Comic for Friday, Mar 10, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Comic for Friday, Mar 10, 2023

While it seems odd that Mr. Tensaided is just thinking about closing down his video rental, in-universe, he's being proactive.

Seems weird that Susan is just becoming aware of needing to plan this. She generally seems to have a plan for what she does.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Darth Fluffy
fixed a sentence

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Mr D 10 has a love/hate relationship with high speed internet?  Why does this not surprise me?

Will Susan want to be there for the store's last day?

Maybe a big special production for the final review show?

By the way, what is the principle format in this store?  Blue ray?  Dvd?  Vhs?  Laser disk?  Betamax?  Super 8?

[mlooney 3,417]

We know it's not Laser Disk because Mr. d10 said that he would provide the player when Justin and he had their dual.  If Laser Disk was a common format he wouldn't need to provide the player.

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Mr D 10 has a love/hate relationship with high speed internet?  Why does this not surprise me?

Will Susan want to be there for the store's last day?

Maybe a big special production for the final review show?

By the way, what is the principle format in this store?  Blue ray?  Dvd?  Vhs?  Laser disk?  Betamax?  Super 8?

I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet in terms of privacy. I use various blockers, and there are several popular sites I will not touch.

For formats, in our world, Super 8 is ancient. It was affordable, on par with BetaMax and VHS, which came later. But there was crappy selection of titles, mostly old stuff, nothing current at the time. I've never seen a Super 8 movie, but I imagine the quality was crappy. I don't think it had sound. The film could break, and from what I recall of films in school (which were a wider format), they probably did break or burn from time to time. You could also get a camera and shoot your own film, but I'm guessing they were pricey to develop. And they never had dedicated rental distribution sites that I've ever seen.

Before all the rest, there were short lived video records. I've seen that once; it was adequate. It was exactly what it sounds like, a vinyl record with grooves that played a moving sound image. I suspect the lifetime of the recordings was short. I recall that they were big, maybe bigger than an audio LP.

Laser disk seems similar, but more reliable. I don't think I've ever seen those played. These also were large. Pricey, if I recall correctly.

BetaMax was slightly earlier than VHS, and somewhat better for image quality, but did not catch on as well. I think it was a more expensive format to license, so essentially killed itself off; vendors preferred to make the cheaper VHS tapes. I've seen a movie in Beta, at the time neither had fully taken over. These were the initial foundation of video rental. It was lucrative enough that independents could support themselves.

Tape had a distinct advantage that you could tape shows from your feed, antenna or cable, to replay. I had dozens that I recorded for our kids. If you had a camera, you no longer needed to develop your film.

There was a later compact video tape format that was mainly used in cameras.

DVDs were around a decade later. They were cheaper to produce than video tape, eliminating a repeated recording step, and were much more convenient. They quickly took over. By the end of the nineties, video rental stores were largely DVD, with small VHS section. The quality of the DVDs vary depending on the source; many pre-DVD films were not remastered, they were copied from VHS tapes, especially B and C movies; generally done by cheap production houses.

I don't recall Blu Ray ever having an impact on rental stores. It came out too late. I have never seen a Blu Ray video. No compelling need to invest in one, I'd get it maybe because I like having the media for movies that I like, but everything is available online now.

I am tempted, however, to set up an antenna, for old times sake. Would be worth it, just for local news shows.

[ChronosCat 155]

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Tape had a distinct advantage that you could tape shows from your feed, antenna or cable, to replay. I had dozens that I recorded for our kids. If you had a camera, you no longer needed to develop your film.

[...]

I don't recall Blu Ray ever having an impact on rental stores. It came out too late. I have never seen a Blu Ray video. No compelling need to invest in one, I'd get it maybe because I like having the media for movies that I like, but everything is available online now.

I am tempted, however, to set up an antenna, for old times sake. Would be worth it, just for local news shows.

I still have a ton of VHS tapes I recorded off the TV back in the 90s and 00s, though I rarely go back and rewatch them. (I keep thinking one day I will though, hence not having gotten rid of them.) I also have a Digital Converter box that I can hook up to my old VCR, and will still record shows to watch them later every so often (I honestly find it more convenient than a DVR, thought that might just be thanks to familiarity).

I also have a Blu-Ray Player; I got it because there are a handful of movies I want the best possible quality for (though admittedly on my not-exactly-cutting-edge TV the difference is minimal) and because a lot of times these days they only put the special features on the Blu-Ray versions, and I love special features.

As for watching stuff online, well, that just wouldn't be practical with my limited internet.

Incidentally, living in the middle of the woods my only options for TV are antenna and satellite; as it's cheaper (you just pay for the antenna once and that's it), we've always gone with the antenna.

[Don Edwards 548]

8 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

BetaMax was slightly earlier than VHS, and somewhat better for image quality, but did not catch on as well. I think it was a more expensive format to license, so essentially killed itself off; vendors preferred to make the cheaper VHS tapes.

Actually, that's well understood. There is a single factor that gave VHS a huge lead early on, and even though Beta later caught up technically, it was already too far behind in the marketplace.

That factor was: a single Beta tape could (when the format was first released) only hold an hour of movie, while a VHS tape could do two hours. Since essentially-all feature films are significantly more than one hour long...

[Darth Fluffy 302]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:49 PM, Don Edwards said:

Actually, that's well understood. There is a single factor that gave VHS a huge lead early on, and even though Beta later caught up technically, it was already too far behind in the marketplace.

That factor was: a single Beta tape could (when the format was first released) only hold an hour of movie, while a VHS tape could do two hours. Since essentially-all feature films are significantly more than one hour long...

That would be a big deal, a full movie vs needing two tapes.

I did not recall any of that. I do recall someone with a vested interest bitching about the ability of the public to record shows off the air. They did not get their early equivalent of the DCMA. Unfortunately, things got worse after that.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Darth Fluffy
Fix typo

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

When the US Congress was debating the issue of recording broadcast tv for private use, one of the strongest voices in favor was Mr Fred Rogers (of Mr Rogers Neighborhood).  He quietly but persuasively testified before congressional committees that families should decide for themselves when to watch tv.  

I suppose you need to talk to politicians the way you talk to children.

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

12 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When the US Congress was debating the issue of recording broadcast tv for private use, one of the strongest voices in favor was Mr Fred Rogers (of Mr Rogers Neighborhood).  He quietly but persuasively testified before congressional committees that families should decide for themselves when to watch tv.  

I suppose you need to talk to politicians the way you talk to children.

I vaguely recall that.

I think in a very general sense, you need to be calmly persuasive to sway anybody, politicians included. It doesn't take much imagination to see Dunning-Krueger at work in Congress or in state assemblies. Fred Rogers had a very patient demeanor, and testified successfully before Congress more than once, notably for funding PBS, for which Nixon initially wanted to cut funding.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

For a thread posted to the wrong forum in the wee hours of the morning, this one has had an interesting level of activity.