Getting Tough to Rent Blu-rays

[deedub35]

Originally Posted by HD Canuck

This really sucks. I lived in Kelowna for the past 12 years and I believe my sister who lives there only has one Rogers left to rent from, thanks to Blockbuster and Movie Gallery closing.

Every Rogers, Blockbuster, and Movie Gallery is closed in Kelowna. It does suck because my wife and I did rented a couple BD's every weekend. I'm not really into blind buying BD's so options are limited.

There is Shaw VOD which we have used a few times.

I also recently signed up for the free Netflix one month preview. We watched a few on the big screen but the PQ was driving me crazy especially during times of heavy bandwidth traffic where the resolution drops. Now we only watch it on our 50" TV upstairs. Selection is mediocre; PQ and AQ are mediocre; but the price can't be beat.

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by deedub35

Every Rogers, Blockbuster, and Movie Gallery is closed in Kelowna. It does suck because my wife and I did rented a couple BD's every weekend. I'm not really into blind buying BD's so options are limited.

Are there any independent rental places left in Kelowna, or did they close too?

[Old Bones]

Originally Posted by JoeDeM

It's not about quality, it's about convenience, people who download want it quick and cheap, and just good enough.

Maybe for you , not me , I won't pay to watch inferior product

[BohemianGraham]

As much as I care about PQ, I'll watch downloads of a film before I buy it, whenever I'm hesitant about purchasing something. That way, I know if the film is worth getting because, I place the film itself above the price and/or PQ. PQ is important, but I'd rather have the film to watch. Is PQ really that much of an issue for people who are looking to "try it before you buy it?" For me, the boost in PQ is just a bonus once I get a film I really like on BD after watching a download/streaming copy.

[JoeDeM]

Originally Posted by Old Bones

Maybe for you , not me , I won't pay to watch inferior product

Not for me either, I'm with you and agree 100%

[deedub35]

Originally Posted by HD Canuck

Are there any independent rental places left in Kelowna, or did they close too?

Not that I am aware of. Nothing close to me anyways. If your sis knows of any then let me know!

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by deedub35

Not that I am aware of. Nothing close to me anyways. If your sis knows of any then let me know!

I know there's nothing in Rutland. There used to be that place on Gordon beside the 7-11 (across from Mediterranean Market), but I think it's long gone too.

[Exist2Inspire]

I gave up renting movies a while ago, for a variety of reasons.

I remember when I was out with my dad renting BetaMax/VHS that the people who actually worked there WATCHED the movies. My dad would always ask "is this appropriate for my son" or, "How is this movie?"

Lately it seems that the only reason people were working there was not because they liked movies or anything, because their parents forced them to get a job. No customer service, nothing. They're all like "haven't seen it", or "how the hell would I know"... or, gosh forbid, they think that Twilight is man's best invention since sliced bread.

The prices were a bit expensive after a while, but I could always justify buy the movie by saying "well it's a 1 day rental for $7.00. The movie is $30. If I watch it 3 times, it's basically paid for itself".


I actually looked into starting a rental company myself with a bunch of my film buddies, but it was way to expensive given what the warehouses charge you.

[Atari Charles]

Back in the day, a person could rent VHS, DVDs, and Video Games from NES and onward. There were rental places all over and rental prices were low compared to the expense a Video Game, VHS or DVD would cost. Bcak in the day, people of all ages cared about quality. These days are gone.

Everything is about convenience, just as one poster put it. The older Obiwan Kenobi generation still cares about quality so we will still but blu-rays and audio CDs. The younger Luke Skywalker generation, may know that downloads are inferior quality, netflicks is inferior quality, and mp3s are inferior quality compared to physical media, but they don't care. Sure there are some younger people that still will buy the physical media, but they are an exception not the norm. The move is from quality physical media to crappy downloadable media. Unfortunately everything is about convenience and honestly renting a movie from a video store is not convenient.

In Kelowna, there is a place called Hein Road which is like the Mos Eisly of the city. I am sure this is one of the only places in the known world where there is an abundance of VHS tapes mostly from long closed down video stores

Hein Road in Kelowna - YouTube

I didn't realize Calgary has such bonuses for movie rentals such as Cowpie Covered Discs (CCD). In all my years of renting movies, I have luckily never encountered a CCD. For me, the discs would come scratched, covered in fingerprints, and just grimy.

If I like the movie, I'll buy it.

The days of movie rental stores is long gone.

[Hayabusa85]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

WTF?

The movie was located right by the bathroom so obviously somebody decided it would be funny to shit on it I guess. And they didn't open it to check it when I rented it so it wasn't until I got home that I realized. And of course when I went back with it you could tell they thought I did it which just made it even worse. So between being disgusted for obvious reasons and annoyed that they were looking at me like I did it I made the decision to never rent again even though I knew the odds of it happening again were slim to none. And even by the time that happened I was only renting movies since back then they were insisting on sticking those silver stickers on games which were known to damage systems.

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by McHugh

I live in Calgary, and found out today that Rogers is closing all their locations except for three. Earlier this year, Blockbuster closed all their local stores so for me to rent a blu-ray I now have to make a 40 minute round trip. Does anyone know of any independent video stores that rent blu-rays in northwest or northeast Calgary? I quess Netflix and all the downloading of movies is killing the rental of dvds and blu-rays. Unfortunately I don't want to have to buy every blu-ray that I am interesting in viewing as it is way too expensive.

You don't need to see every new film on bluray, do you?

[McHugh]

I have on occasion rented a DVD, when the blu-ray of that movie has not been released. To me, the PQ of blu-ray is noticeably better then dvd, and since I've invested my money in the hardware for blu-ray why would I rent a dvd? Generally I rent movies because I do not blind buy, or I figure I'm only going to watch the movie once. I will buy a blu-ray because I like the movie enough that I will view it multiple times. Regardless, even if I rent a dvd, I would still have to drive to the same Rogers location which as I mentioned is now about a 40 minute round trip. When I read the statistics about the growth of blu-ray, you would think that there would be an opportunity for an independent video store. One independent in Calgary that has been in business for quite a while is Casablanca Video but it is even further away then Rogers.

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by McHugh

One independent in Calgary that has been in business for quite a while is Casablanca Video but it is even further away then Rogers.

Where's Casablanca Video located?

[DoubleDownAgain]

Originally Posted by HD Canuck

Where's Casablanca Video located?

Here you go....

[Show spoiler]

[DoubleDownAgain]

First blockbuster and now Rogers. Not only are they one less option to rent from, it's one less place to buy blu-rays! I only rented from Blockbuster a couple of times, but did rent from Rogers occasionally. But visited both more often to browse their used discs.

I've been a member to Zip for over 5 years now and there service has gone downhill a bit. But given the fact there aren't alot of options out there I'll stick with them for the time being. They have slowed down on their purchasing and have decided to wait for price drops before getting many of the titles in on blu-ray. To add insult to injury there is also a new surcharge of $1 per disc if you want to get it in blu. I was at around $2.50-$3.00 a disc before that, with the new charge and rates I'll be around $3.50 a disc. Still cheaper than blind buying.

The other option I was excited about was the Best Buy Kiosks! There are three close by but unfortunately they don't seem to be very busy. Not only that there selection of blu-rays sucks arse. They barely get anything in blu and so far what they have in blu I've seen. I'm hoping that that changes! BTW it's $2 for a dvd rental and $3 for blu-ray.

I can understand those that advocate blind buying, and I do when the price is right but I'm spending $30 on rentals a month which would get me about 2 or 3 blind buys. So IMO it's worth it to rent (while I can) first.

I'll never use VOD. $8 for a new release HD movie, inferior quality as well. At that price I would go straight to blind buying.

For now I'll continue to use Zip and supplement new releases with the BB kiosks(if they ever get any blus in I want to see) I have probably over 180 blu-rays and over 300 DVDs I've never seen so If I stopped renting all together I would have something new to watch for quite awhile.

[aimforsilence]

Best thing do do is use your TV's Pay-Per-View service.. Like I have Telus Optik, and they have HD rentals & 3D HD Rentals for around the same as what BB used to rent movies for.. It sucks, but what can you do?

[DoubleDownAgain]

Originally Posted by aimforsilence

Best thing do do is use your TV's Pay-Per-View service.. Like I have Telus Optik, and they have HD rentals & 3D HD Rentals for around the same as what BB used to rent movies for.. It sucks, but what can you do?

I'll pass. It's lesser quality and more expensive. When I rented from Rogers they had a deal two new release Blu-rays for $10 for a week. Far less than $8 a pop. I do subscribe to HBO Canada/MovieCentral for $16 a month, mostly for the HBO shows but also watch a handful of movies PVR'd off of MovieCentral each month.

Also, I can't really blame Rogers, they were never ever really that busy even after the closest Blockbuster shut down. Most people don't care enough about quality and go with the ease of VOD or other services.

[movie]

Originally Posted by tilallr1

Now I blind buy everything.

I wait for PQ reviews around the web and look at all the trailers on youtube etc before purchasing. Much better than blind buying. If all else fails, my local shop has most of the new blues on Monday's for $2.50 rental. I still miss blockbuster though as they were across the park from me.

[InMyTree]

Originally Posted by Hayabusa85

Glad I stopped renting the day I got home and found what I rented was literally covered in shit. Sucks for people that do still rent though.

Yikes!

[LaszBluRay]

As funny as it sounds, these days I get my blu-rays from the public library. You can go online and order movies, of course the line-up for new releases is long, but you can get older movies and odd ones very quickly. Sometimes they have good movies on the shelves too.

I used to rent movies a lot (VOD just doesn't cut it), but after Blockbusters and the nearby Rogers closing down it's long trip to the Millrise Rogers.