[MrsDoyle]

Got an email today from English Touring Theatre announcing their new Digital Theatre downloads. For £8.99 you will be able to download a recording of their plays (and others from RSC, Royal Court & Young Vic) and play on pc or through your tv.
First one available is Far From the Madding Crowd which I saw and enjoyed last year at Guildford.
Details HERE
Wonder what others think of the idea? Will it catch on?

[keysersoze]

Got an email today from English Touring Theatre announcing their new Digital Theatre downloads. For £8.99 you will be able to download a recording of their plays (and others from RSC, Royal Court & Young Vic) and play on pc or through your tv.
First one available is Far From the Madding Crowd which I saw and enjoyed last year at Guildford.
Details HERE
Wonder what others think of the idea? Will it catch on?

Personally I think it's a great idea. It does bring up the old debate about theatre recordings never matching up to the live experience, but these films are shot with multiple cameras and in high definition so should make for an enjoyable viewing experience. Also seems that there's a nice, eclectic list of productions on their way. Far From The Madding Crowd doesn't seem like a particularly obvious choice for the first film but I look forward to watching it. Perhaps ETT were the first partner theatre to get involved. Great to see the calibre of the companies involved (ETT, RSC, Royal Court, Almeida and Young Vic). I hope this initiative does well and it's part of an exciting movement in the arts after recent developments with Sky Arts, NT Live and Shakespeare's Globe.

[Laughingmonsta]

This is fantastic - but I have to say the price at the moment is out of my range - I rarely by DVDs that cost more than £3 - I cant see how they can charge £8.99 for a download that you have to watch through their own player - you can't even burn the copy you have bought onto dvd to play, great initiative but sadly lacking in the functionality one would hope or expect!

[DanielWhit]

Anyone know what's happened to this site?

Personally, I was holding out for the first RSC Video to appear before purchasing, and haven't looked for a while - just tried to go to the website and see a blank page instead. Is it now defunct or just having server issues?

[Laughingmonsta]

Just tried and all seems to be working fine for me!

[Kathryn2]

Hmm, I can't get he videos on the site to play - not a good sign.

Does anyone know if you'll be able to put them on a memory stick to play through a TV or DVD player, or do you have to connect physically/wirelessly to a computer?

[applesarenice]

I have Far from the Madding Crowd downloaded, and it would only play on the Digital Theatre player thing that comes with it. I'm not particularly technically minded, so I don't really know about how it would play on a tv, but you could certainly get it onto a memory stick.

[Laughingmonsta]

Thats right you need to play it through your Laptop or Computer - to connect it to you TV your Laptop/Tower needs to have a TV output if it does you then need to get the correct cable to do it

[Kathryn2]

Ah, that would make it a computer-bound expereince for me, then, since my computer lives in a completely different room and there's no way I could get a cable between the two - and I'm not lugging my desktop into the living room!

It's a nice idea, but not user friendly enough for me to invest £8.99 a time - not unless it is something I missed that I really really wanted to see. When even Iplayer is becoming more and more accessible for watching on a proper TV/portable media devices, restricting it to the computer seems shortsighted.

[VelmaMaureen]

It's quite a good idea, but I think I would only pay £8.99 if it was something that I'd missed that I'd really wanted to see. I don't really mind watching things on the computer, though. I wonder how many people who don't normally go to the theatre will watch plays this way? Probably not many, but it might encourage some people to go to the theatre more.