Video Ezy shutting down??

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MikeAqua

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Reply # 1448316 10-Dec-2015 17:56

Personally, I have never had any problems renting movies that I want to watch online legally.

Admittedly, I don't watch anything particularly obscure. Google alone has a much larger selection of movies that any video rental store I have ever been in, and there are other providers as well.

old3eyes:
MikeAqua: Doesn't really surprise me.

I feel sorry for those in the video rental business but ultimately I find streamed video to be more reliable than rented discs, more choice and no availability issues.

Well there is an issue with availability. Both iTunes and Google movies both have this really annoying habit of having some of it''s movies a buy only and not rentals but they can be rented from the local video store....

I wonder if the the like of iTunes and Google will be allowed to bring forward their release dates rather than waiting until the DVD rentals to have their first bite at the apple..

Mike

reven

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Reply # 1448319 10-Dec-2015 18:02

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surfisup1000: i hope our united video stays open.

It is a couple of minutes a way and when you want to watch 3d or extra high quality I rent from there.

I get the business model is unsustainable but sadly I will lose access to bluray quality films.

And I feel sorry for the nice owners.They did try to sell up around 6 years ago but who'd buy?

I usually buy 3d blurays and movies I really want. Always wait for the sales and usually pick them up on trademe/warehouse for around $5-$10 (warehouse just had a 3d bluray sale on and I got 10 3D movies for $10 each).

vudu offer HDX which is 1080P 7.1 sound. Internet is getting faster and faster, hevc is coming along, movie rental stores were always going to go under, just a matter of when.

Oh and the only reason I buy blurays is to rip them to my NAS, if I could buy DRM free movies online I would. Just want to watch them in Kodi or plex on any device I want. I havent found a service that works everywhere yet. Google play is close since youtube apps let you watch those movies, but they never list what "HD" actually means for a movie, so I'm not sure if its 720p with 2.0 sound.

reven

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Reply # 1448322 10-Dec-2015 18:07

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Jaxson: Quality of the image is the only issue from my perspective. Not much point worrying about quality components if you're going to feed it a download/stream.

Bluray's what, 50GB available, and a typical stream is say 2 GB max?

5.1 or more channels of lossless audio etc.

Reminds me of the move from the '70s style of big wooden speakers to plastic but small, light and portable CD player units. Convinience always wins out over quality, hence fast food, streaming etc.

Marbecks is now a café only in Palmerston North, so going the way of the music stores and the dodo.

typical movie actually around 24-30GB. Thats with uncompressed video, you can compress it without loosing any quality to around 8GB with h264, even further with h265/hevc.

streaming movies are more around 4GB I believe for 1080p/5.1.

Behodar

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Reply # 1448330 10-Dec-2015 18:28

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reven: typical movie actually around 24-30GB. Thats with uncompressed video, you can compress it without loosing any quality to around 8GB with h264, even further with h265/hevc.

Blu-rays are absolutely not uncompressed; an uncompressed 2-hour 8-bit 2k movie would be over a terabyte in size. The compression on Blu-ray is simply less extreme than with streaming services. But I get your point; we're in a country where 100 Mb/s connections are readily available to a large proportion of the population, yet streaming services are at a comparatively minuscule bitrate.

I'm also not aware of any online service for renting games instead of movies.

Fred99

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Reply # 1448349 10-Dec-2015 19:40

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Netflix do an exceptionally good job with compression/streaming IMO. 1080p @ 3GB / hour, quality is fine by me. There's never any obvious pixellation or posterisation, it looks like bluray to me - or if not then so close it's trivial.
Other providers - not so much. Some also clip quiet parts out of the sound, presumably as part of the compression. If there's a dialogue, then you can hear the gain shut off 1/2 second after someone talks, dead silence instead of inevitable background noise of some type - they don't shoot movies in anechoic rooms, then it cuts back in 1/2 second before the reply. It creates an annoying "pumping" effect.

Kiwifruta

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Reply # 1448382 10-Dec-2015 20:43

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Fred99: Our closest video rental store - a Video Ezy - closed down earlier this year, other smaller stores are long gone. Now, even if I wanted to rent a bluray/dvd, the closest store probably means a 10km round trip.
The one I don't want to see close in Chch is Alices, but dammit, even though I'd hate to see it go I've done nothing to prevent what's probably inevitable - I don't think I've been there for a year.

IMO one aspect of what's killing the local video store applies to movies in general. "Movies" as a one-off ~90 -120 minute entertainment experience have lost appeal in our household - it's starting to seem apparent that the time constraints limit plot and character development, a bit like reading short stories rather than settling in to and being absorbed by a full length novel. The ~60 minute episode is more convenient than committing to movie length, then if we're in the mood, watch a second episode consecutively. I can tolerate the occasional sub-par episode in an otherwise good series. &inbsp;I can't tolerate a sub-par movie at all - and most fall into that category.

I have to agree with your comments about the storylines. I'm preferring to watch series over movies because the former is about storyline and the latter about big budget sets and effects.

JWR

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Reply # 1448392 10-Dec-2015 21:09

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Kiwifruta:
Fred99: Our closest video rental store - a Video Ezy - closed down earlier this year, other smaller stores are long gone. Now, even if I wanted to rent a bluray/dvd, the closest store probably means a 10km round trip.
The one I don't want to see close in Chch is Alices, but dammit, even though I'd hate to see it go I've done nothing to prevent what's probably inevitable - I don't think I've been there for a year.

IMO one aspect of what's killing the local video store applies to movies in general. "Movies" as a one-off ~90 -120 minute entertainment experience have lost appeal in our household - it's starting to seem apparent that the time constraints limit plot and character development, a bit like reading short stories rather than settling in to and being absorbed by a full length novel. The ~60 minute episode is more convenient than committing to movie length, then if we're in the mood, watch a second episode consecutively. I can tolerate the occasional sub-par episode in an otherwise good series. &inbsp;I can't tolerate a sub-par movie at all - and most fall into that category.

I have to agree with your comments about the storylines. I'm preferring to watch series over movies because the former is about storyline and the latter about big budget sets and effects.

Also, you can binge watch a whole series now. No need to wait a whole year.

It is like a very long movie.

Kiwifruta

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Reply # 1448409 10-Dec-2015 21:59

JWR:
Kiwifruta:
Fred99: Our closest video rental store - a Video Ezy - closed down earlier this year, other smaller stores are long gone. Now, even if I wanted to rent a bluray/dvd, the closest store probably means a 10km round trip.
The one I don't want to see close in Chch is Alices, but dammit, even though I'd hate to see it go I've done nothing to prevent what's probably inevitable - I don't think I've been there for a year.

IMO one aspect of what's killing the local video store applies to movies in general. "Movies" as a one-off ~90 -120 minute entertainment experience have lost appeal in our household - it's starting to seem apparent that the time constraints limit plot and character development, a bit like reading short stories rather than settling in to and being absorbed by a full length novel. The ~60 minute episode is more convenient than committing to movie length, then if we're in the mood, watch a second episode consecutively. I can tolerate the occasional sub-par episode in an otherwise good series. &inbsp;I can't tolerate a sub-par movie at all - and most fall into that category.

I have to agree with your comments about the storylines. I'm preferring to watch series over movies because the former is about storyline and the latter about big budget sets and effects.

Also, you can binge watch a whole series now. No need to wait a whole year.

It is like a very long movie.

Yup.

MaxLV

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Reply # 1448438 10-Dec-2015 22:51

old3eyes: Went past my local one in Pt Chevalier in Auckland yesterday and saw the closing down sale sign up. Guy I work with says that the Beachlands one is doing the same.

Guess that online streaming is starting to bite. Pity as video and audio via streaming is no where as good as Blu ray video and audio. While DD5.
1 audio on iTunes is quite good it's no where as good as say DTS HD audio..

You may have missed it...

Aro Video closing:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/74633472/wellingtons-aro-video-will-close-as-streaming-tightens-noose

eracode

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Reply # 1448481 11-Dec-2015 05:25

old3eyes: Went past my local one in Pt Chevalier in Auckland yesterday and saw the closing down sale sign up. Guy I work with says that the Beachlands one is doing the same.

Guess that online streaming is starting to bite. Pity as video and audio via streaming is no where as good as Blu ray video and audio. While DD5.
1 audio on iTunes is quite good it's no where as good as say DTS HD audio..

I wonder if they will have a sale on Betamax tapes? Sony stopped supporting that platform just a couple of months ago.

Hammerer

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Reply # 1448487 11-Dec-2015 06:52

andrew027:

Says it all.

That was the least successful video store in central Lower Hutt. It always struggled compared the nearby stores: Blockbuster a couple of blocks away did a lot better; and United Video further south was also a lot busier.

The current situation is that the Blockbuster store (51 Rutherford St) bought out the United Video and merged the stores at the United Video site (100 High St) opposite the Mad Butcher so there is no shortage of traffic.

In our house we use Netflix geo-unlocked and other streaming sources but we still go to the video store. $10 for 10 DVD/BD for 8 days is a very good deal. New release availability, BD quality and a relatively low price still beats streaming almost every time. But I guess that most people rate convenience over quality because they just want to relax and keep the kids quiet.

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