Does this spell the death of the brick and mortar video store? - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

SteelBlue · 02-15-2008, 04:59 PM

Apple TV renders brick and mortar video stores useless imo. The one thing a video store was still good for was spur of the moment rentals. This solves that problem easily and when their library size approaches that of a brick and mortar store I don't know how the B&M store survives. Apple TV also lets you watch on your TV versus huddling around the computer. As far as I know, this is the first product available that makes the TV viewing easy. I know that PPV movie rentals have been around for years, but the selection has always been minimal.

The cost of the Apple TV unit is still a bit prohibitive for some so the brick and mortar stores may be safe for a little while longer. But as soon as the price begins to come down, and other companies offer similar products (I'd imagine Blockbuster will try and do something similar) I don't see any reason to ever deal with a brick and mortar store again.

UteStar · 02-15-2008, 05:02 PM

Possibly...but it will take a while. I think that Netflix and Blockbuster Online are the real killers right now. There are several local type video stores (Video Verns, Swan Videos among them) that have gone out of business most likely because of the brutal competition. I think video stores will still be around, but it will be the big boys and there will be fewer of them.

SteelBlue · 02-15-2008, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UteStar

Possibly...but it will take a while. I think that Netflix and Blockbuster Online are the real killers right now. There are several local type video stores (Video Verns, Swan Videos among them) that have gone out of business most likely because of the brutal competition. I think video stores will still be around, but it will be the big boys and there will be fewer of them.

I agree that at Netflix etc... are the problem at this moment. But a product like Apple TV takes away any real reason at all for a video store to exist in the future. Spur of the moment rentals were the last reason for brick and mortar stores to exist. If a company can provide me with an instantly downloadable movie from a large library and I can easily watch it on my TV versus just my computer all at a cheaper cost than renting at Blockbuster then I'm there. Everything is in place except that the box is still at $200+. I'd say around the time that box or a similar product is available at a cost of under $100 the brick and mortar stores are toast. In fact, if I were Apple, I'd consider making the box available for a fee of $5/month. The box gets paid for soon enough, and all their rentals come through you.

I think Apple also needs to lighten up on the amount of time you have to watch the movie. Currently you have a month to start the movie, but once you've hit play you have only 24 hours to finish it. I think they'll need to change that to between 3 days and a week.

Jeff Lebowski · 02-15-2008, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelBlue

I agree that at Netflix etc... are the problem at this moment. But a product like Apple TV takes away any real reason at all for a video store to exist in the future. Spur of the moment rentals were the last reason for brick and mortar stores to exist. If a company can provide me with an instantly downloadable movie from a large library and I can easily watch it on my TV versus just my computer all at a cheaper cost than renting at Blockbuster then I'm there. Everything is in place except that the box is still at $200+. I'd say around the time that box or a similar product is available at a cost of under $100 the brick and mortar stores are toast. In fact, if I were Apple, I'd consider making the box available for a fee of $5/month. The box gets paid for soon enough, and all their rentals come through you.

I think Apple also needs to lighten up on the amount of time you have to watch the movie. Currently you have a month to start the movie, but once you've hit play you have only 24 hours to finish it. I think they'll need to change that to between 3 days and a week.

Agreed. It is not a matter of if, but when. DVDs will become a relic of the past. I think Brick and Mortar rentals will be gone in five years.

ThatSportsFan · 02-15-2008, 05:29 PM

I have Tivo and through Amazon they have a feature where I can download the movie to my Tivo box. The only thing I don't like about it is it takes 1-2 hrs to download a movie and when a new release comes out it takes 2-3 weeks after it was released to be able to rent it. Also the feature like you said is you have to watch the movie 24 hrs after you start watching it is a dumb feature.

Does the Apple TV give you the movie automatically or do you have to wait for it to download.

SteelBlue · 02-15-2008, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThatSportsFan

Does the Apple TV give you the movie automatically or do you have to wait for it to download.

You have to wait for it to download, but download time is less than 1 minute in most cases. Depends of course on your connection speed.

MikeWaters · 02-15-2008, 05:33 PM

I understand that Netflix online is very high quality, and that it looks pretty close to DVD. That's an attractive feature.

Price is going to be very, very important. Frankly HD quality is going to be the most important thing IMO in a couple of years. Two years from now, I won't be watching movies that aren't in HD. I think downloading a movie in HD takes a while.

Jeff Lebowski · 02-15-2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I understand that Netflix online is very high quality, and that it looks pretty close to DVD. That's an attractive feature.

Price is going to be very, very important. Frankly HD quality is going to be the most important thing IMO in a couple of years. Two years from now, I won't be watching movies that aren't in HD. I think downloading a movie in HD takes a while.

You can download HD movies now using XBox Live.

SteelBlue · 02-15-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

You can download HD movies now using XBox Live.

Same with this new version of Apple TV but I noticed that they left out the HD during discussion of instant download times. I wonder what the HD download time is on the apple? Also interesting about Apple TV is that it was an absolute flop when version 1 came out. That it was (and still is) too expensive seems blatantly obvious to me. Once they figure this out though, it or something similar at a reasonable cost will be incredibly popular.

woot · 02-15-2008, 05:50 PM

Comcast On Demand killed Blockbuster for me. We've still gone a couple times in the last year for movies that aren't On Demand, but we used to go a couple times a month at least. For movie fanatics, Netflix is far superior to On Demand due to On Demand's poor library, but it sounds like Netflix online and Apple TV have fixed that problem.

02-15-2008, 04:59 PM	#1
SteelBlue Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Norcal Posts: 5,821	Does this spell the death of the brick and mortar video store? Apple TV renders brick and mortar video stores useless imo. The one thing a video store was still good for was spur of the moment rentals. This solves that problem easily and when their library size approaches that of a brick and mortar store I don't know how the B&M store survives. Apple TV also lets you watch on your TV versus huddling around the computer. As far as I know, this is the first product available that makes the TV viewing easy. I know that PPV movie rentals have been around for years, but the selection has always been minimal. The cost of the Apple TV unit is still a bit prohibitive for some so the brick and mortar stores may be safe for a little while longer. But as soon as the price begins to come down, and other companies offer similar products (I'd imagine Blockbuster will try and do something similar) I don't see any reason to ever deal with a brick and mortar store again.

02-15-2008, 05:02 PM	#2
UteStar Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 1,817	Possibly...but it will take a while. I think that Netflix and Blockbuster Online are the real killers right now. There are several local type video stores (Video Verns, Swan Videos among them) that have gone out of business most likely because of the brutal competition. I think video stores will still be around, but it will be the big boys and there will be fewer of them. __________________ UteStar's words to live by: "I'm not about play-play, I'm really about business." Goatnapper: "UteStar is the only one who is not scum."

02-15-2008, 05:29 PM	#5
ThatSportsFan Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 78	I have Tivo and through Amazon they have a feature where I can download the movie to my Tivo box. The only thing I don't like about it is it takes 1-2 hrs to download a movie and when a new release comes out it takes 2-3 weeks after it was released to be able to rent it. Also the feature like you said is you have to watch the movie 24 hrs after you start watching it is a dumb feature. Does the Apple TV give you the movie automatically or do you have to wait for it to download.

02-15-2008, 05:33 PM	#7
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	I understand that Netflix online is very high quality, and that it looks pretty close to DVD. That's an attractive feature. Price is going to be very, very important. Frankly HD quality is going to be the most important thing IMO in a couple of years. Two years from now, I won't be watching movies that aren't in HD. I think downloading a movie in HD takes a while.

02-15-2008, 05:50 PM	#10
woot Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Denver Posts: 1,502	Comcast On Demand killed Blockbuster for me. We've still gone a couple times in the last year for movies that aren't On Demand, but we used to go a couple times a month at least. For movie fanatics, Netflix is far superior to On Demand due to On Demand's poor library, but it sounds like Netflix online and Apple TV have fixed that problem.