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The world's biggest retailer is offering a DVD player that slices out potentially offensive content from movies, such as nudity, violence and foul language. The device, available at Wal-Mart for about $70, merges video-editing technology developed by ClearPlay with an RCA brand DVD player. The DVD player works by cutting scenes or muting parts of the movie, according to guidelines from ClearPlay's staff of editors, said ClearPlay CEO Bill Aho. Where's My (Bleeping) Sex? Who wants a DVD player that automatically deletes all the juicy bits of movies? One guess. Companies that will, without anyone asking them to, protect us from media evildoers and exposed flesh and scary exploding things and that part in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" wherein the universe is blessed, for the briefest of moments, with the joy of Kate Winslet's radiant nipples. Nearly every movie produced today is available on DVD, and many older movies are being moved to the DVD format. Often, a movie comes out on DVD before it comes out on video tape, because the manufacturing and distribution costs for DVDs are so much lower! By bringing outstanding picture and sound to our favorite films, the DVD format is doing for movies exactly what CDs did for music. As PC and consumer electronics vendors work to move digital media off your PC and into your living room, they're calling on a familiar favorite to lead the way: the DVD player. DVD players and recorders have a great advantage over many other approaches to creating a digital home: They are well-established living room products that connect to a TV, the traditional centerpiece of a home entertainment system. Your DVD might not be the first device that springs to mind as a channel for connecting your PC to your home entertainment system, but why not? DVD players can already handle some of the files stored on your PC: MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies and in many cases MP3s. And DVD players are already on good terms with your TV and your sound system. Add a PC card slot for wired or wireless networking; toss in support for WMA music, MPEG-4 video and JPEG still images; and you've got yourself a pretty good PC-to-entertainment-center bridge. Playing DVDs under GNU/Linux has not had the happiest of histories, what with the DeCSS debacle and subsequent legal battle. So you'd be forgiven for thinking that you will never be able to play your DVDs on your GNU/Linux system. Luckily, this is not the case, and there are several applications available for you to download and use. The issue with DeCSS is still with us but is slowly getting clearer. However, this has left some of the DVD players officially not supporting encrypted DVDs, although unofficially, playback is possible via third-party additions. Samsung's DVD-V4600 DVD/VCR combo has a full complement of AV inputs and outputs for its 4 Head HiFi VCR section, as well as composite, component, and S-Video outputs for the DVD side. There is both a digital optical and digital coaxial output for DD 5.1 and DTS soundtracks. The DVD side is compatible with CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and (VCD) discs. For TVs with no AV inputs, the DVD-V4600 also has RF outputs. Well, assuming you already have a TV and assuming that you might like to be able to move your DVD player around with a minimum of trouble, Sony has an affordable portable DVD player that you might want to check out. The PSYC, as Sony calls it, is a DVD player that can also play audio CDs as well as CD-R/CD-RW discs that are loaded with MP3s. The PSYC weighs less than three pounds and is quite compact when compared to the traditional rectangular stereo component shape of most DVD players. The PSYC is even able to be color matched to your room: the player comes with a silver background from the factory, but there are three color panels that you can insert to change its looks. The holidays have come to an end. It seems like just yesterday thanks were being given, wrapping paper was being torn to pieces and you were nursing that New Year's hangover. Through it all, you've probably snapped dozens, hundreds-maybe thousands-of digital pictures. Now you've got a hard drive full of snapshots, all dressed up with no place to go. Some of your family and friends have dial-up accounts, so you can't send a slew of pictures that way, and you can't expect them all to come to your house to view the pictures. Heck, maybe some of them don't even own a computer. What to do? Why not create a disc that will play in a DVD player, with your images as a slideshow and maybe some nice holiday background music? With a CD burner, you can create a VCD-a CD which will play in most newer DVD players. (Our DVD player is at least four years old, and it plays VCDs).
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