[HN Gopher] Blockbuster Video VHS insert template
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Blockbuster Video VHS insert template
Author : zdw
Score : 315 points
Date : 2024-08-17 18:09 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| wirthjason wrote:
| This is a great addition next to my race car VHS rewinder.
| rivetsec wrote:
| That's right. One could erase all kinds of video tapes by running
| a simple magnetic degausser over them. If one were so inclined.
| genghisjahn wrote:
| I feel like we aren't supposed to talk about that. Like it's a
| rule.
| blorenz wrote:
| This is beautiful. What warm memories this evokes. Now I can
| adjust the dimensions and make some dust covers for my books in
| the Blockbuster video style!
| donw wrote:
| Renting a movie with Mom and Dad was a special kind of
| excitement as a kid.
|
| Walking around the store, looking at all the covers to try and
| figure out what we were going to watch. Usually, you had seen a
| preview for any given movie, or had at least heard about it,
| but there was still a lot of "rolling the dice", especially if
| the actor was famous: I saw Battlefield Earth because the cover
| looked cool and I liked space sci-fi, but the movie itself made
| absolutely no sense whatsoever.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| It was, I wonder if such physical experiences will come back
| in the future.
| donw wrote:
| Depends.
|
| In my culture, there's a strong push against being
| constantly online.
|
| Phones must be kept in a backpack or otherwise stowed
| during social occasions, unless absolutely necessary.
|
| Ideally, you turn them off, stuff them in a Faraday bag,
| and leave them in your car. Or just leave the phone at
| home.
|
| Correlated to this is a focus on rebuilding some atrophied
| skills: getting around without Google Maps, being alone
| without needing the constant distraction of Youtube, etc.
|
| The idea is that humans are not meant to live a life
| constantly mediated by an electronic nanny, and that you
| also need to maintain the skills to get along without one.
|
| Related to this is a preference for physical media, or at
| least digital media over which you can exercise some
| control.
| ikurei wrote:
| Out of curiosity, what culture are you referring to? I've
| known a few individuals trying to do such changes, but no
| wider culture.
| batch12 wrote:
| Why are they turning the phones off then placing them in
| a Faraday bag? I've only heard this before when someone
| is trying to subvert surveillance.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| Unlikely. You might as well ask if we will get back to hand
| writing physical correspondence. It will be trendy to avoid
| being online (or at least give the appearance of doing so)
| but it'll never be a widespread phenomenon.
| tourmalinetaco wrote:
| Even renting digitally had a certain intimacy and enjoyment
| to it. The wait was exciting. Picking out what you wanted,
| waiting to get home/have it arrive in the mail let the mind
| explore the movie and build a personal connection to it,
| something that streaming just doesn't fulfill to me.
| amelius wrote:
| It might also just be the fact that you were younger then.
| code_duck wrote:
| Blockbuster does still exist and the trademarks are owned by Dish
| Network. The sole remaining franchisee is in Bend, Oregon.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I think that I saw a news story, that it was closed, now.
|
| Doesn't mean the trademarks aren't valid, though. Here, there
| be [legal] dragonnes...
| al_borland wrote:
| Looks like it's still open, at least based on Google Maps.
|
| https://maps.app.goo.gl/cE9MCA7TZAdwYSkB6
| jakderrida wrote:
| https://t.ly/Sk3MB
|
| Appears the "OPEN" light was on in July of 2021 from street
| view.
| dangrossman wrote:
| The most recent review on Google, which includes interior
| photos of the open store, is just 4 days old.
| davidw wrote:
| Yeah I live a few blocks from it and it's still open.
| jerrysievert wrote:
| they seem to still be getting in new releases, at least as of
| the end of July:
|
| https://bendblockbuster.com/new-releases/
|
| the Alaska blockbuster did close though.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I suspect that what I saw, was about the Alaska store,
| then.
| kirbyderby47 wrote:
| It's still open. I live in Bend and love going there to rent
| movies.
| odie88 wrote:
| My wife and I do a retro date night once in a while where
| we hit up dandy's to have burgers and shakes roller skated
| to the car, then rent a movie from Blockbuster...
| definitely a fun throwback.
| kaoD wrote:
| > owned by Dish Network
|
| That explains www.blockbuster.com linking Sling TV.
| jakderrida wrote:
| I feel like it should instead link to a video in the
| sling.com domain with almost patronizing instructions on how
| to convert their login to Sling and promote it as "Your very
| own Blockbuster at home".
| davidw wrote:
| Yep - it's a few blocks from where I live. It seems to attract
| a fair number of tourists.
| solardev wrote:
| Seems like there's a few of us in Bend. Anyone interested in a
| meetup? Hell, maybe at Blockbuster? :)
| HappMacDonald wrote:
| I used to go to a board game players meetup at Pappy's and
| now it's a car wash so I dun want that happening to our
| Blockbuster next.
| solardev wrote:
| Lol :)
| vharuck wrote:
| I appreciate the effort put into breaking down the barcode's
| information.
| tisdadd wrote:
| I remember when that location closed, as I went to college
| nearby. Fun that you did the championships there. Also, really
| nice work.
| geraldalewis wrote:
| I give this project five bags of popcorn and a little
| commemorative octocat keychain.
| gedy wrote:
| This would make a fun Jellyfin theme, ha
| olegious wrote:
| lol this brings back memories. Spent 5 years working in BBV in
| high school and college, my first day on the job was when they
| installed dvd shelves in the middle of the store, was there when
| we removed all VHS, was there when Netflix streaming began and
| when we launched our own streaming service. Good times.
| guidedlight wrote:
| These look very similar to the ones used in New Zealand. I wonder
| what the regional differences are, particularly the barcode.
| rhplus wrote:
| If memory serves me correctly, the main difference is that the
| reels on the tapes rotated anti-clockwise in the Southern
| hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect.
| joering2 wrote:
| As funny as it seems, I am glad nobody thought about it as a
| true way to prevent cross-zoning like with ridiculous
| unhelpful initial DVD discs/players Zoning where you could
| only change your zone 5 times which btw wish someone sue
| player makers for that.
|
| Its just a matter of reversing the tape content, but I could
| imagine zoning south versus north hemi, so Australia VHS
| would not work in Europe :) I mean it would work but you
| would watch in reverse :)
| anothername12 wrote:
| Man I miss walking into a BBV and there was this dude at the
| counter who was absolute expert in horror movies... got me
| started in Dario Argento, French extreme... Can't get that out of
| "max"/Netflix/prime etc
| whatrocks wrote:
| The memories! I once wrote a short story once about the "other"
| last Blockbuster - a place where your VHS videos might just let
| you truly relive your past, at some great cost, of course.
| Anyway, I love when weird stuff like this comes to dwell on
| GitHub.
|
| Here's the story
|
| https://f52.charlieharrington.com/stories/the-other-last-blo...
| jw_cook wrote:
| That was a fun read. Thanks for sharing!
| JeremyMorgan wrote:
| This brings back some nostalgia for sure!
|
| I was a BB customer and worked for Hollywood Video for quite a
| while, just as Netflix started taking over. It was sad.
|
| There's a lot to be said about the "old school" way of movie
| rentals. Looking back and seeing Netflix and the other streaming
| options sprouting up, and the "cut the cord" movement.. it was
| neat. Until you look at where we are now. We're now paying and
| exponential amount of money for the same level of entertainment.
|
| We all got swindled, and it's too late to do anything about it
| now.
| tourmalinetaco wrote:
| The only thing we can do, as consumers, is stop paying for
| streaming, pay/rent physical media, and if we truly "need" on-
| demand streaming then piracy is always a moral option to
| abusive multi-billion dollar businesses. A $5/mo VPN is far
| more value than you can get out of streaming, especially if you
| invest the saved money into a Jellyfin server.
| ikurei wrote:
| > There's a lot to be said about the "old school" way of movie
| rentals.
|
| Please do say it! I'm old enough to remember VHS and video
| clubs, but may be not old enough to have a lot of nostalgia
| about it.
|
| I can't think of what was better then. Sometimes you'd get a
| kind and knowledgeable video club owner who'd made fantastic
| recommendations, but more often than not it was an underpayed
| kid who just wanted to go home.
|
| May be people used to take watching a move more seriously, and
| therefore enjoy it more, when the process was more involved and
| you didn't have millions of movies and shows a few clicks away,
| but does that count as an advantage?
|
| > We're now paying and exponential amount of money for the same
| level of entertainment.
|
| This was certainly not true where I lived. The ammount of
| movies and shows that get watched in an average household these
| days would bankrupt the family in the 90s.
| BrenBarn wrote:
| What I found better about it was the algorithm-free browsing
| experience. You would just look at the shelves and decide
| what to watch. The movies were broken down into basic genres,
| and sometimes there would be "staff picks" or something, but
| beyond that it was just you and the movies. This meant
| sometimes you watched really bad stuff, or good stuff, or
| stuff you wouldn't normally watch, or whatever.
|
| No doubt there's a certain amount of nostalgia baked into
| these impressions. But definitely the thing I remember most
| fondly about that era was how decisions about things (movies,
| music, cereals, blenders, etc.) were made by looking at what
| was available and (maybe) doing a bit of research with
| external sources (like a "movie guide" book or whatever),
| rather than constantly wading through a morass of
| "recommendations", fake reviews, broken search functionality,
| and so on.
| mbreese wrote:
| _> What I found better about it was the algorithm-free
| browsing experience._
|
| Not algorithm free, just a different kind of algorithm.
| Probably a mix of marketing and manual curation. Video
| stores (at least good ones) would be organized for you to
| find exactly what you were looking for... even if you
| didn't know what you were looking for. If you saw a wall
| full of the most recent summer blockbuster movie, you might
| be drawn to rent that one. Why? Because you're perceiving
| that movie to be "popular selection". Or if there was a
| special section of "date night comedy", you could browse
| there if that was what you were looking for.
|
| But "staff picks" might have been a shelf with movies that
| weren't performing well, with maybe one or two interesting
| movies to make the rest look better. Studios may have even
| paid for that placement (at larger chains). I have no idea
| if this really happened, but I wouldn't be surprised.
|
| As I see it, the algorithms are trying to bring order to a
| maddeningly long list of options[*]. The main goal being to
| help you find something you'd like to watch. If you like
| it, you're happier and you'll go back to that source (and
| keep paying for it). Regardless of told the source is
| YouTube, Disney+, Netflix, or Blockbuster Video.
|
| In this way, we've always had curation... so effectively
| the algorithm wasn't a "we think you'd like this", maybe it
| was a "Randall" at the counter who you could ask for
| recommendations, or just a well organized store that led
| you to something you might like.
|
| * - except the dark pattern algorithms that want you to
| just keep consuming media or increase "engagement". I'm
| trying to look at it from a positive side.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| I worked at blockbuster. Sure, we had the wall of new
| releases and occasional promotions, but the rest of the
| store was organized quite simply. First by genre, then
| alphabetically. You could opt into curation, but it
| wasn't the majority of the store.
| swasheck wrote:
| yeah. the primary algorithm used by bbv was which titles,
| and how many, were sent to the store. i worked for bbv
| and picked up shifts at different stores around my metro
| area and it was always interesting to see which stores
| had the "indie" titles and which had the high volume,
| popcorn title new releases. one of the biggest titles i
| can recall was independence day. my home store got a
| decent amount, but then i covered for someone at another
| store the next weekend at a high volume store and the
| number of id4 new releases was insane.
|
| another store i transferred to had a healthy supply of
| laser disc titles and members of the local professional
| basketball team essentially supported that store's laser
| disc business.
| Fnoord wrote:
| When I found out suggestions have low signal to noise ratio
| I simply don't look at suggestions anymore. Not in the
| grocery store, nor in streaming apps, nor on news websites.
| I go for the content I specifically went for. I do miss out
| on stuff though. For example, if I go to HBO Max I
| specifically look at HBO Originals.
| renegade-otter wrote:
| Since this is a YC site, "Who really killed Blockbuster video":
| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-really-killed-bloc...
|
| We SHOULD have been streaming on Blockbuster and not Netflix
| today, but history is just a chain of blunders stitched together.
| immibis wrote:
| From a Blockbuster shareholder perspective, that would be good.
| From a user perspective, streaming is nothing like video rental
| and I don't see why we should expect them to be the same
| company. Why should a rental company that pivots to streaming
| be better for overall society than a native streaming company
| (which Netflix isn't, I note).
| _heimdall wrote:
| Netflix started out as a DVD rental service. The model was
| slightly different with a subscription that allowed you to
| have a certain number of DVDs at once, but it was still
| renting discs.
|
| If they could pivot from rentals to streaming, why couldn't
| Blockbuster have done it?
| repeekad wrote:
| But Netflix mailed DVDs, blockbuster had ubiquitous
| storefronts of family owned franchises they'd be
| cannibalizing, I think they were pretty different
| hluska wrote:
| This is all spitballing of course, but depending on when
| they released their streaming service, Blockbuster may
| not have had to close all their storefronts. Staffing
| would have changed and the business itself would have
| changed. But at the time, there was an opportunity for a
| trusted brand to help ease people into streaming.
|
| I purchased VHS tapes, DVDs and subscribed to streaming
| services within about a decade of each other. That was a
| big transition for me and I'm technical. With the right
| kind of revenue sharing, DVD only rentals and cross
| promotions between streaming and in person
| rentals/events, they could have had something really
| interesting. I'm old enough to have rented VHS tapes so
| this may be a function of my age more than actual
| opportunity, but I know several people who even now would
| be far more tempted to subscribe to a streaming service
| if they could do it in a store.
|
| Again, this is all theoretical, but Blockbuster had a lot
| of advantages back in the day. It wouldn't be what it
| was, but the opportunities are fun to think through.
| _heimdall wrote:
| Sure, I wouldn't argue the businesses were identical,
| though I don't expect that the DVD rental Netflix looked
| anything like the streaming Netflix.
|
| Where Blockbuster would have moved from brick and mortar
| to streaming, Netflix would have been moving from mostly
| a logistics business with warehouses in the middle of
| nowhere to a streaming/tech business.
| hluska wrote:
| The idea is that Blockbuster already had strong relationships
| with practically all the makers. Transitioning to streaming
| would have been very hard, but coming into the market with
| preexisting relationships would have been a huge advantage.
|
| On the user side, the storefronts could have helped a lot of
| less technical people set up their first streaming accounts
| at home. It was a massive mental leap to go from "movies come
| out of that box under my tv" to streaming and the storefronts
| could have helped people make that transition.
|
| It's all to theoretical to talk about whether it would be
| good or bad for users. Implementing it correctly would have
| relied on Blockbuster being able to turn itself into a
| technology company without cannibalizing those things that
| made it attractive to makers. That is a very hard thing to do
| and they had to pull it off in a moving market.
| coding-saints wrote:
| My parents owned a mom/pop video store during my childhood. It's
| still crazy to look back at how in-demand VHS tapes were. We
| lived in a super small town so there was zero competition. Cable
| was not common in every home yet. "Be kind, rewind" cost a buck
| if forgotten. Rewinding to the beginning of VHS tapes was
| honestly so long that nobody really forgot. The store was
| eventually acquired by some regional chain, and almost like magic
| the future started taking its form. So cool to see this.
| NotCamelCase wrote:
| So, you needed to rewind the tape to the beginning if you
| wanted to return it after having partially watched it i.e. at
| 40%? Now I wonder, did the store owners check each tape on
| return for this? I hope it was a quick process..
|
| > Rewinding to the beginning of VHS tapes was honestly so long
| that nobody really forgot.
|
| Hmm, if it took so long, wouldn't it have caused the reverse
| effect? That people would ignore it out of laziness? Maybe I'm
| too spoiled! :D
| _m_p wrote:
| Interestingly, in the very first iteration of home video
| cassette rentals, the tapes could _not_ be rewound at home:
|
| > These rental cassettes were red, approximately 7 inches
| (180 mm) high by 6.5 inches (170 mm) wide by 1.5 inches (38
| mm) deep (however used the same videotape used today) and
| could not be rewound by a home Cartrivision recorder. Rather,
| they were rewound by a special machine upon their return to
| the retailer.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision
| 8organicbits wrote:
| I recall them having a transparent window so you could see
| where the tape was. I think the process would have been:
| slide the VHS out of the sleeve and glance at where the tape
| was positioned. Should take just a second.
| LocalH wrote:
| I mean, you could look at most VHS tapes and tell if they're
| rewound or not. Don't even need to insert them into a VCR.
| eszed wrote:
| Further wrinkle: it only took a long time in your VCR, which
| (we all believed) was also bad for your VCR (I mean, maybe?
| But avoiding stressing the VCR's mechanism was why it took a
| long time). So, gadget catalogs sold standalone high-speed
| VCR rewinders, which just about anyone who watched a lot of
| movies owned. They took less than a minute to rewind a
| cassette.
| voidfunc wrote:
| Yep had one of these. For some reason I really liked the
| sound it made as a kid.
| dwighttk wrote:
| My friends parents had one... looked like a sports car
| hluska wrote:
| Wow, a bright red sports car. We had one of those in I'd
| like to say 1988 or 1989. What a memory. Thanks for that!
| dwighttk wrote:
| You're welcome!
| asveikau wrote:
| What I remember is that it was a cultural part of movie
| watching to rewind when the credits hit. You'd use that time
| to discuss what you saw with whoever you were viewing with.
| That's how I did it.
| dwighttk wrote:
| Quick process? Just look at it... every rewound tape has all
| the tape on the same side.
| cronix wrote:
| It took about 3 seconds to check. Pop open the case the tapes
| came in and look at the plastic window and you can easily see
| both reels. If the tape was all on the left reel, it was
| rewound. Just about all rental places did this when you
| returned the tape. Audio cassette tapes were the same way.
| The VHS cassette was basically just a larger version of an
| audio cassette with wider and longer tape.
|
| Pic of rewound VHS: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2008/0...
| mathgeek wrote:
| > Audio cassette tapes were the same way.
|
| Ah the days of audio books on tape. For a moment I was
| thinking "renting audio tapes?" but then the memories hit
| me.
| osigurdson wrote:
| Lucky that your parent's shop got acquired. It was amazing to
| see - Blockbuster shops popping up here and there, all the
| while it seemed that virtually everyone could see the tsunami
| coming (except Blockbuster).
| mentos wrote:
| Curious what revenue the store was generating without any
| competition in your small town?
| itomato wrote:
| The logical thing now is to take in a list of UPCs and
| Geolocation data to generate labels for an entire VHS collection.
| samstave wrote:
| FYI, and interesting thing one can do with this, is load it up as
| a template in BarTender, by Seagull Scientific, and have a table
| of all your video collection, and it can autogenterate all the
| barcodes you'd want - additionally - one can put a QRcode barcode
| on it pointing to the IMDB rating for it. Or a QR code going to a
| google sheet library of all your videos... so if you wanted a way
| to automate print barcodes for a bunch of custom labels,
| Bartender is the best.
|
| I was making employee badges and someone said they were a "Card
| Carrying Conspiracy Theorist" so I was making ID badges, and
| though "huh - what would a "Conspiracy Theorist Badge" look like
| so while I was learning Bartender I made these.
|
| https://imgur.com/a/badge-iterations-mwyjf9x
|
| Where all the elements are driven by a table (you can connect
| them to xls, csv, sheets, any DB etc..
|
| You can do barcodes in any format.
|
| (point being you can load in the design elements of this inkscape
| - and make your own custom sleeves for your library super easy
| and have the barcodes generate correctly.)
|
| https://www.seagullscientific.com/software/
| whartung wrote:
| Outside of going to the movies, Blockbuster was pretty much my
| sole source of video.
|
| I had a TV, but no cable and poor reception (I remember watching
| snowy news broadcasts of the LA riots). I honestly did be not
| miss it. This was pre-internet, so most of my consumption was
| through books.
|
| The interesting thing was when BB would get the latest box set of
| the X-files. Pretty much the closest you could get to binging at
| the time. 4-5 tapes, 2 episodes per (it was never the entire
| season). Watch a tape per week. Always excited when the new set
| arrived.
| repeekad wrote:
| it's crazy to think VHS and DVD came and went in only a few
| decades
|
| I remember when Netflix started separating the DVD service from
| streaming and thinking they were absolutely crazy, because no
| one would ever want to watch movies from their computer, movies
| go in that box under the TV...
| jayemar wrote:
| That profile image is top notch
| mrmaloke wrote:
| Agreed. His hacking day of the week is definitely Wednesday
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Now do Dr. Bronner's soap labels! ;)
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