What is ClearPlay?
ClearPlay is a Christian, family-friendly movie filtering service that offers viewers competitive advantages over VidAngel. It is a subscription-based service that takes a unique approach to filtering violence, nudity/sex, swearing, blasphemy and more out of your programs. Its filters are available as either a Chrome extension or downloadable filter files which can be used with DVD and Blu-Ray players. Read more to discover if ClearPlay is the right filtering service for your family.
Here’s a quick rundown of how ClearPlay makes their system legal to use for any movie.
How is ClearPlay different from VidAngel?
ClearPlay differs from VidAngel in how it filters your programs. Whereas VidAngel edits movies to remove scenes you don’t want to see, ClearPlay uses software cues to remove undesired content. This allows it to filter movies from Disney and Warner Bros, when VidAngel — who makes copies of films in order to edit them — cannot due to copyright protections. Because ClearPlay doesn’t make copies, any program could be offered through their service.
Downsides to ClearPlay lie in the somewhat unpredictable nature of its scene cuts and omissions. The filtering software uses cues to determine where and when to remove objectionable material, but these cues do not always work perfectly. They may cause your program to switch scenes suddenly or delete portions of the audio, with the intention of catching bad words or scenes. For more on how this service preformed while filtering, see our review below.
While VidAngel might provide you a smoother viewing experience, it lacks the selection and potential for major expansion ClearPlay offers. Besides, the latter lets you watch programs from Disney and other producers who have refused to allow VidAngel to edit their programs. When deciding between the two, your family’s viewing choices will make the difference. If you want greater selection and the ability to watch programs from Disney or Warner Bros, then ClearPlay would be best. Can’t stand choppy movies or slips in filtering? Then VidAngel is for you.
Selection
Selection is ClearPlay’s strong suit. The service offers viewers choice of over 4,500 of movies from various streaming services including broad selection from Prime Video, Max, Netflix, and Disney+, as well as a more limited choice from Apple TV+. To see if a movie is available, check their website at ClearPlay.com
How much does Clearplay cost?
It’s not cheap. If you’re looking to test out the filtering software, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. Pricing plans include:
| Monthly subscription $7.99 | Savings $0 |
| Annual subscription $79.99 | Savings (over monthly) $15.89 |
| Three year subscription $199.00 | Savings (over monthly) $88.64 Savings (over yearly) $40.97 |
| ClearPlay DVD player with 3-month subscription and one-year warranty. $224.99 | Savings (over regular price) $53.96 |
We put ClearPlay to the test
How we tested
We signed up for ClearPlay’s one month free trial to put its software to the test. We watched movies with all filters on to see how well the service would remove inappropriate content and how smoothly it would do it. For comparison, we watched the same movies without the filters to get a feel for how well the software improved the viewing experience.
The experience
ClearPlay works well for its primary purpose: filtering. However the service can be much improved. Here’s what we found. Scene cuts were effective but jerky. Sometimes movies would suddenly skip from the middle of one scene to another, a nuisance to those trying to follow the story line. Omissions for audio fared worse in general. Most of the time, the software correctly removed the audio when a character cursed. But in one movie the feature seemed accelerated.
What we thought
ClearPlay is worth consideration, especially if you would like access to a greater variety of filtered programs than VidAngel offers. We would like to see improvements in ClearPlay’s reliability, especially with audio cuts. Overall we rate it 7 of 10 stars. We would like to see more filtering services and options, if you know of one we haven’t reviewed, let us know in the comment section.
Our Rating:
Audio would cut about 3-5 seconds before a character would swear, and then when actual curse words were employed, they slipped past the filter, definitely not what parents are looking for in a filtering service. Quality of playback varies from movie to movie, some had few problems with either skipping or mistimed audio cuts, in others, the programs quality was significantly reduced. We are not saying that the movies were better unfiltered, just that the poor quality of certain filters harms quality. In fact, our testers said that the presence of filters made obscene movies like National Lampoon’s Vacation good to watch for families. Without filters we wouldn’t recommend such a movie for you or your children.
What Do You Think?
Do you use ClearPlay or VidAngel to filter your movies and TV programs? If so, let us know how your experience was. If you used ClearPlay, how was the quality of the cuts and omissions? If you used VidAngel, how was the selection? Did you often find your family wanting to watch programs unavailable on either service? Let us know in the comment section down below.
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