Renting movies in San Diego (Mission Hills: rent, buy, minimum wage)

[rgb123]

thanks, that's actually really good to know -- is this for the county or city of San Diego? Would Carlsbad then have a different library system?

[rgb123]

Interesting ok its both...there is a carlsbad city system and a county system

[djxpress]

The interesting thing is that I consider myself pretty tech savy - however, I never was one for commitment, so I don't do Netflix, and doubt I ever will. If there's something I HAVE to see, I can find other ways to see it. Streaming was never my thing either. I just long for the days of going in to a video store, browsing what's on the shelf, reading the back DVD covers, picking something that looks good, plopping down $4 and going home to enjoy the movie. No commitment, no waiting for the mail to come, no needing a 15 M/bit internet connection to stream, no needing to buy a separate box to stream. Just good old fashioned "pick n' play".

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by bloom

I found both Netflix and Amazon' streaming service terrible in the selection of recent good movies. Maybe they are better for the new wave of good TV drama shows.
Does Redbox do streaming?
Actually, er, the public library selection in not limited at all but in fact the widest and best and they take suggestions and act on them to purchase less popular including foreign but excellent films.

I don't think Netflix or Amazon has any great selection, with the exception if you have young kids. The selection is really HUGE on Netflix if you have young kids. Not that the kids are watching lots of TV but we originally started it many years ago as we were traveling so much and it was convenient to have on their iPads while we traveled.

We still keep it as it's only like $8 a month. Realistically that is less than the cost of 2 cups of Starbucks coffee twice a month. I don't use Amazon Prime much as it seems like mostly the same stuff as Netflix but it was free with the Amazon Prime membership.

Redbox just started a streaming service. - Redbox

Really that is the way things are headed. I imagine in the future DVD's will be like 8 track tapes. I disagree with the "things will swing back" comment if that meant that things will go back the other way. The technology will keep improving. Things will get much much quicker downloading to where it's lightning fast to watch movies streaming.

I can't see ANY scenario where old fashioned video stores will all of a sudden make some miraculous come back. Especially in San Diego where real estate is too darn expensive. And labor isn't exactly cheap here either compared to some cities and they are always talking about increasing the minimum wage here.

That's good to hear about the selection at the library bloom. I haven't been to the San Diego City library. I only have been to the San Diego County Libraries and to be honest I've never found the selection to be good. Maybe it's different at the City level.

[tonyinsd]

I think -- you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong because it's been more than a decade since I rented a video -- Blockbuster used to charge three or four bucks to rent a movie for two nights. A Netflix subscription is $8 a month.

Essentially, if you rent a movie a week, you'll be better off using Netflix AND you don't have to worry about late fees or burning up gas driving to the store.

And this is why Blockbuster is dead.

[LaVieQ]

Originally Posted by mricu

There was an article in the Reader Magazine about a mom & pop video store that is still around and pretty much has every title that has been released on VHS and DVD. Their name is Kensington Video ... here's a link:

Movie lover's paradise | San Diego Reader

Kensington Video

Very interesting article about a quirky store. Having used Scare Crow in Seattle, I for one certainly appreciate the availability to well produced DVDs of odd movies and documentaries, along with the wealth of information that comes on the discs. DVD vs Netflix is not unlike listening to music on a good stereo from an SACD vs the bare essentials of the music on iPod. It is good to know that SD has KV as a choice. While the convenience of Netflix, Amazon, etc, is "good to have", DVD stores like this one make for interesting discoveries. Not to mention the opportunity to meet interesting people who seek out such movies.

Thanks mricu.

[bloom]

Even libraries are doing some streaming but really older films beyond copyrighting. Piracy fears have limited this library service and many foreign countries host Netflix as you streaming piracy is rampant.

[TristramShandy]

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

I don't think Netflix or Amazon has any great selection, with the exception if you have young kids. The selection is really HUGE on Netflix if you have young kids. Not that the kids are watching lots of TV but we originally started it many years ago as we were traveling so much and it was convenient to have on their iPads while we traveled.

We still keep it as it's only like $8 a month. Realistically that is less than the cost of 2 cups of Starbucks coffee twice a month. I don't use Amazon Prime much as it seems like mostly the same stuff as Netflix but it was free with the Amazon Prime membership.

Redbox just started a streaming service. - Redbox

Really that is the way things are headed. I imagine in the future DVD's will be like 8 track tapes. I disagree with the "things will swing back" comment if that meant that things will go back the other way. The technology will keep improving. Things will get much much quicker downloading to where it's lightning fast to watch movies streaming.

I can't see ANY scenario where old fashioned video stores will all of a sudden make some miraculous come back. Especially in San Diego where real estate is too darn expensive. And labor isn't exactly cheap here either compared to some cities and they are always talking about increasing the minimum wage here.

That's good to hear about the selection at the library bloom. I haven't been to the San Diego City library. I only have been to the San Diego County Libraries and to be honest I've never found the selection to be good. Maybe it's different at the City level.

Agree with Netflix streaming and kids - - while the adult titles are extremely random (some old school stuff, some arty titles, but only about 5% of either category), it's a godsend for parents with young children. I can't give up on the DVD service for Netflix because it's the only way to guarantee seeing what you really want to see. Most of my streaming viewing is with small scale documentaries (just saw one on Morton Downey Jr last night).

I could see brick and mortar video stores making a vinyl record store resurgence at some point. Old aesthetics never go away - - as soon as Polaroid folded, Instagram immediately took the aesthetic and young people who never had Instamatics utilized the look. Watch the VHS/DVD brick and mortar pop up in North Park, Kensington, La Jolla etc with horn-rimmed hipsters making it a cool market by 2016 at the latest.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

That's good to hear about the selection at the library bloom. I haven't been to the San Diego City library. I only have been to the San Diego County Libraries and to be honest I've never found the selection to be good. Maybe it's different at the City level.

The SD Public Library has a great selection of movies that you can have sent to your local public library from anywhere in the County, but there is currently only one copy of The Hangover III and it has over 91 holds on it ER, I know how much you've been wanting to watch that new release . I love the public library but Netflix still has the best amount of new releases around.

[bloom]

malcorub16, we just established that NetFlix does not have the best amount of new releases.
I like the Hangover franchise, but to use the just this week released third part as a bell weather for library waiting in not representative. Typically, the library orders multiple copies proportional to immediate and sustained popularity/demand. So for example, can be 100 people on queue for say 10 copies. I usually have a dozen titles on hold at one time and watch say every 3 weeks or so without any issues. What is the hurry to watch something immediately, as we are all apparently on the beach sands in SD daily so who has time.