Let's just ignore the unplesantness (Wal-Mart DVD player)

When exactly did we become so afraid af absolutely everything?

DVD player filters out nudity, violence

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/04/28/dvd.censor/index.html

Using a checklist of 14 categories, ranging from graphic violence to explicit drug use, buyers can skip over any scenes they deem inappropriate while leaving the rest of the movie intact.

<snip>

For example, if the nudity filter is selected while watching "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," Arnold Schwarzenegger's naked body is seen squatting in a desert, but before the California governor can stand up and expose his backside -- as he does in the uncut version of the film -- the camera immediately moves to a close-up of his face.

Often the edits are imperceptible, but sometimes they can leave the viewer squinting at the TV, trying to read the silent lips of Johnny Depp as his many "hells" and "damns" are cut from "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

Don't copyright laws also apply to altering materials? I think some video stores have gotten into trouble for editing out scenes they consider offensive.

I guess it's ok to see Schwartzeneggar shoot up the place but not see his naked butt. What puritans we Americans are!

Not likely the player actually does this by itself...

The industry knows there is a demand for this type of product...

it actually does anything to the disc, it just cuts ou the parts while you are watching it. I think that's how they get around it.

I think this is just more stupidity (like the FCC crap)and one more way for a parent to be a stupid ignorant lazy-ass. Now, instead of previewing videos for their kids and knowing what content is in it, they'll just buy whatever and assume it as all "safe" Can you really watch a Pulp Fiction with something like this? I guess it's an option. i am not totally against it. I just personally would never ever buy one. I prefer to pre-screen things for my kids and discuss themes that may stir their curiosity.

I can tell yo uwhat i would have done as a kid, seeing something like this, I'd go to a friend's hoese and watch it uncut first chance we could. LOL.

If there is butt shot - the shot will be framed a certain way so you don't see the butt...the player just follows the code on the disc based on the settings the user has selected.

It's just like the multi-language code some DVDs have - coded into the disc...

Definitly does not do anything to the disc itself...

The report seems slightly erroneous as it makes it sound like the player is doing this on it's own...

I wonder if DVD's have been coded this way for sometime, and now the players are just making to the market?

The movie industry sued over this, actually. They are NOT pleased... not that I give a rats ass about the MPAA, or anything.

The player works with timestamp filters. The company creates 'filters' composed of different timestamps to signify the beginning and end of parts that need to be cropped out.

So the player comes preloaded with timestamps for every movie ever pressed to DVD?

What about new releases...?

That doesn't make sense...it's on the disc...

"Each RCA unit comes with 100 filters. Additional filters can be purchased from ClearPlay's Web site for $4.95 per month or $49 per year. Movies more than 90 days old are less expensive, at $20 for as many filters as the customer wants during a three-year period. Once a filter is installed, it is permanently in the player."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/0501clearplay01.html

Even worse - they've attached some micro-payment scheme to it...yeech.

This is doomed...

Why the industry is not pre-coding movies this way is beyond me...if it sells DVD - who cares? Artistic integrity be dammed! Once I buy it - I should be able to watch it however I like...

It's like the cops arresting me if I buy a painting and hang it upside down...

They're essentially selling derivative works, which is in a shaky ground in terms of intellectual property.

to agree with you. It's like a 2 second butt shot, right. Last time I checked, we all have a butt. Last time, i checked, we don't all go around blowing people's brains out. My children will just be wrecked if they see an ASS. Oh no!! What damage!

...and so true.

-P

The lawsuits have already been filed. If I can find the article, I'll post the link.


link added on edit: Feds join ClearPlay fray

I mean it gives people options. Granted this isn't something that interests me; but if other people want it, why not?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

I can consider it silly, but my sister can find it useful for protecting her kids.

Honestly! Parenting takes work and effort. That includes actively, not passively, regulating what they watch.

It only takes ninety seconds to watch "Showgirls".

Awesome!!

Too funny...still laughing!

-P

It seems ok to let people choose what they want censor in their own homes. Much better to handle it this way - rather than passing some laws...

Power to the consumer...

I wish I could have thought of an idea that cashes in on anal-retentive prudes!

:bounce:

how completely and totally insane.

The American Talliban.

Let the original work be sold. Those who feel the need can use the DVD censor but the whole thing is still available uncut. Hey, I've been known to skip a couple of Arwen scenes--but I know where they are & do the "cutting" myself.

Wonder if it can be set to show only the naughty bits?

But it's fine, it gives people more choices on what they want to do...

I have no problem with it.

Heyo

puts the power of choice out there for people.
If you don't want anything edited out, grab the popcorn your ready to go.
If you decide you'd rather have the movie edited to your needs, grab your popcorn your ready to go too.

Maybe, just maybe this gadget will get all the fundies to finally shut the FUCK Up when it comes to art.

Hopefully,the rest of us will be able to enjoy movies as the creators intended without having to fuss with pleasing all the content control freaks,outraged talibornagains with thier panties in a twist,or the ever present families with kids that everyone else must dance around.
All of these kinds of people are fighting against the artists for thier child safe morally pure cinema dreams.Maybe with the editing in thier hands,they'l have thier purity, won't try so hard to limit and edit what others who can handle it are allowed see or create through courts and law.

Maybe they'll TAKE some RESPONSIBILITY for themselves in maintaing thier own morality for themselves by themselves and quit trying to control everyone who is not like them for once. If the offended can simpy edit what offends them out of a movie,Than maybe we can quit catering our creative visions to avoiding offending them.I suggest
whenever someone around you is acting all offended by a movie just tell them to go get a Walmart DVD player and edit it out than. Tell them to get the DVD editing player or to grow up and get over it,If their motives are to get control over content for everyone and do not use the DVD editor and are just pretending to be "concerned",Just give them your middle finger than because obviously they desire to be offended..So if they wanna be offended why not offend' em ' in a memorable way,get creative. Now the 'offensive' can have thier perfect non offending,cussword free,non naughty,non-scary ,squeeky clean world and the rest of us won't have to choke on it.

Think about it, if the movie still makes sense with all of these scenes just cut out, with no re-editing or additional scenes, then the fundies can say that there is NO merit to them and that they have been added purely for pornographic reasons.

All this will do is give them ammunition to say that these scenes should be banned because they don't even add to the story...

the movies making sense. I can't wait to hear kids asking their parents what was cut out and why didn't that make sense and start lip reading, etc. I think this will create problems for parents who use it and have, Oh my gosh, Naturally curious children!!

It enables everyone to rent the DVDs and not be bothered by things that are opposed to their moral views.

For example, say I don't like Religion, and references to GOD offend me. Should this chip delete such references, or should i just not rent "The Ten Commandments"?

By the way, who decides what is "offensive" and thus is marked for deletion by the chip? Will the chip have multiple versions, so that those of us who hate terrible acting and just want to see the sex scenes can make use of it? Or will it be a religious persons' only device?

Example - When the girl in HAlloween says "See anything you like?" to Micheal Meyers standing in a bedsheet ghost outfit was cropped to hide her erotic pose. In the orginal theatrical release If remember correctly she was sitting in the bed naked from the waist up. covers over her legs with her knees up and spread wide..(at the time and struck me as very hot...I was 17... :) ) In the DVD I recently watched released on Fox Home Video they shot was zoomed in to the point of relvealing the individual grains in the film and just a hint of breast was exposed.

Such "family edited" DVD's include:

Braveheart
Fargo
Gangs of New York
Gladiator
Godfather I, II and III
Misery
Monster's Ball
The Passion of the Christ (!)
Saving Private Ryan
Aliens
Black Hawk Down
Die Hard
Face/Off
Kill Bill
All 3 Terminator movies

"Hey, kids, let's watch a movie!"

'Great! What are we gonna see?'

"I rented the Clean Films version of The Exterminator."

And then you find out they cut out the Chicken House scenes, they cut out the part where the Exterminator runs the mafia don through the meat grinder, and they cut out the part where the guy cuts the Doberman in half with an electric knife.

That would be like renting Debbie Does Dallas only to find out they cut out all the fucking.

That must be like a 35-second film. And Kill Bill amused the hell out of me, too.

It's important that your children watch Jesus getting the shit beat out of him for three hours because Jesus Took A Three Hour Ass Kicking For You, You Worthless Scum is the central message in Christianity.

Besides, as Sheila Brovlovsky says, "it's all right if a movie is full of horrible, disgusting violence, so long as you don't use any foul language."

I don't know how many of you are hardcore movie buffs like me, but if you are, you most certainly prefer widescreen DVDs to "full-screen" and have no doubt accidentally picked up the wrong version at least once.

For those who don't know, filmmakers generally use a wide film format to make movies. This results in a horizontal rectangle that provides a better panorama. However, "standard" TV sets are more square in shape...so filling the entire screen with a widescreen image means chopping off the edges to make the square shape, or severely distorting the image. Either method sucks royally.

Well, the first batch of DVDs to hit the market were all widescreen. But apparently Wal-Mart customers kept complaining about the "black bars" that result at the top and bottom of the screen when the image is seen on a standard set. So we have moran Wal-Mart customers to thank for the chopped-up "fullscreen" DVDs that have recently flooded the market.

Wal-Mart sells so many DVDs (along with everything else) that they were able to strong-arm an industry into producing an inferior product just to appease their ignorant customers. Pretty sad.

I thought that was one of the beauties of this format...?

It's difficult to fit both formats on a single disc without compromising image quality.

To get the best quality, they make a two-sided DVD with the letterbox on one side and the fullscreen on the other.

But your moran Wal-Mart customer, who thinks a DVD should be just like a CD but with a movie on it, wants the "other" side of the DVD to have a huge label on it just like a CD. So the DVD has a huge label on one side and a fullscreen movie on the other.

nt