Cool product alert – ClearPlay
Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by catherine in Blog, Buy Utah, Random Thoughts
Once again, I hesitate posting another commercial product, so I’ll put this out there again: if a product rocks, I have a hard time resisting the urge to share with the universe. I would be a great salesperson except that my enthusiasm also has a dark side: I will trash a product with as much aplomb if it truly stinks. I will refrain from doing so on my blog, however, since I do not want to be apart of the haters crowd. Just ask me in person, though, and I’ll give you an earful about a certain Wal store, most fast food places, and certain American-made cars.
So. The ClearPlay. It’s a handy little DVD player that instantly edits unwanted content from your movies as you watch them. In a nutshell, you plug a little USB drive stick thingie into your computer to download filters, then plug the drive into the player. Put DVD in player, adjust settings, and hit play. Easy.
Seamless editing? Sometimes. The swears are usually silenced, and sometimes you can read their lips very well. But that’s infrequent enough to not concern me. Unwanted scenes may look a little choppy, but again it’s not a deal breaker.
Since I love movies but do not care for the junk, this handy device is right up my alley. Don’t get me wrong, I like some well-placed swears now and then, but I can do without the f-bombs, seeing someone’s plasticized bare chest, gruesome violence, and flag defacing. Kinda kidding about that last one, but believe it or not, that’s a ClearPlay filter setting.
Don’t send me any messages about how “that’s not the way the director intended it to be seen,” or “slippery slope” rhetoric…. blah blah blah. I’m not here to philosophize.
Some pointers:
- Filter settings: you can adjust levels of violence, language, etc, as well as stop any depictions of “dishonoring parents” (can I get that for the Disney Channel shows?), mushiness, and substance abuse. You may have to play with the settings a little depending on your sensibilities, but after awhile you’ll get it. But I’m still trying to figure out the “mushiness” setting…
- Updating the filters: apparently you must keep your account current or the filter will stop working a month after it was last backed up. Even though you download all the filters onto the drive, those filters have a time limit.
- Cost: depending on where you shop, the player will run around $100, and subscriptions run about $8/month. If you buy longer blocks of time, you will pay less.
R-rated movies I have watched on ClearPlay with my oh-so-expert rating:
- Inglorious Basterds (3.5/4 stars)
- In the Air (2.5/4 stars)
- Zombieland (5/4 stars, and no, that’s not a typo)
- Shutter Island (3.5/4 stars)
- The Ugly Truth (2/4 stars)
- I love you man (3/4 stars)
- It’s Complicated (2/4 stars)
- Adventureland (no rating, I got bored watching it)
ClearPlay offers filters for all kinds of ratings. You still want to check the movie’s general theme before showing to your children. I obviously would not want to show the above movies to my kiddos. Also, you will often find some movies require so much editing that they have no filter. I usually check the website before adding a movie to my Netflix queue. Problem solved.
Website for more information: www.clearplay.com. For the record (again), I do not personally know these people nor have I accepted any compensation for freely and shamelessly promoting their product. I just consider myself another happy customer.
What movie would you like to see if it were cleaned up a little bit?
