Soho Theatre On Demand: FAQs

Struggling with your browser? Wondering how long you’ll have to watch a show? Or just want to know more about how it works?

Firstly, and importantly, thank you. By renting a show through Soho Theatre On Demand, you’re helping to support ours and the artists work.

How long do I have to watch a show?

Once you have purchased your film you have 48 hours to watch it. You can stop, rewind, fast forward and re-watch as many times as you like. Fill you boots. DON’T PANIC – if you’re having issues, or for some reason can’t watch in that period, and we’re off having an eggnog (or three), we can just extend the rental period ’til you’ve seen it. We can see how far you’ve watched, and in the meantime have a crack at the suggestions below.

Is Soho Theatre On Demand available in my country?

As of 2020, we are now live outside of the UK and Ireland – which means you can access the site internationally. Hurrah!

If you have an international credit or debit card, such as a Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or American Express you (theoretically) should be able to rent our shows.

*IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE*

Your card issuer and bank may make additional charges to cover tax and currency conversions charges. Please request the information from your bank, as it differs between banks, currencies and countries.
We’re very sorry to say you cannot watch our shows if:

your card is not international, or
your bank does not provide the facility to integrate your payment type with our payment provider, Stripe.

We cannot accept PayPal as a payment method. Sorry PayPal using pals.

The show is blocked in my country.

Worldwide, Internet Service Providers or some other body deems what is appropriate content to be viewed in your country. If you can’t access the site or the show due to this, this is an issue you’ll need to take up with your ISP company. We’re sorry you cannot watch our shows, but we thank you for wanting to support us.

Is there a subtitled/captioned version of my show?

There is currently a Collection of subtitled/captioned versions of certain shows on the site, across comedy and theatre. These copies of the show has the subtitles/captions ‘burnt’ on to it, meaning this is the only copy of the show to offer them and they cannot be turned off. Please do not buy another version of the show as there will not be an option to turn on subtitles for them.

All of the shows have been produced in partnership with our amazing pals at Stagetext, who caption performances across the UK. As such, you’ll find these are fully captioned versions of the show for d/Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences, which means it includes descriptions of any sound effects and other audio elements that are integral to the show.

We are working on subtitling the rest of our programme for our d/Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing friends, or just those who like them, throughout 2020.

How do I pay for a show?

There are no subscription fees – you pay per show. For quick and easy rentals, at point of purchase you can save your card details to your account using our secure and fully compliant card storage function. If you prefer, you can elect not to save your details and instead enter them each time you pay.

All transactions are made on behalf of Stripe. For debit card payments, we accept Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express.

*IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE*

Your card issuer and bank may make additional charges to you to cover tax and currency conversions charges. Please request that information from your bank, as it differs between banks, currencies and countries.
We’re very sorry to say you cannot watch our shows if:

your card is not international, or
your bank does not provide the facility to integrate your payment type with our payment provider, Stripe.

We cannot accept PayPal as a payment method. Sorry PayPal using pals.

I’m having issues paying for my film. What should I do?

Please firstly read and go through our ‘How do I pay for a show’ checklist.
If you are still experiencing any payment issues, please email ondemand@sohotheatre.com.Tell us which show you’re trying to rent, any error message you have received (we welcome screenshots) and one of our team will be in touch as soon as we can to try and help you. Thank you for your kindness and patience in communicating with our (currently much smaller) team.

I’m struggling to register/I can’t get past the T&Cs acceptance box. How do I proceed?

Nine times out of ten, this is because an ad or pop-up blocker in the settings on your device is preventing you moving forward (sometimes these are on by default so you might not even know it was enabled. Try turning off the blocker temporarily while you register. Or try a different browser and see if you can register there (you can always come back to your preferred browser later on.)

I can’t login to my account/it says the password is wrong. What’s happening?

There’s a couple of things that might be happening. First of all make sure you’re logging in to Soho Theatre On Demand and not the main Soho theatre ticketing system – this is the database for ticket buyers for our venue in London. You need to go here.

If the system is saying your email or username is incorrect there’s a chance that it may have gotten mistyped when you originally set up the account. If that’s the case, you’re never going to know what that could be, so best off emailing us for a manual password reset. at ondemand@sohotheatre.com

Which web browsers can I use to watch Soho Theatre On Demand?

In order to watch shows and trailers on Soho Theatre On Demand, your device will need to comply with the following minimum system requirements: • Internet Explorer 11 and Windows 8.1 • Edge and Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 • Safari (from version 9.1 onwards) on Mac OS X 10.11 and above (El Capitan) • Mozilla Firefox (version 47 onwards) • Google Chrome (version 35 onwards).

Can I watch using my Smart TV?

Soho Theatre On Demand is not currently available on Smart TVs or Amazon Firesticks. If you try to play the show on one of these services, you’re likely to run into a series of problems including losing the picture or audio, seeing an error message or getting lengthy periods of buffering.

But I want to watch the show on my TV. How can I do that?

Soho Theatre On Demand is not currently available on Smart TVs or Amazon Firesticks. There’s a few workarounds that you can try but please NOTE: the stream you are watching is not created for display on a very large screen, so you might notice the HD quality is slightly reduced.

On a Mac, it is possible to play content on an external display when using a wired connection (HDMI) for both Safari and Chrome. This works as long as the HDMI connection allows HDCP to be detected.

Also on a Mac, it is possible to screen mirror or Airplay to an Apple TV using Chrome, but not using Safari currently, so please use Chrome instead. This works in both screen mirror and extend display modes.

On Windows you can likewise use an external display with a wired connection as long as the connection allows HDCP to be detected. Some wireless screen mirroring might work on some browsers too.

Why does the film keep Buffering?

We recommend a sustained broadband internet connection of at least 2Mbps. Please test your speed here.

If you’re attempting to screen mirror your content or watch it through a Smart TV, you might encounter additional buffering – please read ‘Can I watch using my Smart TV’ and ‘But I want to watch the show on my TV’ sections above.

If you’re on an iPhone, iPad or Android device, we recommend downloading our free app and using that as your player – it should be a much smoother stream and way to watch.

Please try the above first and if you still can’t watch the show you’ve rented on the device you’ve rented it from, please email us at ondemand@sohotheatre.com. We’ll do our best to troubleshoot it. Please let us know exactly what is happening – what device you are using and if you’ve tested your internet connection. We welcome screenshots in your email so we can see what is going on. Thank you for your kindness and patience in communicating with our (currently much smaller) team.

I’m seeing a DRM error or HLS error message. What do these mean?

These usually mean that the way you’re trying to watch the show is not supported by the device or browser you’re using. It may be you’re trying to transfer the show to a device that it doesn’t support (please read ‘Can I watch using my Smart TV’ and ‘But I want to watch the show on my TV’ sections above) or that your browser or device settings are configured in a way that’s preventing this.

If you can watch a show on the device that you bought it through, this means the stream is coming through fine, but there’s some configuration that is preventing you transferring the image elsewhere or causing it to glitch on the device. If you’re on a phone or tablet we recommend downloading our app – read ‘Do you have an Apple/Android app?’ below.

Can I download a show and watch offline?

To watch our shows you need a constant internet connection. Our films are streamed via the internet, not downloaded to your device. Sorry pals, this means you cannot watch our shows offline.

Why can I hear the audio but can’t see the film on my computer?

This may be because your computer is connected to a second screen, monitor or device via an unsupported connection method. If you are trying to connect your computer to another screen or device by using a VGA connection please try either disconnecting this cable or opening up the film in Chrome or Firefox browser.

Do you have an Apple/Android app?

Not any more and you don’t need one. The film will play in your browser now.

Cookies

Please ensure your cookies are enabled. This means you can register an account, stay logged in as you browse away and, at peak times, should mean you don;t have to queue to go straight to your rented shows.

I (still) need help. Who do I contact?

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to check through our FAQ’s to see if you could resolve your issues.

Please now email us at ondemand@sohotheatre.com. Let us know exactly what issues or error messages you are receiving – screenshots are very welcome . We are now a much smaller team, so this inbox is only mannned intermittently over the Christmas break. Don’t worry – if you can’t resolve the issue before your show rental expires, we can extend that for you once you’ve got it working.

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