Xtravision liquidation

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.

Ally Dick

High speed broadband in small towns has killed Xtravision off in those small towns

fin12

AtomicHorror wrote: »

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.

I have an IPad Air... Ok sorry i just don't know what chrome cast is or how it works? The TVs is a flat screen one but is a couple of years old.

AtomicHorror

fin12 wrote: »

I have an IPad Air... Ok sorry i just don't know what chrome cast is or how it works? The TVs is a flat screen one but is a couple of years old.

Netflix, Plex, YouTube and other apps have a button built in that you can hit to cast the video to your TV via the Chromecast. If your TV supports CEC you can control the playback with your TV remote, but if not you can use your iPad to control it.

Random YouTube video probably explains better:

Amazon and others make similar devices but Chromecast seems to be cheapest and simplest.

Ally Dick

fin12 wrote: »

I have an IPad Air... Ok sorry i just don't know what chrome cast is or how it works? The TVs is a flat screen one but is a couple of years old.

Chromecast is like a USB stick. It fits into the back of your telly via the HDMI slot. It has a power supply or you can power it using a USB cable running from the Chromecast into another slot in the back of the telly. When you put it into the telly first, a web address should pop up on screen and a reference number, which you must go to online and put in your details. You are going to twin the Chromecast with your internet router, and going to the website with the reference number will allow this to happen. Then when it is set up, you give it a name, and you're ready to go. You need to call it a name because when you are casting, you will be presented with an available list of chromecasts, and if there is more than one, you can pick your one off the list.

If you use Google Chrome as your default browser, you can cast the contents of the laptop screen to the telly screen by hitting the Cast icon in the top right corner of your browser session. With Netflix, it has the casting option available from the web page. You can now also cast Spotify by using the icon that appears in Spotify on your phone or your laptop. To get the Chromecast icon within the Google Chrome browser, you may need to install it. You can easily find out how to do this by putting something like "Chromecast for Chrome" in the websearch or something like that

ThisRegard

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Otherwise you just cast it to your TV. Or if you're hard up I guess use the TVs Netflix app.

This bit doesn't really make sense unless your TV has a particularly **** app. The one on my TV works better than using it via Chromecast, and once open can be managed via a phone or tablet anyway. Plus it's easier to rewind and forward using the TV remote than the app in tandem with Chromecast.

Ally Dick

ThisRegard wrote: »

This bit doesn't really make sense unless your TV has a particularly **** app. The one on my TV works better than using it via Chromecast, and once open can be managed via a phone or tablet anyway. Plus it's easier to rewind and forward using the TV remote than the app in tandem with Chromecast.

I have a Samsung Smart tv and Virgin Media broadband via a Horizon box. I have a Netflix app and it always craps out half way through a film and I can't get it to work again. However if I play Netflix from my laptop, and I cast it to the telly, it always stays up. I have similar problems with the YouTube app on the smart tv, and the Spotify app. Might be something dodgy going on between the smart tv and the Horizon box communication

dublinman1990

Very sad to see all of the staff lose their jobs. I usually went into the dual branded store opposite Dunnes Stores in Athlone while holidaying with family there during the summer and bought a few DVDs and Blu-rays during my time there.

Is that store closed for good or not?

There is one in Longford Town as well. Is that store also closed?

AtomicHorror

ThisRegard wrote: »

This bit doesn't really make sense unless your TV has a particularly **** app. The one on my TV works better than using it via Chromecast, and once open can be managed via a phone or tablet anyway. Plus it's easier to rewind and forward using the TV remote than the app in tandem with Chromecast.

Samsung's Netflix, YouTube and Plex apps are total garbage. Can be controlled by iPad if you put in a special code which they will later forget and disconnect from. Search sucks, apps are slow.

Maybe you have a smart TV with a UI that wasn't designed by a moron, but in my experience most of them are and they just don't seem resourced to run the apps well.

Chromecast can be controlled using your TV remote if you have CEC, which most HDMI TVs do.

shocksy

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Very sad to see all of the staff lose their jobs. I usually went into the dual branded store opposite Dunnes Stores in Athlone while holidaying with family there during the summer and bought a few DVDs and Blu-rays during my time there.

Is that store closed for good or not?

There is one in Longford Town as well. Is that store also closed?

Yes both of them are gone.

Captain Flaps

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

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.

I have a netflix account, I got to the cinema much less often than I like, and I maintain a plex server of... collected films and shows.

Netflix cut my collecting in half. If I could pay 75% of the price of a cinema ticket to stream the movie in full HD on my nice big TV at home at the same time it's released in theatres I'd be a very poor man.