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I thought this would be a good topic to add here. This is not meant to be an "advertisement", for any one product, but a rather an unbiased review of a wonderful technology that exists.
I personally don't put much stock in "canned testimonials" (we've all seen the late night infomercials)! So that is why I felt a personal review would be helpful here...
My family has been using the TV Guardian obscene language filter for approx. one year now; What it does: It works by monitoring the hidden Closed-Caption text and comparing each word against a dictionary of more than 150 offensive words and phrases. It will mute the entire sentence/phrase (usually).
(Note - It does Not work like the *lame* V-Chip technology...)
You can set it to display alternate text, or turn the text function off completely. My suggestion is to turn the text display off - if you leave it on, you are tempted to try to "fill-in" the filtered audio by trying to guess what was said. If you leave it off, the offending part goes by quickly enough that you are on to the next scene & you forget about it.
There are different "filter level" settings; i.e. strict/moderate/religious/more. Our personal experience; the items that it does filter, it does a great job.
However, MANY TV shows are not broadcast in CC, so it does No filtering for them.
Broadcasts such as:
Live sporting events, pro wrestling, talk shows, many reality shows, news, & some movies (Universal Studios releases are one example.) which are released w/o CC - No filtering.
Also, if a foul word is mispelled, or not in sync w/ the audio, it sometimes will not catch it.
I would say this unit works at about a 70% filter level for catching all of the offending material for the type of viewing that my family engages in.
If the show does have CC, 95 to 100% of the offending content will be filtered. Again, problem is that many shows are not Closed Captioned...
All that being said, I still feel that this unit provides an exceptional service for any family that is trying to "tone down" the "objectionable" material spewing forth from their tv speakers! We are personally happy with it & would buy it again!
Now, if only they made a nudity filter...
I personally don't put much stock in "canned testimonials" (we've all seen the late night infomercials)! So that is why I felt a personal review would be helpful here...
My family has been using the TV Guardian obscene language filter for approx. one year now; What it does: It works by monitoring the hidden Closed-Caption text and comparing each word against a dictionary of more than 150 offensive words and phrases. It will mute the entire sentence/phrase (usually).
(Note - It does Not work like the *lame* V-Chip technology...)
You can set it to display alternate text, or turn the text function off completely. My suggestion is to turn the text display off - if you leave it on, you are tempted to try to "fill-in" the filtered audio by trying to guess what was said. If you leave it off, the offending part goes by quickly enough that you are on to the next scene & you forget about it.
There are different "filter level" settings; i.e. strict/moderate/religious/more. Our personal experience; the items that it does filter, it does a great job.
However, MANY TV shows are not broadcast in CC, so it does No filtering for them.
Broadcasts such as:
Live sporting events, pro wrestling, talk shows, many reality shows, news, & some movies (Universal Studios releases are one example.) which are released w/o CC - No filtering.
Also, if a foul word is mispelled, or not in sync w/ the audio, it sometimes will not catch it.
I would say this unit works at about a 70% filter level for catching all of the offending material for the type of viewing that my family engages in.
If the show does have CC, 95 to 100% of the offending content will be filtered. Again, problem is that many shows are not Closed Captioned...
All that being said, I still feel that this unit provides an exceptional service for any family that is trying to "tone down" the "objectionable" material spewing forth from their tv speakers! We are personally happy with it & would buy it again!
Now, if only they made a nudity filter...
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