CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I know there are some DVD players out there that can filter out objectionable language or even scenes from movies. (E.g. ClearPlay) But I was wondering if there are any DVD player software for PC that could do this sort of thing. Or perhaps you might know of some resources on coding DVD player software? I don't have much programming experience in that field, but perhaps I should learn. It would be awesome to have an open-source DVD player that could filter out objectionable language at the least. It would be even cooler to have some sort of community-driven rating feedback system that would let people filter out violence, sexual content, etc. But perhaps there is something like that out there already?

I've never heard of such a device. That's pretty nifty! I've never heard of something like what you're asking, but I'll nose around a bit to see what I can find.

THe only thing I know of scans the closed captions in every video signal (not just DVDs.) This doesn't work if

1. There is no closed caption signal. Technically DVD subtitles are PICTURES rather than text files, so that won't work.
2. THe closed caption files don't include the words you want censored
3. The closed caption doesn't sync up with the words you want censored.

There is no way for a DVD player to "tell" when a word is being said that needs to be censored. The CC censor boxes read the words in the CC and mute that entire portion, showing you a CC box with the offending word replaced... Ah, euphamisms. I won't go any further down that road, though. Most DVD movies won't likely have both a closed caption signal (which is technically in the video signal) AND a subtitle track, so this will have limited effectiveness.

EDIT: SOrry, didn't visit the link you provided... I never thought about a DVD by DVD case... Hmm... That's pretty interesting. I'm sure the thing needs a hard drive to save all that information... Anyhow, I guess I didn't have anything to contribute in that case, sorry...

Mithrandir wrote:I've never heard of such a device. That's pretty nifty! I've never heard of something like what you're asking, but I'll nose around a bit to see what I can find.

Thanks!

Bobtheduck: Hmm, sound tougher than I'd originally thought. I didn't realize subtitles were actually images rather than text. I guess that makes them rather difficult to "read". And subtitles seem to be quite a bit more popular than closed captions...

ClearPlay uses special DVD players. I don't know too much about them, but it seems like you download a filter from their site unto a USB memory stick and plug that into the player. Based on the content filter options the user selects, different stuff is cut out of the movie when it is played. I dunno - maybe it uses a time index for cutting out language rather than closed captions... Here is some more info on that system: ClearPlay FAQ

But ideally I think it would be awesome to have some PC software that could do this sort of thing.