What is a DIVX dvd?

[xtreemkareem]

I know this is already posted somewhere else here on this site, but I can't find it. I have heaerd much talk about the original DIVX DVD by circuit city. What was it? What were the specs?

[i-on-s]

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3368584,00.html

[FulciLives]

Hello

Well basically it was a form of encryption if you will. The DIVX DVD format was just a normal DVD with all the same specs as a regular DVD disc except that the discs would only work on a DVD player that had the special DIVX circuitry. So yes you had to buy a special DIVX DVD player and I think the only place you could get one was from CIRCUIT CITY although some on-line stores might have carried them. I know as far as retail stores goe though that it was really only CIRCUIT CITY (as I recall) that sold them.

Anyway you would BUY the DIVX DVD for something like $5.00 and when you put it in your DIVX DVD player you could play the disc for up to 48 hours or some such period of time. So you could watch it as many times as you wanted or pause it or whatever. But after 48 hours the disc would become "locked" and would not work. At this point you could either throw it away or keep it to watch again but to watch it again you had to "unlock" and that had a cost associated to it. I forget how much it was now but it was less than when you bought the disc, maybe $3.00 or something like that for an additional 48 hour (or whatever) viewing period. The DIVX DVD player had to have a phone line connected to it so it could dial in to the DIVX service (using a built-in modem) to keep track of what you watched and then you would get a bill once a month. There would be no charges for the first viewing otherthan the $5.00 or so you spent to buy the DIVX DISC. There were only charges for additional viewings.

There were other options too. For instance you could "unlock" the disc permanately but this was usually a charge of $15.00 or something like that so basically it was the same price if you had just bought the original un-DIVX version on a normal DVD. They also tried making what was called GOLD DIVX discs that were normal price and unlocked forever BUT they could only ever be played on a DIVX DVD player, not a normal DVD player.

The idea was to make money off of people who rent but don't buy. They hoped that you would keep the disc and maybe sometime in the future decide you wanted to watch it again and ZAP they got you for another $3.00 or so. The nice PART about it was that you could buy a whole bunch of movies at once and keep a library of titles handy for when YOU wanted to watch them without having to go to a video rental store and of course you didn't have to return them. The viewing period started when you put the disc in the player. All nice ideas if all you ever do is rent but most people (myself included) saw the REAL corporate reason behind it ... GREED! Also that meant video rental stores would be making less money too since each additional "rent" or "view period" would go straight to DIVX and also to the studios (something video rental stores did not LIKE). So everytime you paid for that additional viewing period of say a Disney Film I think Disney got at least some cut of that money. Some studios (Disney and Fox being the big two) supported the format with many titles. But in the end it didn't work. A DIVX DVD player was selling for around $50 to $100 more than a normal DVD player and this when DVD players where still somewhat high priced (or at least higher than they are today) and if you unloced a disc it would only work on your DIVX DVD player. You couldn't take it to a friend's house for instance. Again if you unlocked a disc permantely it would only work on your DIVX DVD player which could include MORE than on DIVX DVD player but it had to be registered to you. Again you couldn't take it to your friend's house and watch it even if that friend had a DIVX DVD player.

Another thing that didn't help is that the discs were intended for those who rent more than anything else and as a result the companies making DIVX DVD discs thought they had to be dumbed down. So all (well mostly) were full screen pan&scan instead of being widescreen. They also almost never included any of the EXTRAS that help make the DVD format so damn kewl. Even more annoying was that many of the titles were out on normal DVD in widescreen and often with some sort of extras.

I'm sure if you do a GOOGLE search for DIVX DVD CIRCUIT CITY you would be able to find some site with info about the fomat ... and probably praising it's demise hehehe

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
A DIVX DVD player would play a normal DVD disc. Just not the other way around.

[pacmania_2001]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/divx0317.html

Check out that site. Has a review of one of the players and various DIVX movies.

Very informative.

[Ash_JR]

what a con