I Luv Video

Definitely an Austin landmark. I love coming here and looking around as much as love watching good movies. Plus the beer on tuesdays is awesome. All around great place; ill never get tired of coming here.

Best selection ever!!! This is an Austin icon. If they don’t have a movie you want (rare) then they take suggestions. Remember those movies you loved growing up, modern, new release, etc. they have it all. The airport location is the largest in town if not the largest in video store in Texas!

If you’re looking for Almodovar, Francis Ford Coppola, Wim Wenders this place has your fill. If you’re looking for newer independent films and films that have circulated film festivals within the last couple of years you will be disappointed. This also includes all movies not directed by big name directors. Even Blockbuster had a wall dedicated to new independent films. In comparison, Iluvvideo has a New Releases wall that they hardly update. There are other movie rental businesses in Austin that do a much better job of keeping a fresh wall of new and diverse films; independent, art-​house, and mainstream movies that have played at Sundance, Locarno, Venice, NYFF, etc.
I’ve usually had a hard time finding what I want at iluvvideo due to its absurd organization system. First I have to figure out if my movie is on the directors’ wall, which is an arbitrary section of directors that iluvvideo deems important enough to have its own wall space. If my director isn’t on the wall I have to look at the country of origin. So I look at the wall of countries and the wall looks like it’s hardly been updated in years. No, I don’t want to see Enter the Void again.
Then I might discover that the movie I’m looking for isn’t in the country of origin section. Instead it’s been ghettoized to the Criterion Collection section, which is a two shelf section of movies that have nothing in common other than being distributed by The Criterion Collection. There you’ll find Ozu crammed next to Tati, directors deemed not important enough to be on the directors’ wall.
The criterion movies are in alphabetical order with no subsections for particular directors. Everything is just thrown together. I recommend knowing exactly what you are looking for.
At this point I’ll tire of my search, having overlooked any hidden gems partly because of the scattered way these movies are organized and partly because, I’m starting to think, there are no gems here. Confused, tired, and disappointed I’ll quiz the clerk about the movie and they will let me know that they don’t have it.
This is a lazy business, content with offering you beer on Tuesdays while forgetting to update its catalogue.

Been searching like crazy for some obscure horror vhs and haven’t had any luck back home. So while vacationing I came across this place. I called ahead and they told me they had a decent selection and boy did they. She priced them all for me based on the lowest asking price on amazon which was way less than expected or their actual worth! I left with six vhs and a bumper sticker. I LUV this place.

I Luv Video is definitely a relic of the past, and it keeps all the charm of the days of physical video rental. The people working there are friendly, the décor is great and the general atmosphere totally brings you back.
But literally 90% of every movie I’ve rented from here has skipped and skipped real bad. And that’s just a bad business. I mean I know it’s impossible to keep rental product pristine, especially in a college town. But good lord, this is just silly.
In Oliver Stone’s «JFK» you get to the part with Agent X. It starts to skips as soon as he introduces himself and then jumps to to all the way after his confession. THAT’S THE BEST PART OF THE MOVIE!
Seriously though, bottom line is: If you want to watch an older release movie for the first time, do not rent it from here. There is a very high chance the movie will skip, and a chance it will skip during an important scene.
Edit: Turns out the skipping was more the fault of DVD player. After playing them in a different device, the movies skipped significantly less and when they did far less of data was skipped.
I’m also, a fan of free beer Tuesday’s, the late charge amnesty days and the brand spankin new vintage shop in the back. They really turned it around for me.

Video selection is good but they made a phony charge to my credit card. Be sure to check your cc statement, it was 2 months after the last time I rented there.

Things I love about I Luv:
1) The director’s wall,
2) The staff reviews,
3) How I inevitably end up standing in an isle, holding 3 movies (because I can’t pick the one I want to watch more), with my jaw hanging loose, watching the absurd comedy-​horror movie playing,
4) No hassle about late fees («You owe us $ 6.50, do you want to pay your late fee?» — I Luv Staff, «…Not…right…now…Thanks.» — Me),
5) Oh yeah, and free beer.

This place has gone downhill. The girl working doesn’t even know who Herzog is. Ugh. Plus they didn’t have the Tarkovsky movie I wanted. If only there was a video store across the street that had what I’m looking for. Oh wait… There is.

Great local video store…
$ 1 — older vids and great tv show selections.
$ 2 — New Releases
It’s also a great collection of foreign flicks and documentaries.
One day rentals, late fees are ½ priced.
Free Beer Tuesday!
Friendly staff…

Remember the days when you went w/​your best friend or your boyfriend to the video store and picked out the perfect movies for that night? Then you’d go home get in pajamas, hit the bong, order take out, and have a night full of treats, laughs, and being cozy at home. That is what I Luv Video is perfect for… I have memories of going here for so many years… especially on Tuesday when they have ice cold free lonestars! They have an abundance of rad movie paraphernalia, lots of cool toys, and the best commentary by the funniest staff stuck on many movies… For instance, Armageddon reads, «weeping anal warts are better than this movie, take it from someone who knows» hahaha!

Rock on, I Luv Video. For existing in a world where I don’t even know where the nearest video store is in San Francisco. Who knew that videos/​even DVDs will one day become extinct. It’s worth a stroll in this iconic place — it’s been around forever.

It is so funny how my mood fluctuates from «awesome! obscure video I want to see! hell yeah awesome selection! independent business! community!» to «mother******* late fees. mother *******.» I still love you, I Luv Video, I just really hate one day rentals.

I’ve never been a huge fan of this place. Great movie selection, but the staff is SO pretentious. You work in a glorified Blockbuster — get over yourself. But prior to one heinous experience on «Free» Beer Tuesday, I was ok with this place. Not anymore.
Ok, I confess: two friends and I came in here on a Tuesday to get some free beer. We did not really have any interest in renting a movie that night. We just wanted some beer. We came in, got small cups of lukewarm Lonestar, and wandered around the store pretending to check out the movie selection while drinking our beer. We finished our beer and were walking out the store when a hipster-​thug employee started following us and demanding that we pay for our beer. Needless to say, we did not pay and walked out, and none of us have been back since.
I have been living in Austin for 6 years now — I’ve learned to stomach pretentious hipsters. However, I cannot abide by being asked to pay for something advertised as «free». Look, change the name to «Free Beer With Rental Tuesday» if you have a problem with people coming in and drinking beer without renting anything. Or, get over yourselves. I’ve rented at I heart video on numerous occasions, and you’re going to yell at me for taking one cup of shitty beer without renting anything?
I’m sticking to a different video store now. One that starts with a «V» and ends with an «ulcan».

If I weren’t so cheap I might spring for Netflix, but this place is within walking distance of my house, so I think $ 2.75 is a fair price for some exercise followed by an evening of entertainment.
I much prefer this location to the Airport one because of the service. The film selection is probably better at Airport, but every time I walk into the Guadalupe store I am greeted (with eye-​contact!) and the person at the counter usually asks whether I’m looking for a specific title. These guys also know their stuff: most of them can tell me where my obscure-​but-​not-​enough-​to-​be-​cool flick of choice is located without even looking it up.

This place smells funny. But I love it.
There’s something about supporting a local business. The vibe of this place, and their friendly employees makes it so much better than renting at a franchise. We had a really funny moment when my boyfriend and I wanted to rent 28 Days Later…
Boyfriend: Do you have 28 Days???
Employee: Oh yeah! Right up there, man! *points us to the Sandra Bullock movie*
Boyfriend: Er, 28 Days Later, I mean…
Employee: Oh, for a second, I thought you were a hardcore Sandra Bullock fan.
Anyway, It’s the first place my friends and I think of when we want a movie night. Plus, they have Free Beer Tuesdays, and 2 for 1 Wednesdays. I’ve returned a movie at [insert local competitor here] and then headed right over to I Luv Video to rent a movie and get a drink.

Netflix is DEFINITELY winning the war, but I Luv has been putting up a fight. And you thought you didn’t need movie stores anymore! Here’s the thing. You probably don’t. But consider the following situations:
— You need a movie that is not available to watch instantly on netflix. and you need it RIGHT NOW.
–You can’t decide what you want and netflix recommends is being really unhelpful.
–You like to read clever (or silly, or weird) employee reviews on dvd boxes)
–you like to browse titles mindlessly for way longer than you meant to
–you want truly bizarre films that are impossible to find anywhere else.
–you like to drink free beer on tuesdays
–you like to reduce your late fees by at least 50% by paying them on the 1^st OR 15^th of every month.
–you like to rent 1 and get 1 free on Wednesdays.
Sure, sometimes their dvds are scratched. But if you tell them when you bring it back, they’ll credit your acct. with a free rental.
Other than that, I’ve hardly had a bad experience. The cult/​porn room is a few hours of entertainment in itself. And they are always playing an interesting movie or good music on the tv by the register.

I am going to make this short and sweet.
I love I Luv video.
No longer will I go to Vulcan.

I love I Luv Video too. But that doesn’t mean I stop going to Vulcan. They also have good stuff, and I want to support both of them.
The smell isn’t as bad as it was. Then again, it hasn’t been 100º+ for a while.

This place is 100 times better than Blockbuster, and here’s why.
1) It doesn’t have that weird Blockbuster smell. You know what I’m talking about. I Luv smells like a library… kind of. Mmmm my favorite smell.
2) They have a way better selection of movies than Blockbuster. Where else would you go to rent such classics as Eraserhead, Un Chien Andalou, and Monsturd? Yeah, that’s right, MONSTURD. Check that shit out.
3) They have 2 for 1 Tuesdays and Wed. What does Blockbuster have? NOT THAT.
4) They have free beer on Tuesdays (?) haha no way Blockbuster can beat that.
5) Their prices are a lot better than Blockbuster.
6) They have adult videos (aka porn) and stoner movies. Haha I definitely don’t think Blockbuster has that.
Anyway, I could go on, or you could just get your ass over there right now and rent Monsturd. Really… it is HILARIOUS.

Have you ever seen a movie where the people who work in the video rental store are way into movies and know everything you ever wanted to know about the video you rented or are looking for? Well you have found your place. I love renting here but unfortunately its too far away from my house to go there all the time. That and the fact that the last time I rented from here I forgot to return the DVD’s for like a few months for which they happily charged my credit card. But hey, I added a few DVDs to my collection and also get wicked mean stares for stealing their copy of «Journeys with George» and «American Mullet»
For those of you who can’t deal with these kinds of people best stick to your online ordering and blockbuster rentals or else be prepared to be eaten alive.