Forum - View topicChicks On Anime - Tales from the Rental Front
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Ceredonia
Posts: 36 Location: Fort Collins, CO |
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There's various ways for rental stores to get their products. We do go through a wholesale company and get a certain percentage off the discs. Unfortunately, MSRP for pretty much every DVD out is $29.99, so even after the discount we get we're still paying more than what someone would pay at Best Buy or somewhere local, usually around $20 a disc. |
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zanarkand princess
Posts: 1484 |
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By the way when I saw the name Kira was I the only one imagining Bamboo and Sara sitting and talking with a serial killer and a mech pilot?
Hmm I always thought rental places would get a discount. Don't you pay a little more than $20 at Best Buy though? I haven't brought anime from them in ages though. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14876 |
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Ha! I have. Several times! So long as the distribution center is near enough (I have 2).
IIRC, that was with Blockbuster and VHS deal. Blockbuster paid about $100 per VHS.
I had the same issue, so I just asked for a new car radio with AUX as a b-day present. |
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Cait
Posts: 503 |
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That's great if you can justify the additional cost, but most people wouldn't want to pay to replace the same car stereo twice. My sister doesn't even prioritize technology (like most people don't), so putting yet another car stereo on her birthday/xmas/whatever list wasn't going to happen. I myself would love to have an Aux input in my car, but I'm going to wait for my current stereo to be broken and need to be replaced (it broke once right before the warranty expired, so I expect it to happen again in the next three to five years) or the car needs to be replaced (and I can afford a new one with an Aux input in the stereo). |
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ReiClone88
Posts: 187 Location: Inside a giant tank full of Tang |
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I don't like streamed anime, the re-encode quality is often choppy and when the window is stretched, it's not clear at all.
But with many anime going Blu-ray in Japan, somewhat brand new Blu-ray ripped fansubs in H.264 video and ACC audio are awesome. Plus when an HDMI cord is used to hook-up a laptop to an HDTV, the experience makes for a neat late night experience. |
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Overlord Z-ko
Posts: 34 |
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Actually one of the advantages of digital distribution is that it is much cheaper to keep a file indefinetley than it is to keep a DVD in print. Of course there are problems such as DRM and liscencing but it still is a great way to keep things in print. |
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Arielle
Posts: 4 |
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I live in Boulder and as a "newbie" anime fan I wish that driving to Fort Collins was like driving down the street. Please move into the vacant McDonalds down the street so I can watch more anime. Thanks.
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enurtsol
Posts: 14876 |
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A present, so no pay. And since I already got the iPod, might as well fix the FM issue. And the old stereo panel light was going out anyways. |
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Cait
Posts: 503 |
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A gift, yes, but it's a pretty substantial gift. I'm at the age now when birthdays and Christmas are not that big a deal anymore, so gift giving has waned quite a bit. Getting something like that would sort of take over what other gifts I might want to receive, and since I'm not hurting for music in my car the way it is now, I'd rather ask for other things. But back on topic, I'd hate to see even the big chain video rental stores go under. Sometimes I simply want to watch a movie and go pick it up right then and make an evening of it. There aren't really many independent stores around, either, so the choices are minimal. I use Blockbuster Online over Netflix because of their in-store exchange policy. If I want to see something and don't have it with me, I can run down to the store, not pay anything and get a movie to rent for a few days. |
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ArthurFrDent
Posts: 466 |
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"Arthur - I think you are continuing to make the classic mistake of looking at digital distribution as it is currently constituted and not trying hard enough to see what it will likely be. " Blood-
Perhaps. I think you are neglecting to look at this as a business. Sadly, digital distribution doesn't happen by faery magic. I can go into the Vidiot and they will hand me a disk with 13Gb of info on it to play. Blue-Ray is 35Gb. If you pull your title through iTunes-esque system, that's how much data has to move. For each of you, your two friends and so on and so on. That system works right now because few people use it. I mean that as a proportion of all the homes that would be covered like Nielsen ratings covers them. I don't know how many that is in Canada, but in the US it's 100+million households. As the proportion of people using the system goes up, the load will catch up with the bandwidth. Probably in very short order, since they haven't been building infrastructure in the last few years. Basically one delivery system of this digital info was first designed for low data phone calls. They have steadily improved that network, eventually making a lot of it fiberoptic. I don't know how much of that gets how close to an individual house. From the local sub office, you might be going over old fashioned copper wire. Even in suburbs less than 10 years old that is often true. The other delivery system is cable, which has it's own bandwidth issue in the same way. The more people access the system the slower it gets. These things are true if you are working this OnDemand. If you are just watching what is being broadcast like everyone else, that is a whole 'nother thing. For this reason I think the underlying issue is infrastructure first. If you have ever lived someplace where they built a new housing development before upgrading the roads, you'll know what I mean. The issue for a business ends up being that if the consumer can't get what they want, they will abandon your service. If it is too slow, they will abandon your service, if it costs too much, they will abandon your service. So which is the chicken and which the egg? They won't build more fiber until there is a demand, but what kind of demand will there be if you can't get the service? It is a completely different question to talk about what this iTunes-esque service will license for your viewing pleasure, [i]and for how long.[i] that was the point I was previously making. I used to have a Blade Runner VHS tape. When it came out on DVD the only version you could get was the "director's cut" which was a version I hated. So I waited for some years [10? 15?] until the ultimate collection came out just so I could have that version. as we have seen with the litany of complaints about Anime licensing, the same problem will still be there... with one very important exception. It won't be an option to buy a used disk, for example. Let's say you really, really need the Tenchi Muyo OVA disk #3. You might pick it up used online for $100. It is discontinued and not in print. In an all digital system, it would not exist. Let's say Haruhi Suzamiya is your favoritest thing evar. In a few years it may no longer be in print either. So one day you decide you want to watch someday in the rain, and ??? it's no longer available. Whacha' gonna do? In the all digital system, THERE IS NO FOREVER for a commercial good. Because you have to pay to have it there. The licensing rights are not only by use, but also by time, AND by each show. Sure your server based Super_Anime_Account! might contain the metadata indicating that you bought a show, but you didn't buy it forever. Since it is electronic you bought it for time. If the license lapses, it goes away because you don't actually own anything. The disk you have in your hand today is kindof an anachronism. You don't own the contents absolutely, ie. you can't sell them commercially. You can re-sell the disk only, and that probably only still is the case because it would be too hard to prevent you from doing so. But you do own the disk and it's info individually for as long as they last. In the digital domain this won't be the case. Basically I am approaching my understanding based on how regular software works today, when it is housed on the server level and you are using a thin client to access it. If you let your license lapse, or they stop supporting the version, you lose your access. In a business environment this works fine. In a consumer environment, it relies on consumer churn in interests. All that being said, I hear Blood- and others on the idea that things will change as time goes on. The biggest sea change will be to see the world as one place first rather than regions, and to sell based on that. But also the understanding of what people want individually will have to change, and there will be hella' false starts on that one. Remember sony's DRM issues? Lot's of companies have that problem, because they didn't ask what the user wanted versus what the provider was willing to give. One of the tightest thing about digital distribution is that you will have to follow their rules on what you do and where. That isn't really the case currently with having individual media pieces in the hands of individual people. I can still play my old scratchy recors however I want, and I don't have to pay anyone for that. Once they monetize digital distribution that won't be the case. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Hahaha, I do this at the library, too. Some of those young adult trilogies that authors have been pumping out nowadays are really fascinating. Thank goodness for self checkout! Though when those systems are down, I always pull out the, "Oh, these are for my brother..." excuse. I remember several years back when male fans blanched at the thought of taking the Utena movie up to Best Buy counters, because it was pink, pink, pink. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Posts: 24092 |
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Actually, Arthur, it's kind of funny we're having this physical vs. digital distribution conversation because just today, one of my orders from TRSI arrived at the office. Among the items is the gorgeous tin Desert Punk box set. It's such a beautiful piece of eye candy that all I want to do is run home and start watching it. So believe me, it's not that I don't understand and appreciate the value of a non-digital object.
My other point is that back when the Model T came out, you would have been able to assemble a completely legitimate list of reasons, based on the technical and infrastructure realities of the time, why this newfangled horseless carriage would never be anything but a plaything of the rich. And, ultimately, nothing on that list would have mattered. As soon as you create a product that is composed of digital information, you are almost automatically ensuring that governments, corporations and consumers will do what needs to be done have this weightless, massless entity delivered to you as easily as possible (in a form that you can store and keep for your entire life). It's inevitable. |
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ReiClone88
Posts: 187 Location: Inside a giant tank full of Tang |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wf0O6byui4 |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14876 |
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C'mon, ya can't be that old. And they can afford it. They wouldn't know what to get me anyways, so they actually prefer it.
More libraries have separate YA section too, but adult girls being there is not as creepy.
Eventually, you'll have to change that excuse to: "Oh, these are for my son/daughter."
Try Escaflowne and those flowery box-arts! There weren't much estrogen in the anime shelves back then. (Or was that Love Potion No. 9 oxytocin?) |
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arachneia
Posts: 415 Location: On the wings of Bob Lennon |
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Money grubbing much? I think it's really low that you would actually voice your resentment towards something that is essentially a public charity institution, even if it is cutting into your profits. |
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