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It is different. It's as different as books+magazines vs the internet. TV on the internet (ie, video) has basically an infinite supply. I couldn't binge 70hrs

It is different. It's as different as books+magazines vs the internet. TV on the internet (ie, video) has basically an infinite supply. I couldn't binge 70hrs of Game of Thrones followed by 70 hours of Breaking Bad before "TV on the internet" nor could I watch an endless number of documentaries and tutorials on youtube.

daniellarusso 6y ago
Growing up, my friend’s parents literally had 100s of VHS tapes, of many TV series and movies they had dubbed. There was always something to watch. Of course, you had to physically be at their house.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Or you could go down to the local video store and rent something (or, for that matter, go to a movie theater). I'd probably argue that pre-VCR was more different from post-VCR than time-shifting/rental era was different from today's streaming. As with many things, the friction and need to plan is less today but the VCR freed you from the network schedule to a significant degree.
  - after_care 6y ago
    If I watch 1 hour of Netflix a month I spend just as much money as if I were to watch 400 hours of Netflix. The cost of VCR rental scaled linearly with the amount of content, and the friction of renting was a significantly larger barrier than auto-play next episode.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      Clearly the friction is much lower today. I'm certainly not arguing that Netflix is effectively just the same thing as VCR rentals. But, as someone who watched TV not only pre-VCR but pre-cable, being able to go from having to watch whatever was being broadcast right this minute to be able to time-shift/rent/buy was certainly a much bigger change for me than on-demand streaming is. Especially if Netflix' DVD rental business weren't being allowed to decay, I'd be pretty happy just watching movies that way and maybe go back to timeshifting with a TiVo.
  - daniellarusso 6y ago
    Most pop-and-pop stores only had a few copies of each movie, so it was not always easy to get ‘in-stock’ content. Alot of the videotapes in my friend’s parent’s home was either dubbed or recorded from a pay tv station.

daniellarusso 6y ago

Growing up, my friend’s parents literally had 100s of VHS tapes, of many TV series and movies they had dubbed. There was always something to watch. Of course, you had to physically be at their house.

ghaff 6y ago
Or you could go down to the local video store and rent something (or, for that matter, go to a movie theater). I'd probably argue that pre-VCR was more different from post-VCR than time-shifting/rental era was different from today's streaming. As with many things, the friction and need to plan is less today but the VCR freed you from the network schedule to a significant degree.
- after_care 6y ago
  If I watch 1 hour of Netflix a month I spend just as much money as if I were to watch 400 hours of Netflix. The cost of VCR rental scaled linearly with the amount of content, and the friction of renting was a significantly larger barrier than auto-play next episode.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Clearly the friction is much lower today. I'm certainly not arguing that Netflix is effectively just the same thing as VCR rentals. But, as someone who watched TV not only pre-VCR but pre-cable, being able to go from having to watch whatever was being broadcast right this minute to be able to time-shift/rent/buy was certainly a much bigger change for me than on-demand streaming is. Especially if Netflix' DVD rental business weren't being allowed to decay, I'd be pretty happy just watching movies that way and maybe go back to timeshifting with a TiVo.
- daniellarusso 6y ago
  Most pop-and-pop stores only had a few copies of each movie, so it was not always easy to get ‘in-stock’ content. Alot of the videotapes in my friend’s parent’s home was either dubbed or recorded from a pay tv station.