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HMV closing (again)

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Comments

  • #422
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    I wonder how long it will last though. Nothing has changed in terms of the music industry moving entirely towards online streaming and downloads.


    Physical media is going the same way as sheet music sales did when record players became cheap.


  • #423
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 11,170 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    SpaceTime wrote: »
    I wonder how long it will last though. Nothing has changed in terms of the music industry moving entirely towards online streaming and downloads.

    Physical media is going the same way as sheet music sales did when record players became cheap.

    Not quite; there's still a fair demand for physical media in the music industry at the moment (beyond the top-40 chart guff, vinyl has been seeing an unexpected resurgence over the last few years). In addition, physical media for TV and film is still the preferred option because they represent perpetual licences, whereas most digital download-to-own options are DRM'd and depend on external licence servers which can be turned off at the vendor's whim (and if you think that the likes of Blinkbox are being genuine when they say "We're backed by Tesco, so we'll be around for the long haul", you might want to refresh your memory on what happened the first time Google started selling download-to-own video content...).


  • #424
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,709 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    It's amazing how vinyl has taken off in the last decade. However there's a nostalgia for that format that people will never have for Blu-ray due to its restrictions and user unfriendliness. It's a shame. It should have been designed and sold as the definitive physical format. Instead the studios approached it as another money spinner, an opportunity to screw over paying customers with dodgy old transfers and unskippable ads. The only good thing to come out of it is that the studios are happily licensing out catalogue titles to boutique labels like Criterion and Masters of Cinema like never before, which will almost certainly ensure Blu-ray survival as a niche format for many years to come.


  • #425
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 30,624 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    When I can get gorgeous copies and loving restorations of the whole spectrum of cinema online in a legal, affordable way without being screwed over by DRM, then I will migrate to a fully digital sphere. Not happily, maybe (I will miss the supplementary booklets included by the boutique labels) but I have no fundamental problems with digital media.

    That ideal is so very far from reality at the moment that really I think I spend more time watching physical versions than digital ones even in this increasingly VOD world.


  • #426
    krudler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    johnny_ultimate wrote: »
    When I can get gorgeous copies and loving restorations of the whole spectrum of cinema online in a legal, affordable way without being screwed over by DRM, then I will migrate to a fully digital sphere. Not happily, maybe (I will miss the supplementary booklets included by the boutique labels) but I have no fundamental problems with digital media.

    That ideal is so very far from reality at the moment that really I think I spend more time watching physical versions than digital ones even in this increasingly VOD world.

    I'm leaving the country soon so am very much on board the digital versions of movies, but that's purely for space reasons, I can bring my entire film collection on a 2TB hard drive with me rather than shelves of dvds. I do miss having a collection though, booklets, limited edition cases, extras etc etc.I know a lot of making of docs make it to youtube but its not the same really.


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  • #427
    Jumboman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭Jumboman


    Their is a new golden discs in blanchardstown shopping centre or atleast its new to me (I dont be blanchardstown that often).


  • #428
    Radiosonde
    Closed Accounts Posts: 613 ✭✭✭Radiosonde


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    It's amazing how vinyl has taken off in the last decade. However there's a nostalgia for that format that people will never have for Blu-ray due to its restrictions and user unfriendliness.

    Can of worms here, but for me and many others, vinyl sounds better than CD, especially on a good system. It's not just nostalgia, and may be a reaction against the rise of crappy compressed audio formats (which is starting to change even the way music is produced, as with pop acts like Lady Gaga with weedy sounding music which is, in a sense, "pre-compressed" with MP3 etc in mind as the main listening format). Of course, it's also collectable in a way optical discs will never be.

    Blu-rays also seem too expensive for what they are, especially when you can get the same movie in Tesco's for a fiver on dvd when its 20-25 on blu-ray or watch online instead.


  • #429
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,709 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Radiosonde wrote: »
    Can of worms here, but for me and many others, vinyl sounds better than CD, especially on a good system. It's not just nostalgia, and may be a reaction against the rise of crappy compressed audio formats (which is starting to change even the way music is produced, as with pop acts like Lady Gaga with weedy sounding music which is, in a sense, "pre-compressed" with MP3 etc in mind as the main listening format). Of course, it's also collectable in a way optical discs will never be.
    I was responding to the point about physical media dying off. Vinyl does sound better than CDs, but that's not the reason why it's survived and thrived in recent years. It has survived because as a format it appeals to music lovers in a way that CDs and digital downloads don't. There's many reasons for this. Collectibility, as you mentioned, is one of them, but so is nostalgia. People have positive memories of vinyl. This is my point. I don't believe people will ever have such positive associations with Blu-ray because it's just not a very good format despite its vastly superior quality. It wasn't designed with film lovers in mind, it was designed to satisfy the needs of film studios and copyright holders.
    Blu-rays also seem too expensive for what they are, especially when you can get the same movie in Tesco's for a fiver on dvd when its 20-25 on blu-ray or watch online instead.
    Someone (not me) could say the same about vinyl. Real film lovers care about quality. DVD doesn't come close to the picture and sound quality offered by Blu-ray. And prices are pretty cheap these days. HMV had a huge selection in their 5 for €35 offer before they went bust. And most of the Blu-rays I buy from Amazon are £10 or less.


  • #430
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 30,624 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Radiosonde wrote: »
    Blu-rays also seem too expensive for what they are, especially when you can get the same movie in Tesco's for a fiver on dvd when its 20-25 on blu-ray or watch online instead.

    That's the thing though: for me BluRay is the medium for the films you can't get for a fiver in a supermarket, or you can't find online (legally, anyway). This week's BluRay release I'm most excited about is the re-release of F.W. Murnau's Tabu - a film previously near impossible to find online for a reasonable price, the earlier DVD having been discontinued. Now I get to watch it in a gorgeous, lavish transfer, the way it should be seen - not some 700MB or less .avi I found somewhere (if you could even find someone seeding the damn thing). That's not the kind of thing you find in Tesco. It's not the kind of film Netflix are arsed putting up. It's not the kind of film that pops up in cinemas every other week. It's the kind of film that only receives the treatment it deserves, and that we the audience deserves, on BluRay, and it's sure as hell not the only one.

    Sure, BluRay does house every new Hollywood release too (and, personally, I think the CGI blockbusters tend to come off even less favourably in home HD) but as Sad Professor said its real benefits are as a boutique medium - the current home for people willing to support quality releases, both audiences and distributors. It's not going to stay that way for ever, but at the moment a mere handful of release companies are making BluRay a vital format. And, given so many films have yet to make the leap to even BluRay, DVD is far from from dead either - the catch 22 of course being that the smaller companies who have the most enthusiastic customers simply cannot afford the high costs of BluRay and must settle on SD instead. And alas the market for indie releases on digital & VOD simply isn't sustainable yet, barring some higher profile releases.

    In my view, it's the fact that DVD and BluRay are still just about allowing some smaller distributors survive that ensures the film market hasn't become completely homogenized by disposable crap. I know for a fact there'd be significantly less interesting Asian cinema being subtitled and released over here if it wasn't for the physical formats, for example.


  • #431
    Dublinfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 233 ✭✭Dublinfan


    any further update on the stores ? they said henry street is ready so i presume that should be open in the next 2 to 3 weeka


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  • #432
    Dublinfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 233 ✭✭Dublinfan


    its been nearly a month since any news does anyone know when the henry street branch is set to reopen


  • #433
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,709 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    End of August sometime, I believe.


  • #434
    Dublinfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 233 ✭✭Dublinfan


    http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/commercial-property/massimo-dutti-for-former-hmv-shop-1.1457973

    Looks like Any Hope Of Hmv Grafton Street reopening are now gone


  • #435
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,709 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    I think they are still hoping to find other premises on Grafton Street.

    Disappointed to hear what's going into the old shop. Would have made a great location for an Apple Store. Apple must have their eye on somewhere else.


  • #436
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Jeez, that Irish Times article reads like a shill for the clothes chain, "...whose elegant and classic designs are for daily and formal wear." Uhm, ok IT if you say so. Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age :)

    Anyway, I think it makes sense: HMV would surely want to save money wherever they can, and a smaller branch somewhere on Grafton or just off it, with smaller rents, makes more sense than moving back into that behemoth of a store. Makes sense to me anyway.


  • #437
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,709 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    pixelburp wrote: »
    Jeez, that Irish Times article reads like a shill for the clothes chain, "...whose elegant and classic designs are for daily and formal wear." Uhm, ok IT if you say so. Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age :)
    Yeah, it's obviously a recycled press release. The inner pages of the Irish Times is mostly churnalism.


  • #438
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 30,624 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    One of the bigger problems with a lot of the chains in troubles was too many stores - even within individual cities. Game was the worst for it, two or three locations in even small city centres sometimes. It was all about presence, profit later, and that caused problems.

    Makes sense to have a single operation, and as far as I know Henry Street was surprisingly more profitable than Grafton.


  • #439
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 26,077 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    johnny_ultimate wrote: »
    Makes sense to have a single operation, and as far as I know Henry Street was surprisingly more profitable than Grafton.


    Agree with this, and I imagine that Henry street was more profitable due to the rent in Grafton street being so high.


  • #440
    Jumboman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭Jumboman


    I was in jervis street today golden discs has closed down.


  • #441
    Handsome Bob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,905 ✭✭✭✭Handsome Bob


    Jumboman wrote: »
    I was in jervis street today golden discs has closed down.

    :eek:

    Suppose I shouldn't be shocked as it was a shop that wasn't really up to much, still though, it's coming from left field.


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  • #442
    thebostoncrab
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,491 ✭✭✭thebostoncrab


    It's been gone for around a month now, couldn't find any info on it or why it closed


  • #443
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 11,170 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    Jumboman wrote: »
    I was in jervis street today golden discs has closed down.

    There was a whole thread on it here, worth a read for some inadvertent comedy if nothing else ;)


  • #444
    Jumboman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭Jumboman


    Any update on HMV reopening ?


  • #445
    SirLemonhead
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,013 ✭✭✭SirLemonhead


    Mr.S wrote: »
    End of August for Henry Street / Start of September for Dudnrum.

    Good, a reason to actually go to Dundrum again!


  • #446
    Jumboman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭Jumboman


    SirLemonhead wrote: »
    Good, a reason to actually go to Dundrum again!


    I think Dundrum was the biggest of the HMV stores.


  • #447
    Skerries
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,937 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    better get Nipper's bowl ready so
    Untitled Image




  • #448
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    It's kinda sad walking past the Galway store and seeing the insides all tore up in preparation of the new pharmacy opening in the location. Of all the things Galway doesn't need it's yet another pharmacy. Hopefully though someone involved in the relaunch will take a look at Galway and give it a second chance as atm there's nowhere that you can grab a DVD, CD or Blu. Well there is OMG and Xtravision but the selection in both is atrocious, Xtravision get in maybe 2 new Blus a week if even that and OMG is more concerned with selling cheap Oirish tat that any media.


  • #449
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 23,997 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    ^ At least you have an xtravision, our one shut not long after HMV :(


  • #450
    Timmyctc
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,825 ✭✭✭Timmyctc


    Deleted User wrote: »
    It's kinda sad walking past the Galway store and seeing the insides all tore up in preparation of the new pharmacy opening in the location. Of all the things Galway doesn't need it's yet another pharmacy. Hopefully though someone involved in the relaunch will take a look at Galway and give it a second chance as atm there's nowhere that you can grab a DVD, CD or Blu. Well there is OMG and Xtravision but the selection in both is atrocious, Xtravision get in maybe 2 new Blus a week if even that and OMG is more concerned with selling cheap Oirish tat that any media.

    I dont get this as there's about 10 in walking distance from the city centre and at least 3 other pharmacies on shop street alone!


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  • #451
    Liam McPoyle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,846 ✭✭✭✭Liam McPoyle


    Jumboman wrote: »
    I think Dundrum was the biggest of the HMV stores.

    :confused:

    Grafton Street was easily bigger than Dundrum wasn't it?


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