 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2016) |
ClearPlay is a parental control service that allows content filtering of streaming movies available on Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBOMax, Apple TV+ and Netflix. It automatically skips over or mutes undesirable content such as profanity, graphic violence, nudity, drug and adult-oriented content based on a customer's filter settings.
When watching a movie with ClearPlay parental controls the user can select which types of content to omit from the streaming presentation. [1] The presentation includes data indicating to the player where possibly unwanted content is located, often to the exact frame. This allows the player to skip or mute offensive or undesirable content during playback of the stream. The choice is also made available to watch the film in its unedited form, by turning the filtering off.
ClearPlay allows users to choose specific types of possibly offensive, questionable, or otherwise undesirable content to censor. There are twelve categories of content that can be filtered and four different levels (none, implied, explicit and graphic). [2] These categories include: Violence, Sex, Nudity and Vulgarity. Users will see a list prior to the beginning of the feature of possibly questionable content that will not be removed depending on the movie, scene and/or situation.
USA Today describes ClearPlay as follows: [3]
Users choose what content to filter in each movie, via an on-screen menu — "violence, sex and nudity" and "language" — and further customize the category. For example, in "language," viewers can choose to allow "crude language and humor" but filter out "strong profanity," "graphic vulgarity," "ethnic and social slurs" and "vain reference to deity." In all, filtering options offer up to 16,000 combinations.
The methods of removing content also depends on the scenes and user settings. Users can select which scenes and language to filter. In some cases, the scene might be removed entirely, depending on the user settings and/or the discretion of the filter editors. The company also accepts feedback if people, for example, have suggestions on edited scenes, and/or disagreements with a particular edit.
Over the years ClearPlay has offered various filtering products for streaming movies, Blu-ray players, and DVD players.
In one version of the product The filter files interact with a DVD player by way of what is called a FilterStik (a small USB flash drive which is included with the player). The FilterStik is connected to a computer, the files are downloaded to it through their website, and the FilterStik is then connected to the player. Firmware updates are also occasionally available for the player itself, by way of a similar method.
The Filter files are only available from ClearPlay as a monthly or annually subscribed membership. Unlimited access to the full library of movie Filters are then made available, which contains filters for various streaming movies or DVDs including most new releases. If filter files for a particular movie are not present, requests can be made through their website.
The United States Congress passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act that explicitly clarified the copyright laws explaining that someone can personalize the playback of movies, skipping or muting content from playback of video on demand or DVDs.
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that Microsoft developed to play audio and video on personal computers. It has been a component of the Microsoft Windows operating system, including Windows 9x, Windows NT, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile. Microsoft also released editions of Windows Media Player for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Solaris, but has since been discontinued them.
The Motion Picture Associationfilm rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures are the responsibility of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), previously known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 to 2019. The MPA rating system is a voluntary scheme that is not enforced by law; films can be exhibited without a rating, although most theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated or NC-17 rated films. Non-members of the MPA may also submit films for rating. Other media, such as television programs, music and video games, are rated by other entities such as the TV Parental Guidelines, the RIAA and the ESRB, respectively.
WinDVD is a commercial video player and music player software for Microsoft Windows. It enables the viewing of DVD-Video movies on the user's PC. DVD-Video backups stored on hard disk can also be played. The player also can be used to play video and audio files in other formats encoded with different codecs, such as DivX, Xvid, Windows Media Video (video), and MP3 and AAC (audio). WinDVD Pro 12 is the latest version with the most features and accommodations.
DirectShow, codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows technology. Based on the Microsoft Windows Component Object Model (COM) framework, DirectShow provides a common interface for media across various programming languages, and is an extensible, filter-based framework that can render or record media files on demand at the request of the user or developer. The DirectShow development tools and documentation were originally distributed as part of the DirectX SDK. Currently, they are distributed as part of the Windows SDK.
The following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.
Parental controls are features which may be included in digital television services, computers and video games, mobile devices and software that allow parents to restrict the access of content to their children. These controls were created to assist parents in their ability to restrict certain content viewable by their children. This may be content they deem inappropriate for their age, maturity level or feel is aimed more at an adult audience. Parental controls fall into roughly four categories: content filters, which limit access to age inappropriate content; usage controls, which constrain the usage of these devices such as placing time-limits on usage or forbidding certain types of usage; computer usage management tools, which enforces the use of certain software; and monitoring, which can track location and activity when using the devices.
CleanFlicks was a company founded in Utah in 2000 that rented and sold commercially-released DVDs and VHS tapes from which they had edited content which the company considered inappropriate for children or that viewers might otherwise find offensive. CleanFlicks removed sexual content, profanity, some references to deity, and some violence from movies, either by muting audio or clipping entire portions of the track.
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, as well as all editions of Windows 7 except Starter and Home Basic. It was also available on Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro as a paid add-on, before being discontinued in Windows 10, although it can reportedly be unofficially reinstalled using a series of Command Prompt commands.
A re-edited film is a motion picture that has been modified from the manner in which it was showcased in its original theatrical release. Reasons for this type of editing may range from the distributor's demands to accommodating different audience groups. Fan-made movie edits are often met with controversy, as they bring up issues of copyright law.
Pirated movie release types are the different types of pirated movies and television series that end up on the Internet. They vary wildly in rarity and quality due to the different sources and methods used for acquiring the video content, in addition to encoding formats. Pirated movie releases may be derived from cams, which have distinctly low quality; screener and workprint discs or digital distribution copies (DDC), telecine copies from analog reels, video on demand (VOD) or TV recordings, and DVD and Blu-ray rips. They are seen in P2P networks, pirated websites and video sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion.
BD+ is a component of the Blu-ray Disc digital rights management system. It was developed by Cryptography Research Inc. and is based on their Self-Protecting Digital Content concept. Its intent was to prevent unauthorized copies of Blu-ray discs and the playback of Blu-ray media using unauthorized devices.
GB-PVR was a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function was scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. GB-PVR is no longer under active development and has been superseded by NextPVR, also known as nPVR.
Kaleidescape, Inc. is an American multimedia company based in Mountain View, California. Founded in 2001, it designs multi-room home entertainment server systems that store and play back video and audio content to movie players that can be connected to televisions or projectors.
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition Blu-ray Disc. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and an MPEG-2 decoder. Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination of MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats. Typically, the data rate for DVD movies ranges from 3 to 9.5 Mbit/s, and the bit rate is usually adaptive. DVD-Video was first available in Japan on November 1, 1996, followed by a release on March 24, 1997 in the United States—to line up with the 69th Academy Awards that same day.
The United States pay television content advisory system is a television content rating system developed cooperatively by the American pay television industry; it first went into effect on March 1, 1994, on cable-originated premium channels owned by the system's principal developers, Home Box Office, Inc. and Showtime Networks. The voluntary-participation system—developed to address public concerns about explicit sexual content, graphic violence and strong profanity that tend to be featured in pay-cable and pay-per-view programming—provides guidance to subscribers on the suitability of a program for certain audiences based on its content.
Film censorship in Malaysia is pervasive, and the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia is the government ministry that which dictates whether, when, and how a film gets released in the country. It is under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government censors film content for mainly homosexual, political and religious reasons.
Angel Studios is an American video streaming service and Christian media studio. The studio uses equity crowdfunding to finance its original productions by offering individual investors the opportunity to purchase shares in the company and its titles. Content produced by Angel Studios is distributed for free on their own streaming service. Some titles are also available in other third-party streaming services as distribution deals.
VidAngel is an American streaming video company that allows the user to skip what objectionable content based on user preferences regarding profanity, nudity, sexual situations, and graphic violence. The company uses customizable filters to automatically cut out scenes or sounds which the viewer does not want to see or hear. The company was launched in 2014 by the Harmon Brothers in Utah. The company used equity crowdfunding to fund its growth, raising $10 million from customer-investors.
Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc. was a 2016 United States District Court for the Central District of California case in which four major Hollywood studios -- Disney, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. -- filed a copyright infringement complaint against VidAngel, a company which allows users to filter out objectionable content from movies and TV shows. The studios alleged that the method VidAngel used to filter and stream films to its users was illegal under copyright law because they broke the encryption on DVDs and Blu-rays. VidAngel contended that their method was legal under an exception provided by the Family Movie Act.
There are currently about 46 providers of over-the-top media services (OTT) in India, which distribute streaming media over the Internet. In fiscal year 2018, the OTT market in India was worth ₹2,150 crore. The streaming market in India is predicted to be worth $15 billion by 2030, with $12.5 billion coming from the video market and $2.5 billion from audio. The OTT market in fiscal year 2020 was estimated to be worth $1.7 billion.