The end of xtravision?

Ban Ki Moon

Spunge wrote: »

Can you rent blu-ray movies nowadays ?
Surely that would be good for them because i assume they are a bastard to download.

Get fibre.
8 - 10 gig 1080i files in 15 minutes!!!

smk89

Andre80Johnson wrote: »

Xtravision are probably planning the same thing so who knows.

I'd say the setup fees and the fact that the idea has already been created by others would decrease the odds. Xtravision may be going the way of the cinema

shamtastic

In fairness, there will always be kids looking to rent films for parties etc. and parents aren't going to bother downloading for kids. They're trying to make rakes off fresh popcorn and sweeties now.

Exclamation Marc

Mikeyt086 wrote: »

I think ALOT of people are underestimating the technology gap, here, its not Tokyo where everyone is mad into electronics and internet use, for every one person who downloads or streams movie online, there are countless people who would think your talking about rivers and lakes if you suggested a stream.

I work in an Xtravision (not in the new Bray store), the place is packed on weekends, and someone said earlier about movies not selling out, not true, I was working today and all 55 copies of The Town were gone, all 30 copies of Buried were gone and Takers was out too. During the week people rent alot aswell, as parents rent kids movies by the bucket-full to keep the little ones quiet.

But people are saying Netflix will be the end on rental stores, and I agree that it will be a big competitor, but with the majority of the nation either on a shocking eircom broadband connection (myself included) without the bandwidth to download, and hundreds of thousands of people who would have no clue how to watch movies online, the simplicty of taking 5mins to pop down and rent a DVD for €4 will be a much more viable option.

I think people will always rent DVDs and Xtra Vision will easily survive. I walked past the Blackrock branch last Saturday week and there were about 30 or so people in there at 8pm, it was absolutely jammed.

There's something in the "going down to Xtra Vision and picking something" that people like to do. I download the odd movie but the girlfriend insists on renting DVDs because its more fun and its easier to pick a movie or two from the new releases as opposed to trying to pick something from an endless selection online and either streaming in lower quality or waiting for it to download. Also technophobes will always go and rent, and have no interest in downloading.

Game rentals make a lot of money for the shop, as most people prefer to rent out games before committing to purchase them

Gavin "shels"

LighterGuy wrote: »

But ... !
look at chartbusters. They closed 17 of its stores in what seemed to be to stay afloat. They eventually went under. I knew a guy who worked in chartbusters. He said they made more money on tanning beds etc than rentals. But they still closed.

Remember talking to one of their managers months back and he was looking for a job in Xtravision, Chartbusters was a bubble waiting to burst he said.

Nolanger wrote: »

The one in Thomas Street, D8 closed a while back.

Tesco offered a fine lump of money and Xtravision happily sold it.

Spunge wrote: »

Can you rent blu-ray movies nowadays ?

Yup.

FireballPitcher wrote: »

There's something in the "going down to Xtra Vision and picking something" that people like to do. I download the odd movie but the girlfriend insists on renting DVDs because its more fun and its easier to pick a movie or two from the new releases as opposed to trying to pick something from an endless selection online and either streaming in lower quality or waiting for it to download. Also technophobes will always go and rent, and have no interest in downloading.

I work in Xtravision and I know with the regulars you always have banter, slag the ones who always have their DVD's back late and what not, the person to person approach rather than sitting in your gaff downloading.

Plus I'd say about 90% of the people that'd come into my shop live within 10 min walk of the shop, now for the sake of €4 you can pop down get a DVD and go to Tesco on your way home, kills two birds with one stone and saves having to wait for a torrent to download.

Firetrap

Not everyone in the country can get proper broadband and I know quite a lot of people who have gotten rid of their landlines because of cost and just use one of those mobile internet usb modems to go online. So unless you're a patient sort, that movie will be a long time arrivin'.

I notice too from ads on the radio that Xtravision have cut the cost of their new DVD rentals and are throwing in all sorts of deals. Not a bad idea IMHO as the cost of renting newly released DVDs was getting ridiculously high.

Azureus

I havent been to Xtra Vision to ret something in flippin ages, but Ive bought a couple of phones there over the years. Usually just buy my dvds now, can get em dirt cheap and adds to the collection.

Id only rent if i was hell bent on getting a new release, but thats be rare cuz if it was that good, I would have seen it in the cinema. Doubt id even notice if they closed down, but then again loads of my friends are employed by the various branches so Id rather they didnt.

Vicxas

i used to work there a while back, i can assure you they make a healthy profit.

merlie

I used to rent movies from Xtravision but these days I prefer to buy them on dvd. I think the cost of rental is expensive considering the actual prices of dvd's in the shops and even the discounted used dvd's in Chapters or Gamestop are good value.

I think the hayday of movie rental is nearing its end though but I think Xtravision will adapt and still stick around.

CMpunked

Was in xtravision to rent out a few games couple of weeks back.

Black ops was one of them, i wanted to know exactly what it was like before i went with my 60 quid to buy it.
I went in every day to rent it out and it wasnt in at all for 2 weeks.

This either means that they only had one or two copies, or they had loads, but either way, their game rental business seem to be doing a lot better than their movie rentals.
Shame they have such a balls selection..

PogMoThoin wrote: »

They should launch this themselves if they want to stay around, the clock is ticking.

As someone said, internet in this country is absolutely dire and will be for another 2 years at least.

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Its my first stop in this town when I'm picking up a new Xbox title. Can and do be cheaper then Gamestop many times, and other times have had titles when Gamestop don't carry them.

Their tradein allowance does tend to be higher than Gamestop as well.

Thats good for you, but terrible for them.
Their trade in system is awful.

Gamestop and HMV will give you a trade in value based upon how many they have in stock already coupled with how much it is new.
Xtravisions approach is base it on how much it is new and how recent it is.

If i get a game that is absolutely pants (take MOH for example).
Everyone else is going into GS and they are seeing that there are so many being traded in, the value will obviously decrease.
I go to xtravision, games 2 weeks old, 35 euro. Regardless of how many is in stock.

AntiRip

DVD AND games rental group Xtra-Vision has written to the Government warning that jobs and tax revenues will be lost if gaps in Irish copyright law are not addressed

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0411/1224294394179.html

mikom

The Xtra-Vision company wants the Government to close the loophole in the Copyright Act, which means that the courts do not have the power to make internet service providers (ISPs) take action against sites or individuals involved in the illegal downloading of material.

Lol, good luck with that.

candy-gal1

smk89 wrote: »

I'd say the setup fees and the fact that the idea has already been created by others would decrease the odds. Xtravision may be going the way of the cinema

But, seriously, what can replace the cinema?
No matter what new fangled games/blu ray/3d TVs are around it cant beat a trip to the movies tbh, and cant see it happening in the future imho.

Penn

Are they starting to do Internet now too? I know of one XtraVision that has had computers put in for customers the same way Chartbusters used to. That's a bad decision in my opinion. I hated going into Chartbusters once they had those put in due to the amount of messers and groups of teens, people shouting over other people and laughing. For every €15 those computers make, they could lose €20 from someone who decided not to take a browse.

whiteonion

Sooner or later we'll have something like Netflix in Ireland. That will mean the death of Xtravision, and hopefully Sky as well...

mikemac

People have been predicting the end of Xtravision for years and years.
Still going strong

thirtythirty

The sooner ISPs block illegal movie downloads the better.

There's an american guy, who can only be compared to Jack Black in everything from look to mannerisms, who works in the Baggot street one and completely makes getting a film an experience. Knows everything about every film ever, and great buzz.

Plus I wanna watch bluray, not shi**y rubbishly-encoded rips.

PCPhoto

Dunno ...Xtra-Vision have started selling fresh popcorn...which is yummy yummy and in my tummy !!!

Rabidlamb

spottyelephant wrote: »

The sooner ISPs block illegal movie downloads the better.

Hasn't worked for the music industry yet, all they've managed to do is get one ISP (Eircom) to block a single torrent site (Piratebay).
There are hundreds of alternatives & different methods of downloading at peoples disposal.

spottyelephant wrote: »

Plus I wanna watch bluray, not shi**y rubbishly-encoded rips.

720p & Bluray rips are quite common now.

The biggest appeal of downloading continues to be getting to watch new film months before their release dates.

yoyo

AntiRip wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0411/1224294394179.html

How about banning any type of movie watching services such as Sky OD, Netficks, Apple TV etc? These things will also mean less people will rent movies in "traditional" ways,

Nick

Rabidlamb

yoyo wrote: »

How about banning any type of movie watching services such as Sky OD, Netficks, Apple TV etc? These things will also mean less people will rent movies in "traditional" ways,

Nick

So you wish to ban the legitimate alternative to illegal downloading.
I see.
;);)

AntiRip

ISPs that continue to “actively solicit their customers to commit such an offence and worse still to profit from selling increased download limits to offenders” should be held liable, Xtra-Vision argues.

What!?

Yeah sure, bring in 5GB a month download caps for 50mb fiber broadband. :rolleyes:
Couldn't make it up. Have xtravision heard of online demand services like 4od, rteplayer, skyplayer which is probably the real reason behind increased download limits.

thirtythirty

yoyo wrote: »

How about banning any type of movie watching services such as Sky OD, Netficks, Apple TV etc? These things will also mean less people will rent movies in "traditional" ways,

Nick

Business lesson 1001:

Paid stuff ≠ free stuff.

yoyo

Rabidlamb wrote: »

So you wish to ban the legitimate alternative to illegal downloading.
I see.
;);)

Absolutely not. However the point I'm making is that these legitimate services will also "hurt" the DVD rental shops as its much easier for people to press the download button on netficks, the pay to rent button on Sky etc rather than trekking down to the rental store to pick up a DVD, which may be scratched, have about 10 minutes unskippable ads or may not work at all and need to be exchanged, this happened me in the past with xtra vision, so its obvious people will prefer the more convenient ways, especially if they are legal and easy to use, check this out, for the truth what pisses people off with legitimate DVDs: http://boingboing.net/2010/02/18/infographic-buying-d.html

Business lesson 1001:

Paid stuff ≠ free stuff.

When did I say that it was, I think my point is quite clear that their are legitimate forms of downloading music/movies online and the rental shops will be suffering from that as well, as much as piracy with the way technology is advancing

Nick

super_furry

I doubt that DVD and Blu-Ray rentals are their main business now. They're more about selling videogames, boxsets and consoles now.

Canis Lupus

spottyelephant wrote: »

There's an american guy, who can only be compared to Jack Black in everything from look to mannerisms, who works in the Baggot street one and completely makes getting a film an experience. Knows everything about every film ever, and great buzz.

A short, fat, unfunny and annoying guy makes getting a movie an experience?

Joekers

Canis Lupus wrote: »

A short, fat, unfunny and annoying guy makes getting a movie an experience?

Clearly the dude is describing himself :rolleyes:

Faolchu

I think thay'll just have to adjust their strategy. yes they started out as video rental but i think over time this will evolve into gaming. we'll probably see more games for rent on the shelves in certain stores than DVD/Blu-ray. its just the market chaning, they started diversifying their products years ago when they started to seel sweets and drinks, then they moved on to sell second hand video/dvd. then they added gaming and selling phones etc.

I think over time the name will probably change from xtravision to xtragaming or something like that and the dvd/bluray rental will become secondary in their over all offerings

CMpunked

Their game rental selection is so utterly sh!te, they have games that are a year+ old for the same prices as new releases.
And the new releases, for example N4S shift 2, are never released for rent!

mikemac

When you buy a new game it should be sealed in plastic.

In xtravision the game boxes tend to be open.
Sure you may as well buy a preowned copy at a cheaper price if that's how xtravision do it