I was wondering if there will ever be an option to filter profanity and scenes for instance integrate a service such as “ClearPlay” where the file is downloaded and it will automatically cut the audio and/or video as necessary based on your settings? This would be a most useful feature for those with children, and religious families to enjoy digital content without the language or scenes with nudity or excessive violence.
God, I hope not! >:)
I think the belongs outside Plex with people that are offended by certain content having an encoding option/group/tool that can apply to video and audio and picture files what Pope Pius IX did for the sculptures in the Vatican with the fig leaves.
This is not a feature that Plex needs to even consider as it would waste time that the programmers could better spend in almost any other function.
If the do that then they need to go the other way as well and provide the ability to remove the contrived coverings we often see and put the proper words back where TV or censors have bleeped them or changed them.
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This would be a feature to be used if you want to. The service I mentioned is ClearPlay, it is already outside of Plex, and is a subscription based service. My question is if there will ever be an option to integrate an external service of this nature for those that choose to remove profanity, and scenes they deem inappropriate.
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Haha! I love how people who want people have the “freedom” to hear swearing" wants to restrict others from choosing not to hear it. Sheesh. I second this request! I would like the OPTION to filter out language and bad scenes in my movies. Kodi utilizes .edl files to do this. All Plex would need to do is incorporate the reading of those files, and the users can make their own filters. The .edl file just states what minute and second to either skip or mute.
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My 2 cents … if you don’t want to hear/see it, than don’t watch the movie at all.
Because, why would you want to see a movie, where key-scenes or dialogues have been removed? Like “Basic Instinct” without the interrogation scene … sorry, but without that the movie is crippled!
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I completely agree with @marcelhehle here… I took a look at ClearPlay website and I think it’s crazy. I don’t like movies with a gratuitous use of swearing, like comedies where the only reason to laugh is the use of bad words, so I simply don’t go to see those movies. But there are moments when swearing or explicit scenes are used to make the story more effective/intense.
From that site:
“The Help is an interesting story and without ClearPlay there is no way I would watch it. Way too much language for me. Thank you ClearPlay.”
So you watch “The Help” missing the crucial moment when the black cook tells her white abusive boss to “eat her s#!7”? You’ve lost one of the most iconic scene in that movie.
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I agree. I’d like this feature to set for my Kid profile. Some movies are great for older kids and would be perfectly fine for younger kids if minor edits could be made.
I’d also liked to have a filter that removes songs tagged w/ profanity from auto playlists / Plex mix. I’d use plex mix in my home much more often if I could be somewhat in control of limiting some of my songs from ending up in the mixes. For now, I can only use them when it’s just me listening.
While the arguments above focus on adults, I think we all can agree filtering is less essential, but for kids, this is significant for maximizing the use of audio/video libraries.
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I believe the option to create or utilize content filters in Plex only makes it a more compelling product that more people would choose to use. There is no downside.
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@istarion said:
I believe the option to create or utilize content filters in Plex only makes it a more compelling product that more people would choose to use. There is no downside.
One thing is to create “parental filters” that block the access to movies you think are not suitable for your kids, another thing is to create a “profanity filter” that cut scenes and censor dialogue from the movie…
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Mplayer has simple EDL support. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/edl.html
- “This is useful for those who may want to watch a film in “family-friendly” mode. You can cut out any violence, profanity, Jar-Jar Binks … from a movie according to your own personal preferences. Aside from this, there are other uses, like automatically skipping over commercials in video files you watch.”
Why not plex? The only answers I’ve seen why plex should not support EDL in playback are “because I wouldn’t use it” and “because I don’t think other people should use it”. Well for that matter there are those who don’t use plex and who don’t think we should use plex. It’s hardly a reason.
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@samliddicott said:
Why not plex? The only answers I’ve seen why plex should not support EDL in playback are “because I wouldn’t use it” and “because I don’t think other people should use it”.
Can’t speak for Plex of course, but to invest time, money and coding effort in order to implement a tool intended to butcher movies sounds a bit silly and overall an abomination for anyone passionate about movies. You don’t want profanity in movies? Then don’t buy/watch movies with profanity, to me it’s really that simple.
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@flow said:
For all you profanity fetishists… Is this your wet dream? Arkangel (Black Mirror) - Wikipedia
Hilarious - the link won’t work on this forum (copy and paste), but hilarious.
As I watched the episode a while back I thought it would provide a great service to some members of our society. Raising children by remote control is all the rage.
Plex can’t create an app for an AFTV.
Why anyone would think Plex could get into the Nanny Bidness is beyond me…
B)
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Maybe it’s my Chrome - dumbstruck by a link with () in it - but it takes me here:
‘Hands On’ Parents could probably figure it out…
‘Remote Control’ Parents probably couldn’t…
lol
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Yep - it does…
B)
This sounds like a feature request turned into a personal ethics review.
I’d be totally down for a feature like this. Take a kids movie like Home Alone. It’s a great film but they decided to throw in just a few choice words that I recall as being obscene when I saw it around 10 for the first time. Removing those words would not reduce the quality of the film in any way.
Now pick almost any modern R-rated movie and apply the same model. You will definitely lose content and there will be some parts that either lose continuity or don’t have the intended impact. It wouldn’t be the same experience.
Regardless, I think having this feature would give some people peace of mind for playing content for their family without concern for content. It’s difficult to try and figure out what’s in a movie before playing it – I’ve found VidAngel does a great job of telling you exactly what type of adult content is in a movie. Having a feature like this (even if a plugin from a 3rd party) would be a nice add.
Though I agree, I would not want this to take away from the core development work of PLEX. The movies I add I do so knowing full well what content will be there. It’s my personal responsibility to review that content before playing for my family.
Side note: I’d pay a bit extra for a feature like this though.
Just my 2c.
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I completely agree. Obviously there are some movies out there that would lose something if they have this type of editing. However, those that would like this add in to help protect their children and family most likely wouldn’t be watching a film where watching in an edited mode would reduce the story. I come from a very religious family, and while I’m not attempting to impose that life style on anyone, having an option to edit movies, would simply allow more use of plex instead I watch several movies from the blu ray to allow the edit. I chose to not watch movies where nudity or profanity “make the movie”. Take Deadpool for instance, would almost be a silent movie, and not much point in watching it edited. So I chose not to watch it to begin with.
This addon, if created, would be completely optional, and not imposed on anyone that didn’t want to use it. So why put up such a fuss to make things more usable for others just because you wouldn’t use it. If you don’t want to use it… don’t. Clearplay has downloadable filters. Also as another way to market their product, they might even be willing to do the work in order to integrate with Plex and minimize the extra work for Plex developers. All I’m saying is this would make further use of Plex much easier for the movies people already watch, it would just allow them to digitize them. I don’t rent movies I can’t filter. I do a little research and buy so I can watch it edited if its something I still want to watch after the research.
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Wow - I’m surprised by the negative reaction to this idea. It’s one thing to just not care about a feature request because it doesn’t apply to you. But there are clearly some of you out there who are mad about this! Too funny.
Yes, this would be a good feature. So many movies are ruined by throwing in a few obligatory f-bombs and ■■■ scenes (see, even the forum has enough decency to apply filters). And by ruined, I don’t mean the story was broken or anything like that, I mean that what would have been a fun movie to watch with the family just got disqualified by 30 seconds of explicit acts or vulgarity that really weren’t needed in the first place.
So, this feature would allow us to re-qualify some otherwise good movies for a fun family night!
A simple example: consider Oblivion (2013). My boys would really get a kick out of that movie… late elementary school to middle school age. They like action, adventure, sci-fi, etc. But there are a couple scenes (naked in a pool, showering together) - that only last a few moments. But for an eager young boy, those scenes would last a lifetime! And they’re not critical to the movie… the boys aren’t going to be left confused if they were filtered out… And because I’m a sci-fi nerd it’d be fun to watch it with them.
The problem isn’t with just one isolated example. The real problem is that there are TONS of movies like this - but for a few elements, they’d be great to watch with the family! So yes, this feature would be great - it would significantly expand our family viewing options.
VidAngel tried to go down this road and the movie studios shut them down (google VidAngel lawsuit). But while it was up and running, it was awesome (it’s running now under a different, crippled model while they fight the lawsuits). I could pick and choose filters to apply to a movie, then play it and we got to see a lot of movies together without having to FF (not too far what’s going on… wait, too little, crap, you just paused on the wrong frame… Dad Fail!). VidAngel is still fighting. But Plex is a different deal - we actually own the content, so there’s no reason we can’t filter our own stuff.
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Profanity filter is just a special case of “EDL playlists”.
Maybe you do want to cut out profanity, but maybe you want to only select the songs from a musical, and cut out everything else, or make a drinking game where you blank out classic phrases.
See this feature request: [FEATURE REQUEST] Playlists with EDL lists
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I removed my vote from this as it seems to be a fairly unrealistic feature request. Settings a la ClearPlay and VidAngel (both great services, by the way) come from very manual efforts. True, there is some detection done automatically to kick things off using subtitles but the real work is done manually.
Plex is a player and this request seems to go way beyond its scope. How about instead we support Playlists with EDL lists as @samliddicott suggests where it could support all sorts of features and see what other [possibly third party] solutions it could lead to?
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While I agree, this may be a bridge too far, I do wonder if some sort of community sourcing could be applied (kind of like subtitles). Let people share filter-sets they’ve built for a movie.
A complicating factor may be not all rips are the same, so the filter start/stop points won’t always perfectly align.
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