Description

Learn how to use a DVR's parental control in this video with Les of Stress Less Audio and Video.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Les from Stress Less Audio Video and today, we're showing you how to hook up and properly set up a high definition DVR box to a high definition monitor. We’ve already done the basic stuff. We’ve hooked it up, we figured out what kind of connectors we needed and we actually set the box up so that we’re getting a properly matched picture, set up the audio and all that. Now, we’re going to go on some other things that most people don’t know their boxes can do or never took the time to actually do, and one of those things is actually parental controls. For any person who has children, this is pretty useful because you can really squeeze down what your children are allowed to do on the box even when you’re in the other room or upstairs and they’re watching TV downstairs. Most people, their kids don’t watch the same as the television they’re watching at that time. So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to go into the menu structure of this box which happens to be a Verizon fios box but this is kind of the same in all the boxes. It might be on a different spot but the structures are usually pretty close. So we’re going to come down here and we’re going to go down to settings, go over and come down to where it says parental controls. It says to modify parental controls, press OK. So we’re going to press OK. It’s asking for a four-digit code. If you just got the box and it hasn’t been said that it’s asking for a code, generally it’s 0000. That’s usually the default, so now we’re in here. So the first thing we want to do, there’s a couple of different options in here. One of them is to enable, this one has control rating, control channels, adult information, control purchases and change pin. The first thing we’re going to do is actually go in and actually enable this. So now we’ve enabled parental controls. We’re going to go down here and go to checkable ratings. Now, the first thing inside of here is checkable ratings. When you check that rating, it’s going to disallow someone from using that rating or viewing that channel without first putting in the code that we’re going to put in later. So first is TV-Y which is TY Youth. TV-Y7 which is basically 7-year-olds, 8-year-olds, elementary school kids basically. G, it’s kind of the same thing. Then there’s movie. So what this guide is showing you is the television ratings and the movie ratings all in one section. Some boxes actually split it. You have television and you have movie ratings separately. So PG, this household here is pretty much 12-year-old, 8-year-old kids so PG is fine. TV-PG is fine also. PG-13, TV-14, talk to the mom, she’s happy with that. Now, rated R, we don’t want these children to be able to watch rated R without first asking mom and dad, so we’re going to block R. And if you notice, once you do R, everything underneath of R is automatically blocked. Another thing that people don’t do but you should if you’re not sure is non-rated. Any movie or video that’s not rated comes up and will show on your television. So certain things that aren’t rated that wouldn’t be appropriate for your child don’t have access to it, so we’re going to go ahead and block non-rated also. The next thing we’re going to do is come back and go to control channels. So right now, there aren’t any channels that are locked. There are a lot of channels in here. I mean, CBS—I mean, depending on your box. Most of these companies now have like 900 channels, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, HBO. We could be here for days, I mean you just basically need to know what channels you would or would not allow your child to watch. For instance, my household, I block MTV. It’s not rated R but I don’t want my younger children watching MTV. So you could take your time, go through here and block any channels you want. Next is adult information and what this does is kind of cool. It blocks even the information and the guide for adult information. So when your children go to a channel or is in the guide and they’re surfing through, they won’t even see the titles for some of the adult channels which can be pretty inappropriate in themselves. And then, the other thing that’s down here is control purchases which is for pay-per-view, things of that nature. So what we’re going to do is use parental PIN. That way, if the child wants to purchase a pay-per-view show, they have to get permission from the parent. And then, we got to go to change the PIN. You can make this PIN pretty much whatever you want it to be. I’m going to put the code that parents want for this one and then they’re going to ask you to confirm it and once you’re done with that, the new PIN is in and you’re done with that. So let’s give this a shot and see if we can find something that we shouldn’t be allowed to watch, see if this thing is working properly. Let’s go to guide. It’s kind of early in the day so we might not find anything that’s really inappropriate, but we’ll try and see if we can find something. This is rated R. Actually if you look now, Cinemax Fast Food Nation—I don’t even know what this is—but if you’ll look, it shows you the time and there’s a lot lock there. That means if we go to this channel, we should get—there you go, locked. So now, even though it’s 1:30 during the day or whatever time it is, the child cannot get to this channel. So even though this channel is not blocked, because there’s a show on there that’s inappropriate for the child, they can’t watch it. So that’s pretty much it for this segment. So next, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go in showing you how to use the DVR and get a little more out of it than just pressing hey, record this show today. Alright, I’ll see you in the next segment.