Xtravision liquidation

board stiff

Talking with my girlfriend last night, a friend of hers works in a local Xtravision store. They gave her 10mins notice that the store was closing down. No warning at all. She even had to go around to all the customers to tell them to exit the store.

On the one hand I have to own movies I care about and love, like I purchased Jurassic World and Mission Impossible. They go on the shelf next to the JP and M:I previous entries. Another one I'll buy is Spectre to go beside my Bond 50 set.

Maybe I'm more selective of what I buy than I used to, or that I don't have as much time to watch films. But I certainly buy less physical media these days.

Decuc500

seamus wrote: »

The vast majority of people still have no clue how or where to get free movies. And while we're laughing at AMKC's post above, this level of technical cluelessness is typical of the vast majority of people. Services like Netflix bridge this gap, by making it simple to understand and something that even your granny can do. This is what has killed Xtravision's rentals

Maybe I'm a bit out of touch with how people are watching movies these days (I have Sky Movies but will also be buying Blu-rays till physical media dies out) but everyone in my office illegally downloads movies. There's people walking around with memory sticks of all the latest blockbusters or tv shows sharing them to anyone who wants them. Everybody's talking about the latest releases, Creed, The Revenant etc and they certainly aren't going to see them in the cinema...

This might be about Xtravision vs Netflix but people wanting to watch stuff for free will probably shut down Netflix too if they aren't careful.

TrustedApple

murpho999 wrote: »

Why are you constantly comparing stuff to Netflix as if it's the only digital source.
Films can be downloaded illegally in blu-ray format or also purchased legally in high definition as well.no doubt it will be the same with 4k blu ray.

You talk as if Blu ray was something special that would only work on one type of disc.

So I don't see your point really.

Also, your shelf thing of DVDs just means nothing to me. A load of clutter. Prefer to have eveything in a digital library and play it in an instant, no searching, taking discs out ,old disc back etc.

Well Netflix is the main one in ireland. Amazon Prime Video not in ireland, Hulu Plus not in Ireland. The other main Legal way of video is Sky Go and that isnt full HD only 1080i but will have 4K with Sky Q but no one knows the extra cost for that yet. So the only one to judge on is Netflix as the sub based service. Then you have Apple Movies and Google play movies as well for buying films. 4K films can be bought in the US on Streaming services there there huge files nearly 100GB.

Blu Ray is a great disk i am sorry to say and a shelf is my hobbie some people like loads of books, loads of CD, Loads of EP, I have a full Unit of Blu rays beside a Unit of video games. I love looking at it thats all what counts you might not i do.

Ush1

I had Netflix but ended up getting rid of it, found it a sub par service.

Didn't have a great selection of movies, TV shows were usually way behind what has been aired. I also couldn't easily get surround sound working. Don't think they have 3D movies either?

So yeah, hanging on to my blu rays for a while anyway.

Maximus Alexander

Decuc500 wrote: »

Maybe I'm a bit out of touch with how people are watching movies these days (I have Sky Movies but will also be buying Blu-rays till physical media dies out) but everyone in my office illegally downloads movies. There's people walking around with memory sticks of all the latest blockbusters or tv shows sharing them to anyone who wants them. Everybody's talking about the latest releases, Creed, The Revenant etc and they certainly aren't going to see them in the cinema...

This might be about Xtravision vs Netflix but people wanting to watch stuff for free will probably shut down Netflix too if they aren't careful.

This only happens because the rights owners are not providing a suitable vector for people to obtain things. People making movies shouldn't be allowing a situation to persist where pirates can provide a better service than they do. Everything on Netflix can be downloaded illegally, yet everyone and their dog still has a subscription. Give people a way of paying you for quick and convenient access and, in general, they will.

The fact that movies can become available online before they're released in the cinema (the final version exists and is being withheld), that even once they are in the cinema you can't get them at home for weeks or months, and that even then they may only be available through inconvenient (for many) services such a Sky, or on a physical disk, is what drives the bulk of piracy.

Offer a better service than the pirates, or at the very least an equivalent one, and the majority of people will hand over their cash. They'll catch on eventually.

c_man

I dislike clutter so am glad to be rid of DVDs etc. Actually thinking on it, I couldn't even play one if I wanted. No disk drives in my laptop or at home, hell even my work machine doesn't have a working one (I needed the SATA for another SDD).

Xtra-vision ripped me off for long enough, I won't miss them. In particular I remember them hounding my Mam years ago for a fine on a late copy of "Baby's Day Out". She insisted she never rented it ( :P ) but they kept ringing.

seamus

Decuc500 wrote: »

Maybe I'm a bit out of touch with how people are watching movies these days (I have Sky Movies but will also be buying Blu-rays till physical media dies out) but everyone in my office illegally downloads movies. There's people walking around with memory sticks of all the latest blockbusters or tv shows sharing them to anyone who wants them. Everybody's talking about the latest releases, Creed, The Revenant etc and they certainly aren't going to see them in the cinema...

Depends on where you work tbh. Many offices will have the tech-savvy person who can share around a USB stick.

Lots of people won't know how to use that USB stick and many won't be interested in doing it that way.

And then you have the large swathes of the population who are 50+ and completely disconnected from the entire thing.

The actual amount of people who know how to download a movie and then display it on their TV (people don't really want to watch movies on a computer monitor or phone unless they're stuck) is tiny. It's not rocket science, but it seems like it to someone who just about knows how to turn on their TV and schedule recordings.

people wanting to watch stuff for free will probably shut down Netflix too if they aren't careful.

Nope. Because getting stuff for free will never be as easy as paying a legit provider for it.
Same arguments have been made for eons about home taping (cassettes and VHS), being able to burn CDs, then it was Napster and now it's downloading.

None of these have had any impact on actual sales because they all require a little bit of extra savvy to do, and quite a bit of effort to do it to the same quality as that which you'd be able to purchase.

This is why music shops were under zero threat from downloading until iTunes came along - because iTunes made it possible to get perfect quality music more conveniently than walking into HMV. And you needed no tech savvy - find what you want, press download, and done.

Pirating content never has threatened the bottom line of music companies.

That said, the law still needs to keep up. There is more than enough intelligence in the world for someone to make an app that's as high-quality, user-friendly and simple as Netflix, but offers it for free.
The reason you can't get the app is because the law prevents it being distributed through reputable sources. So the law still does need to exist to protect that bottom line.

seamus

c_man wrote: »

In particular I remember them hounding my Mam years ago for a fine on a late copy of "Baby's Day Out". She insisted she never rented it ( :P ) but they kept ringing.

Hah yeah, the Irishness of it.

Every so often my mother would go up to rent something and find two or three quid on the account here or there, assume we were just late with the last one (we often were) and pay it up.

One day she went up and was told there was twenty quid on the account and so lost the plot and asked for details of what had been rented. She didn't recognise any of them, but the guy explained that they could have been rented by one of her kids just giving the name and address

So she came home and asked us; nope. Went back and told them it was none of us, must be a mistake. Through investigation anyway we discovered one of my brother's mates was renting 18's movies on our tab (he was notorious for ripping off his mates) because he didn't want his Ma to find out.

But in a country where basically every single household had an xtravision account at one point, you could literally give any name and address that you knew and take out stuff on their account

Sunny Dayz

I'm surprised Xtravision had stayed open as long. I will miss the HMV part of it in my local for buying the odd dvd (for the child to watch in the car) or cd (to play in the car).


I remember years back Xtravision being difficult to deal with. I remember when we were early teens my mum going in to open an a/c and they wouldn't open in her name cos the bills at home were in Dad's name. I even remember us getting hassle going in to rent a dvd cos the card was not in our name but our parent's name - even thought we were paying upfront and renting a suitable video!


Think the last time we rented anything was about 5 years ago when we moved into our house and hadn't got sky tv or internet or anything like that, and I think it was one or two Saturdays at that.

LDN_Irish

Azalea wrote: »

I have the Kindle app and crammed bookshelfs - same principle as above.

I held out in the book front. Really didn't like the idea of e-books. People kept trying to hint that they'd buy me a kindle for birthdays etc because I'm a big reader and I always said I didn't want one. Then I downloaded the kindle app for free and realised what a fool I'd been.

I've got 4 full bookcases in my house, 4 in my mother's garage. I've about 4 boxes full of books in my shed. And I'm currently typing on a 5 inch device that also contains 90% of the books I'll ever need for the rest of my life. Now that I realise that there are only 2 reasons for me to have this much physical reading material in my house, sentimentality and an apocalypse that takes down the grid, I'm gonna be seriously pissed off lugging this stuff around the next time I move house.

seamus

LDN_Irish wrote: »

I held out in the book front. Really didn't like the idea of e-books. People kept trying to hint that they'd buy me a kindle for birthdays etc because I'm a big reader and I always said I didn't want one. Then I downloaded the kindle app for free and realised what a fool I'd been.

I don't actually do a lot of reading - don't have the time and it's just not a habit I'm in. But two things really changed my mind on the whole kindle -v- book argument.

1. Having a baby. Hours and hours spent rocking a baby to sleep. If you're in a darkened room, a book is useless to you. Open up a kindle app and you can sit there gently rocking the child for an hour if you have to, catching up on your reading.

2. Holidays. Reading books on a plane is always uncomfortable. Trying to hold the book is uncomfortable. And then you need at least 3 books for a two-week holiday, which add rooms and space in your bag that could be used for clothes. A 7 or even 9 inch tablet is just as good for reading, weighs nothing and easily slips into a jacket pocket or carry-on.

Shurimgreat

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

MarkY91

€75 euro for fifa 16 which is out since September...what did they expect?

Good riddance!!

PucaMama

Azalea wrote: »

This is exactly it. I'm similar to Futureguy - I don't tend to download movies (I just stream) and I use the physical media often but I hate when people post insulting, projecting stuff like those two posts, which just amount to "Waaaaaa, you're not doing things the way I do them; this makes me uncomfortable so you're stupid!!!"

Did you even bother to read the posts I was quoting

fin12

Shurimgreat wrote: »

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

ya my dad uses xtra vision all the time to rent dvds, he loved getting out a dvd at the weekend cause he hasn't a clue about the internet or computers or anything, so he's going to miss it alright.

jimgoose

Shurimgreat wrote: »

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

Well yes, I agree. I have streaming media out the wazoo, but I think there's a lot to be said for being able to drive to the DVD shop and rent something. Not everything is available online, not necessarily to rent, at any rate. I personally think Xtravision will leave a gap after them.

EDIT: Not to mention all those youngsters about to lose their jobs. I hate that.

stanley1

Just noticed Laser in Georges st gone as well.

the groutch

just did a google there, and they apparently didn't start renting Xbone or PS4 games til 15 months after the consoles were released.
no wonder they were losing money, alienating such a huge chunk of the games rental market.

Azalea

PucaMama wrote: »

Did you even bother to read the posts I was quoting

I sure did. Tis yourself who's not reading/picking things up properly. I'm agreeing with you.

PucaMama

Azalea wrote: »

I sure did. Tis yourself who's not reading/picking things up properly. I'm agreeing with you.

You quoted my posts and said "these two posts" in your comment

kylith

stanley1 wrote: »

Just noticed Laser in Georges st gone as well.

That's been gone ages. I don't know if their other shop is gone too, I think it is. Shame, it was great for less well-known titles; but that's hardly needed these days.

Boom_Bap

Yes the other one has been gone for a while now as well.

Shame about Xtra Vision, I've a friend that works for them and has done for over 10 years.
I used to love going there with the lads years ago and having a massive argument about which flick we were going to rent.

TreyAz

They switched from per movie rental to subscription based (over the last year or so?) which eventually morphed into about €14 per month for 2 movies at a time, no late fees. If theyd done this a few years ago (and had a better rental selection - it was dwindling over that period) they might have had a chance. Probably just an obsolete business model tho..

Azalea

PucaMama wrote: »

You quoted my posts and said "these two posts" in your comment

I meant the original two posts you were referring to, about people being stupid and lazy if they consume media online a lot.

Mr.Saturn

kylith wrote: »

That's been gone ages. I don't know if their other shop is gone too, I think it is. Shame, it was great for less well-known titles; but that's hardly needed these days.

It is. The one in Ranelagh's been a book shop for quite a while.

Turtyturd

Shurimgreat wrote: »

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

They shouldn't in most cases. They should use whoever provides the best service. In a lot of cases local businesses like to play the 'we're local' card while ripping off their customers.

Edit: also said it in the last thread about xtra vision going bust but hopefully GameStop is next.

syklops

Shurimgreat wrote: »

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

Theres very few places left in Ireland so rural that they cant get Sky.

Mr Sea Wolf

Shurimgreat wrote: »

Pretty sad this. For a start what about all those people who don't have Netflix or don't have Virgin or SKY. I'd be thinking people in rural areas with little or no internet connection. I suppose its progress and the video rental business was declining for a long time. I really think people should support local shops and businesses, rather than always renting from SKY, Virgin or using Netflix.

People in such rural areas didn't have an Xtravision shop either.

fin12

Mr Sea Wolf wrote: »

People in such rural areas didn't have an Xtravision shop either.

They would drive to go to the xtra vision, we actually had an xtra vision in our village but that closed a number of years ago.

jimgoose

syklops wrote: »

Theres very few places left in Ireland so rural that they cant get Sky.

I had Sky. I gave them the gate a couple of years ago and now run a couple of oul' boxen of theirs in Freesat mode. I would rather shave my head with a cheesegrater than give Sky another red ha'penny as long as breath and beer flow in my carcass.

Decuc500

Mr Sea Wolf wrote: »

People in such rural areas didn't have an Xtravision shop either.

My brother lives in a rural area in Wexford. He can't get good broadband for Netflix. He used to go into Gorey to use Xtravision.

loyatemu

syklops wrote: »

Theres very few places left in Ireland so rural that they cant get Sky.

Sky is €33 per month minimum though (ok they often offer discounts to new customers, but that's the list price). That's before you rent any movies off them, and to fully use their on-demand services you need decent broadband.

LDN_Irish

Decuc500 wrote: »

My brother lives in a rural area in Wexford. He can't get good broadband for Netflix. He used to go into Gorey to use Xtravision.

Tell him to drive to civilisation and download whatever he wants to a USB. Cuba has these little networks of cyclists and motorcyclists who buzz up and down the country with USB's loaded with the latest Game of Thrones and Walking Dead and people rent the hard drive and stream them off it before giving it back. That's what the culchies are going to have to do now thay Xtravision is gone. Lucky for them they won't have to import the stuff from Holyhead like the Cubans do from Miami.

road_high

So which HMV stores are staying open then??
The one here in Kilkenny appears shut according to local news, and that was maybe 4/5th of space dedicated to HMV, the rest Xtra Vision.

RIGHTisRIGHT

So there is not such thing as renting a DVD or Blu Ray now?

Curb Your Enthusiasm

road_high wrote: »

So which HMV stores are staying open then??
The one here in Kilkenny appears shut according to local news, and that was maybe 4/5th of space dedicated to HMV, the rest Xtra Vision.

I'm guessing they will all be shut. Except the standalone HMV stores. I can't see them opening more HMV stores right now anyway.

Mr Sea Wolf

RIGHTisRIGHT wrote: »

So there is not such thing as renting a DVD or Blu Ray now?

See here http://m.goldenpages.ie/location/relevance/video+tapes+&+dvd's+-+sales+&+hire/0

AMKC

PucaMama wrote: »

You seem very out of touch with tech and with reality. Computers are protected (have you not heard of antivirus? Do you have a computer?) also it's pretty hard to lose a 2tb hard drive their not exactly tiny! How do you imagine laptops will not work with the external usb drives, when they use the same kind of memory inside them? Maybe when you haven't a clue what your talking about you shouldn't insult the people who do? Generally older people are intimidated by new things. Maybe work on it?

Computers are protected (have you not heard of antivirus? Do you have a computer?)
Yes I have heard of and know what antivirus is. Computers are only protected if the person using them has installed or downloaded antivirus software.
Yes I do have a computer how do you think I am writing this.

I was not trying to insult anyone. Sorry if I hurt anyones feelings. After reading some posts I agree people are right to get the best deal for their money. For me the best way to view a film is in the cinema then blu-ray would be next because you can pause,rewind etc and it looks great. Can,t see myself ever watching a film on anything smaller than a decent sized tv screen.

murpho999

AMKC wrote: »

Computers are protected (have you not heard of antivirus? Do you have a computer?)
Yes I have heard of and know what antivirus is. Computers are only protected if the person using them has installed or downloaded antivirus software.
Yes I do have a computer how do you think I am writing this.

I was not trying to insult anyone. Sorry if I hurt anyones feelings. After reading some posts I agree people are right to get the best deal for their money. For me the best way to view a film is in the cinema then blu-ray would be next because you can pause,rewind etc and it looks great. Can,t see myself ever watching a film on anything smaller than a decent sized tv screen.

Why do you think that you cannot pause, rewind a downloaded film?

I either use Netflix of download high quality bittorrent files including blu rays.

I cast downoaded films from laptop to TV wirelessly via my Xbox One and I can pause , rewind etc just as you can a DVD player.

Also, Netflix is an app on Xbox so I can use that with full controls as well.

A bluray disc is just a medium that contains data and there are other more modern versions of it that people wrongly think are inferior.

AtomicHorror

AMKC wrote: »

For me the best way to view a film is in the cinema then blu-ray would be next because you can pause,rewind etc and it looks great. Can,t see myself ever watching a film on anything smaller than a decent sized tv screen.

Does anyone in the world watch Netflix on a computer screen anymore? Maybe if they're travelling and have a laptop... Otherwise you just cast it to your TV. Or if you're hard up I guess use the TVs Netflix app.

Weird comment on pause, rewind etc. You're familiar with computers but perhaps not with streaming apps.

PopePalpatine

seamus wrote: »

And funnily enough all the way through people were lamenting that reading books would become a thing of the past, that "the current lazy generation" would rely on radio/TV/VHS/Internet for all of their entertainment and forget how to read.

Ah here, we still need to know how to read so we can navigate DVD/Blu-Ray menus and search through Netflix and YouTube. :pac:

Liamario

They had plenty of time to provide a digital option and they did nothing. I feel sorry for the customer facing staff, who were under the leadership of gob****es.

I think it's a great opportunity for CEX to step into these vacant premises.

AtomicHorror

Liamario wrote: »

They had plenty of time to provide a digital option and they did nothing. I feel sorry for the customer facing staff, who were under the leadership of gob****es.

I think it's a great opportunity for CEX to step into these vacant premises.

Yep. Worked there during college, about 12 years ago. Store managers generally nice folks. Anyone above that seemed barely able to hide their disdain for us.

The writing was on the wall even then. We all saw what happened to the music industry, it was obvious what was coming. Actually surprised it lasted this long.

They weren't entirely blind to what was happening. They saw smaller rental shops all going from video rentals to "videos/tanning booth" to "videos/tanning booth/gift shop" to "to let" and they knew something was going a bit wrong. So they tried a bit of that diversification themselves. Started selling consumer electronics. Nobody was having it though.

As well as being jerks, the management were pretty unimaginative and significantly less intelligent than the student staff they hired. Funny thing is, if they'd nurtured a few IT/software engineer students and encouraged them to climb the ladder instead of treating them like animals... well never mind.

fin12

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Does anyone in the world watch Netflix on a computer screen anymore? Maybe if they're travelling and have a laptop... Otherwise you just cast it to your TV. Or if you're hard up I guess use the TVs Netflix app.

Weird comment on pause, rewind etc. You're familiar with computers but perhaps not with streaming apps.

I can only watch Netflix on my laptop and iPad because I don't know how to connect it to the tv..

AtomicHorror

fin12 wrote: »

I can only watch Netflix on my laptop and iPad because I don't know how to connect it to the tv..

You're alright with the iPad. That's still cool.

A Chromecast or Apple TV will sort you out there. Chromecast works great and is very cheap.

AMKC

@Fin12 Just get a HDMI cable and connect it to your laptop then your tv. Should work. Thats what someone else said in a post on here anyway.

VincePP

Alot of mis-information here.

Here's facts.

Rental market has tanked, especially in recent months.

The sales end was reasonable, but was controlled by the suppliers who put stock in on consignment and owned the stock - (xtravision owned very little stock themselves.) The suppliers controlled pricing and promotions and did not react to discounting.

Xtravision is a separate company to hmv, but both are owned by Hilco who specialise in taking basket cases and turning them around - doesn't work everytime.

Hmv model is far more sustainable as stores are in high traffic areas and their rents are quite low - too many xtravision stores were in small towns that can't sustain the sales model, so with rentals tanking they became big loss making stores.

Staffwise - you hear a lot of whining. Quite amazing as they are paid up to last Sunday and will get holiday pay and statutory redundancy from central funds - frankly they should have been redundant in 2013, but hilco took a gamble. Back in 2013 retail had only started to recover and very very few jobs were available - now there are plenty of retail jobs, so the staff instead of whining to joe duffy and creating lockins, should be a little more appreciative - after all hilco have dropped €5.5million

AtomicHorror

VincePP wrote: »

A
Staffwise - you hear a lot of whining. Quite amazing as they are paid up to last Sunday and will get holiday pay and statutory redundancy from central funds - frankly they should have been redundant in 2013, but hilco took a gamble. Back in 2013 retail had only started to recover and very very few jobs were available - now there are plenty of retail jobs, so the staff instead of whining to joe duffy and creating lockins, should be a little more appreciative - after all hilco have dropped €5.5million

How much notice did staff get that they'd lost their jobs?

fin12

AMKC wrote: »

@Fin12 Just get a HDMI cable and connect it to your laptop then your tv. Should work. Thats what someone else said in a post on here anyway.

Thanks, Where can I get that cable and can i connect it to the iPad and then the tv....

AtomicHorror

fin12 wrote: »

Thanks, Where can I get that cable and can i connect it to the iPad and then the tv....

What model of iPad do you have? You're probably looking for something like this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01AMGU98O?psc=1

Have a browse, lots of options there. Most electronics stores sell similar.

I would still vote Chromecast or similar over a cable tbh. A cable means leaving your device close to your TV, getting up to put on the next episode. That or a long cable trailing across your sitting room. It's a pretty rubbish user experience.

PC to TV is even worse.