Las Vegas – Sanyo Fisher today announced it will integrate the TV Guardian offensive-language filter into several of its 2002 DVD players and VCRs.
TV Guardian, The Foul Language Filter, technology was developed by Principle Solutions and has sold as a set-top box since 2000, but Sanyo Fisher is the first vendor to incorporate it into any products, said Mike Seals, Principle’s president.
TV Guardian will be included in the Fisher SL-30 DVD player and the DCS-750 home theater in a box, said Richard Miller, sales and marketing VP for Sanyo Fisher. The DVD player will ship in April with a $149 suggested retail price. The latter, a six-piece 200-watt system, hits retail in May with a $349 price tag.
Under the Sanyo brand name, TV Guardian will be in the DWM-380 DVD player, shipping in April with a $139 suggested retail price, and the DVW-5000 DVD/VCR combo shipping in May for $229. The technology will also appear in two Sanyo VCRs, the VWM-410 and VWM-710. The former product is a four-head model shipping in May with a $69 suggested retail price and the latter is the hi-fi version shipping in April with a $79 suggested retail price.
TV Guardian works by reading through the closed caption text of a program, locating offensive language and then muting the sound and replacing the foul language with a more acceptable phrase pulled from an on-board dictionary. This phrase is shown as text on the screen. There are three levels of protection: unfiltered; moderate, which deletes foul language but allows references to God, Jesus and Christ when used in a religious setting; and strict, which deletes all offensive words.
