Parental Lock in Software

Creator QR Code in Software Parental Lock

DVD includes parental management features to block playback of an entire disc or to control which parts of the disc or which versions of a multi-rated movie can be viewed A player can be set to a specific parental level using a password protected onscreen menu If a disc with a rating above the selected level is put in the player, it will not play Each program on the disc can have a different rating A DVD may be designed so that it plays a different version of the movie depending on the parental level that has been set in the player By taking advantage of the branching feature, scenes can automatically be skipped over or substituted during playback, usually without a visible pause or break For example, a PG-rated scene can be substituted for an R-rated scene, along with dialog containing less profanity This requires that the disc be carefully authored with alternate scenes and branch points that do not cause interruptions or discontinuities in the soundtrack

Sadly, fewer than one percent of DVDs use the multi-rating feature Most of the ones that do, ironically, use it to include unrated scenes rather than provide a more family-friendly version Hollywood studios are not convinced that the demand merits the extra work involved, which may include shooting extra footage, recording extra audio, editing new sequences, creating seamless branch points, synchronizing the soundtrack across jumps, submitting new versions for MPAA rating, dealing with players that do not implement parental branching properly, having video store chains refuse to carry discs with unrated content, and much more The few discs that have multirated content do not have standard package labeling or other ways to be easily identified Another option is to use a software player or a specialized DVD player that can read a playlist or a use a filter telling it where to skip scenes or mute the audio3 Playlists can be used to retrofit thousands of DVD movies that have been produced without parental control features Blu-ray implements parental control in a more simple and flexible way The player has a parental level that can be set using a password protected onscreen menu but, otherwise, the player does not check the disc or control playback Commands on the disc can check the parental level of the player and respond accordingly stop playback, choose different paths through a movie, substitute a different audio track, play alternative versions, and so forth

To provide access to all the content on a disc, the DVD-Video format includes on-screen menus Menus are used to select from among multiple programs, choose scenes (chapters) within a program, choose audio tracks and subtitles, navigate through multilevel or interactive programs, and more Playback can stop at any point for interaction with the viewer, or selectable hot spots can be visibly or invisibly placed over live video For example, a DVD may have a main menu from which you can choose to watch the movie, view a trailer, watch a "making of" featurette, or peruse production stills Another menu may also be available from which you can choose to hear the regular soundtrack, foreign language sound track, or director's commentary Selecting a "bonus features" option from the main menu may bring up another menu with options such as cast and crew bios, script pages, storyboards, and outtakes Menus were a new and unfamiliar feature to many people when DVD was introduced4 A decade later, when Blu-ray rolled out, DVD menus had become comfortably familiar yet, in some ways, frustratingly primitive (See 10, Interactivity, for more on limitations of modal menus) There was an expectation that Blu-ray would take menus out of the stone age, which it did Blu-ray menus can popup over the video at any time, allowing the viewer to make selections in the middle of a program without interrupting the program flow Blu-ray also implements multipage menus so that submenus appear quickly and without interruption in the

3ClearPlay is the primary company providing this capability 4One newcomer to DVD complained that the picture and sound were great, but the discs only showed shortened versions of the movies over and over It turned out that the hapless novice thought that the intro video loop in the menu was all there was