<story><title>Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive</title><url>https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/06/meet-the-plano-man-keeping-blockbuster-alive/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>zw123456</author><text>I am old enough to remember when the wife would call me at work on a Friday and say hey, stop by the video store and get a movie for tonight and I&amp;#x27;ll stop and get wine and take out. What was special was the &amp;quot;Dave&amp;quot; at the video rental place (it wasn&amp;#x27;t blockbuster but whatever).  I don&amp;#x27;t recall the guy&amp;#x27;s name, but he always remembered me and what we liked and had great suggestions and sometimes if you said, nah but how about something completely different, he would always find us something great. Or usually (one time he recommended Eraser head, we still laugh about that one, so even though it was a dud, great memory).&lt;p&gt;I get it, today&amp;#x27;s AI is pretty good, meh, not really, but it would be hard to beat my old &amp;quot;Dave&amp;quot;. Maybe someday.</text></comment>
<story><title>Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive</title><url>https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/06/meet-the-plano-man-keeping-blockbuster-alive/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>awacs</author><text>Growing up in the 80s with VHS, Betamax, Laserdiscs (if anyone recalls), and being a dj in the late 90s when the thought of a &amp;quot;USB stick instead of traveling with all this vinyl was an impossibility&amp;quot;, makes this whole nostalgia tour a fun one. I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then, and what we&amp;#x27;ve become accustomed to, with VHS being 240 lines, DVD 480p, etc. It&amp;#x27;s like reminiscing about the first iPhone and then looking at one and realizing how damn small it actually was compared to modern versions.&lt;p&gt;I started converting &amp;#x2F; collecting most of my movie collection onto a localized server years ago, and glad I did. Though I rarely watch all my old movies (a growing list of about 1000 including most of my favorite TV shows), the end game I think we all know is everything streamed, with no actual ownership of content. It&amp;#x27;s not a terrible notion, but the problem I think we&amp;#x27;ve all seen is it&amp;#x27;s now turned into a corporate ownership game, and you never know where the content you&amp;#x27;re interested in watching is. One day Star Trek is on Netflix, the next Paramount, etc.&lt;p&gt;The only problem has been keeping up with resolution changes, even though I&amp;#x27;m a firm believer in unless you&amp;#x27;re watching on something well over 100&amp;quot; a nice high-quality 1080P file looks just great on a large 85&amp;quot; tv (which I currently have).</text></comment>