The Video Shop

[Richard1978]

Re: The Video Shop

I've still got a fully functional video & recordable DVD player.

[Retrogames]

Re: The Video Shop

Cheap buying changed it all- I was thinking today that the number one priority for a VCR was the record button and now who even has a recorder in the house (bar Sky+)?

Stuff is so cheap nowadays, DVDs for a quid, I know a shop in Chester that sells new sealed blu rays @ 2 for £5, renting a vid used to be an epic selection battle, knowing you'd waste your pocket money if the film you picked was rubbish.

[Richard1978]

Re: The Video Shop

By the time my parents got a video a lot of the smaller rental shops had closed or being taken over by a local chain.

Jack Beanstalk video seemed to own a few in the Stockport - South Manchester Area.

My Dad remembers it was a bit crazy for a few years, with odd shops suddenly opening or having a shelf of videos to rent.

For years I used to take videos out from my local library as it was fairly cheap, though I've not done so for a few years.

Eventually I had the income to buy stuff outright, even more so after DVD's came along.

I did think about buying a Laserdisk player when I saw one in Cash Converters for £50, but even then the disks were hard to find at a decent price & DVD was just around the corner.

[battyrat]

Re: The Video Shop

In the early 80's we had a single shop open up in town.It was expensive to join membership,but even this was cheaper then the price of a new video at the time.So after about a couple of months of renting it really was worth the money in the early days.They had various formats,VHS being the most popular and Beta.I think they had a tiny selection of laser discs too.I nearly brought a laser disc machine back then,only because it was reduced a lot in price.They must of been on the way out or something.They also rented out the players,and used ones could be brought cheap.We rented at first then brought it after 12 months of use fairly cheaply.Big bulky thing too it was with switches that really stood out.Click,click,click.
Going to this video shop was a real religious experiance for a teenager with it's dingy almost underworld atmosphere.I can remember people quietly looking around at the videos on show.Yes there was also a back room and under the counter service which I was always curious about,but never let through to see what was there.Later beta dissapeared and just left VHS.Nothing better then choosing a film with dad and going home to watch it with a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar.I really enjoyed these bronx films.I suppose they would be classed as cyber punk now.
On several occations when my mates were allowed we used to go down in a small group(teenagers)and choose a film or two to watch when pocket money was good.Nearly always one of these was a video nasty of the time.Dead and buried was a really good film.Seems to be quite tame by todays standards now.

Later other video shops opened up with free membership,we still used these but the films they had nearly everybody else had in shop as well.They were never as exciting as that first shop we had in town.Later still nearly all corner shops had a Video rental section.Our library was the last to stock Videos.They were also the last to change from videos to DVD's.By the time dvd's came along nearly all of the Video shops had shut up in town except for one which later became a Blockbuster store.I don't use blockbusters as it is far cheaper to buy the films new within 6 months of release then what they rent them out for or sell secondhand.Odd to think of an entire industry rising and falling like the Video ones has done in our own lifetimes.

[goldenone]

Re: The Video Shop

Yeah everyone seemed to have either beta or vhs, never both eh. Yet another way things have changed, I bet i'm not the only one here with an xbox 360 ps3 and wii in the house.

I have the full set of consoles too mate plus several handhelds.

I get around this with the wife as I do some games reviewing so need the consoles....Cost effective you see, I get games sent and sell them on to get some cash back, everyone's a winner

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: The Video Shop

Did anyone else have a video rental van come round in the 80s ?

Yeah we did. In the early days, around 1982/3, most of the videos that the bloke brought round in his van were copies (of already available tapes). Sometimes very bad ones too! He also had the odd pirate one too. We got ET off him. The pirate copy was that bad you couldnt even see ET's finger light up!

[DemonEyeX]

Re: The Video Shop

Did anyone else have a video rental van come round in the 80s ?

[DemonEyeX]

Re: The Video Shop

Yeah, there used to be many independent video rental shops in my town back in the day.
My favourite had a video shop on one side and an amusement arcade on the other.
I used to be amazed, staring at all those chunky boxes.
I still love video, and will continue buying original pre cert vids for as long as I live.
what an amazing time those days were, aaaaahhhhhh.

[80sChav]

Re: The Video Shop

We had a couple of Video Shop's near were I used to live, 1 was good ... a fore-runner to Blockbusters and the other was an independent run by a chap who was known localy for trying his hand at any buisness and he always had not as good a choice as his was not always the new releases etc.

His shop was a portacabin on an industrial estate that never really got going and neber had other trade. I am sure he selled the odd confectionary too, like chocolate, crisps. I recall well how dirty his shop was too and similar to what you said about it being smokey in a way.

I love collecting Videos too - Music ones mainly, all the great 80s singers and love places that are not "Video Shop's" as such now, but like places on the Coast like Ingomelds nr Skegness where shop's sell whatever they can to keep their trade going. These places are "magical gems" of a bygone era that I hope last's and last's and keep's the "Video Shop" idea going in some small way for years to come just like Antique Records Shop's do for old Record Shop's before HMV and all the other major Shop's took over. Brilliant day's.

[Retrogames]

Re: The Video Shop

Really? I didn't know that about HDTV. There ya go.I learn something every day at this site.

Yes, my sky HD looks great, but my HD DVD player at 1080 showing films transferred expertly looks amazing. Apparently the step-up from 24fps to 60fps (the new Avatar film is supposed to be using this technology) is even more pronounced. I didnt really rate Avatar but the tech of the sequel has me extremely excited!

[Retrogames]

Re: The Video Shop

Yeah everyone seemed to have either beta or vhs, never both eh. Yet another way things have changed, I bet i'm not the only one here with an xbox 360 ps3 and wii in the house.

[Richard1978]

Re: The Video Shop

Also JVC managed to let other makers use VHS for less than Sony did with Betamax.

At one time the thinking was that video tape would just be used for home recording, & all pre-recorded material would be on videodisks, which for many years were cheaper to mass produce.

In the end buying 2 different machines was going to be too much for most potential customers.

[stud1al]

Re: The Video Shop

Really? I didn't know that about HDTV. There ya go.I learn something every day at this site.

[Retrogames]

Re: The Video Shop

Yeah as I said VHS wasn't technically better, both looked the same on the Telly's of the era, but VHS clearly had much more of an impact on everything from people beginning to record and 'collect' tv series, low budget films becoming commonplace, cheap home movie making, to people sharing video media and the growth of home libraries of entertainment (also copyright theft?) interestingly there seems not to have been any marketing focus on 'beta being better' back in those days.

History is repeating itself now with people saying 720 tvs are inferior to 1080 tvs when all HD channels broadcast at 720 anyway!

[stud1al]

Re: The Video Shop

Ah no come on, i'm a massive (ie still use it, still collect it) Beta fan but VHS was the best. Cheaper, many more films, And the quality was only visible when you used 1hr Beta tapes. They were so thin at 3hr that the quality was as good as double play vhs. The studio quality Betacam was miles better than both, but only shares the cassette shape with Betamax- everything else is different. Beta sound was pants too, and on a 20" tv i'd argue that sound was more important than picture. Of course a lot of pre-cert Beta tapes offer better picture and sound as they had a shorter rental life. Nowt more annoying that the film you wanted being out on the format your parents owned/rented but in on the other format!Speaking of which, does anyone rent anything nowadays? That seems to have completely died off.

The reason there were more films and the machines were cheaper was because more people bought vhs.it had nothing to do with vhs being the better system because it wasn't The vhs system was actually very similar to the old phillips machines.The only reason vhs won the battle of the formats was because the tapes were longer.