The end of Xtra-vision?

JustAddWater

Honestly haven't rented a thing in years, that said I always have good luck with games in xtra vision.

I used to buy games brand new until I realised I never finished them or took ages to do so

Ive gotten (preowned) red dead redemption for €20, assassins creed for €5, GTA 4 for €20, rockband for €10 and loads of other great bargains so yeah Ill miss them for that

BoDiddly

awful customer service skills !
:mad:

PrincessLola

Does no one else find watching movies online to be quite sh*t? The quality is always terrible and grainy or it takes about six hours to buffer

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

feelingstressed wrote: »

Ah Xtravision, I remember when they threatened a fine if you didn't rewind the tape.

But realy, not everywhere in Ireland has broadband.
Many areas in Ireland don't

So Xtravision still has a market

Anywhere that doesn't have broadband won't have an xtravision. They're only located in larger towns.

Jack Daniels I

PrincessLola wrote: »

Does no one else find watching movies online to be quite sh*t? The quality is always terrible and grainy or it takes about six hours to buffer

your doing it wrong

imitation

You have to remember as well that for many moons xtravision was the only source of electronics, movies and video games for many small towns(and a few large !) and suburbs around the country.

They really aren't up to date on prices at all, I remember once I actually managed to make a profit on a trade in there (like brought it for 10 quid, traded it in for like 20 quid, they retailed it for 50 quid, good luck with that)

ThisRegard

Interim examiner appointed
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0430/xtravision.html

MitchKoobski

I've taken to getting all my films from Xtra-Vision now when I want to buy em. Two months after the DVD comes out, and its in a 4 for €22 deal they always seem to have. Get some pretty good deals on pre-owned games too.

I mainly go there for the manager they got a while back in Waterford City, you'd go up to get say Band of Brothers for the week and he'd spend a good 10 minutes chatting away about the Pacific and Saving Private Ryan. Always lets me know about new boxsets and keeps a hold of stuff I'm looking for.

Great service....when he was on that is....

unclejunior

when gta4 came out for the x box i couldnt afford to buy it so i went to xtra vision and rented it for '24' hours and never gave it back. like how could you play a game for a day and give it back?

Liber8or

unclejunior wrote: »

when gta4 came out for the x box i couldnt afford to buy it so i went to xtra vision and rented it for '24' hours and never gave it back. like how could you play a game for a day and give it back?

You are cool.

landsleaving

unclejunior wrote: »

when gta4 came out for the x box i couldnt afford to buy it so i went to xtra vision and rented it for '24' hours and never gave it back. like how could you play a game for a day and give it back?

How clever, if only I'd thought of that.




Yes, from now on I will be lying to sound 'cool' on the internet.

Gavin "shels"

We were told yesterday before it was released to the media that they were appointing an examiner and we were insured that are jobs were safe. After hearing what one shop pays a year in rent for their premises there's no wonder so many companies are having to shut up shop.

MitchKoobski

unclejunior wrote: »

when gta4 came out for the x box i couldnt afford to buy it so i went to xtra vision and rented it for '24' hours and never gave it back. like how could you play a game for a day and give it back?

THIS IS YOUR FAULT

Dman001

I don't think Online/Illegal downloads is solely to blame. Online retailers are cheaper than Xtravision 99% of the time, so if I ever did want to purchase a DVD it would be the first place I would look. Saying that, I don't think I've used my DVD Player in the last two years.

thebman

Will we be bailing out Xtravision like we did with Quinn insurance??

Each employ over 1,000 people around the country...

Jet Black

unclejunior wrote: »

when gta4 came out for the x box i couldnt afford to buy it so i went to xtra vision and rented it for '24' hours and never gave it back. like how could you play a game for a day and give it back?

Thats over 2000 days late, at €4.75 a night is roughly ten grand. Expensive game..

Minstrel27

PrincessLola wrote: »

Does no one else find watching movies online to be quite sh*t? The quality is always terrible and grainy or it takes about six hours to buffer

I think it is your internet connection that's ****

Morpork

I lived in Japan for two years and I would often visit a rental store named Tsutaya. They're the biggest in Japan and I have noticed they are hugely popular. They rent out CDs as well as DVDs but they don't do games. (I haven't see anywhere that rent out games in Japan.) Their DVD range is massive. They have movies from all around the world, extensive TV show DVDs, Anime and even adult movie sections.

They also have a loyalty card system called a "T-Point" card which you can get points from almost anywhere. If you buy some milk at a convenience store or get some petrol or go to a burger joint will get points on your card to go towards a rental.

Now the thing is, the prices are high and late fees are higher. They have an option for same-day-return rentals but if you fail to return on time it they charge on top of that the price of a 1 night rental. Their CD rental prices are also a bit steep, but I never rented a CD anyway.

There are about 1,500 stores in Japan and 40 Million T-point members.
I think it goes to show that if the service is good, people don't mind paying a bit xtra.

nlgbbbblth

alex73 wrote: »

DVD's and the like are really a thing of the past.

No they are not.

Can you not get it into your head that different formats can happily exist together.

Blu Ray
vs
DVD
vs
Watching online

etc

or

vinyl
vs
CD
vs
MP3s

There's a place for everything. Just because a new format appears it doesn't automatically make the previous one obselete.

I can see limited appeal in renting DVDs but sales should continue for many years.

P_1

Sorry to hear about this, particularly for those who feel that their jobs may be in risk.

Remember for those who may be 'toasting' this, XtraVision employ a hell of a lot of people in this country.

Big Nasty

Haven't rented a movie in about 6 years. Don't see the point when I can buy same online and watch it forever for less.

Captain Chaos

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

No they are not.

Can you not get it into your head that different formats can happily exist together.

Blu Ray
vs
DVD
vs
Watching online

etc

or

vinyl
vs
CD
vs
MP3s

There's a place for everything. Just because a new format appears it doesn't automatically make the previous one obselete.

I can see limited appeal in renting DVDs but sales should continue for many years.

Ever hear of VHS, does that have a place any more. Or floppy disks. No.
The DVD replaced VHS outright as Blu Rays will with DVDs.

There is not a place for everything, if something is obsolete it's replaced, simple as.

mufcboy1999

just reading through it a bit there, learned a few interesting things i never knew about xtra vision. A bit hard to follow though so can anyone tell me whats exactly happening?

so blockbuster own xtra vision?
are they closing down?

as far as the dvd vs blu ray vs streaming, id rent a dvd or blue ray over streaming any day.

the broadband is not good enough for everyone for streaming to really catch on and until its sorted properly il stick to renting and the odd stream.

its fairly annoying watchin films on your laptop though, i know you can hook it up to your tv but its just hassle and the picture quality isnt as good and rewinding and fast foward can be hassle sometimes too.

Dman001

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

just reading through it a bit there, learned a few interesting things i never knew about xtra vision. A bit hard to follow though so can anyone tell me whats exactly happening?

so blockbuster own xtra vision?
are they closing down?

as far as the dvd vs blu ray vs streaming, id rent a dvd or blue ray over streaming any day.

the broadband is not good enough for everyone for streaming to really catch on and until its sorted properly il stick to renting and the odd stream.

its fairly annoying watchin films on your laptop though, i know you can hook it up to your tv but its just hassle and the picture quality isnt as good and rewinding and fast foward can be hassle sometimes too.

Blockbuster once owned them, but they are now owned by some Irish Investment firm.

nlgbbbblth

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Ever hear of VHS, does that have a place any more. Or floppy disks. No.
The DVD replaced VHS outright as Blu Rays will with DVDs.

There is not a place for everything, if something is obsolete it's replaced, simple as.

I said "doesn't automatically make the previous one obselete"

DVD replaced VHS outright because the latter was a mediocre format. That's why I didn't mention it.

Blu Ray will co-exist with DVD for quite a while. Plenty films / television shows look as good as they ever will with DVD. The majority of new release DVDs [archive television] that I buy do not have a simultaneous Blu Ray release nor will they in the future.

Pkano

Hello does any one know where i can get dead space 1 in galway pre owned?

markpb

thebman wrote: »

Will we be bailing out Xtravision like we did with Quinn insurance??

Each employ over 1,000 people around the country...

Tens of thousands of people unable to rent films vs tens of thousands of people suddenly with no car/health/life insurance should tell you why insurance companies are bailed out and video rental companies won't be.

DWCommuter

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Ever hear of VHS, does that have a place any more. Or floppy disks. No.
The DVD replaced VHS outright as Blu Rays will with DVDs.

There is not a place for everything, if something is obsolete it's replaced, simple as.

I disagree. The quality and functionality gap between VHS and DVD was vast. That same gap between DVD and Blu Ray is not big enough to cause a massive swing to Blu Ray that would kill off DVD. In time yes, but it will be a lot slower than the transition from VHS.

Nolanger

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Ever hear of VHS, does that have a place any more. Or floppy disks. No.

There are a huge number of older movies still available on VHS that have yet to get a DVD release. If you only use the recent technologies then you're missing out!

Snake Pliisken

I think that Blu Ray is gonna get passed over by alot of people thanks to digital distribution and external media players replacing the physical disk players.




People get over needing the tangible copy of their media very quickly, even when they don't think they're going to. It's kinda sad actually.

I like Xtravision Quite often I'd wander in there (twice a month perhaps), two films, two cans and a popcorn for a tenner, hardly bad value. All this buy online cheaper is fine but how often do you want to watch films over and over again. Aside from the classics....... like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard etc :pac:

I'm too busy stirring sh1t on forums to be downloading movies :cool:

Freddie59

The big difference between Xtravision, and watching (legally) via online stores is you need the money in your pocket going to Xtravision - imagine the bill you could chalk up with something like Apple TV.......

Smyth

I have a mate who works for xtra vision. Says they're going into liquidation

Run_to_da_hills

So Extra-vision won't be getting any more new releases that will be coming out in the near future. Who would give them credit if they are in this state?

nitromaster

Nolanger wrote: »

There are a huge number of older movies still available on VHS that have yet to get a DVD release. If you only use the recent technologies then you're missing out!

But many of these have been ripped to download formats if you know where to look

DisasterIRL

This is hardy a non bias medium to be discussing this on, but I'll continue

I do believe xtravision is still relevant, in my opinion it's not the lack of people renting/buying in xtravision it is the massive overheads. As another poster mentioned they where truly shocked by how much the rent alone for the shop cost, as was I. The shop I worked in which was meant to be one of the flagship stores was only braking even. Our location was reasonable but we could never really show that we where profitable enough to move to another location that would have had soooo much more passing trade.

I do download movies, I have quite a fast connection, but I HATE streaming movies, quality is usually quite terrible, you very rarely get the HD that is promised. The area I see, that will most likely continue to do well is Blu ray rental. For example a new release on Blu ray is generally well over €20, renting the same price as a normal DVD. Another merit of this is blu rays are quite difficult to scratch which lowers overheads on replacing DVDs. A "Blu ray quality rip" can go from 5gigs up to 50gigs depending on plenty. Personally that is a lot of space taken up on my HDD for something I will most likely only watch once or twice.

I'm a former employee, I was there just over a year, good job to get if you're busy every weekday, allows for evening work. I would have been in serious money trouble if I hadn't had that job

When I left rental was still excellent on the weekends and electronics and sales kept us busy during the weeks. Renting a new release is also a lot cheaper than buying it. The fresh popcorn was also a good earner as the profit margins on popcorn have to be through the roof, but it was still WAY cheaper than the cinema.

It's not perfect by any means but very few companies are. Places where they could improve is quality of service, my branch was quite good but I have seen personally how people just act belittling or just rude, they have to get over themselves, they work in a video shop. This was mainly caused by managers who had these qualities or the fact that there are no managers/supervisors on in the evenings. Pricing could be improved in some places, the prices are quite good in a lot of areas but terrible in others, which gives starts the "xtravision is a ripoff"

A lot of the prices quoted by naysayers here are laughable.

Just to clarify I've no vested interest in the company but they do employ a lot of people and despite the bad times I had there I'd still be sad to see them go.

amoXx

Dave! wrote: »

Good. I hope it burns down.

/disgruntled former employee

Haha. I 2nd that!

Gavin "shels"

9 shops closing down supposedly, mine being one of them.

Gavin "shels"

Gavin shels wrote: »

9 shops closing down supposedly, mine being one of them.

Another 9 closing down this Sunday.

That's 18 within a week.

the groutch

hopefully Cex will take this as an opportunity to expand beyond their single Liffey Street store

DanTheMan91

I very rarely use Xtra Vision, but I would not like to see it close down as sometimes they can have good sales on their games. Pity the staff in my local Xtra Vision are a bunch of grumpy idiots.