Cinema chain bans laptops, tablets Cinema chain Vue is deciding whether to ban mobile phones from its venues, having already decided that laptop computers are a no-no. The Ts&Cs Vue imposes on anyone entering its cinemas - nothing odd there; all entertainment venues have these - forbids punters from taking "sound and video recording equipment" into the …
is going to impact them unless they provide some sort of secure locker for to put your stuff in.
Call me paranoid, but i don't particularly trust some of the minimum wage droolers employed by cinemas with my expensive smartphone.
Anyway, all the best cam recordings of new films are done, from the projection booth, by the staff!
As someone that goes to that cinema - I can understand why he wouldnt want something thats worth over a grand in his boot... Not to mention the value of the data on there...
Anyway, who said he went in his car - he (most likelly) went to the cinema after work, and as such had his laptop with him.
would you even be bringing "kit" to the cinema. I might be the minority but I go to the pictures to actually watch the film. Messing about with laptop/mobile phones I can do in places I've not just paid £8 to get into.
Blanket ban on all those who have 'seeing the film' low in the priorities would be nice, and Terminator icon, as I'd like to terminate those who talk as well.
I'll let other people explain why they might have their laptop with them--the reasons I see here sound pretty sensible--but a mobile phone? Yes, switch it off so that you don't disturb people watching the film, but if you're not in the habit of carrying your mobile phone, what's the point?
Most films seem to be out on DVD within 6-9 months of theatrical release, and usually for less than the price of two admission tickets to my local Vue in the Home counties.
At home:
I can eat what I want, without having to pay stupid prices for trash food
Drink what I want,
Pause the film (should I drink too much) and adjust the volume etc
not have to put up with Chavvy little shits talking, fighting, eating loudly, using mobile phones, throwing things etc,
Not have to risk getting searched like a terrorist because I might have a mobile on me,
I can watch it again without having to pay a further admission fees
I understand piracy is a problem, but videoing a film like this takes only one person in one showing at one multiplex. As a result they've decided that the best solution is to potentially inconvenience every punter at every showing of every multiplex. I wouldn't deliberately take my laptop and dSLR to a cinema, but I would my mobile. Then there are people who may go to the Cinema after work etc, and still have their laptop with them. I know I wouldn't trust my kit to Cinema staff and their small sign stating that "Equipment left is entirely at the owners risk [even if we have confiscated it]".
Perhaps they should be a bit smarter. How about scanning the auditorium twice during the showing with an IR camera in the ceiling looking for people with recording equipment. And anyway, using a laptop in a dark auditorium is going to stand out like a lighthouse?
Just my tuppence worth. I know the cinema is pretty popular for film buffs.
You think THAT is what they are looking for? They are looking because they don't want sticky seats and spare items of clothing left after the film.
BTW, Gilbert and Sullivan had the same problem more than 100 years ago (people making copies), and they didn't find that banning laptops and mobile phones helped any. In fact, their fith colabaration was inpired by the piracy of there fourth, HMS Pinafore.
You've never seen a classic coat-and-hat check in action? It's simple, really. One walks up to a little room, where an appealing young woman accepts your property and gives you a numbered token (like a browser cookie, but real) and stores your item in a place corresponding to the number thereon. As you leave, you surrender your token to the PYT, she returns your items, you put a coin into hand in appreciation of her cheerful assistance and be on your way. It classes up the joint.
... "an appealing young woman" riffles through your property and looses the phone, laptop, ipad etc. Afterwards you "you surrender your token to the PYT" who says it's been lost, you then contact the manager who points a small notice that contains the phrase "Equipment is left entirely at the owners risk".
I'd be demanding my money back before seeing the film.
Surely stopping people taking laptops into cinemas is not so much about preventing piracy as it is about preventing them annoying the hell out of the rest of the audience.
Why would you take your laptop in the first place? If you intend to use it, well, you're clearly an inconsiderate berk who's quite happy to irritate other patrons. If you don't intend to use it, why are you taking it? If this is such a problem, then maybe cinemas should invest in swimming pool-type lockers - pay your deposit, stick your laptop / iPad / mobile phones or whatever in it, take your key and collect when you leave. They could even employ a guard to watch the lockers to make sure no-one tries to break in to them.
Still don't understand why someone would want to take their laptop to the cinema in the first place though.
You may trust the people you work with enough to leave a laptop there, but after having a £3 phone charger cable stolen out of my "securely" locked desk drawers, I certainly wouldn't!
we even had the few quid in the tea kitty stolen at one point!
Seriously... this is in a very secure building's IT department, not a front line service desk, in-house software development, you really wouldn't expect it!
According to El Reg, however, being the owner of an iPad the gentleman concerned is likely to be "selfish, scoring low on measures of kindness and altruism."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/27/apple_ipad_selfish_elites_independent_geeks/
Or, to put it another way, he got the arse when someone dared tell him what to do.
Or, perhaps, he was to visit a friend afterwards?
Just because he had something on him doesn't mean he meant to use it in there. Do you always talk on your phone when you're in the cinema, or do you leave it outside with the staff?
As for the "...leave it in the car..." argument above -- the LS1 postcode (ie the centre of Leeds) where this cinema is located has one of the highest car-crime rates in the country. Plus, some of us don't use our cars to go to the city centre and some people even live there!!!!!!
Seriously, I barely credit the cinema twonks with the ability to get the computerised till to spit out tickets, now I am expected to let them fondle my phone and/or laptop for the duration?
Nah. No chance. The first mobile phone they break / lose / call Botswana 'accidentally' on will put the brakes on this policy. There's no need to pirate this stuff with your phone, chances are it's already on the Pirate Bay from a screening months before.
Security theatre.
Can I just step in here, and be dreadfully un-trendy for a moment, and add that I never go to the cinema with my Übertabmobtop in hand - because, God forbid, I've made a trip to see a film.
I can understand some may have their lappy on them by chance - but let's face it, with the right kit it would not be hard to make a crappy recording. Let's be fair to them, it's illegal. End of.
I'd wager that the real reason they are banning these devices is only partly related to piracy. The real problem, as any serious cinema-goer will tell you, is hordes of teenagers foaming at the mouth on sugar and OMG look @ dis'ing their Facebook updates all the way through a film. It's not only an aural distraction that ruins the film - especially if you DARE challenge the little t**ts, but a visual one, too. If I didn't pay to see Close Encounters, then I don't want the same light show going on in front me care of a dozen illuminated screens.
Reminds me of this - http://manfromthezoo.blogspot.com/2009/01/cinebastards.html
I'd question VUE on this, are cameras really an issue?
When was the last time you downloaded a movie (NEVER - of course), even before release and its was recorded in a cinema? probably very few... then how many were recorded in a normal screening (ie with an audience) even fewer.
A friend (not me you understand) has noted that even pre release there is normally a DVD screener available.. or at the very least a cam job taken from the projection room in an empty cinema.
No one is trying to capture films on their phones/laptops, they never have (and if anyone has no bugger was able to watch the stupidly low quality results anyway!)
Some films do not have copies available, even months after they hit the cinemas. Whereas some, cough, A-team, cough, have blu-ray quality rips available over a month before they are even released into the UK cinemas.
This tells me that if a studio really doesn't want it to be available, it's not available!
Also if, for example, it takes 6 months plus for a film to go from the cinema to dvd/blu-ray, people will go out of their way to pirate it. Less so, with those that only take a month or two. Personally I hate cinemas, I would much prefer to be able to watch it in the comfort of my own home, with the much higher quality that my kit provides at the time it's first released. (most of the cinemas i have been to seem to have the focus slightly off, too low definition for the projection size, not to mention distorted, overly loud sound)
Yeah, I'm going to tolerate being searched, hassled, and treated like an idiot to pay a fortune and be ripped off if I dare want some food or drink - and be presented with small or poor presentations, when the entire world has moved on. With everything in DVD/Blueray quality, and frankly with whatever I want in other 'channels' - such vendors don't seem to realise the word and actions of 'dinosaur' lead to extinction.
In this day and age the idea that full body searches of hundreds of people and confiscation of expensive every day equipment is acceptable is one peddled by idiots. No you can't have my laptop, phone, PDA, and further, I'm not allowed to give it to unsecured people because its a work item holding confidential data.
Therefore its simples, I no longer go to the cinema. The movie, film and cinema industry can squeel all it wants, its signing its own death warrant. You don't need any more reasons to put off people going to your establishments, yet you seem to think finding new ones is clever.
IF the movie industry was smart, it would quietly allow some crap cams around, because doing so actually under-writes the actual idea and experience of buying the real quality and goods. Cam versions tend to be poor and an advertisment of getting the real deal/watching the real deal.
with one small, fatal flaw.
"Cam versions tend to be poor and an advertisment of getting the real deal/watching the real deal."
This of course is perfectly true. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your POV) this statement is equally true.
"Cam versions allow punters to separate the wheat from the chaff so they can avoid forking over their hard earned cash on utter dreck"
The movie industry has a long history of pushing out utter dreck to unsuspecting punters hoping that even the most awful turd might claw back its production costs before the word gets out amongst the great unwashed.
They want to continue being able to do that at all costs.
Also, banning PC's and phones is a great way of stemming the tide of negative SMS/Tweeting for hot of the presses new releases too.
If they had any confidence whatsoever in their products they wouldn't mind a bit of free advertising in the manner that you describe.
The fact that they don't tells us more then they would probably like us to know.
If they were banning mobiles to stamp on the idiots who insist on chatting and texting I wouldnt mind, but to 'stop piracy'? They can prise my (silent) mobile from my cold, dead hands.
Serlously cinemas - sort out the chavs, the annoying teenage girls and the kids in adult films/late showings and people might start coming back
... With all those retail DVD's that have the trailers telling you not to pirate it, that you can't fast forward through, nor skip doing their best to put you off buying genuine product. It makes the downloaded version even more appealing than it might have been.
If cinemas start implemening such T&C and enforce them, then they will find less customers going to the cinema. Who in their right mind is going to give up their mobile phone to a stranger. Will cinema staff understand the differences between phones with cameras and those without - leading to the banning of all phones.
It's not taking the equipment in that's the problem, it's the use of it. It should be easy for the ushers to spot someone actually using said kit have have them dealt with.
An last time I checked, we all have audio-visual recoding equipment hard-wired to our organic control units (full 3D too!). Are we all now banned from Vue cinemas?
If they're stupid enough to ban phones, they'll lose their largest audience, which is young people with the newest phones.
I wouldn't trust one of those nerds with my X10 while im watching a film.
I'd just start using showcase cinemas instead.
They might aswell just ban people, that's the best way to fight piracy!
I'm nor sure why you'd need to bring a laptop AND an iPad AND a camera AND a phone into a cinema. There's not usually much legroom as it is.
Perhaps they should provide lockers so you can leave some of your valuables, and not have to trust the (usually) teenagers.
Having said that, sometimes I go to the cinema with my wife and leave the kids at home with a baby sitter, and the phone sits in my pocket in case of emergencies. If they start banning mobile phones, then I'll respond by taking ALL my custom to the local BitTorrent (torrentscan.com is particularly useful) instead of the current 90%.
Would you need to take a camera, iPad and laptop in to a cinema to watch a movie? Leave it in the boot of the car, or, better still, at home.
Anything that can't be stuffed in your pocket has to put under your seat, ready to be left behind in the semi-darkness at the end of the film, left unattended if you need to pay a visit (or take them all with you into the gents) or, covered in a litre of fizzy sugary water when the kid behind you drops a full soft drink and it pours down the back of your seat.
Not that I go to the cinema very often, but if I do, we like to use an Orange Wednesday voucher to get the 2for1 ticket deal... this REQUIRES that you bring your Orange mobile phone to the cinema in order to get the offer!
So on one hand we'll need to take the phone, but on the other, we're being advised to leave it at home...!?!?
I second the point about going out after work... Quite often people meet after work for a meal/movie - and there's always some poor soul who doesn't finish until later, or who has a nasty commute, so comes straight from work to the social event... And EVERY company policy requires you to not leave your laptop in your car boot - EVERY! There have been too many incidents of theft...
Lockers will be the only way. I'd never leave my mobile with the idiots in charge of trying to sell popcorn.
Pay a fortune to see some exploding car flick, while some sweaty endomorph noisily chews popcorn in your ear through the whole fucking thing, pay a fortune for the privilege, and have some quavering-voiced oik attempt to divest me of the little camera that I carry everywhere in case of an unmissable shot?
Not likely. I'll just torrent stuff, thanks.
I've had an idiot fire up a laptop in front of me in a darkened cinema. A polite and threatening word fixed things in short order but that's not the point. Banning phones, tablets, laptops, PMPs and anything that glows in the dark is a bloody good idea. You go to a cinema to watch a movie, if you wan't to fiddle with out gadgets and toys sod off and do it someplace else.
that people go to the cinema with their laptop on them?
It doesn't mean they're going to the cinema to use it?!
People are allowed to decide they fancy seeing a movie on the way back from work, college, shopping etc so they will have bags with them.
And not everybody drives to the cinema but then not everybody likes to leave valuables in the car for some opportunistic scrote to smash your window just to check.
Maybe this ban is something more.....they already ban food and drink bought off premise to make you pay over inflated prices for their crap inside. Maybe they want to sell you laptops and phones inside now!
Because I need to take my laptop home after work* and on occasion I go to the Cinema to unwind from the daily grind by watching some mindless action flick on a nice big screen.
Does that make me a saddo?
*Just in case I need to remote into the office to fix issues at 4 in the ucking morning.
My local cinema, a Cineworld, has had notices up banning laptops and similar for many months now. As to why people would have them... well... next to the cinema there are 2 large universities within 5 minutes walking distance (one literally the next street along), along with at least two colleges. There are several other colleges and another University all within about 20 minutes walking/public transport.
I have seen plenty of students coming in the evenings after (I assume) being at college/University during the day, with their laptops etc..., and arguing with staff that it's unfair they can't get in. While many business people aren't likely to go straight to the cinema after work, for students that seems quite reasonable - and they likely don't have a car to stash them away in as someone suggested above.
I'm guessing students are a good part of the customer base of cinema's, and also from surveys, in the age group most likely to pirate and download films etc... I can't see how putting up barriers to them attending is going to help cinema attendance and reduce piracy.
The big question is - what is going to start happening with the 5"-7" tablets like the Dell streak, if/when they start gaining significant audio and video recording equipment? Where is the line going to be between a phone, tablet, laptop etc...?
At those who suggest we leave valuables in our cars, not all of us have cars - and doubtless some of those who do choose to go to the cinema via public transport. As regards why you'd have your gadgets with you, whilst it would seem unnecessary to take a laptop on a trip to the cinema, what if you're in town for the day where a cinema visit is just one thing on the itinerary?
Still, I would take a dim view of anyone wanting to confiscate my gadgetry, and it seems that making people leave their phones is nothing more than an excellent way to dissuade customers. Even assuming you can trust the cinema staff with your phone, how long is it going to take to retrieve yours when several hundred people leave a large screen all at once? I can't see leaving it at home being an acceptable option to a large percentage of people...
So long as the phone stays in your pocket on Vibrate (or silent), then I dont see the problem. Some people might need to be contacted urgently. If your phone buzzes, you walk out and take the call. Banning mobiles in the cinema is a sure way of losing all your customers. Personally, I would rather see a ban of all people aged between 12 and 17 that dont have an adult with them so that between them, they have at least one brain !!
.....is that the Vue in question is in the city centre, next to the financial/law district, hell of a lot of laptop users there. As for iPads, Leeds Light is a small shopping centre full of stupidly expensive shops ..... home to the more money than sense brigade.
Does that answer the questions raised?
"It should be easy for the ushers to spot someone actually using said kit"
Yes, that's easy. Relatively easy at least.
"have have them dealt with"
That's the hard bit. The person is probably sitting in the middle of a row, surrounded front, back, left and right by other people. Short of stopping the film, putting a spotlight on the perpetrator and announcing "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a copyright thief in our midst", how are you going to stop him doing it ?
Well i dunno about you, but being a photographer I always carry a laptop and a camera. Sometimes, I meet friends at a cinema straight after work. I rely on public transport for inner-city location shoots.
Well they don't provide lockers. Guys, stope being DM readers and accept that not everyone has time to go home first, or can afford to run a car all the time.
... as I always do when I'm travelling to/from work ... and having arranged to meet a friend after work at the cinema, I had my standard day bag with me (work laptop, small zoom camera, iPhone etc.) plus my work and personal mobiles in my pocket.
Yes, I could go home and leave my bag there ... but I'd just stay home and not bother going to the cinema at all. The show times are inconvenient (can't get to a showing before 7pm because it takes time to commute home, can't go to a showing starting after 9pm because I have work the next day ... )
Just owning this kit should not be an offence. *Using* a mobile phone in the cinema should be grounds for ejection and banning. Give me a free, secure lock-box and I'll put my bag and phones in it ... but add to the cost of going to the cinema and I might as well stay home and buy DVDs.
And those of you who could not imagine how someone could be heading to the cinema after work, well, don't go to any mentally challenging movies, you won't understand them!
I often go to the cinema after I finish work, which means I have a number of items that I have to take with me for support and testing purposes later in the evening.
These can include a Blackberry, an iPhone, a laptop and an iPad. It's not often that I have to carry them all but it's not uncommon.
Travelling by trains and tube means that I don't have the boot of a car to store them in and home is obviously too far away.
I often go to the cinema after work. I often go when it's convenient for me, and to leave in time to avoid traffic, which means I'm sitting in the screen for a quarter of an hour before the lights go down. Then for another half an hour before the actual film starts, because the time for trailers is always variable. Call me wasteful of my time, but I've used that time to do some work before, and I'd have hoped to do so again. Of course I'd turn it off before the film starts (paying a tenner to sit in the dark and annoy people while not watching a film isn't my idea of fun), just as I turn my phone to silent, and I'm as irritated as anyone by those who use their phones (or, I guess, laptops) when I'm trying to watch a film I've paid for, but unless I'm actually bothering someone then I'd quite like a film to waste two hours, not three - otherwise I may as well watch it with adverts on the TV. Watching a film in a cinema is a borderline decision as it is.
I'd not yet spotted Vue had begun this policy, but it'll make me think twice about visiting them. My laptop (which has a camera but no drivers for it), like any, would be an awful way of recording a film anyway - I don't watch pirated stuff, but surely there's no market for anything captured in the cinema anyway - especially a UK one, with releases months after the US. I wish the infrared idea would work - sadly, a cheap filter would bypass it - but a spotlight and a directional speaker to yell at anyone being a pain would be within reason. I can't believe it would be that hard to spot anyone who's got a decent-enough view to take a proper recording, especially if a member of staff spends five minutes wandering around with a photomultiplier on their eyes. Frankly, I'd be glad if they'd just notice when the film was being projected in the wrong format/misconverged/out of focus, since I keep having to run out of the screen to tell them.
...what with the ludicrous price of tickets (already mentioned), the preponderance of irritating little chavs talking, kicking the back of your seat or spilling drinks down your back (already mentioned) and the godawful audio experience (usually caused by the whole thing being turned up to 11 because of all the racket from the aforementioned chavs et al), you've got to be some kind of masochistic lunatic to want to go anywhere near the cinema nowadays. Either that or an absolute, total and utter film buff who just adores the cinema and wants to see everything on the big screen in spite of the dank horror of the modern multi-screen fleapit.
And now they want to start confiscating expensive items of electronic equipment while you're in there as well? Even possibly mobile phones (such as the one that I always carry, that is kept beside my bed while I sleep and which is almost always turned on in case of emergency calls from my family)?
Er, no thanks chaps. Even if I hadn't already realised that the cinema was a complete waste of time and money nowadays, this kind of thing would have nailed the coffin shut as far as I was concerned.
...does anyone actually pirate movies with a cell phone camera? How the hell would that even WORK? Oh, look, it's a 640x480 MPEG2 at 200kbits, weaving around and with mono sound!
Is there anyone in the universe that wants to watch that? Do people actually distribute movies like that?! Why would you ever bother?
I would say that piracy on that level probably has zero effect on attendance; anyone who cares so little about quality would never bother going to the movies anyway.
Who goes to Leeds university, and sometimes likes to see a film after I've finished at the university for the day. To be able to work at the university I need my Laptop and so if I go to the cinema uni the Laptop has to come too as their are no secure places within the University to keep it and if I was to go home to leave it, by the time I get there on the bus (not everyone can afford a car) there would be no point in coming back into the city. This is why I can understand why people would be taking laptops to the cinema, it's not because they want to sit there and use them, it's because a lot of people like myself have not much choice.
If this is now going to be the policy, then vue have lost my custom, the prices are bad enough, but their is no way I am trusting my laptop with their employees, I'd rather wait for the DVD.
Some places have some kind of "secure lockers", where you just choose an empty one (the key is in the slot), chuck your stuff in, put in a coin, close & lock the thing and take the key with you. So nobody can open it 'till you return with your key. If cinemas offer this option, I would see no problem in just chucking in my laptop/iDevice/whatever. I would want to have my phone on me, though ... there is the odd chance that someone calling me would be doing so for an emergency, that's why I put my Blackberry on vibrating/silent mode.
They're just trying to make a buck, even if they only do have two brain cells left...
Banning laptops, although misguided, is almost understandable, but have a listen to what they've tried here in Australia in the past (and failed miserably).
In our sunday papers, there's a regular cinema section where they advertise what's playing, and their time schedules. They canned that, for a 1900 paid-for phone dial up service, so you have to fiddle with some moron who can't set up an automated system. And pay for it dearly too.
Of course, only having two brain cells, means they forgot their web sites do the same job better, and it's free.
Needless to say normal programming was resumed after they wondered why their patronage dropped off.
Another was when they banned outside food from being brought in. Though, you could still purchase THEIR food and drink at the usual outrageosly inflated prices. How thoughtful of them.
Again, after noticing people didn't visit them as frequently as usual, they canned that idea too.
Don't be too hard on them, they do after all do their best on two brain cells.
I regularly go to the cinema with my Android phone. I often take my whole team. We rather enjoy a decent break in the Directors Suite when coding becomes too much or we just need a break from the office to do a time boxed discussing of something with the rather handy deadline of "the film starts in 20 minutes". We have Nagios set up to priority text us (on vibrate) if anything goes squiffy and if it does we can VPN and SSH to any servers we need.
I wouldn't trust a minimum wage hot dog wallah with my sparkly new phone or to fetch me if it received a text and the disturbance if they did would be far worse than me looking at a text message and thinking "not a problem".
If I can't take the phones, we'll have to find the Nerf guns again and just won't go to the cinema.
Sure people may pirate these films, but I have a funny feeling not many people are actually happy with the quality of such ventures.
I once tried to watch one such movie (I can't even remember which film it was) but the quality was so bad that I had to shut it off after a few minutes.
I love this rash of commercial suicide by media/content related business. Having had a good run of business does not mean you get to keep it. Certainly it's not the Vue manager who is setting this policy but the distributor under pressure from the content supplier. So far down the chain that they don't notice that the policy will relieve them of those pesky customers. And who is to blame, why pirates of course, not the stupidity of the policy.
Anybody read the Times-on-line lately? Thought not.
Locker hire... now theres another way to relieve the punters of a another quid or 3... Glad that the 3 cinemas within a 50 mile drive of me are not Vue - not that I have seen anything in a couple of years.. not due to piracy... just the total Dreck that is churned out by the industry.
This will just be another nail in the coffin of an already dying industry - killed from the inside by the greed of suits and a lack of original content
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