Family Video died.

[Thump553]

So it's rent forever. Never owning.

Even if you have a physical copy you are "renting" because of the legal effects of licensing laws. Personally I'm glad to be free of the physical clutter of videotapes, eight tracks, books and even record albums-unless it is something rare and out of print that I can't get otherwise and really want. Only record albums bear the slightest appeal for me, mostly because of record cover art.

 

[Roger Wilco]

The Family Videos around here recently started offering CBD products. You could buy tinctures, lip balm, CBD-infused drinks, and other things. All of this stuff was displayed by the cashier, along with popcorn and candy. No THC of course, but I thought it was incredibly random.

 

[Bitek]

Depends on how much you're into movies. One thing you don't get with the streaming services, is the behind-the-scenes stuff, cast interviews, and assorted special features.

Also no Easter eggs with streaming.

Sometimes the full audio quality isn't there. Noticeable if you have a good HT system.

 

[IronWing]

We have one rental place left in our city of a million plus people. It survives as they have a vast inventory of art, foreign, obscure, and old movies in addition to the pop stuff. They also do rentals by mail.

 

[Pohemi]

Does nobody do the OG netflix business of mail in disks?
That was actually not a bad model. Still applicable today some degree as the streaming services are so fractured, and high quality content can be a challenge.

No, it's rent and rip..
Build a 3000 DVD/BluRay library, $1.19 at a time.

When Netflix was new (discs by mail, pre-streaming), that's what I did for a while. Built up a few hundred movies on DVD-Rs, then eventually moved them all to HDD to ditch the physical DVDs.
When blurays and HD video (including streaming services) became more common, the DVD vids got nuked.
Movies I bother to DL now are mostly 4K.

The Family Videos around here recently started offering CBD products. You could buy tinctures, lip balm, CBD-infused drinks, and other things. All of this stuff was displayed by the cashier, along with popcorn and candy. No THC of course, but I thought it was incredibly random.

It's pretty stupid if you ask me, but it's a newish and lucrative market, so every gas station and their mother is selling the stuff in recent years.
A lot of it is likely not the best products, I'm sure.

 

[Zorba]

I really prefer owning to streaming. I used to rent a lot, but gave that up as basically every time I got a disc it was jacked up. I've sworn off Redbox completely because it seems every disc I get from them skips and there is no recourse.

It seems like almost nothing I actually want to watch is on the streaming services I have. And I won't pay $3 to digitally rent something when I can buy the Blu-ray for $5-8.

 

[Pohemi]

It seems like almost nothing I actually want to watch is on the streaming services I have. And I won't pay $3 to digitally rent something when I can buy the Blu-ray for $5-8.

Some of the streaming services such as Netflix, I will rotate subs on.
Pay for a month or two, watch a lot or most of what is in my watchlist, then cancel the sub for at least a few months until new/different content gets added.
There isn't enough content on the service for me to justify NOT cancelling the sub every so often, because yeah...I literally run out of things I care to watch and would otherwise be paying for nothing but an active login for several months at a time.
Edit: I didn't bother doing this when the sub was $8/mo, but it's up to $20/mo now, and while not 'expensive' it'd still be a waste to me.
The only streaming service that doesn't get subbed on/off is the Amazon Prime, that's active every month.

 

[Muse]

I thought so too, but I'm assuming.

We kept it for a while after they started streaming, as the actual movie selection was much better, but quit once they charged separately.

Then I quit netflix altogether when there was too little worth watching after the price hikes.

QUESTION: The streaming services, e.g. Netflix, Netflix HD, HBO, HBO Max... When you watch a movie using those services do you have access to the extras? The DVDs and BRs I get from my local library usually have extras like:

Audio commentaries
Subtitles (optional)
Deleted scenes (often)
The making of extras
Etc.

In my experience, especially when I really like a movie, I get a LOT out the extras.

Are those available when you watch a movie via streaming services?

Edit: When watching a movie using an optical disk that supports several subtitle streams I am annoyed by the fact that to turn off subtitles, I have to progress through all the options to get back to OFF. Sometimes there are many streams (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Thai...). The only way I have found to get around that is to make a copy of the disk using DVDShrink and opt to copy ONLY the English subtitle stream. What's this issue like when streaming video from a service?

 

[shortylickens]

if its something I like, I'll be wanting commentaries and featurettes. And those are never available on streaming services.

 

[Viper1j]

U can still buy content, so there's that!

But wait! There's more!

Every time I get one of those " DMCA" complaints from Comcast, I just send my regular template reply.

(This only happens, when I come across a trailer on the disk, and go to the torrents.)

Funny thing, they never respond. Or try to contradict me...

And I was wrong about the count, I only have 2932 DVD/Blu-rays.

https://cyberspace.ischool.utexas.edu/course/copyright/4.php

Private copying
Copying for your own personal use may not be infringing, either. Some changes to copyright law have been created explicitly to clarify personal noncommercial uses, such as the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which explicitly allows the copying of audio at home for noncommercial purposes (although this law doesn't include using your computer to make these audio copies). Making mix tapes (with a tape deck) to give to your friends probably wasn't copyright infringement when it was popular, for example. I would argue that the same would be true for CDs, and digital media, but that is a matter of controversy.

Time Shifting
Technology, in many ways, has always posed a challenge for lawmakers, the public, creators, and copyright law. When the VCR was developed, the movie industry was up in arms. In a now (in)famous quote, then head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti, testified to Congress that "the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." He predicted that the VCR would spell the death of the movie industry. Representatives for the music industry had a similar reaction when the phonograph was developed. In an important decision, the Supreme Court determined that "time shifting" for personal use, by tape recording a movie, was legal, as was a technology that was capable as "substantial noninfringing use." The case was Sony vs. Universal, also referred to as the Betamax decision (SONY CORP. OF AMER. v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)).

Space Shifting
In 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Diamond over their selling of a new device—the portable MP3 player. The ninth circuit court of appeals recognized that consumers can "space-shift" as well as time shift for personal noncommercial use. Space shifting refers to the reformatting of material from one format to another. The case was RIAA vs. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. 180 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). (There's much more to this case than what I just mentioned. A great deal of the case deals with whether or not the MP3 Player needed to have copy protection, but we're not going into that at this time.)

Parody and Satire
Parody and satire protection comes from the fair use doctrine and is clarified in some court cases. Parody, in particular, is often considered free speech in the form of criticism. The nature of parody is such that it requires the use of copyrighted material to be effective. NOTE, HOWEVER that the legal uses of parody and satire are not necessarily what you would consider parody and satire in the English department. If you want to claim fair use using parody or satire, make sure you do some research on the subject.

 

[Viper1j]

Sometimes the full audio quality isn't there. Noticeable if you have a good HT system.

Well all I can say is, good luck trying to find an original print of the George Romero's 1976 version of "Dawn of the Dead" on any streaming service.

That also goes for the original version of Evil Dead, PumpkinHead, Brian de Palma's 1976 version of "Carrie", or Blowout (Notable for the back to back pairing of John Travolta and Nancy Allen) or another couple of hundred movies I could name, but simply don't have the time to. Or, a version of, " Maximum Overdrive" with the cameo of Stephen King in the beginning.

Then again, I guess you can always email me requesting a copy.

 

[Zorba]

Some of the streaming services such as Netflix, I will rotate subs on.
Pay for a month or two, watch a lot or most of what is in my watchlist, then cancel the sub for at least a few months until new/different content gets added.
There isn't enough content on the service for me to justify NOT cancelling the sub every so often, because yeah...I literally run out of things I care to watch and would otherwise be paying for nothing but an active login for several months at a time.
Edit: I didn't bother doing this when the sub was $8/mo, but it's up to $20/mo now, and while not 'expensive' it'd still be a waste to me.
The only streaming service that doesn't get subbed on/off is the Amazon Prime, that's active every month.

Yeah, I don't directly pay for any streaming. Get the Disney bundle from Verizon, Amazon through prime and borrow Netflix. The only one I'd ever pay for is D+. The others have stuff I can find and enjoy, but rarely when I think "I want to watch this" is it available. I also don't watch much TV anyways, cancelled cable in 2009 and have never missed it.

 

[Zorba]

But wait! There's more!

Every time I get one of those " DMCA" complaints from Comcast, I just send my regular template reply.

(This only happens, when I come across a trailer on the disk, and go to the torrents.)

Funny thing, they never respond. Or try to contradict me...

And I was wrong about the count, I only have 2932 DVD/Blu-rays.

https://cyberspace.ischool.utexas.edu/course/copyright/4.php

Private copying
Copying for your own personal use may not be infringing, either. Some changes to copyright law have been created explicitly to clarify personal noncommercial uses, such as the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which explicitly allows the copying of audio at home for noncommercial purposes (although this law doesn't include using your computer to make these audio copies). Making mix tapes (with a tape deck) to give to your friends probably wasn't copyright infringement when it was popular, for example. I would argue that the same would be true for CDs, and digital media, but that is a matter of controversy.

Time Shifting
Technology, in many ways, has always posed a challenge for lawmakers, the public, creators, and copyright law. When the VCR was developed, the movie industry was up in arms. In a now (in)famous quote, then head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti, testified to Congress that "the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." He predicted that the VCR would spell the death of the movie industry. Representatives for the music industry had a similar reaction when the phonograph was developed. In an important decision, the Supreme Court determined that "time shifting" for personal use, by tape recording a movie, was legal, as was a technology that was capable as "substantial noninfringing use." The case was Sony vs. Universal, also referred to as the Betamax decision (SONY CORP. OF AMER. v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)).

Space Shifting
In 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Diamond over their selling of a new device—the portable MP3 player. The ninth circuit court of appeals recognized that consumers can "space-shift" as well as time shift for personal noncommercial use. Space shifting refers to the reformatting of material from one format to another. The case was RIAA vs. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. 180 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). (There's much more to this case than what I just mentioned. A great deal of the case deals with whether or not the MP3 Player needed to have copy protection, but we're not going into that at this time.)

Parody and Satire
Parody and satire protection comes from the fair use doctrine and is clarified in some court cases. Parody, in particular, is often considered free speech in the form of criticism. The nature of parody is such that it requires the use of copyrighted material to be effective. NOTE, HOWEVER that the legal uses of parody and satire are not necessarily what you would consider parody and satire in the English department. If you want to claim fair use using parody or satire, make sure you do some research on the subject.

Just use a VPN.

 

[nakedfrog]

4K on disc looks better than streaming 4K in my experience.
Before I moved, I was actually renting UHD discs from Family Video since they were about the only place nearby that I could rent them. I thought it was kinda funny a decade ago or whenever it was that they opened up in what had been the Hollywood Video, seemed kind of optimistic to think they could succeed where the previous rental place had failed (and the Blockbuster Video 1 mile down the road as well). They did also add on a Marco's pizza at the location.

 

[Pohemi]

4K on disc looks better than streaming 4K in my experience.

Streaming UHD will always be compressed to hell, even if you have a 10Gbit pipe into your home. It looks better than 1080p, but the bitrate will be reduced by a LOT compared to playing a UHD bluray.

 

[Muse]

if its something I like, I'll be wanting commentaries and featurettes. And those are never available on streaming services.

Aha, then I think I'll just stick with my library disks. They're free, too.

 

[Zorba]

Aha, then I think I'll just stick with my library disks. They're free, too.

My library doesn't offer any blu-rays. Not sure what is up with that. When I lived in Tulsa my library had a rack of new-to-them blu-rays, I'd grab one or two every time I was there.

 

[Viper1j]

if its something I like, I'll be wanting commentaries and featurettes. And those are never available on streaming services.

Don't forget deleted scenes, although I'll admit to an occasional "what the fuck were they thinking?" when the alternate ending is actually better than the one they put out for release. (Leatherface comes to mind..)