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

Great product at great price. This is actually the second 501 model we have bought and the 4th TV Guardian device. The 501 is HDMI and works very well. We have AT&T U-Verse and it works great. If you have never used TV Guardian we highly recommend it. There is enough garbage out there without allowing more into your home. Sadly, we have recently seen a couple of commercials that have bad words and these commercials do not have CC so this sadly does not block those out. TV Guardian requires CC (Closed Captioning) to work. Newer shows work very well. Some older shows may be off slightly depending on how well CC was done on the show. These do not work on Blue Ray players nor will these work on TVs that are using the built-in receiver. Reception must be from another source, run through this box, then display on the TV. Again, worth the money. This was received on the first day it was expected. Everything expected was received. I noticed they changed the remote from the original 501 model. The original 501 model had a slightly larger remote (same features) with a bracket to mount it. This one does not have the bracket. Metal housing seems cheap as it seems to pull away from the bottom of the machine, but again, it does the job and is worth the money. Nothing else out there does what this does.

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.

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.

The problem is not so much with the operation of the product as with the condition it arrives in. This is the second unit I have received with some substance splattered on top of it. The first one I ordered even had a dent in the top of it, but I sent it back. Some of the cables look like they have been previously used as does the TV guardian unit. The bag with the remote was opened and I even received an instruction manual for a DVD player in the box! I just feel if you pay this much money for a supposedly new item, it should look like it is new. I think the problem is with the manufacturer, because I have ordered from two different places and received similar outcomes. I decided to keep this one after hooking it up because it does work. Previously I was paying for the TV guardian app through the dish network, which worked ten times better and covered all the tvs in the house, but since dish doesn't care about their customers, they pulled the app and won't carry it anymore. Years ago I bought a vcr with this same TV guardian technology incorporated into it, but now have to pay twice as much as the vcr cost just to get the same stand alone technology this unit provides.

Needs a component cable to read closed captioning. My DIRECTV, and Apple TV cannot be hooked up to it. My blu-ray (bought in 2011) will hook up to it but apparantly it does not work with Blue ray or about half of DVDs that have come out since 2009. Even if it did work with all my components, I can only connect two components to it. Both of those components travel from the TV guardian via one output, making it inconvenient when connected to a home theater. If your going to sell this stuff in 2018 make sure you are not dependent on 2006 technology.