This TV gadget censors bad words with 1980's tech

actually, when writing H E Double Hockey Sticks, they could have written "H asterisk asterisk asteroid." Now, doing that is very bad subtitling practice; After all, if adults choose to watch a movie with profanity and rely on subtitles, they are not watching the movie they chose to see if the subtitles are censored. So in the grand scheme of things, that should be uncommon. But oh, the sweet irony of a sanctimonious transcript causing bad

words

to leak into TV Guardian! Finally, there is the synchronization of the subtitles. Live events rely on stenographers furiously stenographing what is spoken and that creates a substantial delay in subtitles.

So those sports commentators better not be idiots. Scripted content is usually better, but it's not perfect. The Guardian let quite a few things slip in Goodfellas. To be fair, they don't claim the box to be perfect. Another somewhat strange choice was the inability to censor any RF source. There is a coaxial input, but it's only one step and it actually ships with a red cover over the top connection and there's a note in the manual that basically says "do not use

this

." Yes, it has a built-in RF modulator for streaming to older TVs, but the

censors

hip feature only works on the composite input.

So if you want

this

to work with live TV, you'll need to have satellite or cable, or you'll need to use your VCR's TV tuner for wireless broadcasts from now on and hope your kids don't. discover that part. I imagine this was mostly a cost-cutting measure, but it still seems silly. Oh, and since there's only one input... well, that gets fun when you have a cable box, a VCR, and a DVD player and you want them all to be protected. Your VCR better be fancy enough to have two inputs and then you can run everything through it.

But if you're not so lucky, you'll need some kind of video switcher. The manual even says the same thing. However, the limitations we just reviewed are all

tech

nical. There is also a fairly obvious conceptual obstacle. I chose Goodfellas and The Birdcage to demonstrate this because I have a feeling that the type of person who bought TV Guardian might object to some of the images and themes in those films. Just a hunch. The TV Guardian cannot do anything about the content or what appears on the screen; It can only be a pretty good profanity filter, but not perfect.

So I'm somewhat perplexed by the perceived value here. You'll still have to look for anything you don't want your kids to... see. I guess there's a lot of content out there that's otherwise pretty boring, but has some sailor-mouth moments. But it's really just that middle ground where this can be of any use. And if I may be so bold, if you are worried about your children hearing the occasional bad word, you better not let them leave the house. It was a joke, I just want to be clear, but yes, there are a lot of bad

words

outside of television, and I hate to tell you that.

Still, as much as I think this is nonsense and not for me at all, I'll take my hat off for being pretty smart. And, if you think this idea has some merit, or maybe you know someone in your life who would have loved one of these, I have good news! This company still exists and now makes HDMI versions so you can protect your Netflix. Except, not really. Yes, they still rely on line 21 subtitles. Probably because HDMI doesn't actually carry subtitle data. The website makes it pretty clear that whatever you're connecting to the new versions of these stills must have a composite video output for it to work, so the HDMI video signal is...

I guess it's just a step over which draws subtitles. ? I don't know, I would investigate further, but it's effortless November. Before I go, I want to do two more things. First, I want to thank my old sponsor Colin for sending this to me. It's none of our topics, but it's certainly an intriguing use of subtitles. And second... well, I think it's time I finally rip off the band-aid on a certain video topic I promised. In my video about subtitles, I said I would make a video in teletext. And I said I would do it "soon." That was almost four years ago.

So what happened? Well, I don't think I'm the right person to tell that story. I've never used it and as such I don't really feel any enthusiasm or nostalgia for it. For those who don't know, which is mainly people outside Europe, teletext was an earlier and much, much, much more capable use of the vertical blanking interval to send data along with television broadcasts. And I can't emphasize enough the much more capable part. It wasn't just subtitles. There was full news, weather information, sports information, quiz games and even computer programs, all sent along with regular television. For some reason, probably the lack of a nationalized television station, that never caught on here.

Americans simply don't know what teletext is or was. We never had it apart from small scale tests here and there. Those who live where teletext is common will be surprised that our subtitles work well on VHS cassettes; See our standard was designed with that in mind. Teletext, on the other hand, has very high bandwidth and televisions would not be able to decode it from a consumer videotape. However, some really interesting people have developed software

tech

niques to recover teletext information from home recordings, and files are being created and expanded as we speak. That's really interesting to me, but without a personal connection... to that, I just won't do the story justice.

I'll leave that for someone else to address. I've put links to information about Teletext and the file, if you're curious, below in the description. But yeah, a teletext video... won't happen on this channel. I bet there are some very interesting videos on YouTube right now. Oh my God. No. Nooo... Why do these appear? They have nothing to do... Well, well, if any of you have been waiting to make a video, waiting for me to do something, go ahead, I'll even keep an eye out for them. And this one is pretty good if you want to learn a little about it right now.

OK Bye. ♫ smooth and secular jazz ♫ Are you looking for a technological solution to your fear of not doing it? Are you a prude who can't stand the thought of your kids being exposed? Oh God, I didn't take a breath at the right time. Of course, there is a custom circuit breaker...circuit board. It's not a circuit breaker! Caption data is sent in bursts that encode all text. Caption data is sent in bursts that encode all text to be displayed. That's a mouthful! Which encodes all the text that will be displayed! ...which encodes all the text that will be displayed.

I did it! But I didn't think he would! ...which encodes all the text in bees Oh my goodness! All text to be. Text to be. That's it... all the text should be Haha, wow! As much as... Oh God. This is like Dietz Nuts all over again. It's not even supposed to be funny! It first relies on subtitles to A) be there in the first place, B) Oh yeah, that's right. ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ ______________ _______ __ ____ ____ ______________ __ __ So what do you think? ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ ______________ __ __ ______________ __ __ ________ __ NICE VIDEO, HUH? ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ ______________ __ __ ______________ __ __ ________ __ ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ ______________ __ __ ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ THIS GAG VIOLATES THE SPIRIT OF NO EFFORT NOVEMBER ______________ __ __ ____ __ __ ______________ __ _____ __ __ ______________ __ __ TO SHAME