What's happened to all the video stores?

[phantom_yj]

I don't believe we will be seeing movies or even music on disc for mush longer, digital media storage is a far superior method, it takes up way less space, ie a PC instead of an entire library worth of plastic cases to store them in. Then it brings up the ecological drawbacks of all the packaging in landfills. Computer storage is getting larger every day. I can store 2 movies on the mid-level thumbdrive that I have in my pocket right now let alone the terrabyte hardrives you can purchase for a relatively low amount of money. The PC is becoming more of a total media machine now. I believe that is a major cause of the dwindling of video rental stores

[JasperGein17121]

^But what happens if the hard drive fails or the PC gets fried? Unless you backed it up on something, you end up losing everything on it. I don't think disc-based media will be phasing out anytime soon. I also like to have a physical copy of a movie.

I'm pretty much live in the past. I still go out to rent movies once in a while at my mom & pop video store. I have DirectTV Cinema, but I don't order anything there. I also don't use Netflix or Redbox.

[ryguy222]

It's actually much closer than you think. More people are switching to HTPC (home theater pc's) systems. They do cost a bit more than a TiVo, they run windows media center, can capture TV with the use of a tuner card, can play hulu, netflix, blockbuster instant etc, and it can also burn DVD's of recorded shows. As well as having the ability to store DVD movies onto the hard drive.

Typically hard drives don't crash, and odds are that you have a backup. Plus many services are now looking into a system simmilar to the STEAM games network. Steam lets you purchase a game, then download it and run it wherever you want. So long as your only running 1 copy at a time. If your PC crashes, no big deal login to your account and download away.

I probably buy 70% of my games that way, and if a video store were to have the same methods (and some are looking into it) I'd buy it that way knowing that I can re-download if I want.

They estimated that by 2010-2011 that most cable providers would not be using live cable systems, but rather have all programs on live, and then availble later on-demand. And it wouldn't use cable, but instead everything would be via internet connection. And there would be no need for a TiVo or DVR system.

However because of the economic downturn most cable companies are a bit worried when it comes to experimenting with things like this, hence why this switch probably won't happen 2010 but instead much later.

But internet TV is still very strong. Services like Hulu which provides free Television shows online (and in HD!) is a huge success.

Right now if you custom build an HTPC it can cost around 300-500 or you can buy one for a bit less.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

The video store harkens back to days that only exist in our memories now. The days before the internet, before cell phones, before iPods, where different facets of life were obtained at different stores.

The business model used at the time simply doesn't make sense now. People have far too many other, better options to obtain movies beyond the simple video store. Then consider that all these other options make the price hiking that the video store must do in order to make enoiugh to stay in business that much more obvious. I used to just walk into a Suncoast, and still do with Borders today, and just laugh at how obvious it was that they just taked on $5-10 to any movie. Combine all that with what the digital crowd is doing online, and it all means the end of the video store. There's just no possible way that a store can simply sell enough movies to make enough to pay off the costs of their rented space much less anything else.

The video store is largely a relic now. Disc media itself has less than 10-15 years to live I believe.