Broader, Cleaner Cinematic Horizons

I have to confess, i can't handle explicit content in movies (gore, sex/nudity, and, to a lesser degree, foul language). I watch movies to be entertained, and those things just make me feel uncomfortable and just... well, wrong. Back in my college days (i think i'm old enough to say that) i would always rent movies from Cougar Video's edited movie section. it was great because i didn't ever have to worry about explicit content. if a flick looked remotely entertaining i'd rent it. No need to quickly find the remote to fast-forward something, no wondering when enough is enough and turning it off, no images burned into my brain. it was great.

then i moved out of the bubble. suddenly i was limited once more in my movie choices. I would keep a mental list of things to rent when i went back to UT, but soon after there was some legal trouble (again) and the whole operation was shut down for good. I was then resigned to wait till movies came on TV to watch.

But then i stumbled across another option. A Utah company (of course) called Clearplay sells DVD players that edit content based on user customizable settings. There's a monthly fee of like $8, but you use just normal dvds. You just download filters from the website and upload them to the player via usb drive. The filters themselves are pretty small file size, so it doesn't take long at all to make the transfer. then you just stick in your dvd, it checks to make sure you have the filter loaded, tells you what if any potentially offensive elements may still be in the film, then you sit back and enjoy a movie that you may have chosen to avoid were it not for this smart little invention.

One thing i DON'T like about it is that they don't yet make a player that up-converts to HD, you if you're watching on a decent size HDTV you'll notice that it's only 480p.