Anybody else miss Xtra-vision? (I know it’s lost and gone forever)

9 comments
  1. We don’t miss Xtra-Vision we miss the time in our life that Xtra-Vision was a part of

    I rented just about every comedy that was under 18s in my local Xtra-Vision and whether they were good or bad, the movie I rented, was the movie I had, I’d spend a few minutes in the shop looking at the blurbs, deciding which ones to pick and then taking them home, if they were crap, my only real alternative was to watch the DVDs I already owned (and had already seen) or pirate stuff on the internet which was no where near as convenient or competent as it is now so I’d watch a shit film to completion because I’d paid my two-three quid and what else was I gonna do

    Now on all the streaming services, if a movies bad, it gets switched off and something else goes on, but now it’s harder to focus on the quote-un-quote good movies because there’s so much choice

    Do I miss Xtra-Vision? No, I miss my attention span

    Also towards the end Xtra-Vision tried weird shit like putting in tanning beds, my local Xtra-Vision decided to become an internet café as well and it was about two-three years too late, I stopped going to internet cafés in 2007

  2. My parents wouldn’t buy us a video as they thought we watched WAY too much TV.

    I tried to persaude them that I would be able to study more if I had a video. I could tape educational programmes off the TV!!! I could rent educational videos too. Oddly enough they kept giving me funny looks like they didn’t believe me?

    So they finally gave in when I finished my Leaving Cert. I couldn’t wait to get to X-tra Vision and join to get my membership card and and I still have it to this day.

    I loved going to the local store with the dog and everyone in the shop loved him, having sleepovers with my friends and being able to offer them their choice of movie rentals. We also got movies out for family nights in with my parents, who have died since.

    I love those memories and miss being a kid. I was so impressed by movies then. Now I’m so cynical and think most movies are recycled garbage, pointless sequels, prequels, reimaginings whatever.

  3. I don’t miss xtra-vision, renting movies was easy returning them was absolute pain. The only thing I miss about Xtra-vision is that it made the film an event, you rented it and sat down and watched it together as you only had it for that night. You made time for it. With streaming I keep putting it off watching longer films as the commitment is too much, so I end up with tons of stuff on my watch list . P

  4. Yeah I was only thinking about this recently, absolutely miss going for a browse of a Friday and picking out some random shit.

  5. I don’t miss it a single bit. The choice of movie, and availability, wasn’t a patch to what we have on demand today. The cost was far higher to what we pay today on a subscription service. And they absolutely hammered you with penalties if you were a bit late with the returns.

  6. Yeah rose tinted glasses. Having to go to the bother of bringing back a movie the next day after it being shit was a pain in the hole. You would have to book a movie that was just released or wait till you got lucky and it was actually there when you went to rent it. Nothing worse than getting to the counter with the box to be told it was already gone.Also the dvd being scratched and not playing or a video not playing properly because the last fella somehow mangled the tape.

  7. Ah memories of having a sleepover as a kid so going in and getting their drink, popcorn and 2 movies deal. Did anyone else’s have them capsule machines? And the video game demo station. Spent some good times playing racing games with my friends

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