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Chicks On Anime - Tales from the Rental Front

I have a question for Kira, I have heard that rental places have to pay more for the discs they buy to rent out, but have never been able to track down any concrete numbers. Is it true? And if so, roughly how much more is it?

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.

I am a hardcore Netflixer, I live in a smallish suburb that is the main distribution for the Dallas/ Fort Worth area (Coppell, TX).

I discovered a quirk with the Post Office here in Coppell, that allows 1 day mail for Netflix.

For example, they mail Mon., I receive Tue. , and I can get it back to them by Wed. morning with a new disk arriving Thu which they get back on Fri, and another new disc to me Sat.

On the 3 at a time plan, 7 to 8 discs a week are now common (I have never been able to pull off the 9 discs a week feat).

I have a question for Kira, I have heard that rental places have to pay more for the discs they buy to rent out, but have never been able to track down any concrete numbers. Is it true? And if so, roughly how much more is it?

Arthur, the funny thing about cassettes being "dead" is that cassette players are far outliving them. Last year my sister got so frustrated with her FM transmitter (she lived in NYC at the time, and good luck finding an empty channel there) that she had her car CD player, which she'd had installed to replace the cassette player only a couple of years before that, removed and had the old cassette player reinstalled.

Cait wrote:

Arthur, the funny thing about cassettes being "dead" is that cassette players are far outliving them. Last year my sister got so frustrated with her FM transmitter (she lived in NYC at the time, and good luck finding an empty channel there) that she had her car CD player, which she'd had installed to replace the cassette player only a couple of years before that, removed and had the old cassette player reinstalled.

I had the same issue, so I just asked for a new car radio with AUX as a b-day present.

The thing is, if you are always cosnuming NEW content and never or rarely rewatching old, doing it through DVR is great. But how're you gonna watch original Tenchi Muyo OVA? How about Ranma1/2? Are they licenced anymore? In Print? If in 10 years you have a hankerin' to watch RahXephon, will it be available for on-demand? Or will you wish you had saved a copy somewhere?

This is the thing... even now stuff goes out of print, in all media, movies, music, and so on. But that doesn't make listening to an old scratchy version of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks or Etta James any less interesting, and maybe transcendent. The same way my reading of my great grandfather's History of the US books [circa 1902] is quite a different experience than reading a wiki online.

In theory, everything in digital format is kept somewhere, particularly if it is a picture of you doing something stupid when you were a kid on facebook... But the fact is that digital content has monetary and licensed lifespan, and you have to take that into account. Otherwise none of your friends will loan you their FollyCooly disks, while you loan them your fritz the cat VHS. [heh, I even had THAT one on Beta Hi-Fi]

FLCL isn't in print and used versions are pricy... but I'd wonder if you can get it on demand. Ther are many properties out there like it. Things that are like the difference between a fabulous cook making you a meal, and eating at micky D's. Both are consumption, but one you may remember forever, while who is going to remember a particular bigmac?

enurtsol wrote:

Cait wrote: Arthur, the funny thing about cassettes being "dead" is that cassette players are far outliving them. Last year my sister got so frustrated with her FM transmitter (she lived in NYC at the time, and good luck finding an empty channel there) that she had her car CD player, which she'd had installed to replace the cassette player only a couple of years before that, removed and had the old cassette player reinstalled. I had the same issue, so I just asked for a new car radio with AUX as a b-day present.

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).

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.

darkhappy1 wrote:

Yep. I was totally part of the group that "hide titles under other titles." Oh, Vampire Knight #1, hidden under David McCullough's "1776," yet over "Death Note: Another Note" to be squished inbetween.

Yeah, me too. Not with renting, since I don't rent all that much, but certainly with books at the library - okay, I want to take out the first four Rainbow Fairy books, which are clearly aimed at four year old girls. I need to find some adult books to even it out! Um, Lord of the Rings even though I've got it at home, an Agatha Christie or two, something random from the teenage section... That'll do. Then you have to arrange it carefully, shuffling the childish books throughout the adult ones, and making sure the book that's going to end up on top of the pile at the deck before and after scanning is an adult one.

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.

enurtsol wrote:

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.

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.

Showsni wrote:

darkhappy1 wrote: Yep. I was totally part of the group that "hide titles under other titles." Oh, Vampire Knight #1, hidden under David McCullough's "1776," yet over "Death Note: Another Note" to be squished inbetween. Yeah, me too. Not with renting, since I don't rent all that much, but certainly with books at the library - okay, I want to take out the first four Rainbow Fairy books, which are clearly aimed at four year old girls. I need to find some adult books to even it out! Um, Lord of the Rings even though I've got it at home, an Agatha Christie or two, something random from the teenage section... That'll do. Then you have to arrange it carefully, shuffling the childish books throughout the adult ones, and making sure the book that's going to end up on top of the pile at the deck before and after scanning is an adult one.

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.

I think the fact that the library rents DVDs makes me more angry than fansubbers, but that's another issue.