Blockbuster Video leaving OKC Market. Store closing start mid feb

[BBatesokc]

.....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]

I am glad it is closed, I hate Blockbuster, way overpriced

[SoonerDave]

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]

I used to rent but not anymore, I just buy DVDs/Blu-Rays and I have over 300 and counting!

[BBatesokc]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

... 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]

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]

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]

...but remember seeing them sold at the old Video Concepts store at Crossroads Mall back in the day...

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

[Stew]

DVDs and bluerays are obsolete as far as I'm concerned. They seem so ancient.

[SomeGuy]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I used to rent but not anymore, I just buy DVDs/Blu-Rays and I have over 300 and counting!

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)