Click the links to jump to the answers you want.

A note about email confirmations: it may say 'These items can be picked up from the Box Office'. This is automated wording from our ticketing system which you can ignore. There is nothing you need to collect from Box Office. To watch shows you've purchased, please just click here.

How to watch

Box Sets

Buy your Box Set Pass or 48-hour rental.
Go to the webpage for the show you've bought.
Scroll down to 'Watch Name of Show' (e.g 'Watch The Grinning Man')
If you are logged in, the video will be available to watch straight away. If not, you will be able to login and it'll unlock the video for you.
Enjoy.

Other On Demand Films

Buy access to your chosen film
Go back to the show page where you bought the film.
Scroll down to 'Watch Name of Show' (e.g 'Watch Pink Mist')
If you are logged in, the video will be available to watch straight away. If not, you will be able to login and it'll unlock the video for you.
Enjoy.

Watching on your TV

I want to watch the show on my TV, how do I do this? In the first instance, we recommend you get the show up on your laptop, and connect your laptop to your TV via an HDMI cable to watch on the big screen.

I want to cast the show to my TV, how do I do that? We are working on ways that you can cast shows on demand to your Chromecast, Amazon Fire or Apple TV. This feature is in beta so we cannot guarantee it will work at this time, but casting may work for you so feel free to try, and let us know. To cast, on your mobile device, find the show you want to watch on our website, start playing the video, and then hit the cast symbol on the video window and select the TV you wish to cast to. On your Chromebook, or Mac or PC running Google Chrome or Apple Safari, right click on the video and hit 'cast', or find the casting symbol on the player. We recommend attempting to cast only to the latest generations of Apple TV and Chromecast devices.

Are there any other methods? If you have a Smart TV with a browser, you may be able to play it through the browser, though we have limited access to testing of these so we can't guarantee it. There is also some limited support for watching through the Amazon Silk browser on Amazon Fire TV devices (this feature is in beta).

Video not playing, or buffering a lot?

Here are some ideas to try if your show is not playing properly on your browser:

Do you have lots of tabs open on your browser? Try closing them to free up some system resources and then restart your browser.
No extra tabs? Restart your browser anyway.
Try an alternative browser. If it's not working on Safari, try Chrome or Edge or Firefox and vice versa.
Clear your browser cache.
Restart your device.
Restart your router.
Check if there are other apps or other devices using a lot of bandwidth in your home (and stop them).
Update your device's OS to the latest version. Same with your browser.
Uninstall unnecessary toolbars on your browser.
On an iPhone, if you're getting just a black screen with controls, but no picture, try hitting the full-screen button. iOS has a built-in video player that sits on top of web-players like ours and can improve stability, but only kicks in when full-screen.
The show may need some time to buffer, especially during busy periods (evenings, weekends), so leave the video loading for a couple of minutes and then try to play.
Try an alternative device.
We recommend that you try and watch using an internet connection with a speed of at least 5Mbps.

Common Technical Questions

The video isn't loading or appearing on my browser. What do I do? Our player is built in HTML5, and is designed for the latest browsers. Ensure that you are running a modern browser like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, or Mozilla Firefox on a modern operating system like Windows 10 or MacOS Catalina, or are running the latest update for your mobile device.

My browser is up to date but I'm still not seeing the video. Try closing our website, clearing your browser cache and logging in again. If you still can't see the video, email us here, and we will try and work with you to get an answer as soon as possible.

The video is buffering a lot while I'm watching. What do I do? In the first instance, check your internet connection is working and stable. If that is working fine, try refreshing the page (you may need to login again). If it still not working, please let us know via email here and we will try and resolve the buffering issue as soon as possible.

The show has only just launched and is struggling to load. It may be buffering because you are watching at a peak time with lots of other viewers. If this is the case, please email us here, and if we receive lots of messages confirming the same issue, we will increase our bandwidth for the film or send customers an email with a link to our backup video. In the first instance, try waiting a few minutes and trying again.

The whole webpage for the show I want to watch isn't loading. This will be because of a spike in traffic. First, try refreshing the page. If that doesn't resolve it, wait a few minutes and trying again.

I paused and went away for a few minutes and the page refreshed, now I have to login again - why? To avoid accidental purchases, our customer accounts have a time-out. While you are on a page watching On Demand content, this will not affect you, but in some rare circumstances if a webpage refreshes, the paywall may ask you to login again to access the show you were watching.

I was watching a show quite happily, and now it's just stopped working, what do I do? This may have happened because we switched over from one player to another to help with bandwidth issues. Refresh the webpage a couple of times and the new player should load in (you may have to login again).

The player looks slightly different to last time, why? This is possibly because we've switched players to ensure adequate bandwidth for everyone to watch. Rest assured though, all videos will be captioned and presented in the same visual quality in all players.

I've read the FAQ and I'm still having trouble watching content I've bought. Don't worry, we're committed to getting the shows you've bought to you. We are quite a small team at the moment, so please email us with the issues you're experiencing and one of our team will get back to you as soon as possible. There is a possibility this may take hours or even more than a day, but please be patient, we will definitely find a way for your to enjoy the content you have bought. For example, if your 48-hour rental expires before we have a chance to help you, we will renew the rental free of charge.

Access options

How do I watch with Subtitles? On the player, click the little hexagon settings icon, select 'Subtitles' and then select the subtitles you wish to have. We recommend against using the 'auto' option as those subtitles have not been manually checked for errors.

Do you have an Audio Described version of your videos? For many shows, we are actively working on Audio Description options and will let customers know if and when they become available.

There are no Subtitles. Why not? This may be because our team is still working hard to get the shows captioned. We will try and ensure that all shows will be captioned, but some may not be captioned immediately at launch.

Screen readers: if you use screen reading technology and it is struggling to read elements of the player, please email us here.

About my purchase

How do I get access to a Box Set? To get access to Bristol Old Vic At Home shows on demand, you must either buy a relevant Box Set Pass, or rent the particular show you want to watch.

Is it available to viewers outside the UK? Yes it is. Wherever you live, you can watch Bristol Old Vic At Home content.

What's the difference between the Box Set Pass and a rental? A rental costs a fixed fee per show (e.g. £4.50 for The Grinning Man) and you can only view that show for 48 hours from purchase, whereas a Box Set Pass gives you access to a bundle of shows for a discounted price (£12.99 for The Favourites Box Set), available to watch at your leisure as many times as you want from when they are released until the end of their release.

I would like to buy a rental but there isn't an option to do so. Rentals will only become available to buy from the release date of each show. If you're looking to rent a show before its release date, the option will not be available. A Box Set Pass is available to buy in advance of the release dates for each show, so you're ready to watch on when the shows are released.

I wish to purchase a rental or a Box Set Pass to show a show to a group, is this allowed? These shows are available only as a single viewer licence. You can buy schools licences here.

I've bought a Box Set Pass for myself, but I want to buy another for someone else, how do I do that? We are currently exploring gifting of Box Set Passes. Currently, our paywall system cannot accommodate gifting of Box Set Passes or rentals directly. For ideal gifts, we would recommend purchasing a Gift Voucher for the value of a Box Set Pass.

I've bought a second Box Set Pass or rental, thinking I can give it to someone else. What do I do? Access to watch the films is linked to your customer account. For someone else to watch a show, they must buy a Box Set Pass or rental using their own Bristol Old Vic customer account. If you have accidentally bought more than one Box Set Pass or rental, please email our Box Office for your options.

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Shows On Demand FAQ

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