Options - Content Ratings

The Options dialog (Content Ratings page) allows you to manage the content ratings that are assigned to your media files. Content ratings let you control what files are streamed to your web browsers and devices.

Content ratings are the ratings that each country sets for movies, TV shows and music. These act as a guide to tell you what is the appropriate age for watching or listening to a particular movie, TV show or music. Each country has their own rating system and Mezzmo lets you use your preferred country's system or your own custom system. For example, USA content ratings are often called MPAA ratings.

When you install Mezzmo, a set of content ratings are installed that represent the content ratings for many countries. You can edit these content ratings to change the content rating term or minimum permitted age. You can also add your own content ratings or remove existing content ratings.

The minimum permitted age is the minimum age of the person that is allowed to watch or listen to a media file.

Mezzmo automatically collects the content rating for a media file when you add a media file into your Mezzmo library or when you maintain your Mezzmo library. The content rating for a media file is collected from within embedded metadata, or from external metadata files, or from online web sites. This collecting can be controlled using the Metadata Retrieval Settings dialog.

The content rating for a file can be viewed and changed in the Properties dialog. Right-click on the file and click Properties.

You can set the content rating restriction for a specific DLNA device on your home network on the Content Rating tab on the Device Settings dialog. Go to the Media Devices dialog and edit your device to display the Device Settings dialog.

You can also set the times when the content rating restriction occurs - for example, between 6:00AM to 9:00PM. This lets you control what files are listed and played on each of your devices in your home.

If you are using the Mezzmo (Android) app on your Android smartphone, tablet or Android TV to browse and play media files from your Mezzmo library on devices on your home network, then you can bypass the content rating restrictions for a device by entering the PIN code into the Mezzmo (Android) app. The Mezzmo Kodi Addon also has the ability to bypass content restrictions using the PIN code.

Click this button to edit the list of content ratings that Mezzmo uses when assigning ratings to your files. Typically, you will not need to edit this list since it contains most countries content ratings.

Select this checkbox if you only want to see ratings from a specific country. Mezzmo will convert the ratings that it finds for your media files to ratings that match your selected country.

Mezzmo chooses content ratings from your preferred country that best match the media file's content rating. Mezzmo uses the minimum permitted age to find the most suitable match.

Example: If you only want to see US content ratings listed on your devices, then you would choose 'United States' as your preferred country and Mezzmo would always deliver US-based content ratings (i.e. G, PG, PG-13, NC-17, R, TV-G, TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-14 and TV-MA) even though your media files may have content ratings from other countries such as UK, Australia, France, Italy, etc.

Click this checkbox to not stream files that have not yet been rated. This lets you ensure that files that you have added to Mezzmo are not streamed to your devices until they have a content rating. This is useful when you add movie or TV show and Mezzmo could not find a content rating for it. In this case, the file has a content rating of 'Not rated'

Click this checkbox to set a content rating that you wish to restrict streaming to devices.

Tip: This setting will be used for all your existing devices and for new devices that are discovered on your home network. This setting can be overridden for a particular device using the settings in the content_ratings_tab.

Click the Browse button to select a content rating that you want new devices to be restricted to. The minimum permitted age of the selected content rating will be used to determine what files are listed and streamed to devices.

Select this checkbox to have the content restrictions apply only during a particular time period - for example, when your children are watching TV or listening to music. Outside this time period, there are no content rating restrictions applied and you can browse and play any file.

Example: Do not list or stream media files with a content rating of 'R' or higher during 6:00AM to 9:00PM when children may be watching TV.

Enter a time when you want to the content rating restriction to start.

Enter a time when you want to the content rating restriction to finish.

If you are using the Mezzmo (Android) app on your Android smartphone, Android tablet or Android TV, then you can optionally bypass the content restrictions by entering a PIN code into the Mezzmo (Android) app. The Mezzmo Kodi Addon can also bypass content restrictions using a PIN code. This will allow you to browse and play all files from your Mezzmo library whenever you want.

Enter the PIN code that the person using the Mezzmo (Android) app will be required to enter in order to bypass any content restrictions.