My LOVEFILM subscription has been put on notice. I have been a subscriber for years and watched many fantastic films.
For those who don't know LOVEFILM is a postal DVD rental service, whereby subscribers can rent movies and get them delivered by the postman. Once done you simply send them back.
LOVEFILM will close on October 31st.
Amazon acquired LOVEFILM some years ago.
The reasons cited for closure are a a decline in subscriptions and a drop in the number of requests for DVDs by post.
People are simply not renting DVDs anymore and stream their movies direct these days.
Is this the beginning of the end for the DVD?
I sincerely hope not. I am not a big fan of 'cloud' storage. I don't want my stuff to be kept on a server somewhere on the planet (or conceivably, off it). I want my stuff on a shelf in my house! Streaming and other systems are very transient, companies and systems come and go. My shelf remains.
ReplyDeleteThere's an ad on TV Kev about Workday, a company flogging cloud space. The chap losing all his bulky computers is planning where to put his new table tennis tables! Its a brave new world of ping pong. I can't keep up. My shelves are full of VHS videos! ha ha
DeleteDVDS are incredibly cheap these daya so I think the rental market has collapsed. I'm sure they'll be around for a few years until BluRay comes down even further. As for recording though I'm probably one of the few that actually records stuff from TV that I want to keep onto DVD discs and there are very few DVD recorders around these days. Everyone I know uses PVRs (Sky etc) which you cannot burn a disc from.
ReplyDeleteI use to record onto VHS a lot Yorkie - I still have a lot of them! but I've never recorded onto a DVD. Sounds a good idea. If it wasn't for home recording in the Sixties the lost episode audios of Dr. Who wouldn't have been found. Streaming has simply driven folk to buy fire sticks and make it even cheaper.
DeleteHi Woodsy,
ReplyDeleteBetween the cable systems (DirecTV, DISH, etc.) with on-demand, as well as HULU and the pay networks, not to mention Amazon Prime Viewing and it's competitors, I think eventually the DVD will go the way of the VHS tape. Not sure how I feel about it, as I was a VHS fanatic. Now I buy DVDs, as they are pretty cheap, but I also have the digital services to watch.
Jim
Sacramento CA
Hi Jim, yep, there's so much choice now. I turn the TV off at night at the mo and watch a movie on my free Netflix trial month. It was iron Man 3 last night! I agree, we may see the demise of the DVD and maybe the CD in our lifetime. I have no fondness for either format unlike VHS and vinyl which I love. Do you have any Betamax or V2000 video's?
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