HMV Finally closing down for good?

spoffle said:
100Mb will do around 10GB in 10 minutes. If a service was brought out for movies where people could download HD movies the way they do Steam games, things like piracy would probably drop as a lot of people do it for convenience.
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Absolutely that. Buying movies and television shows for consumption on tablets etc is a nightmare. Especially as for most people it's not that easy (or legal?) to convert DVD's and Blu-Rays into files for use on portable devices anyway.
 
The problem is that the internet service in the UK simply cannot cope with such an offering, yet. Even in places where the network speed is enough, most users are still crippled by download caps.

100Mb unlimited internet everywhere would see the death of all physical media sales. But that is a long long way off.

For the time being, people just buy the physical disks from the cheapest place they can, unless there internet is in that small top percentage that allows HD streaming.
 
[TW]Fox;23475921 said:
Absolutely that. Buying movies and television shows for consumption on tablets etc is a nightmare. Especially as for most people it's not that easy (or legal?) to convert DVD's and Blu-Rays into files for use on portable devices anyway.
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Ultraviolet looks like a token effort for some sort of service, but it looks like it's just tablets.

Streaming and the like just cater for low quality consumption.

As for ripping/converting, I'd sooner just buy a Blu-ray and then download the rip of it myself, it'd certainly be much quicker than putting the disk in and ripping.

I don't think they'll ever be able to compete with the convenience of downloading though because they are obsessed with the control aspect, they need control somewhere.

It's bizarre, they obsess over control so much whilst ignoring the completely uncontrolled DRM free rips floating about in the internet anyway.

Skeeter said:
The problem is that the internet service in the UK simply cannot cope with such an offering, yet. Even in places where the network speed is enough, most users are still crippled by download caps.

100Mb unlimited internet everywhere would see the death of all physical media sales. But that is a long long way off.

For the time being, people just buy the physical disks from the cheapest place they can, unless there internet is in that small top percentage that allows HD streaming.
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100Mb was just an example really, it's still more than doable on lesser internet connections.
 
[TW]Fox;23473388 said:
Word on the street? You mean word on the BBC News site, where your figures are detailed already!
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where on the BBC news website does it state, that HMV is going into administation on Monday? and that it will announced then?

:cool:
 
spoffle said:
100Mb was just an example really, it's still more than doable on lesser internet connections.
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True. But most people with a fast enough connection are still stuck behind download caps or peak time throttling.

Games, movies and music on physical media will be with us for a long time yet. Bricks and mortar stores selling them is what is under threat.
 
I'm not fussed, I go to a proper record shop myself.
What I don't quite understand, independent record shop by the bus station is cheaper (even with new releases) than HMV, and they don't have the economies of scale HMV do.

Most of what I buy is second hand anyway, I still prefer my music on hard copy but then you can't quite beat some things, you get an original pressing from the 1960 or 1970's, it's sexy to even hold.
But even CD's and what have you, it's just nice to have, read through the album cover and all that while listening for the first time, you don't get that with a download.
 
desires said:
Yup, looks like unless the banks are feeling generous (stupid) then HMV will go into administration once the loans mature.
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not sure if it's stupid or not.
rather have someone paying back loans (even at lower rate) than have them default on the loan!
 
VeNT said:
not sure if it's stupid or not.
rather have someone paying back loans (even at lower rate) than have them default on the loan!
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The bank get's all HMVs stuff though. Is it better to keep bailing them out and getting drips and drabs or just call it a day, stop trying to flog a dead horse and recuperate the losses through the sale of properties and remaining stock at dirt cheap prices?

By all means though I could be wrong. I have no data to backup my claims. I base it purely from my behaviour and the people I know. This behaviour is that most media purchases are either digital or online, I can only assume that HMV are hemmorghing money. This may not be the case though, they may very well have decent sales and they may have a very good strategy to remain a profit making business (probably why HMV was awarded the loans in 2011 in the first place).
 
desires said:
The bank get's all HMVs stuff though. Is it better to keep bailing them out and getting drips and drabs or just call it a day, stop trying to flog a dead horse and recuperate the losses through the sale of properties and remaining stock at dirt cheap prices?
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How much stuff though? They'll own almost none of the property estate.
 
[TW]Fox;23477271 said:
How much stuff though? They'll own almost none of the property estate.
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and I bet most of their stock is on credit terms or still owned by suppliers until sale (forgot what its called)
 
[TW]Fox;23472769 said:
There is still a big market for physical media. Contrary to what this forum thinks most consumers are not like them. Figure released today show that last year 75% of sales were non digital. That's down from the past but its still the vast majority. It will continue to slide but not at the rate some people think.
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This. My folks are an example. If dad (Age 74) wants something he wants to go to a shop and buy it. He said the other day that when he bought a DVD in HMV it was more expensive than it was in Sainsbury's (No idea why he didn't buy it in there at the time :rolleyes:) but he bought it in HMV as he was just passing & he only just thought about buying it there and then (impulse buy?) Don't people impulse buy anymore?

He doesn't do internet shopping, more often than not if he wants something & can't buy it in a shop he'll wait until he asks me to look on the web to see if there is anyone who stocks what he wants in a local shop so he can go & get it! :o He says that he wants to see for himself that it is what he wants before he buys it. I don't agree but that's just his way.

As for my Mum (Age 70) she believes in paying CASH for everything, she does have cards but hardly uses them. She's always complaining that there's no nice shops anymore, so I say 'no it's all gone online, You'll have to go into London for nice shops' That starts her off. :(

I can't see her going into town on her own, She doesn't want to know about PC's/Tablets/Smartphones. She says that society coped without all these things before so why cant they cope now (she hates change)

My point is that a fair chunk of people are my folks age & have no grasp of modern tech, so how are people going to get what they want from shops if they go out of business?
 
spoffle said:
I'm not a fan of streaming, but if you've got a decent connection it's fairly easy to download a high quality movie in little time.

100Mb will do around 10GB in 10 minutes. If a service was brought out for movies where people could download HD movies the way they do Steam games, things like piracy would probably drop as a lot of people do it for convenience.
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I agree, I would happily pay a decent whack for a service where I could download bluray quality with the lossless soundtrack (which would be a fair bit more than 10gb!).

HMV's bluray prices are bewildering, I buy quite a lot of 3D blurays, they have them for up to £30, but on Amazon etc they typically tend to range from £15-£18 on release. even normal blurays are nearly double in some cases.
 
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