DVD player helps parents filter content
By Gary Gentile
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — People wanting to automatically mute the foul language in "Seabiscuit" or skip the violence in "The Patriot" have a new option — a DVD player from RCA that filters content deemed objectionable.
Thomson, which owns the RCA brand, will sell the players in some Wal-Mart and Kmart stores as well as on Wal-Mart's Web site starting this month even as the filtering software they employ faces a legal challenge from Hollywood.
"I think there may be a market for something that gives the parent more control and does it in a way that doesn't alter the original presentation," said Dave Arland, an RCA spokesman.
The filtering software is from ClearPlay, which had offered it previously for watching DVDs on computers and began talking to RCA last year about a stand-alone player.
The partners are hoping the current stir over broadcast decency, spurred by Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl show, will help boost sales.
Hollywood is not happy with the idea. "ClearPlay software edits movies to conform to ClearPlay's vision of a movie instead of letting audiences see, and judge for themselves, what writers wrote, what actors said and what directors envisioned," The Directors Guild of America said in a statement.
The DVD player carries a suggested retail price of $79 and will ship with 100 filters for movies such as "Daredevil" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."
Filters for newer releases are available each week through a monthly subscription of $4.95, though getting them into the player is cumbersome. The filters are downloaded over the Internet and burned onto a CD for transfer to the DVD player. ClearPlay's library currently contains filters for about 500 movies.
RCA has other parental control features on its products, including V-chips in its television sets, which allow parents to block certain programs in their entirety.
A more recent feature included on select TV sets is called "KidPass," a timer that allows parents to set a limit on daily viewing in 30-minute increments.
The company even tried a DVD-filtering device in 1998 called "scene-snip." The option, developed by RCA, allowed parents to screen a movie and mark scenes they found objectionable. The player would then skip over those scenes when the movie was played.
ClearPlay works in a similar fashion, with employees for the Salt Lake City company watching the movies and noting objectionable areas.
Various filters are then created in four broad categories: violence; sex and nudity; language and "other," which includes explicit drug use.
Viewers have options within each category. Under language, for instance, viewers can filter for six levels, including "vain reference to the deity" or "strong profanity."
The DGA and studios filed a lawsuit in 2002 against ClearPlay and a Colorado video rental store, CleanFlicks, which uses its own software to decode a DVD, alter it for content, then burn a new, edited version, back onto a DVD for rental.
The lawsuit is pending. ClearPlay contends its software is not illegal because it does not alter the original DVD.
RCA's Arland said the company is monitoring the lawsuit but decided to introduce the model after major retailers expressed interest.
