it The Blue Ticket Store ----- it did have a great logo. Now just memories, but they were mostly good.

BBatesokc
01-28-2013, 09:50 AM
Although RedBox is still fairly popular, it has a short life span.

The way of the movie and tv world is switching to online streaming.


DVDs and discs in general will be a thing of the past soon, if not already.

Yes and no. There is still a very significant population that will continue to rely on physical disks for movies as opposed to streaming. RedBox knows this and while streaming will be the preferred option, it will still be some time before the RedBox on the corner is obsolete IMO.

Pete
01-28-2013, 10:28 AM
I recently gave their by mail program a shot on a one month free trial.

The whole thing was a disaster. Sent me wrong discs, didn't properly track what I had returned and in the end tried to charge me for a disc I had returned weeks before.

I was shocked how badly that part of their business is run and can't imagine why anyone would choose them over Netflix.

SoonerDave
01-28-2013, 11:31 AM
Yes and no. There is still a very significant population that will continue to rely on physical disks for movies as opposed to streaming. RedBox knows this and while streaming will be the preferred option, it will still be some time before the RedBox on the corner is obsolete IMO.

Agree completely. There will always be a time when I prefer to have physical media for certain titles available. The price may not always be $9.99 as it is now, because the volume of that kind of media will likely slow, but I think it will be there. Streaming can be affected by so many factors - cost, availability, bandwidth, who knows what else. As an example, I'm a huge fan of what I consider to be a classic 1972 comedy with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal titled "What's Up, Doc," and they released a 30th anniversary BluRay for it last year. No one I knew of had it streaming, but it was available locally for about $10-15 as I recall, so I snapped it up. I think there are plenty of fans of those kinds of movies that will keep physical media as at least a component of the business. Maybe not the major player anymore, but a component.

ShiroiHikari
01-28-2013, 03:06 PM
Netflix streaming (or any other streaming service for that matter) is not currently a good replacement for DVD/Blu-ray, since the content changes all the time and the selection is iffy (unless you LIKE bad movies). It's more like a replacement for cable TV than anything else (which is exactly how I use it).

What if you want to watch a movie and your internet isn't working? What if you live in the boonies and can't stream things with your crappy satellite internet? What if you just really like to collect movies? For these reasons, I think physical media will be around for a while.

Anonymous.
01-28-2013, 03:45 PM
While physical media will most likely always be around, cloud storage and digital copies are the future.

Some of us are already at the point of "what movie do you want to watch?" And open a cheap movie file stored on a cheap harddrive of a cheap computer that will stream directly to the television which is also now becoming relatively cheap. Digital storage is cheap and easy - it only makes senese that this is the direction we go, and it is happening pretty quick IMO.


Blu Ray players and the like are nice and all, but will simply be the VCRs in 20 years.



In regards to living far away from quality internet, well - that is the price you pay for being an outlier; poor internet service for a dozen people in a rural Oklahoma town is the last demographic on corporation's minds.

jn1780
01-28-2013, 04:42 PM
Redbox will still be around until streaming movie rentals are cheap like Redbox is.

SoonerDave
01-28-2013, 05:13 PM
While physical media will most likely always be around, cloud storage and digital copies are the future.

Some of us are already at the point of "what movie do you want to watch?" And open a cheap movie file stored on a cheap harddrive of a cheap computer that will stream directly to the television which is also now becoming relatively cheap. Digital storage is cheap and easy - it only makes senese that this is the direction we go, and it is happening pretty quick IMO.


Blu Ray players and the like are nice and all, but will simply be the VCRs in 20 years.



In regards to living far away from quality internet, well - that is the price you pay for being an outlier; poor internet service for a dozen people in a rural Oklahoma town is the last demographic on corporation's minds.

With all due respect, I think this characterization is really harsh. I can buy a decent BluRay player for about $70 and never worry another second about streaming problems. And to suggest that "bad bandwidth in a rural Oklahoma town" is the only consideration, well, no offense, but it sounds really bigoted and naive, and I'd like to think you didn't mean it that way.

I drop $50+ a month on a nice Internet connection, but that's not cheap, and not everyone can afford or justify that kind of money ($600/yr) on an ongoing basis just so they can be part of the trendy "We're the cool kids, we stream video over the 'Net" crowd. " Internet providers are working overtime to extract ridiculous amounts of money on the data streaming, doubling and even triple-charging for the same bytes just because they pass through more than one device.

I've got Amazon streaming through my BluRay player, and have the option of NetFlix through the xbox, but the ability to plop in a DVD or BluRay of my own choosing at the time of my choosing is still a relevant consideration in my book. And I'm not a bumpkin in a rural town, either. And the Amazon streaming has been problematic at times, too.

I have lived long enough to know there aren't any panaceas. And the fact that someone doesn't embrace my personal panacea doesn't make them a rube. We're going to have BluRays, DVD's, Streaming, on-demand, satellite, and similar options with their own niches for a long time to come.

BBatesokc
01-28-2013, 06:39 PM
Personally, the fact that most people can't seem to understand the concept of pre-reserve your movies on RedBox.com and then go pick them up is all the proof I need that a large portion of our population is not ready for us to abandon physical DVD's.

I can't stand going to the RedBox's on the south side (can't speak for the north side). There is always a line 5 deep and the person picking their movies is usually on their phone reading the movie synopsis to some degenerate on the other end of the phone.

Reserve first, pick up later = save everyone lots of time.

BG918
01-28-2013, 07:55 PM
Its amazing to me to have seen the birth, maturation, and now, ultimate demise of an entire industry in just the span of about 30 years.

I think we'll see this happen more and more, and at an increasingly rapid pace. Entire industries could boom and bust within 10-15 years.

Snowman
01-28-2013, 08:04 PM
I recently gave their by mail program a shot on a one month free trial.

The whole thing was a disaster. Sent me wrong discs, didn't properly track what I had returned and in the end tried to charge me for a disc I had returned weeks before.

I was shocked how badly that part of their business is run and can't imagine why anyone would choose them over Netflix.

That is amazing that even now they still could not get that right, the failing of their redbox like machines made more sense since they clearly pushed it out before the machines were ready due to both readbox and netflix growth meant they had to do something fast and once a vending machine is produced it is harder to correct physical flaws than software ones but it should be easier to fix something going on in a warehouse and the mail option has been around long enough there is no excuse for that.

Though given how many mom and pop stores they put out of business, I do not have a lot of sympathy for the company itself.

BBatesokc
01-28-2013, 08:43 PM
...Though given how many mom and pop stores they put out of business, I do not have a lot of sympathy for the company itself.

Don't understand why anyone would hold that against them - I certainly don't. They started 'mom and pop' enough with a single store and did it well enough to grow to over 50,000 employees at one time. Doing it right doesn't make you the bad guy - even if eventually you get it wrong.

Anonymous.
01-28-2013, 09:57 PM
I have the lowest option available for Cox internet and I download and stream movies all the time. In fact it cost me nothing as basic TV and internet are included in my rent and anything extra is on me.

I don't watch TV except a few shows, and all of them are available the next day online, after they air - in full, in HD. So really I have no use for normal TV other than away Thunder Games (which can also be found online if you search hard enough). Take a look online, most of the major broadcast networks have full length episodes of your shows with only web ads, if any at all. And these are only seconds long, not minutes like live TV. Notice televisions now have ethernet ports, eventually you will have netflix, hulu, youtube, facebook, twitter, insert website here on a TV you buy in a store - only thing needed is your login information.

To be real, cable companies are cheating Americans with subpar internet and overcharging - they know the future is internet, it is their future flagship - TV Cable is gone. Blu Ray and DVDs will also end accordingly.


I am not implying that physical discs will die, there will always be people who want the 'convenience' of putting a object into a slot and pressing play (that's what she said?). But present day technology pretty much guarantees less and less of this. Honestly I cannot believe people still go to the store and "buy a CD". And before you claim how RedBox is so cheap and easy, you most likely already have internet (so it's paid for) and now you don't have to drive and wait in line behind a bunch of teenagers who borrowed mom's car on a saturday night.

BBatesokc
01-29-2013, 04:27 AM
.....And before you claim how RedBox is so cheap and easy, you most likely already have internet (so it's paid for) and now you don't have to drive and wait in line behind a bunch of teenagers who borrowed mom's car on a saturday night.

Not sure I'm following you completely. I have Internet at home and a SmartTV, but RedBox/7-11 are still my cheapest and most convenient options for movie viewing in most situations for us.

Online streaming is more expensive via the pay-as-you-go services. I don't subscribe to NetFlix because there just isn't enough content available in the streaming option to justify the monthly price (I do once a year do the free 30-days to catch up on some documentaries and TV series's).

Also, when I rent a physical disk I can view at my leisure, view it more than once, keep it extra days, watch it on a portable device without Internet, etc.

Seems like the last time we streamed via a service through our TV it was like $3.49 vs. $.99-$1.09 from a kiosk.

MonkeesFan
01-29-2013, 04:37 AM
I am glad it is closed, I hate Blockbuster, way overpriced

SoonerDave
01-29-2013, 06:53 AM
Not sure I'm following you completely. I have Internet at home and a SmartTV, but RedBox/7-11 are still my cheapest and most convenient options for movie viewing in most situations for us.

Online streaming is more expensive via the pay-as-you-go services. I don't subscribe to NetFlix because there just isn't enough content available in the streaming option to justify the monthly price (I do once a year do the free 30-days to catch up on some documentaries and TV series's).

Also, when I rent a physical disk I can view at my leisure, view it more than once, keep it extra days, watch it on a portable device without Internet, etc.

Seems like the last time we streamed via a service through our TV it was like $3.49 vs. $.99-$1.09 from a kiosk.

This. My understanding is that a basic NetFlix subscription is about $8/mo, so I'm investing not quite $100/yr just for the privilege of browsing a catalog.

The key in this entire discussion is that we, as consumers, have great options. One guy can stream, another can RedBox, someone else can buy outright. The physical media folks are going to persist because the cost of streaming is going to go up over the next few years, as the folks who hold the keys to the Internet continue to manufacture faux bandwidth constraints to rationalize the implementation of arbitrary data caps and surcharges..making even a $1.50 or $2 rental a reasonable alternative value for many going forward.

Again, the key is options. Not which media type is the "coolest."

MonkeesFan
01-29-2013, 07:07 AM
I used to rent but not anymore, I just buy DVDs/Blu-Rays and I have over 300 and counting! :wink:

BBatesokc
01-29-2013, 07:11 AM
An upside to the obsoleteness of physical DVD's is that you can buy really good movies really cheap at the local Pawn Shop. Bought seasons 1 & 2 of Carnivale for only $11 total the other day. Same for Boardwalk.

MonkeesFan
01-29-2013, 07:21 AM
An upside to the obsoleteness of physical DVD's is that you can buy really good movies really cheap at the local Pawn Shop. Bought seasons 1 & 2 of Carnivale for only $11 total the other day. Same for Boardwalk.

I do that too, I go to pawn shops and movie stores and look for good deals but usually I compare prices on Amazon/pawn and movie shops like for example, if a used DVD costs $10 at a pawn shop but it is $8 brand new on Amazon, I buy the cheaper option with free 2 day shipping since I have Amazon Prime

SoonerDave
01-29-2013, 08:28 AM
An upside to the obsoleteness of physical DVD's is that you can buy really good movies really cheap at the local Pawn Shop. Bought seasons 1 & 2 of Carnivale for only $11 total the other day. Same for Boardwalk.

This! When Hollywood went south a couple of years ago, I got some personal favorites like "Driving Miss Daisy" and some James Bond movies for something like $2 each, all in excellent shape - just the studio advertising label insert was faded from sun exposure. I'm probably going to browse Blockbuster and see if they have any similar offerings as they wind down their operations. The great thing about that is looking is always free :)

I think one way physical media copies are likely to survive is that older and/or less popular titles likely won't be available in streaming form, but you'll always have at least a shot at picking up a copy from defunct video shops, or off eBay. That's why I didn't hesitate a second in picking up that copy of "What's Up Doc" last year. Great movie, but at 40 years old, not that many people are aware of it, Amazon doesn't stream it, and now anytime the mood strikes, I can enjoy it again. The cool thing is that my two teenage kids have both latched onto it as one of their favorite movies, even if it is older with "stars" they don't recognize. Considering what they might be selecting from today's contemporary offerings, I'm delighted.

Great movies endure.

GaryOKC6
01-29-2013, 08:44 AM
I guess that everyone has different viewing habits. For me Redbox is much cheaper than cable or other streaming. I pay less than 10.00 a month to redbox. Now with that being said, My wife has to have netflixand watches her tv series on it everyday. The kids also love to watch their shows on Netflix. Both are still less than half of Cox's basic package. We use Redbox at our lake house and don't miss cable there either. I use my ipad to reserve them on line and the process is very easy. This works well for me at least.

GaryOKC6
01-29-2013, 08:48 AM
Try Cash America Pawn. I buy movies there for my lake house. They have thousands of movies for 1.99 each, everyday. I stop by the location at SW 59th & May and NW 23re & Villa regularly to see what new movies they have put out. I is almost as cheap as redbox except you do't have to return them.

ShiroiHikari
01-29-2013, 01:15 PM
I still like to own movies, because I like to unplug from the internet every once in a while. I compare prices on movies before I purchase them. Sometimes I want a movie and I want it right away. In those cases, I don't mind driving up to Vintage Stock to pick it up, and I'll pay whatever they're charging just so I can take it home with me right then.

Sometimes I want a movie, but I don't mind waiting, so I order it from Amazon. I almost never shell out for one-day shipping. I learned the hard way that unless you order it on a Monday, it's probably not going to get to you in one day or even two days. So use the $15 you'd spend on the "fast" shipping to buy another movie you want and just go with the Super Saver shipping. Or just pay the ~$3 shipping and wait a week. Lots of options.

It used to be that if you wanted to own a movie, you had to pay like $30 or more for it on VHS, and that's if you could find it available to buy somewhere in the first place.

You could set the timer on your VCR to record it off TV, or do like my dad did and record while you watch, dubbing out the commercials by hand. If you were recording it off broadcast TV, it was most likely edited for time or content or both. If you weren't at home, the commercials would be recorded as well, which wastes tape and are annoying to FF through. And they used to do some appalling pan-and-scan transfers for television. If you couldn't afford a lot of tapes, you either had to record over stuff or record on SLP speed, which looks like butt. The upside to all this is that it pretty much only cost you whatever blank VHS tapes cost, and the cost of the electricity to run the VCR.

You could also record movies from cable TV, which got you a slightly better picture and selection. But then you'd have a monthly cable bill. You could subscribe to HBO and record the movies from there, but if you wanted more than what HBO was offering, you'd have to subscribe to other pay TV channels. And if you subscribed to all of them you'd be staring down a heart-stopping cable bill every month. Not to mention they'd all play the same 20 movies all month long, and if they weren't playing anything you wanted, you were SOL.

I like the options we have today much better. Pay a relatively small fee for a streaming service to replace your cable, if you want. If you'd rather have cable, then you can have it. If you still want broadcast TV (can't imagine why), you can have that too. Only want to rent movies? It's easier and cheaper than ever. If you want to collect movies on DVD or Blu-ray, it's also easier and cheaper than it used to be, and discs last longer than tapes. If you want to make rips of your movies in case the discs somehow fail, you can do that too. There are also lots of options of questionable legality. Hell, if you really, really wanted to, you could record stuff from Netflix streaming onto VHS tapes, assuming you can find some VHS tapes that aren't already worn out.

Options are good.

SoonerDave
01-29-2013, 01:58 PM
Great post, Shiroi!

I remember taping movies off of Showtime (or was it HBO? Don't remember) 25-30 years ago on good quality VHS tapes in 2-hour EP mode, and built up a pretty nice library. It was also right at the time that SCOTUS ruled that building such a library for personal use was entirely within the scope of the Fair Use copyright doctrine, and that set the movie industry into a frenzy. They *hated* the idea that private folks could legally record a movie and keep it indefinitely. It's always been my opnion that very ruling was what motivated the MPAA et al to ramp up the efforts to move to digital television/content (even years before the Internet era) as a way to get around that. And they almost have.

Don't know how many folks remember it, but about 15 years ago, Circuit City had teamed up with some media company to produce what were essentially "time-bombed" DVD's sold under the name "DIVX." You bought the disc, but you had to buy a pack of "plays" that controlled how much you could watch it. The DIVX player had a built-in modem that dialed up to the DIVX "servers" to put an electronic "tick mark" against your account for a given movie, and once it was done, poof, you either had a doorstop or had to upgrade the purchase level. And if you didn't have a phone connection available to authenticate your "right" to view, you couldn't watch ANYTHING. There may have actually been an "unlimited views" level.

May have a few details wrong on that, but the basic concept is there. Several vendors did, in fact, join up, much to the rage of the A/V industry who roiled against the concept, which gained no more than a moderate level of traction in the market. One day, CC posted a message on their website (and the DIVX consortium site, as I recall) that said "DIVX has been discontinued and is no longer available." All the folks who had dropped some non-trivial coin on the custom-cut DIVX players suddenly had worthless doorstops on their TV's, because I don't think they could view normal DVD's (?), and the folks who were particularly zapped were the ones who had bought into the "unlimited viewing" level - because each view still had to be "authenticated" through the DIVX servers, which were now defunct, any movies you bought were unplayable. I suspect some enterprising tech types worked there way into hacking the DIVX player to make those discs playable, but the large portion of that group was out of luck.

Ah, the early days....then, there are those of us (like me) who really enjoyed the "pre-digital" LaserDisc days, and are in possession of a stack of unusable LaserDisc movies because the players that could show them (finally) all broke beyond the point of repair :)

kevinpate
01-29-2013, 02:00 PM
... seasons 1 & 2 of Carnivale ....

Two of the best seasons of television ever produced. Dang it, even after all this time I wish HBO had kept that crew going.

ShiroiHikari
01-29-2013, 02:21 PM
Yeah, I read about DIVX one time. There was also an early home videotape system called Cartrivision that did something similar. You could rent pre-recorded tapes but you could only play them one time. They could not be rewound by the home machines. Of course, that system failed miserably.

I don't know why I always forget about LaserDisc. Probably because literally no one I know ever owned one. I guess the cost was prohibitive for most people. I also read about some problems with "laser rot", which I think was a manufacturing flaw where the layers of the disc would oxidize or something...?

Another cheap way to get movies in the late 80s/early 90s was to pick up a CED player and go find some CED discs. After they axed the system in 1986, the discs and players could be had for a song. My dad bought a CED player around 1984, but after production stopped, he was able to score a whole stack of discs. The discs would skip, though, and you had to replace the stylus every so often. I have no idea if you could still find a stylus for those things or not, and the discs are really fragile, so unless they're very well-cared-for, they're most likely unplayable anyway.

SoonerDave
01-29-2013, 02:39 PM
Yeah, I read about DIVX one time. There was also an early home videotape system called Cartrivision that did something similar. You could rent pre-recorded tapes but you could only play them one time. They could not be rewound by the home machines. Of course, that system failed miserably.

I don't know why I always forget about LaserDisc. Probably because literally no one I know ever owned one.


Well, now you do :)


I guess the cost was prohibitive for most people.

Well, considering that back in that day I was a moderately free-spending single guy, I would have to say it wasn't a hobby for the budget conscious.

I had bought a top-end Pioneer player that cost close to $1K, dual-sided, just about every feature the things had at the time. The movies themselves were about $30-$50 each, and the prices never came down much because there wasn't enough mass appeal to increase production volume and drop prices


I also read about some problems with "laser rot", which I think was a manufacturing flaw where the layers of the disc would oxidize or something...?

Kinda. Actually, it was the kind of adhesive used between the layers of the discs. If it wasn't applied properly, you'd get oxidation between layers that would (eventually) cause the "sandwich" to separate. It was a tricky problem, because it happened to even some high-end LD producers, like Critierion, who put together expensive, high-quality laserdiscs to folks with a LOT of discretionary income, and I recall even they had to reimburse some folks for issues with laser rot. Fortunately, I never experienced it myself.

The killer for LaserDiscs, aside from the fact that they were huge and expensive, was that they were really an analog recording format, and the advent of DVD just made them impractical. The sad part about that is that many of my LaserDisc movies were *beautifully* transferred and looked superb (back in the 525-line raster era LOL).




Another cheap way to get movies in the late 80s/early 90s was to pick up a CED player and go find some CED discs. After they axed the system in 1986, the discs and players could be had for a song. My dad bought a CED player around 1984, but after production stopped, he was able to score a whole stack of discs. The discs would skip, though, and you had to replace the stylus every so often. I have no idea if you could still find a stylus for those things or not, and the discs are really fragile, so unless they're very well-cared-for, they're most likely unplayable anyway.

I think RCA sold this system under the name of "SelectaVision", and for the life of me I thought it *predated* LaserDiscs, but who knows. I remember the discs were embedded in a special mechanical cartridge that only the player could "unlock" and expose the surface for playing. Never had one myself, but remember seeing them sold at the old Video Concepts store at Crossroads Mall back in the day...

Roger S
01-29-2013, 03:32 PM
...but remember seeing them sold at the old Video Concepts store at Crossroads Mall back in the day...

:ot: Awwww... Video Concepts.... I lost count of how many times they ran me out of that store for hogging the Atari. ;)

Stew
01-29-2013, 04:43 PM
DVDs and bluerays are obsolete as far as I'm concerned. They seem so ancient.

SomeGuy
01-29-2013, 05:24 PM
I remember when they used have that Blockbuster on 23rd and MCarther, I would always rent Video games, I remember when I rented GTA San Andreas and never wanted to return it. Times are changing, you can order a movie off of Cox on Demand, Netflix or get a redbox dvd and Blockbuster could not keep up with the times sadly. It seems like video stores are a thign of the past and sadly Bookstores may become a relic too with EReaders and appearently Barnes and Noble is planning to close 1/3 of their stores which is terrible.

MonkeesFan
01-29-2013, 06:19 PM
DVDs and bluerays are obsolete as far as I'm concerned. They seem so ancient.

If they were obsolete, they would not be making anymore DVDs and Blu-Rays so they are not obsolete

kevinpate
01-29-2013, 08:34 PM
DVDs and bluerays are obsolete as far as I'm concerned. They seem so ancient.

You're reminding me of our young friend whose debit card went missing on her. She was by the other night, frustrated by the inconvenience of getting and keeping cash on hand while waiting on the replacement. She commented she had no idea how folks ever got by before debit cards. Then she looked to my lovely and I and noted we would have been around 'back then' and wondered how we ever got by without them.

Couldn't decide to laugh or cry at first. I ended up laughing so hard I did both.

UncleCyrus
01-29-2013, 08:46 PM
Ah, the early days....then, there are those of us (like me) who really enjoyed the "pre-digital" LaserDisc days, and are in possession of a stack of unusable LaserDisc movies because the players that could show them (finally) all broke beyond the point of repair :)

I have two working players and around 150 discs. They still look great on my 25" Sony tube TV.

ljbab728
01-29-2013, 09:42 PM
I am glad it is closed, I hate Blockbuster, way overpriced

Wow. It sounds like someone must have been forcing you to go there. LOL

MonkeesFan
01-29-2013, 10:06 PM
Wow. It sounds like someone must have been forcing you to go there. LOL

Haha, no I have not been to Blockbuster in 17 years

BBatesokc
01-30-2013, 04:57 AM
Haha, no I have not been to Blockbuster in 17 years

Then you might want to have checked them out over the last decade if price is your main obstacle. They have a lot of $.99 movies and many new releases are only $1.99. A few are $2.99 - but that is still cheaper than pay-per-view. Also, they run specials all the time. They had a rent one get one on and off for awhile and such. Depending on the location, its faster to go into a blockbuster and check out than it is to stand in line at a RedBox or 7/11.

Lord Helmet
01-30-2013, 09:25 AM
DVDs and bluerays are obsolete as far as I'm concerned. They seem so ancient.

Physical media has been pretty much dead to me for several years now other than XBox 360 games. All of my movies and TV shows are stored on a giant hard drive and streamed to my Apple TV. I'm up to 3TB now.

RadicalModerate
01-30-2013, 09:37 AM
I used to rent but not anymore, I just buy DVDs/Blu-Rays and I have over 300 and counting! :wink:

We have lots and lots and lots of various, tangible carriers of video entertainment too!
Strange thing is that we almost never watch any of them more than once.
My brother had so many of them that they had to buy a new house to actually live in as the scouts for "Hoarders" were sniffing around their "video storage facility" disguised as magazine subscription salespeople and Girl Scouts selling cookies.

At least with DVDs, you will have a nearly inexhaustable supply of coasters or mini-frisbees in the future.
(Much like those AOL "come-on" discs that used to appear regularly in the mail.)
Of course, some miscreants could watch "Goldfinger"--the second best James Bond movie ever--and, based on the "Odd Job" character--start developing ideas about how these items could be turned from peaceful purposes into weapons, but that is unlikely . . . except maybe in North Korea.

I also have boxes and boxes of LPs that I will never listen to again.
at least some of the cover art is worth putting into the rotation of hanging on the wall for decoration.
remember those cool "Kansas" album covers? or, like, "In The Court of The Crimson King" or The Moody Blues "On The Threshold of a Dream"? =) The labels on the three tons of cassettes are too small to appreciate the artwork.

That really cool, hippie-survivor lady who ran or runs that Route 66 store in 50 Penn Place apparently knows someone who figured out a way to melt old vinyl LPs and 45s into snack bowl sets without damaging the labels! Or maybe the 45s were coasters . . . Too many of the snacks would fall out of that big hole in the middle/bottom.

Of course the obvious problem with digital media in the form of invisible magic is that it can all disappear in a moment.
At least with an LP you can take a toilet paper roll, attach a pin to one end with duct tape and use it as an earpiece to listen to manually spun "stacks of wax" . . . A more modern type of what Fred and Wilma/Barney and Betty used to listen to. And lighter!

Did I mention the semi-truck load of "books" actually made from formerly organic tree-byproducts? No?
All I can say is Kindle et. al. were way overdue . . .
(thanks a lot . . . <snarksarcasm)

RadicalModerate
01-30-2013, 10:03 AM
Physical media has been pretty much dead to me for several years now other than XBox 360 games. All of my movies and TV shows are stored on a giant hard drive and streamed to my Apple TV. I'm up to 3TB now.

Just how big did that implanted entertainment chip have to be? Sure glad the operation was covered by health insurance! =)
(Aldous Huxley, in "Brave New World", foretold the day that Soma would be the "happy drug" of mandated choice. He never saw what REALLY lay on the other side of "The Doors of Perception" . . . =)

frontallobotomy
01-30-2013, 12:12 PM
Physical media has been pretty much dead to me for several years now other than XBox 360 games. All of my movies and TV shows are stored on a giant hard drive and streamed to my Apple TV. I'm up to 3TB now.

Isn't your hard drive a physical media?

Anonymous.
01-30-2013, 12:57 PM
Physical media has been pretty much dead to me for several years now other than XBox 360 games. All of my movies and TV shows are stored on a giant hard drive and streamed to my Apple TV. I'm up to 3TB now.



Careful, those of us on digital storage will get hounded in here! Although it may come across harsh, we are simply stating the future of media. There is no reason to be in denial and take offense to it.

How dare us move on with technology.

MonkeesFan
01-31-2013, 06:02 AM
Then you might want to have checked them out over the last decade if price is your main obstacle. They have a lot of $.99 movies and many new releases are only $1.99. A few are $2.99 - but that is still cheaper than pay-per-view. Also, they run specials all the time. They had a rent one get one on and off for awhile and such. Depending on the location, its faster to go into a blockbuster and check out than it is to stand in line at a RedBox or 7/11.

I do not rent anymore, I just buy

ShiroiHikari
02-02-2013, 07:43 PM
I don't like storing my entire media collection solely on hard drives, because they fail. And if you happen to forget to back up your stuff, POOF. All gone. No thank you.

I like the idea of the "cloud" better. Amazon does this-- buy MP3s, download to hard drive from your "cloud", AKA their servers. At least these big companies have the resources and knowledge to make backups of backups of backups, so I don't have to remember to do it...

BBatesokc
02-03-2013, 04:21 AM
I don't like storing my entire media collection solely on hard drives, because they fail. And if you happen to forget to back up your stuff, POOF. All gone. No thank you.

I like the idea of the "cloud" better. Amazon does this-- buy MP3s, download to hard drive from your "cloud", AKA their servers. At least these big companies have the resources and knowledge to make backups of backups of backups, so I don't have to remember to do it...

I agree, I would't keep my only copies of my media on a single drive. But, fortunately most back up drives come with automatic backup software. The server in our home is 8TB (only about 4TB's used) and backs itself up every night to a 12TB external drive in our safe. Of that, 2TB is backed up to the cloud.

I prefer to copy all my DVD's and music to our home server and then put the hard copies away in storage (just in case). I also burn my own Blu-ray hard copy backups of files I really can't lose.

A home server is awesome. Started with just an old Apple laptop we had sitting around. You can stream your movies to any TV or monitor in the house, audio can go to TV's or just to inside or outside speakers, the server acts as our DVR now and can send the recorded shows to any TV of straight to our phone or tablet to take with us. It also allows us to control many lights, appliances and even the thermostat and alarm system and security cameras.

BBatesokc
02-14-2013, 08:58 AM
The exodus has begun.... This morning a sign was hung on the SE 44 and S. Shields location, "Store Closing."

It did also say "this location only." Maybe that simply refers to whatever deals are happening at that particular store. I assume they are still ALL on their way out.

RadicalModerate
02-14-2013, 09:14 AM
Actually . . . I think the exodus began (or continued) with the closing of the store up around Penn and Memorial about two or three years ago. The one down at Penn and Britton closed last year . . . What am I going to do with all of these "Blockbuster Rewards Cards" that I never used . . .

venture
02-14-2013, 09:15 AM
The exodus has begun.... This morning a sign was hung on the SE 44 and S. Shields location, "Store Closing."

It did also say "this location only." Maybe that simply refers to whatever deals are happening at that particular store. I assume they are still ALL on their way out.

All will be closed by Mid March. The sales are being timed by when the leases on the buildings expire. Norman location started over 2 weeks ago with their discounting. First week things are 9.99, second 7.99, etc. Went this week and cleaned up on the new releases they have left (a lot will probably be gone this week). Tulsa stores will remain open since they are bringing in over $7000/mo in net profit, whereas the OKC area locations were barely positive.

BBatesokc
02-14-2013, 09:23 AM
Stopped in. Still much better deals to be had on Craigslist and Pawn Shops.