Content Censoring DVD players (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

The way this works (for those who wonder) is simple.. a chip in them reads back the English subtitles and looks for certain words. It then, "bleeps" based on the Time Based Index which lines up with how long the line is up and so on. It actually works pretty efficiently, having tried it in a retirement community.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

Hmm . . . this technology could have its uses.
How about one that cuts off unnecessarily long-winded endings in otherwise good films like RETURN OF THE KING or MYSTIC RIVER ? Or one that cuts out all the pseudo-philosophy in the MATRIX films ? Or one that removes all traces of Robin Williams ?

 

[Nathan*W]

Sorry Frank, I meant that bit about the 911 as sarcasm. Guess it wasn't as clear as I thought. I agree with Chris, I don't care if it's a feature or not, as long as I have the ability to never turn it on.

Speaking of the angle feature for porno movies, maybe this new player can also be used to skip past all the useless dialog and show nothing but the naughty bits.

 

[derek]

This is great news that a stand-alone player will soon be available with the ClearPlay features. I'm really wondering why home theater enthusiasts are against supporting greater viewing flexibility, technology and user control for consumers - WITHOUT modifing the original film source. Anyone know details about the player/filters?
Looks like the first unit to go on sale is from RCA http://www.walmart.com/catalog/prod...duct_id=2598456 . A full-featured DVD player including progressive out and playability of almost any disc type. It's model DRC232N which is probably somewhat a sister model to DRC230N http://www.rca.com/product/viewdeta...-CI302,00.html? which has 3:2 pulldown and virtual surround. The wal-mart ad states the unit comes with 100 pre-installed filters. No mention of how much additional filters will cost and/or how they are installed.
Chris: I could see for audio mute that the player analyzes real-time subtitles and executes a TBI mute. Now this sounds very similar to how TVGuardian works ( www.tvguardian.com ) TVG in real-time analyzes the Closed-Captioned stream and performs the time-based muting at that point. Looking over ClearPlay's website ( www.clearplay.com ) it seems to me that pre-determined filter lists are created/loaded and based on the time-index of the playing movie certain DVD player actions are executed (ie mute or skip.) This would be different to what you proposed.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Oh stop it, you're killing me! April Fools was LAST week!

This thing has "Virtual Surround"?? That should be illegal too! I wonder if it can actually censor audio from the digital output? Of course it goes without saying that it should have a "letter-box eliminator" too!
The thing that cracks me up the most about this is it looks like you have to be technically savvy (much like DIVX) to use it, since you have to update it with new title information.

 

[George_W_K]

Please, don't give Wal-Mart anymore ideas!

 

[Ben_@]

I always wondered how RCA and Clearplay planned on updating the databases. The player supposedly comes with 500 titles pre-stored in it. Now what happens when i buy a film thats not on the list? it can't do anything but analyze the rating of the movie and ask me if I want it played. Unless it is regularly updated by an internet connection. Or perhaps update discs that are sent by mail (possible, just use a product registration card and send them a disc every month or so).

I would personally never buy a player like that. I would rather have an all region player, so i could watch- literally- whatever I wanted. However, i do know people that would love to have player like this, provided that it was reliable and easy to use. Its one of those things that seems rediculous for someone who wants to watch a really great film. But for parents who'd rather not have kids taking in pointless profanity, exploitative nudity, or (and this one is hard to judge) gratuitous violence, this is a fine product to have.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

The info says they send you CD-ROMS which will update the player with info for new titles, but you have to pay a subscription fee to get them. I wonder if it will be any less than the therapy bills you'll be getting later?
I'd much rather have players that can do this than have separate censored versions put out (much like people who want pan-and-scan should use a player that can zoom, not put out separate releases), but I still think there's something wrong with anyone who would actually choose that.
How do I go about getting a job programming movie info for these? I think I'll buy a player just to see what it does with South Park.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I actually was called and offered a job with them about a month ago. They went through the list of BYU film majors and simply dialed my number. I turned them down because I'm graduating and moving back to California in 2 weeks, but it was an interesting phone call to say the least.

 

[Paul McElligott]

I just saw something about this on TechTV. I think it's $5.00 a month to get the updated movie info.

According to the story, there will be no ClearPlay versions of certain movies, like Saving Private Ryan, because trying to edit those films and still have them be coherent would be almost pointless. I'm sure The Passion of the Christ will be another one.

 

[Lawrence X]

duplicate: couldn't delete

 

[Lawrence X]

For our family it would be a great thing. There are a good number of R rated action flicks that would be OK for my 9 year olds absent some assorted F words and brief sex scenes.

Being restricted to PG-13 and under really limits your choices.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, the average home theater enthusiast is also a film enthusiast. As a film-lover, I tend to think the filmmakers did everything for a reason, and figure it's not exactly proper for someone else to come in after the fact and override those choices.

As a home theater/tech enthusiast, I find it nifty technology, but as a movie lover, I tend to wonder who the heck these guys think they are.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Businessmen. They see a market, they supply the product. Profits roll in. That's it.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Hmmm...the whole thing is very interesting. I must say it's a much better approach than attempted by that nutty video store (in Utah, I think?) that would physically edit your Titanic VHS for you.

It could have some valid uses. Being a film enthusiast, I would never use it for myself. However, there are movies that I do not mind my pre-teenage girl seeing except for the fact that they contain a certain amount of profanity or sexual references. What I usually do today is "pre-watch" the movie to get familiar with it and then watch it a second time with her, hitting "mute" or fast-forwarding where appropriate. Essentially this product would do the same thing that I'm already doing manually.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Exactly.

 

[derek]

ClearPlay has updated their FAQ regarding the RCA standalone DVD player:

http://www.clearplay.com/what.asp

The specs on walmart.com for the player have also been updated including a subset list of the 100 included filter titles:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2598456

While the $40 for 3 years (update of older movies) sounds reasonable I'm not sure how many people will pony up for the $50/yr sub to all the filters. The 4.95/month with access to all filters sounds like the best IF the complete library is available. You could subscribe just a couple of times a year.

 

[RobertR]

Have you ever done the following with your player:

Freeze-framed a scene
Replayed a scene
Frame-advanced a scene
Played a scene at anything other than normal speed, including reverse
Played only a favorite scene from a film, especially a "wow, I love this subwoofer/surround demo" scene
Watched any part of a movie "out of sequence"

If so, you are "guilty" of the same thing.

 

[RobertR]

 

[RobertR]

Actually, if it eliminated pressure from Wal-mart to produce P&S titles, it would be a good thing.