Who remembers video rental outlets?

[Sherlock77]

Wandering around the video rental place, arguing with friends about which movie to rent... Good memories

I'm a very tactile kind of person that way, I still tend to be that way

 

[Shevek]

Who else remembers when you needed an 18" (190 cm) speaker to get good bass?

 

[Prometheus]

I mean I use a CRT as my main TV to this day and one of my special interests is analog media so...

I like aesthetics of crt, but would not watch one, because it's ionizing radiation.

 

[auslan434]

There's still a shop in town here where you can hire a DVD movie. I live in a small town where a lot of people mustn't have computers? The shop is called TSG.

I do remember when you had to hire the VHS player also. I remember seeing Superman 2 back in the early 80s on video.

 

[Princess Viola]

I like aesthetics of crt, but would not watch one, because it's ionizing radiation.

The amount of ionization radiation emitted from CRTs is so miniscule, like I'm pretty sure it's a case of 'You could literally be sitting a few inches in front of one for 8 hours a day and you'd still get more natural radiation exposure from cosmic rays from space hitting you'.

Or you can just use this chart:

Notice how using a CRT for a year would expose you to just 1 microsievert of ionizing radiation, which isn't even near the average daily background dose of radiation and isn't even a dent in the normal yearly background dose of about 4 millisieverts (for context, there's 1000 microsieverts in a millisievert, so this means over the course of the year, you're likely exposed to 4000 microsieverts. If you used a CRT for a whole year, that'd be responsible for just 0.025% of the total amount of radiation you absorbed just in the background)

 

[Prometheus]

That might be all well and true and scientific, but...

Additionally

"Did you know ??
CRT TVs have a bad impact on our surroundings
A CRT TV has a vacuum tube and an electron gun which emits electrons when heated and this will get focused on beam. These are deflected back using the magnetic field on the front display, which glows and hence forms the desired image on the screen
Simple, isn’t it? Not quite.
This above stuff happens inside the TV, electromagnetic fields are generated from inside. Exposure to these fields is very hazardous in the long run, as these fields affect the functioning of living cells and these Very Low-Frequency Emissions (the fields)causes, disturbance in the growth of bones, irregularities in the heart rate and even alterations in the genetic structure!
To avoid all this havoc, one needs to sit at least 90cm away from the CRTs which produces radiations, thus they obey the inverse square law and weaken over the increase in distance.

Nope!! Either way, it’s not safe
2) CRT TVs have dirty Glasses
CRT TVs contain high amounts of leaded glass, which can be released upon breaking of the screen, causing great hazards to the environment too…
So are you dumping these TVs In the darker corners of your basement, between a cobweb and the canal? The Barium compounds which are present in CRT TVs are dangerous to humans as well as they are water soluble and if consumed in large amounts, can cause cardiac irregularities, damages to the nervous system.

Source: The Big, Old CRT TV Is Really Toxic?

 

[Human Avatar]

 

[Metalhead]

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I remember one local shop that had a selection that always managed to kick Blockbuster’s ass. If you brought in your Blockbuster membership card and let them destroy it when you signed up with them, you got a couple of free rentals right off the bat. I thought that was a great promotion for a locally owned rental shop that promoted itself as having the largest selection of foreign films in the county.

 

[Human Avatar]

@Metalhead
That’s sounds like a good deal actually

@Yeshuasdaughter

That’s what I remember first video rentals @ gas stations and grocery stores before blockbuster etc,at least where I lived

 

[abby normal]

back at the dawn of home video in the early 80s i, when i lived in northern VA, used to visit Erol's Home Video most evenings.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

View attachment 98712

Does it say, "Moogwizard," on the other side?

 

[Forest Cat]

I would take a quick trip to the video store during the week and 'set aside' a few movies that I wanted to watch during the weekend. When I say set aside, I mean I hid the video covers under and behind the shelves to make sure they were available on friday when I wanted to rent them. Am I the only who did that? So sneaky. But it was such a bummer to go to the video store on friday and find out the movies you wanted to watch was already rented out. So just like Blackadder, I made a cunning plan.

 

[Princess Viola]

Does anyone ever use Redbox kiosks from their local grocery store?

I've done it a couple times but it's honestly not worth paying $2 a day to rent a movie from one of those kiosks when the library is free and, if my specific branch doesn't have something, I can just put it on hold and they'll send it to my local one.