*update 1/12/2016*
VidAngel has significantly updated their website that has dramatically improved their streaming experience and they have lowered their prices. Cheaper than renting at Redbox with all of the convenience of streaming from home. Most families can save over $200 a year by using their streaming services.
VidAngel was founded by the Harmon brothers, who are well known for creating the award winning YouTube sensation Girl’s Don’t Poop for Poo~Pourri (more than 33 million YouTube views) as well as co-founding Orabrush.
There have been businesses in the past such as Clean Flicks that tried to clean up movies from Hollywood but they ended up running into a lot of legal trouble as they moved forward with their businesses. VidAngel gets around this legal hurdle giving you control over the filtering. VidAngel’s approach to filtering is protected by the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. This law protects your right to remove “limited portions of audio or video content of a motion picture, during a performance in or transmitted to that household for private home viewing, from an authorized copy of the motion picture.”
What they do is tag all of the scenes that have questionable parts in the movie and allow you opportunity to filter out or keep in, as much or as little as you would like to watch. You are in control of what you can watch. As Mormons, you might think of this as filtering only rated “R” movies but this is a great system to filter out any rated movie from “G” to “R”. Perhaps there’s a PG-13 film you want to watch but there’s that one scene you don’t want your family to watch. Well now you can filter out just that one scene and watch the rest of the movie very comfortably.
The next best part of the VidAngel is their prices. Even if you don’t want to filter out anything in the movie, it’s much cheaper than renting the movie from Amazon or from the satalie/cable companies. Think cheaper than Redbox without having to get up and go to the Redbox to get the movie (or if you are like me, forgetting that you had the movie until a week later and end up paying $10 for it).
The cost to rent a movie is only $2 for HD films and $1.00 for SD films provided you digitally return the movie within 24 hours (which you can do with just a click of a button when you are finished watching it). The way it works is that on your initial purchase, you pay $25. After you are finished watching your movie, you return the movie within 24 hours and then you get a credit of $24 (if you rented an SD Movie) that you can now use on watching another movie and so on. It’s a great bargain for any family that loves to watch movies together.
About one half of American families say they would prefer a more family friendly version of movies if they had the option. Even more surprising, nine out of ten movies rented on the VidAngel system would NOT have been watched without filtering. Now this leads into another question. There’s an idea out there that “if it’s edited, it’s definitely ok to watch.” You get this mindset when movies are shown on network television. But movies are not created equal. There are horrible PG-13 and rated “R” movies out there, so even when it is edited, you still probably shouldn’t watch it. This is a personal question that each family has to decide on their own, what type of movies do you as a family want to watch. On their blog VidAngel talks about this issue:
Even though VidAngel can cut out graphic sex, violence and profanity, that does not make a movie worth watching.
Review the tags of these movies and you’ll be able to quickly see if it matches your own personal standards… As a founder of VidAngel, I do not recommend these movies (referring to Fifty Shades of Gray and the Wolf of Wall Street) to families, even with a filter.
In fact, personally, I choose not to watch much of the content on VidAngel due to the nature of the movies. I’m kind of simple, but I really like movies that uplift me.
Conclusion
Don’t watch a movie that you normally wouldn’t watch, simply because it’s edited. However, if you would like to clean up the movies you are already planning on watching for your families, VidAngel is the perfect tool for that. And like I said before, even if you don’t filter out anything, you’re not going to find a cheaper option of renting the movie out there without having to go to the hassle of going to the Redbox. I would highly recommend any movie going family to try out VidAngel today.
Try it out by click the ad below.
Streaming options
You can stream any video from your computer/laptop and connect it to your TV to watch. However, I would highly recommend using Chromecast, Apple TV or a ROKU to stream it as it will give you the best viewing quality. When we streamed it using just our laptop and connecting it to the TV, there were a couple of scenes that were chopping but they are aware of that issue and are trying to fix that up.
The Price
So even though the actual cost of Vidangel is $1 for SD streaming and $2 for HD streaming once you sell back the movie, they require you to put an initial deposit of $25. Why? The reason they do this is because to get around the legal loophole of editing the movie, you need to purchase the movie first so in this way, you are editing your own movie.
For them to legally offer filtered movies, you must own the movie while filtering it. To make this as affordable and user-friendly as possible, they have created an instant “Sell-Back” option to buy the movie back from you and put the credit into your VidAngel account. No hassle, no fuss, just enjoy your movie, sell it back, and only pay $2.00 for your HD movie.
Quick Overview: (using a $20 movie)
BUY THE MOVIE – Pay the retail price of $20. (initial credit card payment)
WATCH FOR $2.00 – $2.00 (per day for HD movies) is deducted from the $20 credit. $1.00 per day for SD or Television shows.
SELL THE MOVIE – When finished, “Sell it Back” for $18.00 of instant credit to your VidAngel account for your next purchase.
When you’re ready for the next movie, the credit already in your VidAngel account will automatically be applied to your purchase. Continue to buy and sell movies with account credit and pay only $2.00 per HD movie. If you always buy and sellback within 24 hours, then all future credit card transactions will be the $2.00 watch price.
