DivX enabled DVD players, recorders, dv cameras, etc.!

[Chemcat]

just read this: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020409/90258_1.html

[devinemi83]

I just hope it comes to be. to much vaporware out there. It will be very cool if it works.

[xed]

I predicted that brand-name mfr's would support DiVX playback on standalone DVD players, and I made that prediction about 3 months
ago.
To recap, here's the logic behind my prediction:
Most DVD players play DVDs with roughly equal video quality.
There are few DVD players using oddball noise-reduction technology (like SONY's block noise reduction) but these tweaks don't seem to have taken the world by storm. Apparently you need a hi-def plasma TV to see much of a difference.
So this means that the _only_ way to DVD player mfr's to differentiate themselves and gain market share is by supporting an ever larger number of playback formats. We saw this first with MP3, then with SVCD and XSVCD and XVCD, now with players that support both DVD-R and DVD+R (and soon, so the joke goes, DVD times R and DVD divided by R).
What's the big new video format that's taking the world by storm?
DiVX, of course.
So the _only_ way for DVD player mfr's to gain market share now is to out-do one another in their ability to read and play back new video encoding formats. Having run out of all the standard formats (MP3, SVCD, etc.) what's left?
DiVX.
So it's inevitable that more and more DVD players will support DiVX playback. In fact, very soon (probably within 18 months or less) I predict A*L*L DVD players will support DiVX playback on both CD-R and CD-R/W and DVD-R and DVD+R and DVD-R/W media.
Here's another prediction:
Within a couple of years at most, DiVX will start to push MPEG-2 out of the way as THE standard video encoding format. At that point, Hollywood and the giant Mordormedia conglomerates -- eh, excuse, MULTImedia conglomerates -- will go berserk and try (as usual) to pass laws making it illegal to encode into DiVX and blah blah blah.
Of course, as usual, the giant Mordormedia conglomerates will be wayyyyyyy too late. By that time, within another 2 to 4 years from now, the Hollywood studios will find themselves forced to re-encode all their crappy worthless Hollywood films (immortal masterpieces like "Little Nicky") from the crufty antique bad-looking MPEG-2 format (an out-of-date badly designed video format they foisted on us back in '97) into the vastly superior DiVX format.
As usual, after screaming and hollering and throwing tantrums and spraying coercive draconian legislation all over the place like a dog pissing all over a room in a fit of rage, the giant Mordormedia conglomerates will discover that they're making even M*O*R*E money by _embracing_ DiVX than by trying to fight it. (Just as they fought VCRs tooth and nail and wound up making tons of bucks off movie rentals.)

[gll99]

Are there any royalty licensing issues with divx like other formats?
If not then I can see those predictions happening very quickly.

Any mention of large cd disks support?

Now I hope they incorporate a good audio compression too in the players. Is there info on audio compression support ?

I guess someone out there is finally listening to the average user. We've known it would sell for a long time but never thought anyone would listen and actually do it.

[gll99]

The link seems to be gone????

[crahak]

Well, it is not hard making predications like that basically. But there are some issues regardless. I must admit to like DivX better than MPEG2 personnally (Oh my god, I can feel people getting angry for just mentionning that). The current players are _supposed_ to play DivX 4+ movies (from my understanding), since earlier versions of DivX codecs were basically hacked ones to bypass limitations (basically), but that might be buggy, is it really gonna figure out that easily, and there might be player hacks too for that. Also, MPEG2 is a fairly "standard" format, whereas DivX lets you use a _LOT_ of codecs, and you do get the oddball codec once in a while. I don't know how these players will support, say, Ogg audio and such, they will most likely end up supporting MPEG4 type of video with some variants of DivX, AAC and MP3 audio (maybe WMA), but I doubt it would support too many others. Plus other things like handling of freeze frames, VBR audio, high bitrates... I just don't expect a "perfect" player that will play EVERY DivX/MPEG4 disc you throw at it very soon. Anyways, I use the same computer in my living room to capture, play DivX and as a MP3 jukebox. No complaints so far.

[puertorican138]

Even though the DivX-enabled DVD Players are going to be popular on this board, I don't think they're really gonna be popular in mainstream America (or Europe, maybe).

Chemcat, you should poll this topic saying:

"Do you think DivX-enabled DVD Players are going to be popular in mainstream America (or Europe)"?

Options:

1. Yes
2. No
3. What's mainstream!?!?!?

[crahak]

Oh, just thought of more things. Weird resoltions (non 16/32 modulos) might not play at all, and also aspect ratio. Say, you take a 16:9 movie and crop all the borders and play it with PowerDVD, it will strech it, whereas WinDVD will keep the aspect ratio. I think good DivX players are not liekly to be around just now, and by then, we might be more "real" MPEG4 oriented. Anyways, we'll see.