From "The World’s Last Blockbuster Has No Plans to Close/With the closing of a Blockbuster store in Australia, the one in Bend, Ore., will be the last to survive changes in technology and shopping that reshaped the way people watch movies at home" (NYT).
Bend is in a region that the city’s mayor, Sally Russell, describes as having “huge expanses with really small communities” that often do not have easy access to the high-speed internet necessary for content streaming. Many residents of outlying areas stop at Blockbuster during their weekly trips to town to run errands, drawn in part by the store’s seven-day rental policy, Ms. Russell said, adding that the store’s last-in-the-world status could even give it a lift....
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That store must have a world-class collection of porn videos.
Last Man Standing
our grocery stores all still rent dvds (lousy porn collections though)
That store must have a world-class collection of porn videos.
And Miyazaki films for the young at heart.
You still can't get Miyazaki films on anything but Blu-Ray and DVD.
If I was the town librarian I'd up my game.
All that store needs is a Porn Section and a Children’s Section.
As a lot of Amazon Video requires channel subscriptions, I find myself falling back on the public library for some newer stuff. Counterpart and Quarry spring to mind. Plus, Netflix has become a junkyard. Their streamable content is a wasteland compared to what they used to offer on dvd.
Any day now we'll read about hipsters collecting VHS tapes, for their authenticity.
I miss my Blockbuster. It was a kind of hangout Saturday nights (I know, pathetic).
Tcrosse: I don't think VHS will ever make a comeback. The resolutions was shit compared to DVD and the tapes were mechanically difficult. Vinyl soldiered on among enthusiasts due to the "peak/valley" loss in digitization when CD/MP3 formats are made from analog tapes, etc. I can't tell the difference, but some claim they can. We'll see! I've got all the Disney movies up to about 2005 AND all those family movies on VHS or 8mm still taking up space. I'm down to ONE working VHS player in my house.
Amazing example of Creative Destruction, and how quickly it happens. Keep in mind if you're "certain" about anything tech-related...
-Sony creates Betamax
-VHS wipes out Betamax
-VHS rental stores pop up everywhere
-Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and others consolidate, wipe out local rental stores
-Netflix starts mailing DVDs
-Blockbuster wiped out
-Streaming almost wipes out Netflix
Anybody remember the $1 charge for failing to rewind the VHS before returning?
Next? I dunno. But I agree that selection hasn't gotten much better under the current industry structure.
Now, with all of the streaming content available, I still have trouble finding something that I am interested in watching.
I know what you mean, but you can still get the DVD service can't you? I can't stand most of the Netflix original content. So formulaic.
But I agree that selection hasn't gotten much better under the current industry structure.
That's because it's still the same bunch of doofuses turning out the content.
I am very skeptical that there is really a vinyl revival. I don't know anyone who plays vinyl. I have a turntable and hundreds of vinyl records. *I* don't play them..
In the earlier part of the decade, I streamed a lot of movies from pirate sites online, most of which have disappeared or become unsafe to use. I have to imagine that the industry was partially behind these sites, getting people used to the new technology, changing behavior so that people move away from the physical medium. As a result everything is streaming these days. I have subscriptions to everything. But in this new mode it’s getting harder and harder to find a lot of titles that are really important to me. Or discover new movies from the past. I recently got a very cheap dvd player from my laptop and I’m searching again for copies of some of these movies I miss. I can easily see it replacing my subscriptions at some later time.
Netflix DVD/Blu Ray service by mail still exists. Great if you want the absolute best picture quality available or for something that's not on streaming (lots of older movies, for instance).
Now, with all of the streaming content available, I still have trouble finding something that I am interested in watching.
I'm surprised. 20 years ago I got so sick of the standard fare of movies and TV shows that I pretty much stopped watching media completely.
In the last 5 years I've encountered a ton of good shows, all streamed.
What appears to be next are individual streaming services to replace cable
I did this a few months ago and haven't looked back. I pay for one streaming service and use it everywhere, either on a device or on Apple TV. I get local sports everywhere except for NFL. I still have to pay for internet service in more than one place but it's saving me a good chunk of change. I use some of that savings to pay for Netflix.
My parents had no cable tv option in their area. Their only option was satellite at $150/month and it doesn't work in a storm. They love it. My dad can even work the remote.
Aunt and uncle tried it too but they are way rural and their internet service isn't beefy enough to support it. :-(
Get an antenna for local HD broadcasts. You will have all the major networks if you live near a reasonably sized city, plus PBS and some smaller channels too.
Download news apps and only watch the free content.
Get PlutoTV app and watch movies, and some news/TV, with minimum commercials.
Use Amazon to fill in some voids and for free 2-day delivery of stuff.
Now you are only getting WiFi bills per month plus $99 a year for AmazonPrime.
If you want to live on the edge, get HBO Go once a year for a few months and binge their content. (Or Showtime. Or Starz.)
And rent a RedBox movies with two for one coupons.
Your TV bill and therefore your support for HollyWood will be less than $100 per year.
Dumb. The reason vinyl exists and is popular is because it actually has some sound qualities you cannot get on digital music. It produces a 'warmer' sound than anything on CD or digital.
what rehajm said -- We pay for high speed internet, stream from Amazon Prime and have a analog-to-digital antenna to pick up the local over-the-air NFL broadcasts.
"The World’s Last Blockbuster"
Find Blockbuster Store Locations
5600 Debarr Road #5
Anchorage, AK 99504-2300
12350 Industry Way Ste 110
Anchorage, AK 99515-4301
44 College Rd Ste A
Fairbanks, AK 99701-1706
320 N. Santa Claus Lane
North Pole, AK 99705-6053
44376 Sterling Highway
Soldotna, AK 99669-8033
591 E Parks Hwy Ste 401
Wasilla, AK 99654-8165
211 NE Revere Ave
Bend, OR 97701-4010
946 SW 9th St Bldg 100
Redmond, OR 97756-2700
1510 S Sugar Rd
Edinburg, TX 78539-5495
I assume that everything from the NYT is fake news, even though sometimes it isn't.
Known Unknown said...
Dumb. The reason vinyl exists and is popular is because it actually has some sound qualities you cannot get on digital music. It produces a 'warmer' sound than anything on CD or digital.
3/7/19, 9:16 AM
It’s funny because the “warmness” was originally considered a flaw. This happens a lot especially in music where the limitations of a technology later become appreciated and utilized. One other obvious example could be guitar feedback, which was probably considered irritating in the beginning until people like Jimi Hendrix and many others took it and did something great with it.
I completely understand what the Mayor of Bend is saying. Our area is much like Bend demographically and geographically. If you haven't ever lived in a rural area.....you may not understand.
Where we live many people don't have internet at all or have such low speeds that streaming is an impossibility. (2 to 3 mbps...maybe) Satellites, if you can get reception at all, are unreliable with the speeds going up and down or being out due to weather.
We, personally, are very lucky in that our property location is able to have reliable and unlimited data for a rather low price of $60 a month through our landline phone subscriber. We were among the first, 20 years ago, to get access and are grandfathered into the system and now are getting 24 to 30 mbps download.
Even IF you have internet through a satellite like Hughes Net you still are generally on a limited data plan so streaming a movie or two or watching some TV shows and within a few days you are OUT OF DATA for the month and have to pay more. God forbid you have kids who want to play games that require the internet. You would be out in no time at all!!!
So why not get the NETFlix movie DVD plan? The USPS SUCKS DONKEY youknowwhats. Our mail takes a long time to get anywhere. If I want to mail something to the next town over (35 miles) it takes at least 5 days or even more than a week. The mail gets "lost" all the time. People steal things from the rural mail boxes. Unless you have a cluster box that is locked and in a prominent place or have PO Box at the office (as we do) you take your chances.
While the selections on the streaming services Netflix and Amazon are not all that great, they are better than the standard crap on Dish/DirectTV etc.
If we had a Blockbuster we would definitely go to it on our weekly trips for shopping.
The reason vinyl exists and is popular is because it actually has some sound qualities you cannot get on digital music. It produces a 'warmer' sound than anything on CD or digital.
Nope. Just digitize the audio from a turntable. It'll sound exactly the same as the vinyl, complete with the wow and flutter and clicks and noise and poor frequency response of the original, except it won't wear out a little bit each time you play it.
Also "warm" = reduced frequency response, extremely easy to recreate.
Intimations of mortality. Blockbuster was born, matured and died--a full life cycle but within a shortened time frame.. We're all mutable and mortal, even major corporations, but they used to last longer and fade slower. The Sears Roebuck catalogue, Thom McAnn's, the neighborhood bar. Gone forever, but they outlived their customers.
Vinyl is inferior as sound reproduction, period. I get the "warmth" aspect but that's due to limited dynamic range and background noise. I still have some vinyl out of nostalgia and like the sound of it because that's what I grew up with. But if I really want to hear the music, I'll get a remastered CD (it has to be remastered or else it will sound awful*).
I got a remastered digital version of America's Greatest Hits and it was like listening to them for the first time.
Anyway, typewriters are also making something of a comeback. I bought a 1951 Smith-Corona a while back and use it to type letters to people a couple of times a week. Love it. Watch the Hulu doc California Typewriter if you can; it's charming.
* When CDs first came out record companies just copied the vinyl master to the CD and all that did was reveal all of the limitations of vinyl. That's why many gave CDs a bad rap.
Get an antenna for local HD broadcasts. You will have all the major networks if you live near a reasonably sized city, plus PBS and some smaller channels too.
Now you are only getting WiFi bills per month plus $99 a year for AmazonPrime.
I haven't have cable for more than 10 years now. Once a year, or so; i'll pay for an amazon channel and binge for a month: at which time i've exhausted it, and do not renew.
A lot of old cartoons have typewriter jokes (For instance Olive as a screenwriter in the color Popeye two-reeler of Alladin). Kids nowadays have no idea what is going on.
(Also, old cartoons assume a lot of knowledge of chickens..)
Blockbusters may be (mostly) gone, but there still seem to be plenty of Redbox and similar vending-machine movie-rental boxes around and, I'd assume someone is using them or they'd have gone the way of phone booths.
No doubt video streaming is impractical if your internet source is a satellite or fixed wireless or hotspot with a low data cap: at some point it's cheaper to just buy the Blu-Ray than to stream it.
Although if you're really cheap, most public libraries have a selection of DVDs available to borrowers.
As for vinyl, many buyers apparently just keep the record in its shrink wrap and more than a few don't even own a turntable. Although if you're going to play it and want to go full retro, you could do so with an actual vacuum-tube based amplifier.
And perhaps AM broadcasters will go back to playing Top 40 if there's enough demand?
One problem with VHS is the tapes were always breaking or getting balled up.
Although if you're really cheap, most public libraries have a selection of DVDs available to borrowers.
Yard sales and thrift stores are great to browse for movies. You aren't likely to get brand new releases but lots of older movies that you may not have seen or want to see again.
I'm not much interested in the new movies anyway. Can't think of any movie in the last few years that I have any interest in seeing.
Our local, non government, library doesn't have DVD's because people just don't return them. Costs us too much. Strangely the books on DVD are very popular and always returned.
my wife and I live 60 miles or so southeast of Denver (east of kiowa, co) and have pretty decent internet. we used to use a purely cell phone internet only plan through viaero wireless. that was a little pricey at something like $105 for 250 Gb per month. if you ran over the allocation, viaero would levy additional charges that weren't too terrible.
I was very pleasantly surprised at how solid and reliable the cell phone internet service was. my wife and I could both stream video content at the same time without hardly any problems. the system was stable and the reception was consistent. the only (minor) problem was we would have to reboot the cell system modem (which was dedicated to data, no voice) every month or so.
we now use a microwave point to point network system from directlink that is hosted from the top of the kiowa water tower. our antenna can just barely be focused on the top of the tower, but the connection has been rock solid through wind, rain, and snow. we now pay about $61 for 500 Gb (I think, we haven't used all our allocation yet in any case).
viaero wireless (which also has phone plans) is a fixed wireless provider and provides service to portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas. directlink (which also has voice plans through voip) is also a fixed wireless provider and provides service to portions of Colorado.
https://broadbandnow.com/ may be useful in finding better internet service in your area, although it takes some amount of time to recognize new services.
we also used a local HD antenna for television but found that the reception was very hit or miss especially after moving into our house.
Everything old is new again... starting with conception.
Agree totally with Fernandinstein and others re the technical problems with vinyl records. I have a large LP collection and a larger CD collection, mostly classical. When I play an LP these days, what I hear is that the bass rolls off at 60 Hz and the dynamic range is limited, not to mention the surface noise. They had to roll off the bass due to the medium. Also, the sound gets worse progressively from the outside of the disk toward the center because the tangential velocity of the groove is less.
Early CDs and players could sound bad before they got the idea of using digital oversampling filters. With those, a simple one-pole lowpass gets the job done and there is no need for more complex active designs that can introduce their own artifacts. Well-done digitally mastered CDs sound great to me.
People don't even notice how bad MP3s sound compared to straight PCM CDs, but it probably doesn't matter that much for pop music that is all sampled and synthesized anyway.
huge expanses with really small communities
Bend is the nearest city in the least-populated part of the contiguous United States, counties that have as few as two people per square mile.
I don't know anyone who plays vinyl.
I try to play at least one LP each night while making dinner, having a drink. working around the house or something like that. It's simply a different sound and I enjoy it.
Wonder if it's a good time to sell my vinyl record collection, have about a thousand albums....
Unless you have the "Butcher Cover" or the like, you are going to be very disillusioned.
Sometimes when you walk into a room where somebody is playing a vinyl record, you get transported back to the ‘70s by the qualities of the sound. Usually though, it just sounds like crap.
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