Our family loves to watch movies at home, mostly because we’d blow our entire “fun” budget for the month in one trip to the theater.
We use all the usual suspects to find the movies we’re looking to watch: Netflix, Redbox, Amazon Instant Video’s free-with-Prime section. But honestly, these services miss a bunch of movies, both the newly released ones and the classics. And I just can’t stomach renting a movie from Amazon for $3+. Because clearly, I’m cheap.
But our movie-watching problems are gone now that we’ve found VidAngel.
VidAngel is a streaming service that allows customers to filter potentially objectionable content out of their movies and TV shows.
Each movie and show costs only $1 after sellback. You buy the movie for $20 (because ownership of the movie is necessary in order to legally filter the content) and then within 24 hours, VidAngel buys it back for $19.
We’ve been using VidAngel for a couple of months and are incredibly pleased for two reasons:
1. VidAngel has most of the newly released movies available (way more than what’s available at Redbox) and you’re only paying $1 for SD and $2 for HD after sellback. This is significantly cheaper than renting through Amazon Video. We watched Kung Fu Panda 3 for $1 after sellback right after it was released on DVD.
They also have older movies and are adding new content all the time.
2. VidAngel filters potentially objectionable content out of their movies and TV shows. Typically this means swear words are silenced and questionable scenes are deleted. You know, the ones where you go, “This scene is totally unnecessary.”
This has allowed our preteen kids to watch the movies that include a couple of curse words and a random sex scene. (Again, the swear words are silenced and the nasty is removed all together.) We have honestly never even noticed the filtering.
We watched Goonies recently and I didn’t realize how many bombs were allowed during the pre-PG-13 era. But never fear, our kids didn’t hear anything objectionable with VidAngel’s filtering!
We also watched Eddie the Eagle, a totally benign movie about a British ski jumper minus the totally inappropriate even for adults scene smack dab in the middle of the movie. With VidAngel, that scene was just deleted, and believe me, you don’t need that scene to understand the plot or enjoy the movie.
Obviously, the editing and filtering can’t fix a movie based on content you find objectionable. If you don’t want your kids to watch violence, don’t watch American Sniper, even if it’s on VidAngel.
Note that you have to filter something to watch a VidAngel movie or show. You can set minimal filters if you just have adults watching — you’ll never notice.
It’s super easy to get started with VidAngel:
2. Download the VidAngel app to your streaming device. Right now, it works on Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android devices, Smart TV, and your computer.
3. Add $20 to your account with your debit or credit card.
4. Buy the movie you want for $20. You can select SD or HD (we always choose SD and the quality is fantastic on our 70 inch screen)
5. Set your filters based on what you want to see or don’t want to see (nudity, graphic violence, language, profanity, etc.).
6. Watch your movie.
7. Sell the movie back to VidAngel when you’re finished for $19 or $18 (depending on SD or HD). Your sellback amount is initially in the form of VidAngel credit. When you’re ready to watch another movie, you just add $1 to your account to buy it. You can request your credit to be refunded if you’re not going to use VidAngel again.
Ready to check it out? Go to VidAngel to create your account and browse the available movies and TV shows.
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