Anybody else here remember video rental outlets?

[AGXStarseed]

Yes and before the video would start, have that frightening advert that warns about piracy and lol the music and grapic. I would think that they way they did it, made it look worse than if one committed murder lol

Which one?
The "You wouldn't steal a [blank]" advert or "the Pirates are out to get you" advert (or another one)?

 

[Nervous Rex]

Which one?
The "You wouldn't steal a [blank]" advert or "the Pirates are out to get you" advert (or another one)?

Probably this one. It wasn't so bad on VHS tapes when you could fast-forward through it.

But then DVDs started restricting when you could press the home/menu button or when you could skip to the next scene. Disney DVDs were the worst - you had to sit through the FBI warning, then a ton of previews and other ads before finally getting to the menu where you could play the movie. We had small children and a ton of Disney movies on DVD. If we wanted to watch something, I would put the DVD in and hit play, but leave the TV off for 10 minutes. Then I would turn the TV on and see if it was finally done with all it's warning and advertising crap.

My favorite part about streaming is that they don't play all those warnings and ads anymore.

 

[Judge]

Even DVDs made recently still contain anti-piracy warnings. Conversely I still recall when the RIAA announced way back in 2008 when they were giving up on suing individual Internet users over copyright infringement. As far as I know to date they haven't changed their position.

Maybe they should consider employing the Big Bad Wolf to draft such a warning on electronic media. I heard they tried to employ Smokey the Bear, but his agent wanted too much money in compensation. Go figure.

 

[Streetwise]

Yes and before the video would start, have that frightening advert that warns about piracy and lol the music and grapic. I would think that they way they did it, made it look worse than if one committed murder lol

No its in a disclaimer category, like this medicine might do this if you have if you have this condition, its a caveat (actually caveat emptor (weird legal latin)let the buyer beware),to prevent the desperate from copying as they found a loophole without the disclaimer

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

this?....

YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A CAR!!!!!!
PIRACY IS STEALING!!!
lol

 

[Catherine Read]

Yeah, I remember the joy of heading down to Blockbuster to get to watch a movie! Having to fast forward through the beginning adverts, then remembering to rewind it before returning. The days of teletext and dial-up internet, good times.

I also remember setting the VCR to record at specific times and either removing or taping over that little tab if I wanted to prevent someone recording over or wanted to record over something. I also remember the ruddy thing eating the odd video.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

That little tab caused a lot of problems. I had forgotten about that.

I remember getting in trouble for taping over this dollar store Mulan rip off made by Good Times that I had got for my birthday with episodes of South Park by putting some scotch tape on that square. It was worth it considering how bad the knockoff movie was.

 

[Kit]

We went to places like Hollywood video and Blockbuster to rent movies and Sega games. This was always a weekend thing we did couple times a month. I played Sonic 3, castle of Illusion, Beat em Up games like Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter and I played Ronald McDonald Treasureland and Tiny Toons Busters Hidden Treasure and Mickey's Ultimate Challenge.

There were games I only played once because they were too hard and I couldn't even get past the first level so I never rented them again.

Then we moved to Montana and we would go to the video store in town that was private owned and rent N64 games and it was real cheap. When the owner decided to sell off lot of her N64 games and only keep the best seller ones. She was selling for $6 a piece or 4 for $20 so I got a big deal out of it. I even went there during lunch time and had my dad meet me there with my wallet so I could buy the games. It was the best moment of my life in 2002.

I never had issues with DVDs, to me they were like laser discs but a lot smaller.

 

[Metalhead]

 

[DeepVortex]

I have lots of great memories of browsing through video rental stores, especially the one where I got my first horror movie.

 

[FromEquestria2LA]

Oh, yes. I discovered quite a few movies from them. I miss those days.

 

[Aspychata]

Block Buster was great. But our machine use to eat the video tape. Sometimes l could extract it carefully, then roll it back in case and reinsert and watch. Sometimes it would just break. The good old days. Why did life seem so much simpler and happier then. Now it seems like an alternate universe.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I had almost forgotten about that.




Yeah, I have a sister and you sisters are just so much fun. Tormenting brothers seems to be very important for sisters.

I have one sister, Wife has one brother, goes both ways both are the fifth oldest.

 

[WildCat]

Yeah, I remember. You rented a couple VHS tapes or video game cartridges (yes, Blockbuster had those too) for so many days or weeks, had to rely on word of mouth and not the web if you wanted any spoilers or tips and, like the library, if you didn't return what you borrowed you were going to have a bad time. You also had to make sure your VHS player didn't munch the tape and swallow it whole...if that happened, you were also going to have a bad time (and a broken machine!).

There was also a huge deal made about rewinding your VHS tapes before you returned them. The idea was to make it easier for the next person to enjoy the movie, but I know a lot of people didn't bother. I bet the former employees that worked at those outlets have some stories to tell.

 

[Streetwise]

I just have to ask if anyone else did this or if was the only one. People would copy VHS tapes, you rented a movie and made a copy you could keep for yourself. But the quality was always a little worse on the copy and that sucked.

I solved that problem by opening the cassettes and switching the tapes... So I returned the copy to the video store. I feel a little bad about it, I should not have done that of course but I was 12 or something and I wanted good quality videos in my collection. And I may have been a little too selfish. Did anyone else do that?

Nope not with rented but like Norway good quality rentals were expensive ,I taped more films off the BBC so I didn't need to splice the adverts out but it was hit and miss with timed recordings

 

[Lemon Zing]

In the new RE movie, I am sure they referenced Blockbuster.

Before the Internet was a thing, I would regularly come across direct to video sequels in stores that I wasn't a member of, and beg to join, just to get a hold of the tapes.

 

[AGXStarseed]

Done something of a "spin-off" from this thread for those who are interested:
Favourite Movie Box-Art/Posters...

 

[Lemon Zing]

Well, I think Prime Video is the modern Blockbuster.

 

[tkcartoonist]

The first time I played games like Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, and Sonic Adventure (or just the Dreamcast in general) was through renting them from the local Movie Gallery. Our town didn't get a Blockbuster until the early 00s, but I do remember the local Pick 'n Save grocery store had a movie/video game rental section when I was a kid. I remember renting some Sega Genesis games there and my brother had rented SNES games there as well.

 

[Crossbreed]

When our local video rental store went out of business, they gave me a big box of empty, clear VHS cases which I use for storing my figures' clothing & accessories, like books in a bookshelf.