A recent lawsuit has forced the edited movie companies to shut down, which leaves families with three options -- to stop watching a lot of movies they find objectionable, to learn how to edit movies for your own enjoyment, or to invest in a machine called a ClearPlayer that edits your movies as you watch them (it's largely unnoticeable).

Here is information on both, for your use and enjoyment.

Provided you own the DVD you are working off of, there is no law to prevent you from editing movies for your own personal use. It's also nice because you get to choose what to leave in or take out according to your standards. There are a lot of great editing programs out there but the cheapest and easies to use is Divx Author, which costs about $40. There are tutorials on how to use it online, so for now I will just tell you how to rip and format a DVD.

Insert DVD.
Open DVD Shrink (free software!).
Open Disk. (It will take about three minutes to "import.")
Click Re-Author.
Find the video file (usually it's in the middle of the list and has the running time -- like 1h 44m.)
Drag it to the left column (under DVD Structure).
Remove all audio except for English, or you will have multiple audio tracks.

Backup file (somewhere you can find it easily).

Once that is done (20 minutes or so), open Auto GK (Auto Gordon Knot -- also free software!). Select the first VOB file in Input File. Choose where to save it / a new name in Output file.

Predefined size: 2G. (The bigger the file, the better.)

Advanced Settings:
Auto Width
Auto audio type
DivX codec. (XVid is bad news...)

It will encode two or three times, and take an hour or so to make an avi file. After that, you can import it into your video editing software. Remember to leave the file as big as possible for the highest possible quality. It seems like a lot of steps but once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult at all and you can really move through those videos fast. (The faster your machine, the faster the processing.)

If that seems like too much work, there is another option...

When you purchase a ClearPlay DVD Player, you have access to over two thousand movie titles. Depending on your chosen settings for Violence, Bloodshed, Sexual Content, Nudity, Profanity, etc., you can ensure the removal of all select offensive content. It is one of the best parental resources out there and best of all, it's legal, since you are not altering the source material, merely what plays on your screen.

If you have neither the time nor the resources to edit movies yourself, this is a nice option. Plus, it retains the excellent quality of the original material so your movies come out looking amazing on your flat screen. (I admit, watching Shakespeare in Love on it is a visual dream.)

How It Works

When you load a DVD into the ClearPlayer, a menu comes up asking if you would like to play it with a filter or not. There are four settings for each category -- None (no filter), Mild (only removes extreme instances), Moderate (takes out portions of content), or Heavy (removes everything offensive). Each are interchangeable based on the film and you can set them to default or fiddle with them each time. (For example, I don't like the gore in Gladiator but do not mind a little innuendo, so I turn off one filter and set the other higher.)

Some movies have more obvious cuts than others but the editors have attempted to keep the original structure of the film without sacrificing major plot points. Based on the individual DVD, I sometimes experienced two-second pauses or jumps, but with most disks it is unnoticeable depending on your settings and the content you are filtering. (The battle scenes in King Arthur are a little jumpy since we never see blood spurt, but The Duchess's removal of sexual content is virtually unnoticeable.)

Each player comes with a free online trial -- you go onto their website and download the complete collection of filters to a USB stick that comes with the player. Users can either purchase a subscription to the web site and download new filters as they become available or wait several months, then purchase a month-long subscription and "catch up." New movie filters are based on the amount of requests, popularity, or the cast, and often appear within 48 hours of the DVD release. 

Testing it Out

I tried out several movies on mine before writing this review:

The Duchess -- saw this with friends, on the "heavy" setting; it was completely family-friendly

The Golden Age -- this one was surprisingly flawless, on a "moderate" setting.

Shakespeare in Love -- heavy settings, a touch obvious in the editing but still appropriate

Moulin Rouge -- on a "moderate" setting, this film is still racy (and includes the attempted rape)

Girl, Interrupted -- lots of mutes of course, but a decent job overall

The Reader -- rather choppy in places, but contains nothing offensive

John Adams -- brilliant (set the "no nudity" and "no sex" option)

Troubleshooting

I am not going to lie to you -- it could be easier to set up. I had to take the USB stick in and out of the machine several times and fiddle with most of the settings before all the menu options showed up. And sometimes the player insists there is no USB drive when it is in ... I have to turn it on and off a half dozen times to get it to finally read the filter.

I have gone through two different players. The first was defective (they did replace it for me) and I had a lot of trouble getting filters to load on it, but the second has not been as problematic.

E-mail tech support is not encouraged, since it can take up to a month to receive a response, but I HIGHLY recommend calling their support line. Just not at night, as you can wait for a call back up to an hour. If you call during the day, you get help immediately. They are friendly and helpful and usually got my problems sorted out in short order.

I will also express disappointment that you cannot opt out of homosexual content. It can be "toned down" (graphic scenes are removed and/or trimmed) but it would be nice to go without it altogether if that is your preference.

Conclusion

This is an excellent option for parents (you can set parental controls so it won't play anything normally without a password) and individuals who simply do not want to go through the time-consuming process of editing their own DVD's. The nice thing about it is that the quality of the image is very good, much higher than your typical DVDR burn-off with an edited disk. Once I got it working properly, I had no complaints. Some movies still aren't completely "family friendly," but this does help a lot.

Take the time to visit ClearPlay's website and read more about it.