File: README — Documentation for sensible-cinema (0.19.0)

Sensible-cinema (also known to us as “paranoid cinema” [inside joke ha ha] ) is a program that allows you to apply programmed edit lists (i.e. Edit Decision Lists) to DVD’s you own [2].

I.e. you can edit a DVD to “mute out” or skip certain scenes.

It is essentially a linear editor [1] that applies Edit Decision Lists [2] to videos, by wrapping a few freely available open source programs [3] (VLC Media Player, Mplayer/mencoder, ffmpeg et al) to accomplish the editing for you. Then you can sit back and relax as you watch a “sanitized” version of your DVD.

To use it, basically install it then run it (see installation section, below). It will come up with some windows where you choose what you want to do

If you try to make an edited copy of your DVD, note that it will take about one and a half times as long as the playtime of the movie itself, so budget some time for it.

Also note that just because a video lacks profanity…does not immediately make it an inspiring experience. I’d suggest carefully evaluating your motives, and going with those. Sensible cinema does not a clean movie make of a dirty one. Don’t watch it if it’s not wholesome! Be nice to yourself! dove.org is a good reference for discovering the “uplifting” level of movies [4]. And of course sensible cinema does help a little bit. Also note that even if you have an edited copy of a DVD floating around, if you have kids, chances are they will eventually find (and watch) the unedited originals, so be careful there, and do what is needful.

Enjoy your movies!

1: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_video_editing
2: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edit_decision_list
3: mostly GPL programs, see www.gnu.org/licenses/
4: lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,00.html search for the word “wholesome”

Installation ==

To install, download the latest .zip versioned file from: rogerdpack.t28.net/sensible-cinema/ then unzip it (right click -> Extract all) then “click into it” and search for and run the file “run sensible cinema.bat”

Creating Your Own Edit Lists, or modifying previously existing ones ==

See the accompanied how_to_create.txt file.

FAQ ==

How do I watch these on my TV, not just on my computer?
You could burn a new DVD with it. First create it on your hard drive. Then use some burning utility.

Dvd Flick is a good one for windows.  Heere's a screencast of using it: http://rogerdpack.t28.net/sensible-cinema
For OS X : iDVD might work well.
You might be able to move your laptop over to near your TV and hook it in from there.  
Or buy a very long cord and plug it in as an extra monitor from your desktop.
If you're interested in also being able to "beam" it from your computer to your game console (ex: PS3) ping me--I might have 
something in mind that could help, though hasn't been created yet.

I want to give an edited DVD to a friend, how do I do that?
Probably give them the original DVD and a link to sensible-cinema :) You may want to loan them a DVD burner if they don’t have one.

Caveats ==

NB that “someone” has to create a edit decision lists, per DVD. If one doesn’t yet exist for the DVD you want edited, you could employ somebody to create it, or create it yourself. Make sure to submit it back to us when you’re done, so that everyone can benefit from it. Fortunately only one person has to do it, once, for everybody to benefit, and the editing process is fairly easy.

Also note that if your DVD has scratches that cause it to skip, the time signatures will be off, so clean your discs!

Motivation ==

The initial motivation for the project was that I dislike profanity in movies. It’s jarring, if you’re not used to it in real life. Also sometimes certain scenes in movies offend, and don’t contribute to the overall plot, and I’d rather not watch a movie that has them. Clearplay (a realtime filtering DVD player) (for me) didn’t cut it. It costs (I’m too cheap to pay–and many many other people don’t/can’t use it…). Their filters sometimes don’t cut out all unwanted content (ex: Saints and Soldiers left profanity in its filtered version…which wasn’t what I had anticipated. Others have noted that sometimes the edit timings are off so that it will mute out sections just previous to the profanity, while leaving the profanity in, etc.). Also clearplay apparently runs a rather confusing subscription policy, as well, so I’m told [1]. Also sometimes clearplay “mutes out” profanity but you can easily still lip read it, so it’s almost as if you were exposed to it anyway. Not ideal. There is no little community collaboration/review. They don’t even have a “request a filter” option anymore. They don’t have filters for movies that I want edited (Condorman and Tron lacked last time I checked…probably because they are too obscure.) Also I watch movies only on computer, and they no longer have a computer player. They also don’t edit streamed online movies either (last time I checked, anyway). So overall I wanted to build my own that overcame some of these hurdles and was also more accessible/open.

I also wanted to get a prototype out there of some ideas so that people can’t patent them and pretend that they were inventors :)

So the project started off as a prototype that could “watch hulu (online) movies edited” (it uses screen tracking and OCR’s the on-screen timestamp, monitors it for specific times, and reacts appropriately). However, I do not currently release that version to the public for patent reasons (clearplay has a patent on realtime tracking, which is similar). I have released older versions that do, but not anymore. Then I realized I could basically have the same effect by using pre-processing and Edit Decision Lists (basically by using playlists with VLC, to play from second x to y, then from x to mu, etc.). I just pass in a playlist, it does all the work for me. There are a few released versions that do this exactly. Then it occurred to me that you could grab the several clean segments off a DVD, and piece them together to create an edited copy. This avoids realtime tracking. Which is where we are now.

License ==

See the included LICENSE file for licensing and usage terms (basically it’s under gplv3 for all the source). Some other programs are (distributed separately and) used by this one, typically they are under the gplv2 license.

The concept isn’t too novel. Some other previously existing examples:

Edited “airplane edit” style movies. Commercial TV (ABC, NBC) show their own (edited) movies. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_video_editing imdb.com tends to have reasonably good lists of what occurs in movies (find a movie, click on “parent’s guide” on the left). Sometimes it even lists the time signatures for events (ex: “Labyrinth” www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/parentalguide) which you could use to translate into a sensible-cinema compatible list. Normal movies versus “directors cut” versions of movies (one is at times preferable, profanity wise) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edit_decision_list (it’s a linear editing tool, after all–so see the vast list of those) Clean Flicks (used to) sell edited movies www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/edl.html www.oreillynet.com/sysadmin/blog/2005/06/make_your_own_phantom_edit_wit.html (mplayer has had this ability for awhile, with no complaints). clearplay.com a commercial editing player (tracks DVD’s while they play–closed source, costs money, no user contribution possible), and only for DVD’s.

It does offer a few features that sensible cinema disables, for patent reasons, like automatic (user flexible) content decisions.  Ours are manual.
Theirs is also a DVD "instant" player, which this is not, except on computer, though you must use theirs, etc (see motivation section, above).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RiffTrax has an interesting idea of “overlaying” audio over the original video, and synchronizing between the two (their re-player does, anyway). forum.bsplayer.com/feature-requests-feedback-suggestions/7157-chapter-playlist-scene-cut-3.html www.inmatrix.com “scene cut editor” of the zoom player wiki.xbmc.org/?title=EDL_(commercial_skipping)_and_SceneMarker_support (XBMC’s scene cut support–also contains links to some other editors) dvdshrink.info “Re-author” mode: to make “movie-only” backups, compilations, combine “flippers”,.… DvdShrink has the ability to “crop or cut parts of a title” etc. The VCR with its record button, coupled with the stop+rewind button. code.google.com/p/movie-content-editor (written in Python, controls VLC based on captions and edit decision lists, in realtime) forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?10606-Automated-Cutting-and-Transcoding-Guide-Using-Mencoder/page45 www.imdb.com/swiki/special?ParentalGuideHelp (search for “scene description”) www.mythtv.org/wiki/Removing_Commercials Using the remote control with the pause, mute, stop, fast forward, and play buttons, along with previous knowledge of scene locations The scissors and old VHS tapes (Clean Flicks’ origin, if I remember correctly). Windows Movie Maker. Allows for users to cut and copy scenes of movies to their heart’s content. forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=56998 VLC Media Player using EDL’s via playlists Corel WinDVD has “Quick Clip” settings for capturing from DVD. superuser.com/questions/85278/how-can-i-cut-scenes-out-of-a-dvd blog.josephhall.com/2008/09/command-line-dvd-authoring-part-1.html

Troubleshooting ==

Note that you’ll need java previously installed for this to work. You probably already do though. If you run into a snag, try cleaning your DVD. Baking soda toothpaste might help. If it still errs, report it to the authors, along with a screen snapshot and steps of how to reproduce the problem, preferably. See feedback section.

If it says “audio problem try pcm” then you can add “audio_codec” => “lavc” to your EDL and try again.

Also if your DVD playback has no audio, try the “lavc” setting, above. And report it (see feedback).

It can fail also because an edit decision is past end of DVD, or Also note that if your DVD has scratches that cause it to skip, the time signatures will be off after that point, so clean your discs and try again!

Also you could try a different computer (desktop computers’ DVD drives seem to work better at times than laptops’)

Feedback ==

Feedback, including feature requests, comments, etc. welcome.

github.com/rdp/sensible-cinema (message me or create an issue for feedback/any requests/bugs) or e-mail [email protected] If you’re a developer and want to help out with programmming it, please do! Also ping me if you want a mailing list created or what not.