I'm finally done with Ball Buster. (1 Viewer)

[BrentPollard]

I know that my U.S. brothers have been complaining about Block Buster for a long time now but up here in my part of the "Great White North" we had been lucky in that most releases were both W.S. and Pan & Scrap. But the virus has finally spread to my part of the world and I'm pissed. Tonight I went in to rent a flick and saw 40 copies of Goldmember with 0 in W.S. 5 Copies of Queen of the Damned 0 in W.S. That is all I noticed at the time, when I asked if they had any W.S, available I got standard "we get too many complaints" answer. So I started to rant (I won't go into details) finishing by tossing my card on the counter telling them that I will not be back.

 

[Cage]

The mind set of joe six pack is going to ruin it for the rest of us. You watch, pan and scan for J6P will be one price and the rest of us will have to pay a premium to get a widescreen version !! I stopped going to Blockbuster three years ago because of their idiotic policys

 

[SteveGon]

Tonight I went in to rent a flick and saw 40 copies of Goldmember with 0 in W.S. 5 Copies of Queen of the Damned 0 in W.S.

I've been there before. Luckily, my local Hollywood Video has gotten much better as far as stocking widescreen editions. Hell, they're even getting in foreign films! Can ya believe that? I saw the new release of Tarkovsky's Stalker on the shelf and did a double-take!

 

[Dean Kousoulas]

I'm pretty lucky. My local Ballbuster only carries the widescreen version of the film.

J6P's ignorance and attitude towards widescreen is disgusting. Anybody who would rather have half of the film cut just to avoid black bars should not be allowed to rent or buy movies.

Dean

 

[TonyD]

corporate blockbuster stores only carry the full screen version of goldmember. add the new movie coming out next week to the list UNFAITHFUL.

Privately owned blockbusters have the freedom to get whatever editions of the movies they choose.

 

[Jeff]

I work at Rogers and at my store we have educated the customers to the point where it is almost a 70/30 ratio in favor of widescreen. And all of this because I have two pictures that have a WS vs P&S comparison.

When someone asks for P&S, we show them these and they almost always end up with the widescreen after being blown away with how much they miss.


Jeff

 

[BrentPollard]

I pretty much rent from Rogers now anyway, I just step into B.B. if I can't get it at Rogers, but no more. I used to go to a small independent video store owned by a wonderful little old lady who actually got me into laser disc years ago (she is a big OAR advocate) but I moved across the city and rent from her less. Time to re-establish my relationship with her.

 

[Will_B]

I used to go to a small independent video store owned by a wonderful little old lady who actually got me into laser disc years ago (she is a big OAR advocate) but I moved across the city and rent from her less. Time to re-establish my relationship with her.

I don't know how to tell you this, but, she was captured by Sandpeople.

 

[Bill McCamy]

I'm still using my rentals from the Monsters Inc. and LOTR deals. "Insomnia" and "Goldmember" are both fullscreen only. When I asked where the widescreen versions were, I was told they were available for retail sale. The clerk began telling me that the store receives what the "studios" send. After determining that the store was a corporate outlet, I tried to firmly explain what nonsense that was. The clerk did not appreciate my telling her that the studios will provide whatever BB chooses to buy and that BB was choosing fullframe only.

Interestingly, the Hollywood video in the next block is stocking widescreen versions of those films.

 

[TonyD]

bill your post is both right and wrong. but not wrong in what you said but what the csr said.
the csr should have said "corporate BB" and not "studios"
non-corp BB stores can order whatever they want for rental but the true corp stores cannot.
corp stores are at the mercy of whatever is sent to them and cannot change that one iota.
you were correct when you said studios will provide whatever BB wants to buy and make into a rental.
for example corp stores cannot order a criterion copy of "importance of being earnest".
while the non corp store can.
they only way to make an impact on what the corp stores carry is to write a letter to the corp main office and tell them you want wide and not full.
the address can be found at the following link. it also includes an email address but it is always 1 million times more effective if you send an actual hand written letter through the real mail system.
http://www.blockbuster.com/bb/about/...T-ABT,00.html?

 

[Oswald Pascual]

Then Block Buster wonders way rentals are down?

Just have one word for them NetFlix!!!

There are more of those websites coming onboard soon to.

 

[JohnRice]

Brent,

I assure you, there is nobody more interested in seeing OAR presentations than me, and I want to say that you and a lot of others in this forum have a habit of making a huge mistake. When you rant, rave, throw your card at them and storm out, what you are trying to get across to them goes right out the window because they just write you off as some nutcase. In your enthusiasm to promote OAR, you do it great harm.

I rent from my local Blockbuster for several reasons. They are close, they actually have some pretty good programs, they have an ever improving selection, I noticed a nice new copy of the Criterion Insomnia when I was there a couple days ago, and I realize they are taking over the B&M rental market. I take every opportunity to say how nice it is to be able to rent so many movies OAR and I let them know I am unhappy when they have a P&S only title. They listen to me. Several of the employees have asked me for suggestions on movies to see. If I ranted, raved and stomped around, what I say would be ignored.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I'm so glad my local Hastings managed to run Blockbuster off to the other side of town.

 

[Joe Reinwald]

While I'm personally not a big fan of Blockbuster (convenience of it being closer to home), I may be in the minority here--my local Blockbuster seems to carry a mix of both WS and P&S. This obviously only applies to new releases (about all I rent from them anyway) where they have numerous copies. I haven't seen any pattern--for example, Barbershop had pretty much a 50/50 mix, whereas Unfaithful had maybe 75/25 (with P&S unfortunately being the 75%).

My wife and I usually buy the 10-rental cards if we can get the free movie with it, too--we did this with Spiderman. When we went to get the dvd, the guy kind of smirked when I told him we wanted the WS version. His remark was something along the lines of "wy would you want to see bars?" I said, "Well, if you have a widescreen tv, it sort of makes sense." He didn't really have much to say to that. Oh well.

-Joe

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I was so happy when Hollywood Video opened a store recently in an old BB location. They are so much better. They carry the WS version of the film, with a great deal of depth, they carry alot more fring films like RX Mas which they had 6 copies of. The local BB will be lucky to stock 1. Add to that better Previwed Cost, the rentals are 5 days, the fact you get the Artwork with the Box, theres just so many reasons to go there instead of CC

 

[Eugene Esterly]

I never go to Blockbuster after hearing that many Blockbusters will not stock WS copies for rental. I applied for a card in January 2002 but never used it. I threw my card away several weeks ago.

I will not support Blockbuster since they believe that every DVD consumer wants Pan & Scan (aka Fullscreen & full-frame) copies of movies.

 

[Nick Graham]

Our local Blockbuster is horrendous. I got my first taste of this the first time I went there. Aside from the obvious preference towards P&S DVDs, the VHS section at my store has a total of literally 4 genres, Action, Drama, Comedy, and Family. I noticed this perusing for a title that at the time had not been released on DVD. It was there I noticed all 9-10 horror and sci-fi titles had just been lumped into the action section. Needless to say, with their hideously poor catalog selection, atrocious late fee policies, and pan and scan only policy, all my business has gone to the local Hollywood. They only carry widescreen, and continue to deepen their catalog inventory (they just picked up the entire series of Star Trek films, which is good for me because I am waiting for the 2 Disc SEs of IV and VI, but have been in the mood to watch them).

In all honesty, even the local chain of Dillon's Supermarkets handily smoke Blockbuster in terms of selection.

 

[Nick Graham]

Our local Blockbuster is horrendous. I got my first taste of this the first time I went there. Aside from the obvious preference towards P&S DVDs, the VHS section at my store has a total of literally 4 genres, Action, Drama, Comedy, and Family. I noticed this perusing for a title that at the time had not been released on DVD. It was there I noticed all 9-10 horror and sci-fi titles had just been lumped into the action section. Catalog DVDs don't even get THAT luxury, as they are all just lumped together on a rack. Needless to say, with their hideously poor catalog selection, atrocious late fee policies, and pan and scan only policy, all my business has gone to the local Hollywood. They only carry widescreen, and continue to deepen their catalog inventory (they just picked up the entire series of Star Trek films, which is good for me because I am waiting for the 2 Disc SEs of IV and VI, but have been in the mood to watch them).

In all honesty, even the local chain of Dillon's Supermarkets handily smoke Blockbuster in terms of selection.

 

[Dick]

I don't usually bother kicking into these OAR debates anymore, but in response to this thread I'll repeat my age-old argument yet again: if J6P had no option but to rent or buy an OAR DVD, he would, period. His complaints about the black bars could simply be relegated to the same bin as the gripes about the weather or the cost of living. The studios opened up Pandora's Box when they began releasing Pan and Scan DVD's, and we all know you can't put the lid back on Pandora's Box. We widescreen aficionados put up with pan and scan VHS for a decade, so my feeling is that it's damn well time for J6P to learn to live with OAR until he buys himself a 16x9 set.

 

[TonyD]

i agree dick. thats exactly what i have been saying for a long time.
no option no complaints.