System for filtering content from videos

DETAILED DESCRIPTION This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing a filtering system in which certain potentially objectionable events in a video may be filtered out prior to displaying the video on the user's home video equipment.
Such potentially objection events (called substitution events) may be scenes in a television program or movie with profane or vulgar language or of a sexual or violent nature.
The filtering system is preferably implemented with user equipment such as a set-top box, a stand-alone setup, a personal computer television (PC/TV), circuitry in a video-cassette recorder or television, etc.
Substitution events may therefore be filtered out locally, under the direction of the user.
The user can select which types of potentially objectionable events are to be filtered out by interactively selecting from among predefined ratings settings in real time.
If desired, the user can customize an existing ratings setting or create a list of objectionable events.
Customized ratings settings and user-created lists of objectionable events are preferably stored as user-defined ratings settings, which are preferably among the predefined ratings settings that the user can interactively select.
Videos suitable for filtering are provided with substitution event information that identifies potentially objectionable events in the video.
For example, substitution event codes may be embedded in a video (e.
g.
, in the vertical blanking interval portion of a video signal or in a side band) to identify each portion of the video that contains profane, vulgar, sexually related, violent, or otherwise objectionable content.
During operation, the system extracts the embedded substitution event codes and compares the extracted codes to a predefined list of prohibited substitution event codes contained in a substitution event table.
If a given substitution event code is contained in the substitution event table, the substitution event corresponding to that code is filtered out by the system