TVGuardian HD Model 501 - Foul Language TV and DVD Profanity Filter

This is my third TVG. I have owned three generations. The first generation was the best but it doesn't have high definition capability. The TVG LT generation was supposed to bridge the HD gap but was a very poor substitute. Because of the failure of the LT model, I was hesitant to buy the HD model but I'm glad I did. Is it overpriced? Yes. However, with all the garbage on TV, we need to support the companies that are actually trying to combat it. My kids received Christmas money and this is what they wanted to buy with it! In my house, if a show says the Lord's name in vain and we don't mute it in time, we have to turn the show or movie off until the next day. With this TVG HD model, it catches it most of the time. It won't catch "Thank God" when used inappropriately or "Thank the Lord" but I can see that it would be difficult to program it to know when it is appropriate and when it is not. I have a DVD player as well as an OTA Tivo model. It will block bad words most of the time on both. It is a little bit late to mute on the Tivo but not bad and sometimes it mutes just a hair to long but I'd rather it do that as too short. You still get the idea of what's going on in the program. What I would like to see: I would like to see the buttons that are on the remote on the actual TVG box because I can see me losing the remote or the battery going bad. Another option would be that you could program your TV remote to operate it. Great job and dittos to the engineers and makers of the TVG! I'm glad you improved and replaced the LT version instead of giving up in the digital age.

I had such high hopes. I used earlier models for years. One on each television in our house. They did a wonderful job when you accept their limitations - they only work on closed-captioned programming and sometimes the audio and closed-captioning are out-of-sync. We loved watching programs without profanity. When we finally upgraded our Dish receiver to a Hopper, unfortunately the earlier TV Guardian models did not have HDMI input/output jacks. I finally ordered this version expecting the same results. It did not work. The first one was obviously used, which I would have kept if it had worked, but since it didn't, I returned it and got a replacement that did in fact look new, but it did not work either. So very disappointed.

If you have Direct TV the newer model receiver hr54 or newer you will have to have a 10 pin component or composite cable in order for the TV Guardian to work if you can only get the 10 pin from Direct TV .and I have noticed if you are watching a recording the TVGuardian works great but live TV it misses a whole lot of words

The TV Guardian people came up with a GREAT idea in the TV Guardian. The "gutter language" on TV and on videos today makes it incredibly unpleasant to watch television. There is absolute no reason for it! The best solution next to getting the producers to clean up their "act" is the TV Guardian. We have been using it for years, since their first model came out. It makes TV more pleasant but not perfect. The way it works is that TV Guardian monitors the closed captioning signal that is part of the programing. When it spots a word or phrase that is in its library of excluded words, it blocks out the audio and puts a "sanitized" version as a closed caption on the screen. You get used to it pretty quickly. This model has a remote control which is nice for changing the level of sensitivity. The words that TV Guardian looks for are categorized so that different levels of monitoring can be selected. For example, for religious programming, "God" and "Jesus" are not filtered out if the "Religious Programming" category is selected. There is also a strict, moderate, and lenient level. So you have a lot of flexibility. It is not perfect, however. Sometimes, it misses words if the closed captioning is lagging behind the audio. Also, for programming that is not closed captioned, it has no chance of catching offensive language. It also can't do anything about objectionable scenes since it can't monitor the video. Even with these problems, it is an excellent solution. I would really like for them to figure out a way to completely block out the commercials! Maybe one day.... The only better way to get rid of the objectionable gutter language is to turn the TV off! Not a bad solution either. There's probably no chance of getting the producers to clean things up.

The unit will not work with HDMI sources that cannot supply a video signal that carries closed captioning. Unit will not function without a closed captioning video signal. Converters that will convert HDMI sources to Composite Video will not pass Closed Captioning. I have been unable to find a DVR unit that provides HMDI and Composite Video to feed the TV Guardian.