Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

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Quoting Ken Cole:

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My main concern with changing this is that the program treats NR as lower than G, not higher than NC-17 (to use US as an example).  Additionally, changing this would result with the merging of films which were never given a rating (TV shows, etc) with what usually amounts to a slightly modified version of previously rated films.

Perhaps we need another rating "Unrated", which would be used for these?  It could be set to an age of 17.  Thoughts?

Part of the problem is that the current system doesn't really address this. The rated version is not included more often than not. The following seem to be the categories of film NR in my collection. Somebody can let me know if any of them are missing:

1. Movies from before 1968 that were never subsequently submitted for rating. (Most are pretty tame in content, but some, especially from the last few years of this era like The Dirty Dozen, are not.)
2. Regular Direct-to-video releases. (These vary widely in content. You have everything from Troma schlock to Veggietales.)
3. Movies that never got wide theatrical release. Note these usually come from the festival circuit and a lot of them, but not nearly all, are documentaries. These also vary widely content-wise. (Examples: Control Room, The Artisocrats, Cannibal!: The Musical)
4. Non-traditional content like golf advice, exercise videos and accessories. (Sweatin' to the Oldies, Digital Video Essentials) 
5. Special features discs for movies that get their own entry because they cover multiple movies. These tend to have content in line with the movies they cover. Example: Star Wars Trilogy Bonus Material.
6. Music releases. Concerts and music videos generally have the RIAA's parental advisory logo in the case of adult content, though this is not necessarily the case if they aren't published by a music label.
7. Altered version of MPAA-rated content that don't make any difference in age-appropriateness. These may be minor tweaks (like scrapping a bad effects shot in Evil Dead, which leads to most of the DVD releases being unrated) or more significant (I Am Legend's alternate ending, extended cut of The Blues Brothers).
8. Harder versions of movies which were MPAA-rated. (example: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.)
9. Movies which actually do have an MPAA rating, but it isn't on the package for whatever reason. (Criterion releases of Straw Dogs, Time Bandits and the Love Conquers all version of Brazil.)
10. Foreign movies which never got wide theatrical release in the U.S. Examples: most anime, Are You Being Served?: The Movie.

Can we imagine a system that handles all these in a reasonable way?

Psssst, Ace, you are waaaay on the wrong side of this one. Not that ever stopped me.

One I missed:

11. Box sets. The ratings would be on their contents, not the box.

Example of problems with the not rated/unrated distinction:

Léon: The Professional: says not rated on the package, but would be unrated by the proposed standard.

You cabn do that, Ace. You can track whatever you want locally, just not Contributable. You want us to be able track whatever is used even if it's invented, not officially "sanctioned" by someone like MPAA, that's an impossibilty Ace. You are only talking about a single Distributor, but imagine what it would be like if every Distributor created THEIR own rating system either in addition to or instead of MPAA, trying to track and manage such a thing would be a MESS. In the US we use the MPAA OR the TV rating system which for some reason seems pretty rare in DVD. Do what you want and keep it local.

<tic> that's not toungue in cheek, it is <tic>

Quoting Prof. Kingsfield:

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You cabn do that, Ace. You can track whatever you want locally, just not Contributable. You want us to be able track whatever is used even if it's invented, not officially "sanctioned" by someone like MPAA, that's an impossibilty Ace. You are only talking about a single Distributor, but imagine what it would be like if every Distributor created THEIR own rating system either in addition to or instead of MPAA, trying to track and manage such a thing would be a MESS. In the US we use the MPAA OR the TV rating system which for some reason seems pretty rare in DVD. Do what you want and keep it local.

<tic> that's not toungue in cheek, it is <tic>

I can do what? What are you talking about? What single distributor does what now? I'm not talking about making up any data. There would be clear rules how to derive the ratings. Reading the package (the standard we use for MPAA ratings) is pretty straightforward, as is looking stuff up on filmratings.com.

Quoting Ken Cole:

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If we added 'Unrated' as a rating, it would be used only for discs with 'Unrated' on the cover.  So, in your examples, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11 would stay NR. 

Examples 7 and 8, with 'Unrated' on the cover, would be the only ones to be assigned 'Unrated'.

This would be added only to the US locality unless requested in another locality.

This would probably be better than the current system, at least marginally, but I think it would have very limited use. If I'm understanding this right, Hancock has a unrated version and a PG-13 version, so it would be unrated. Almost Famous has a not rated version and an R version, so it would be R.

The problem is that unrated vs. not rated verbiage seems to sometimes depend on content, but this isn't consistent. Harder content may be called unrated or not rated and similar content may be called unrated or not rated, so this is a distinction without a difference. Basically, unrated is more likely to indicate harder content than not rated, but the correlation isn't terribly strong.

It doesn't need to be complicated. If there are rated and unrated versions on the disc (listed on the back cover as Not Rated/Unrated and the MPAA rating) then that profile gets an Unrated rating. Should be that simple, no matter what's on the front cover.

That's the old Rule.

Right... basically the old rule with the new rating would work wonders. Because we would have the unrated versions of the film rated correctly... but also have it work right for parental guidance.

I for one am all for it. 

Keep in mind there are two issues with the proposed change:

* How to distinguish between unrated and not rated.
* How to decide which rating to use when multiple versions are present.

In most of these situations, or at least a lot of them, both versions aren't included on the disc. Saying you should just list unrated when two versions are present solves the second problem, but gives the first a nonsensical answer. basically, by this standard the Dark City theatrical DVD would be R, the director's cut DVD would be NR (the lowest rating), and a package with both (like the Blu-ray), would be UR (one of the highest ratings.) This makes no sense.