Movie Booth DVD rental kiosks head for UK, Ireland

DVD rental kiosks have been lighting up pharmacies and supermarkets across the US, but it seems that UKers and Irish lads / dames will soon have the great, great privilege of interfacing with Movie Booths in the near future. This particular unit doesn't seem all too different from other variations we've seen, boasting a simple touchscreen display and a built-in android tasked with fetching your selected title and spitting it out for a nominal (read: undisclosed) fee. Apparently, trials have been deemed a success in outlets like Tesco, Centra and Applegreen, thus paving the way to see these pop up everywhere by the year's end. Any chance we'll see a Blu-ray Disc or two popped in there?

[Via Pocket-lint]

[John M @ Jun 20th 2008 3:44PM]

"Undisclosed fee"

Considering the unit in the picture has two big signs that say £2 rentals I'm going to assume rentals are £2.

[Brian @ Jun 20th 2008 4:33PM]

Good eye! People need to LATFP!!!

[Gilbert Tang @ Jun 20th 2008 4:59PM]

That would make sense, only for the purposes of this article--and since the UK and Ireland are not on the same currency--I think it's safe to say that as of this writing it's uncertain if they will be charging 2.51524116 Euros to match the British Pound price listed on the machine.

[TC @ Jun 20th 2008 6:12PM]

But will it be easy to use and have the latest releases?

[Daniel @ Jun 20th 2008 3:47PM]

I see people using these all the time at the Supermarket. I'll stick with Netflix, thanks...diggin' the Blu-Ray.

[From My Cube @ Jun 20th 2008 3:51PM]

obvious poster missed obvious sign

[Engadgetluvsappl @ Jun 20th 2008 3:52PM]

Is this meant to replace the Chinese guy round the corner?

He'll give me five deeveedees for £5

[iamian @ Jun 20th 2008 3:56PM]

I love the fact that you have seen fit to ad 'lads' after the Irish part. But I think 'lassies' would have been better than dames, even if it's less respectful.

I shall ignore these kiosks and continue to visit cinemas and illegally watch videos online like a normal person with waaay too much tome on their hands.

[Will @ Jun 20th 2008 4:57PM]

We have Redbox around here, with $1 rentals. It's hard to beat that.

[Low Ranked @ Jun 20th 2008 4:55PM]

Yep, I've seen them at my local Ralph's, though I've never used one. The torrents are even harder to beat.

This would bring back the old buy, burn, return method without all the guilt, and hassle.

[mcdizzle895 @ Jun 20th 2008 9:55PM]

They should wash that tome off of their hands.

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Jun 20th 2008 4:03PM]

Are these self-destructing DVDs?

[Low Ranked @ Jun 20th 2008 4:56PM]

I don't thinks so. I see people line up at the Red-Boxes returning them.

[Hobbs @ Jun 20th 2008 4:05PM]

We have these already! there is a place in colchester that has had it for aaages!

24hour unmanned dvd rental place..

x

[Code601 @ Jun 20th 2008 4:06PM]

How do these work, do i have to stand around and wait for a dvd to be burned? What if my dvd player does not play burned media?

[Will @ Jun 20th 2008 4:56PM]

No, they're real, legitimate DVDs.

[Low Ranked @ Jun 20th 2008 4:58PM]

Will means the DVDs aren't burned. They are already in the machine waiting to be grabbed.

Think claw-machine meets soda machine.

[craig @ Jun 20th 2008 4:10PM]

Why does it look like Tron?

[John @ Jun 20th 2008 4:11PM]

Oh, by the way, the 90's called; they want their color palette back.

[Reader @ Jun 20th 2008 4:19PM]

Needs blacklights and maybe a disco ball.

[bob @ Jun 20th 2008 4:24PM]

We have had these at Southampton University (UK) for 2 years. I have access to the student's union accounts and can state that less than 40 dvds were 'rented' from our box over the last year.
When self destructing dvds become as cheap to produce as normal ones this may well become a viable idea.

[Kaiser-Machead @ Jun 20th 2008 4:26PM]

And from a distance, you can look like you're getting porno from a machine.

[Jonathan Oakley @ Jun 20th 2008 4:56PM]

We have one at my university too (durham university)
Although I can't say I have access to the accounts, I also can't say
I've seen a single person look at the device, never mind use it!
And the internet access at uni is so good anyway, people just stream stuff.

[scott @ Jun 20th 2008 5:01PM]

sweet

[scott @ Jun 20th 2008 5:01PM]

sweet

[scott @ Jun 20th 2008 5:45PM]

self fail.

[phanbouy @ Jun 20th 2008 5:03PM]

Applegreen? ITS TEH BIASZ!!!!

oh wait that's something else.

[David @ Jun 20th 2008 5:41PM]

WHats with this old school dvd, bluray crap... I thought the world was going green.. Download your movies people....

[Zach @ Jun 20th 2008 5:57PM]

Who will replace my key board now that I have puked all over it?

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 20th 2008 6:07PM]

Okay Zach, fine. But this is the last time

[Strange Quark Star @ Jun 20th 2008 6:15PM]

Yeah, we bought a couple of these (different model, though) and started a company here in Berlin.

It FAILED.

[NG @ Jun 20th 2008 6:24PM]

we had those around my area before too, but mainly only kiddos who weren't old enough use that to rent porns and 18+ movies

[Adam @ Jun 21st 2008 6:33AM]

I have seen little shops like this in the UK, which just have one massive dvd selector, and man guarding it and 4 or so screens for people to get DVD's.

2 out of the 3 shops have now closed down.

[shaun @ Jun 21st 2008 9:37AM]

What stops someone from not returning the DVD?

[Blewyn @ Jun 21st 2008 1:50PM]

Be cool if you could just stick your USB stick in there and have a movie copied over without having to use a DVD...

[um... @ Jun 21st 2008 9:23PM]

Ok, no late fees so i can have it as long as i like for £2?

Whats stopping me from forgetting to return it? I presume you have to use a debit/credit card and you cant pay cash?

[Thomas @ Jun 22nd 2008 7:54AM]

Driving to a Tesco instead of renting it online? Yea! Have my VC money! That really if the future!

[joshua Morey @ Jun 22nd 2008 3:47PM]

I moved in Indiana almost a year ago and i saw similar things like this called redbox, someone mentioned them above too.

So we tried it out. It was great and it's the only way we rent movies now. Pretty convenient since there is one at a business right behind where i live.

You pick out your movie, swipe your credit card and your movie pops out. It costs $1 here, but then run promotions all the time to get free rentals. You have until 9:00 the next night to stick it back in the machine or you get charged another $1. If you lose it or forget you get charged $1 every night until you hit 25 nights, then you get to keep the dvd and it stops charging you.

Can't beat it with the fact that blockbuster is over $4 to rent a movie now and with netflix you have to plan ahead too much, when i want to watch a movie i don't want to wait for it to come in the mail.

[youngcalihottie @ Jun 23rd 2008 8:13PM]

damn those have been around for yearssssssssss
u mean we actually got something before the uk? no shit! too bad it was just something as shitty as this.

well actually i have a love/hate relationship with them. around here movies are just $1. but 80% of the time the machines are off with an out-of-order sign or have some kind of windows xp error on the screen that you cant get out of.

as far as the questions above, you use the touch screen to select an in-stock movie. some models let you choose up to 3 or 5 at once. then u swipe your credit/debit card. if its ur first time, itll ask for your email address. you click that you agree to the terms and conditions, and then the movies pop out. you get a receipt via email and have 24 hours to return the movies. although there are no "late fees" there are the posted rental charges. so if you keep the movie for extra days, your card keeps getting charged the rental charge. after x days (varies, usually like 30 days) they charge you a purchase amount for the movie and its just yours now.

[Ronan @ Jun 26th 2008 7:31AM]

Had these for almost two years in Ireland. There's been one sitting in the UCD Library building for at least a year, and in some shopping centres as well. In short, this is yesterdays news, today.