Innovative player can filter DVDs for content

With innovations in home theaters, many people these days are taking their favorite flicks home instead of watching them at movie theaters.

And with increases in ticket prices and competition for that last parking spot, who can blame them. Some people, however, choose not to watch certain movies.

Debuting at the 27th annual Deseret Morning News Home Improvement, Remodeling and Decorating Show will be a DVD player that can take a movie with an R rating to a PG rating in seconds.

MaxPlay is patented technology that artfully edits out unwanted material.

"There are 12 areas," said Seth Bailey, representative for MaxPlay, "that you can filter."

Scenes containing sensual/provocative content, crude sexual dialogue, nudity, explicit sexual situations, strong violence, graphic violence, gory/disturbing images, ethnic/social slurs, cursing, vain references to deity, graphic vulgarity and explicit drug use can all be removed — or any combination of those 12 categories.

Or viewers can choose to not filter the movie presentation.

"There are great movies out there with just a few minutes or a scene or two that gives it that R rating," Bailey said. "Parents can try to fast forward through those parts, but this tends to just attract attention to what you don't want kids to see. And sometimes you miss it."

The MaxPlay DVD player contains a memory of the objectionable parts within each movie and knows exactly where and when to filter according to the criteria that the user determines.

Litigation has stifled the efforts of others to "clean up" movies by editing them and then selling or renting the edited versions to consumers.

The legal distinction is that MaxPlay filters instead of edits. MaxPlay does not harm or change the video rental in any way; it just filters the signal on its way to the TV, similar to Internet filtration.

This also allows you to rent movies from anywhere and apply the MaxPlay filters rather than having to rent from a specific store.

The MaxPlay DVD player will be sold at the home show and comes with filter definitions for 1,000 popular movies.

Definitions for new releases are available within 48 hours and can be updated through a modem within the DVD player. Also, owners have complete control over what is viewed in their homes.