Customer Reviews

ClearPlay DVD Player with Free Trial Membership

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I really am debating whether 2 or 3 stars. Read below and see why. In the end I give it 3 stars due to the good Customer service we have received most the time to resolve issues.

Let me start to say that we really prefer to watch edited videos. In this, the DVD player works great-- no more language and nudity and swearing. We love it. Not seamless edits like Family Flix used to do, but does the job well enough that we don't mind. We wish it had HDMI output and quality, but we knew going into it that it didn't. The YPbPr works well enough for now, even hooked up to our HDTV.

The only downside of our experience, unfortunately, was the amount of time and effort it took us to get a working player. We purchased the first about 6 months ago from Target, and it couldn't read any DVD's. We called Clearplay customer service, very helpful, and they told us they had a bad batch of DVD players go out with this problem and told us to return it to Target. Which we did. Then I decided I'd surprise my wife (who still wanted one) with one for Christmas. This time ordered from Amazon.com. Arrived quickly, sat under the tree, went to hook up on Christmas day and the DVD tray wouldn't open. At all. Could hear it trying, but it was locked or something. Opened up the case and fiddled with the mechanism, got it open and put a DVD in, read just fine, and played well. Went to open it up after, and it was locked back again. This was a mechanical issue, and after our first go around decided just to return it as defective merchandise. We got an RMA, returned it back to Amazon at their charge, and got our money back. Third try around New Years--bought it from local Christian Family Bookstore. Got home, player worked fine but memory stick did not. Talked to Clearplay again, first rep not helpful but second one was very much so, who sent us out a new memory stick that solved all the problems (curiously, a new USB stick from local electronics store did not, even when formated and copied files same).

Now for past couple weeks, Clearplay DVD working great and filtering movies as advertised. Moral of the story--Quality of player itself is suspect at best (read = cheap) and many would not have the patience and fortitude to go through our experience. But if you do, or if Clearplay improves their product quality, then the end result is worth the money if you like movies but not everything Hollywood likes to add to them even when they are totally not relevant to the plot or enjoyment.

These Clearplay DVD players really do work. You can configure the settings you want and it automatically skips certain scenes and mutes certain words when the ClearPlay feature is turned on. It's done carefully so it's as smooth as can be expected. As long as I keep it up to date it supports almost all the movies I've tried (I've mostly tried recent PG and PG-13 movies). It makes watching movies together as a family a lot more fun instead of always worrying about "that one part." Of course some movies just aren't appropriate for kids with or without filtering, but the majority of movies are mostly good but with just a couple problem areas seemingly inserted just to ensure it wouldn't get the dreaded 'G' rating and be automatically considered a kids movie, even when that's not really the case.
I originally had the older MaxPlay model and replaced it with this one which is a big improvement since you can update it using the standard USB flash drive they provide (the MaxPlay had to use a phone line to dial up and retrieve updates).
I've contacted support on a couple of occassions and got a quick and helpful email response, so no complaints there.
I haven't had any problems with audio or video as long as the unit is plugged in properly and configured correctly. I use the digitial audio and component video outputs so I'm not sure about the analog audio out, but I'd be really surprised if there was a widespread audio problem as another review seemed to indicate. A hum can be caused by almost anything, from RF interference to a grounding problem in the house wiring, or a just plain cheap junky TV in combination with certain types of equipment.
I have had to "reboot" the unit once or twice by unplugging it for 30 seconds and then plugging back in, but for the most part it works great, and it's by far the best option for viewing your existing DVD collection without the scenes and language you'd rather not watch/listen to.

We were Clearplay "early adopters." We purchased one of the first DVD players that loaded filters from CDs. The player worked as advertised and our family used it about once a week or so. We loved the fact that we could watch movies (and some TV shows) that we otherwise never would because of the content. After several years of light to medium use, the player began to stop playing DVDs without coaxing and finally quit altogether. We were not happy about this, but reluctantly decided to purchase another, newer machine. We were told by ClearPlay that the new DVD machine was higher quality and improved interface. We purchased the new machine in December of 2007. The first thing we noticed was that the new USB "filter stick" was DOA. In order to use the player at Christmas time, I had to contact tech support and download the new filters onto a USB stick that I provided. The machine then worked OK, but had a constant low audio buzz. However, because we liked the filtering so much, we decided to live with the product. Now, it is a year and half later and the new machine has stopped reading DVDs! Of course, the company now says that "we're sorry, but you are past the warranty. Would you like to purchase a new machine and a 15 month subscription for $150?" A new machine would be our third due simply to poor quality. Frankly, we are not happy. This is a good concept. I hope that Clearplay improves the quality of the hardware. We can buy a cheap plain vanilla DVD player for $29.95 at retail. If the players are going to break so often, then their pricing needs to reflect that.

inappropriate language based on closed captioning info. It had served us well. However, we feel that we have "stepped up" to the next level of family friendly movie filtering with our ClearPlay Content-Filtering DVD Player because... not only does it filter inappropriate language, it also filters out inappropriate scenes (visuals) as well. Works great, nice quality picture, component out... We would recommend this product to anyone looking to protect their family from inappropriate material in DVDs while still having the ability to watch many of the Hollywood blockbusters that are available today!

Buyer beware...If you are a new customer to Clearplay they treat you like gold. However once you become an existing customer you get treated like garbage. For instance I sent my clearplay back to them for replacement in Sept. I was told they would fix it and have it back to me, if not I would get a new one. It is now mid November and they haven't even sent an email saying "hey it's delayed"..I've had to call them multiple times and get the run around after being on hold for hours at a time. Today I was on hold for an hour to try and get status when they might ship my player, I got tired of holding and pressed one instead of 3 for existing customers and I got right through..NICE HEH...New customers get right through but existing customers..>JUST WAIT!! I spoke to a rep on Sat. and she told me all of the players that they have recieved with this current shipment are being shipped to new customers..That they are not shipping to existing customers yet...DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? IF YOU CAN'T SUPPORT YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMER NEEDS/DEMANDS , WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU GET MORE CUSTOMERS!! SO BEWARE...ONCE YOU BECOME AN "EXISTING" CUSTOMER YOU ARE NOW AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PRIORITY LIST AS FAR AS SUPPORT, REPLACEMENT PLAYERS ETC.. THESE PLAYERS ARE JUNK AND DIE OFTEN..WISH I COULD RECOMMEND ANOTHER COMPANY...BUT..

Purchased in January 2009. The player worked with one movie and then stopped working. It took 4 months to get a new player after calling customer service numerous times. When the new unit came,the box did not contain a filter stick. Called customer service again. I was told another filter stick would be sent out. Never happened. Customer service had no record of me calling for the filter stick. It is June and a still do not have a player that works. This company needs some competition.

My husband got me this DVD player for my birthday. We had been talking about getting one for months and were excited to finally have one. After opening it we ran into problem after problem. First thing we noticed is although swearing, nudity, and violence are cleaned up blasphemy is still rampant in several of the videos we watched. After that we noticed that the first video played really well, but the second one would start pixelating about half way through the movie. The final straw was that the sound went out on the player completely.

The product itself feels and appears cheaply made. We experienced the same as a previous reviewer in that the remote worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't. Customer service was not the best. The website is frustrating to work in. All in all it was just a huge disappointment.

My husband and I loved the idea of this filtering and my husband especially was exited to catch up on all of the movies we didn't see but otherwise would have if certain things were filtered out. We recieved the player and set up and downloading of filters was easy enough, but three months later, the hardware itself just wouldn't turn on. (and we only used it about once a week with me working full time and him in grad school) We contacted clearplay and they told us they'd send us a new one. Three weeks later, we called them up and they had no record of us calling and apologized and told us again they'd send us a new one...(long story short), it wasn't until three months later that we recieved our new one. And within two months, IT broke!! I was ready to give up and demand our money back, but my husband, still anxious to catch up on a few more movies, wanted to try once more. Well, this is our third clearplay DVD player and we've only had it for three months working, and same story- it just WON'T turn on!! I wish there was a company that would compete with Clearplays concept that made better hardware. The actual make of the DVD player is HORRIBLE and their customer service isn't much better. I don't know what they'll say this third time we call them now demanding a full refund. This is ridiculous! Don't buy this product unless you are willing to go through a hassle!

The Clearplay DVD player itself is nice. However, I've been VERY disappointed with its customer service. First, a salesperson told my brother (who had bought the player for me) that he would be getting a deal where if he bought 2 players, he would also get 2 one year free memberships. Did not happen--instead, they only gave us 1 month free, even though he had bought 2 players.

Next, my Clearplay tray would not open after a very short time of having it. I was told that I could send the player back and get a new one...but Clearplay makes the consumer, who only had the faulty player for a short while, pay for the shipping to send it back to Clearplay (even though the salesman told me that my DVD player was part of a batch of faulty players they had sold).

There were other instances in which the person I talked to on the phone had told me one thing and then a different thing had happened, to the customer's loss and to Clearplay's benefit. Very poor customer service.

I've been using clearplay for over 6 years and I'd rather not ever watch a movie without it. Too bad I can't take it to the theater with me.
As some have stated the DVD players leave a lot to be desired reliability wise and I've gone through a couple players myself. I'd say they last about 3 years on average before the disk stops spinning up, but I had the exact same problem with other inexpensive players too before I got clearplay. For me the filtering is worth a new player every year in addition to the membership but I do wish they could improve the reliability of the player, it is a wart I'd rather do without.