My DVD player remembers if you stopped a DVD midmovie, and will start it back up there, even if you have watched other DVDs in the interim. A function like this could be used to custom edit DVDs. One could insert stop and restart points such that the player skips over sections of the movie on subsequent viewings. This could be used to get rid of boring, scary or age-inappropriate parts of otherwise worthy movies. It could be done using a commercial DVD, as only the player is edited.

This function could also be just the sound, so parents concerned about cussing could do their own censoring.
-- bungston, Aug 16 2007

This might not be entirely unbaked... http://sfgate.com/c.../07/BUGLL61GFQ1.DTL
[marked-for-deletion] fairly widely known to exist [hippo, Aug 17 2007]

Programmed re-editing http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Re-edited_film
Scroll down to see the section on "Programmed re-editing" [hippo, Aug 17 2007]

Actually that is pretty brilliant. Someone could even provide an online service where the dvdplayer could download custom playing instructions to turn an R movie into a PG.

This should not violate anyone's copyright since it is just a set of instructions on how to watch the movie, not a modification to the product itself.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 17 2007


The Clearplay DVD linked by [hippo] shows that the technology to do this exists - as obviously it must, given the first sentence in the idea. However, with the linked product, someone else decides what your DVD will skip.

I want this to be user programmable. There is no reason why it should not be. It might be used to edit a porno movie to be more in line with a given viewers tastes. It might be used to remove long boring arty sequences from a movie like Jackie Brown. It might be used to remove a scary clown.
-- bungston, Aug 17 2007



random, halfbakery