It's a little rough UI-wise as yet, but here's the first release, in case anybody out there is interested and wants to help out.

Linux...

This is a program that aims to allow you to do arbitrary scene selection (i.e. "mute out" or "bleep out" arbitrary scenes) during movie playback.
It does this by leveraging existing players and controlling the system-wide volume, etc.

Currently it takes as input a list of known "skip-worthy" scenes (profanity, violence, whatever), 
and tracks the player as it is playing, then mutes or blanks out the system screen appropriately, during those scenes.

Currently it works for hulu and VLC on windows.  It also isn't hard to add new players (thanks Ruby and yaml!), 
and probably wouldn't be super hard to add more operating systems.

Related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edit_decision_list

== How to use ==

Start playing your movie in its player, then startup sensible-cinema thus:

     C:\> jruby -S sensible-cinema

It then prompts you for a scene list, then for a player description.

Alternatively you could specify the files on the command-line, like

     C:\> jruby -S sensible-cinema mute_list.yml player_description.yml

Sensible-cinema's tracker will now run within your console window, using screen tracking of the player to monitor the playback position.
It is presumed that you'll minimize the console window and proceed to enjoy the movie. :)

== How to install ==

First install jruby (in case you haven't already), from http://www.jruby.org

Next install the gem:

C:\> jruby -S gem install sensible-cinema 

  it's jruby only currently (since jruby allows for proper thread concurrency, has easy GUI, and feels like the only sane ruby for windows).
  It could theoretically be ported to MRI 1.9.x, if anybody else wanted to.
  It's also currently windows only, though it shouldn't be too much work to support other OS's, and I'd be happy to do it myself if interest
  developed.  I'm somewhat targeting Netflix' "play now", hence focusing thus far on windows.
  
== FAQ ==

Q. Can I watch these movies on my TV, not on my computer?

A. Not yet. Currently you'll either need to attach your computer to your TV (buy some long cables, or a new graphics card, etc.)
   or get a laptop that you can use as a dedicated HTPC (ex: buy a used older one), and/or request I do a linux port if you laptop doesn't come
   with windows pre-installed.

   There is also some work developing toward getting the stuff to stream live to your wii/ps3/xbox from windows.
   github message me if you're interested in trying it out.

== Thanks ==

Thanks to Jarmo for the win32-screenshot gem, and mini_magick gem authors, jruby guys, etc.  Made programming this actually somewhat easy.

== License ==

See the LICENSE for licensing, usage terms (gplv3).

== Feedback ==

Feedback welcome.
http://github.com/rdp/sensible-cinema
http://github.com/rdp to message me