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ClearPlay DVD Player with Free Trial Membership
See it at Amazon.com for $71.99Average Customer Rating
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
Really works
These Clearplay DVD players really do work. You can configure the settings you want and it automatically skips certain scenes and mutes certain words when the ClearPlay feature is turned on. It's done carefully so it's as smooth as can be expected. As long as I keep it up to date it supports almost all the movies I've tried (I've mostly tried recent PG and PG-13 movies). It makes watching movies together as a family a lot more fun instead of always worrying about "that one part." Of course some movies just aren't appropriate for kids with or without filtering, but the majority of movies are mostly good but with just a couple problem areas seemingly inserted just to ensure it wouldn't get the dreaded 'G' rating and be automatically considered a kids movie, even when that's not really the case.
I originally had the older MaxPlay model and replaced it with this one which is a big improvement since you can update it using the standard USB flash drive they provide (the MaxPlay had to use a phone line to dial up and retrieve updates).
I've contacted support on a couple of occassions and got a quick and helpful email response, so no complaints there.
I haven't had any problems with audio or video as long as the unit is plugged in properly and configured correctly. I use the digitial audio and component video outputs so I'm not sure about the analog audio out, but I'd be really surprised if there was a widespread audio problem as another review seemed to indicate. A hum can be caused by almost anything, from RF interference to a grounding problem in the house wiring, or a just plain cheap junky TV in combination with certain types of equipment.
I have had to "reboot" the unit once or twice by unplugging it for 30 seconds and then plugging back in, but for the most part it works great, and it's by far the best option for viewing your existing DVD collection without the scenes and language you'd rather not watch/listen to.
I originally had the older MaxPlay model and replaced it with this one which is a big improvement since you can update it using the standard USB flash drive they provide (the MaxPlay had to use a phone line to dial up and retrieve updates).
I've contacted support on a couple of occassions and got a quick and helpful email response, so no complaints there.
I haven't had any problems with audio or video as long as the unit is plugged in properly and configured correctly. I use the digitial audio and component video outputs so I'm not sure about the analog audio out, but I'd be really surprised if there was a widespread audio problem as another review seemed to indicate. A hum can be caused by almost anything, from RF interference to a grounding problem in the house wiring, or a just plain cheap junky TV in combination with certain types of equipment.
I have had to "reboot" the unit once or twice by unplugging it for 30 seconds and then plugging back in, but for the most part it works great, and it's by far the best option for viewing your existing DVD collection without the scenes and language you'd rather not watch/listen to.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
More Fun For The Family!
inappropriate language based on closed captioning info. It had served us well. However, we feel that we have "stepped up" to the next level of family friendly movie filtering with our ClearPlay Content-Filtering DVD Player because... not only does it filter inappropriate language, it also filters out inappropriate scenes (visuals) as well. Works great, nice quality picture, component out... We would recommend this product to anyone looking to protect their family from inappropriate material in DVDs while still having the ability to watch many of the Hollywood blockbusters that are available today!
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Works well, if it works at all
I really am debating whether 2 or 3 stars. Read below and see why. In the end I give it 3 stars due to the good Customer service we have received most the time to resolve issues.
Let me start to say that we really prefer to watch edited videos. In this, the DVD player works great-- no more language and nudity and swearing. We love it. Not seamless edits like Family Flix used to do, but does the job well enough that we don't mind. We wish it had HDMI output and quality, but we knew going into it that it didn't. The YPbPr works well enough for now, even hooked up to our HDTV.
The only downside of our experience, unfortunately, was the amount of time and effort it took us to get a working player. We purchased the first about 6 months ago from Target, and it couldn't read any DVD's. We called Clearplay customer service, very helpful, and they told us they had a bad batch of DVD players go out with this problem and told us to return it to Target. Which we did. Then I decided I'd surprise my wife (who still wanted one) with one for Christmas. This time ordered from Amazon.com. Arrived quickly, sat under the tree, went to hook up on Christmas day and the DVD tray wouldn't open. At all. Could hear it trying, but it was locked or something. Opened up the case and fiddled with the mechanism, got it open and put a DVD in, read just fine, and played well. Went to open it up after, and it was locked back again. This was a mechanical issue, and after our first go around decided just to return it as defective merchandise. We got an RMA, returned it back to Amazon at their charge, and got our money back. Third try around New Years--bought it from local Christian Family Bookstore. Got home, player worked fine but memory stick did not. Talked to Clearplay again, first rep not helpful but second one was very much so, who sent us out a new memory stick that solved all the problems (curiously, a new USB stick from local electronics store did not, even when formated and copied files same).
Now for past couple weeks, Clearplay DVD working great and filtering movies as advertised. Moral of the story--Quality of player itself is suspect at best (read = cheap) and many would not have the patience and fortitude to go through our experience. But if you do, or if Clearplay improves their product quality, then the end result is worth the money if you like movies but not everything Hollywood likes to add to them even when they are totally not relevant to the plot or enjoyment.
Let me start to say that we really prefer to watch edited videos. In this, the DVD player works great-- no more language and nudity and swearing. We love it. Not seamless edits like Family Flix used to do, but does the job well enough that we don't mind. We wish it had HDMI output and quality, but we knew going into it that it didn't. The YPbPr works well enough for now, even hooked up to our HDTV.
The only downside of our experience, unfortunately, was the amount of time and effort it took us to get a working player. We purchased the first about 6 months ago from Target, and it couldn't read any DVD's. We called Clearplay customer service, very helpful, and they told us they had a bad batch of DVD players go out with this problem and told us to return it to Target. Which we did. Then I decided I'd surprise my wife (who still wanted one) with one for Christmas. This time ordered from Amazon.com. Arrived quickly, sat under the tree, went to hook up on Christmas day and the DVD tray wouldn't open. At all. Could hear it trying, but it was locked or something. Opened up the case and fiddled with the mechanism, got it open and put a DVD in, read just fine, and played well. Went to open it up after, and it was locked back again. This was a mechanical issue, and after our first go around decided just to return it as defective merchandise. We got an RMA, returned it back to Amazon at their charge, and got our money back. Third try around New Years--bought it from local Christian Family Bookstore. Got home, player worked fine but memory stick did not. Talked to Clearplay again, first rep not helpful but second one was very much so, who sent us out a new memory stick that solved all the problems (curiously, a new USB stick from local electronics store did not, even when formated and copied files same).
Now for past couple weeks, Clearplay DVD working great and filtering movies as advertised. Moral of the story--Quality of player itself is suspect at best (read = cheap) and many would not have the patience and fortitude to go through our experience. But if you do, or if Clearplay improves their product quality, then the end result is worth the money if you like movies but not everything Hollywood likes to add to them even when they are totally not relevant to the plot or enjoyment.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Huge disappointment
My husband got me this DVD player for my birthday. We had been talking about getting one for months and were excited to finally have one. After opening it we ran into problem after problem. First thing we noticed is although swearing, nudity, and violence are cleaned up blasphemy is still rampant in several of the videos we watched. After that we noticed that the first video played really well, but the second one would start pixelating about half way through the movie. The final straw was that the sound went out on the player completely.
The product itself feels and appears cheaply made. We experienced the same as a previous reviewer in that the remote worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't. Customer service was not the best. The website is frustrating to work in. All in all it was just a huge disappointment.
The product itself feels and appears cheaply made. We experienced the same as a previous reviewer in that the remote worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't. Customer service was not the best. The website is frustrating to work in. All in all it was just a huge disappointment.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
love clearplay
I have been using mine for 1-2 years not sure. Love it love it. It is so nice to not have to hear it. I do not like bad language. It mutes it during the bad words. YOu know what they are saying but you don't hear it and it is so much better. It also cuts during the inappropriate scenes. I have the old maxplay and a usb one. I like the new usb better. I was going to buy two more today one for my mom but they don't sell them at Target any more. Boo. So I have to look on line.