Sigma Designs' New Divx Video card!!!

[OptimusPrime22]

Well I was checking out their web-site and all I can say is that I'm excited about being able to play my Divx files on a hardware device. And on top of that, it has a TV-Output so you can watch it on your BIG TV!!! No longer will we have to take our Divx files and convert them to MPEG to be played on our standalone DVD players(well, for those who like doing that it's still all good so no need to stop). From what I was reading it also stated that they were going to incorporate the new technology into future DVD players so it's all looking great for Divx. Now I can watch alot of those cartoons and comedy specials I downloaded on my big TV WITHOUT the conversion wait....GREAT!!! The card will be available March 28 for $99 plus shipping and handling. For those of you with H+ cards(like myself) this will be an upgrade so you can remove your old cards and place these new ones in their place. The decoder will be able to play VCD, SVCD, DVD and Divx!!! Well of course you can see I'm excited about this so let me calm down.

here is the web site address....
www.sigmadesigns.com

[vitualis]

From what I was reading it also stated that they were going to incorporate the new technology into future DVD players so it's all looking great for Divx.

As far as I'm aware, this company doesn't make DVD players and nor do they have any real links to DVD hardware manufacturers either. Whether or not DVD manufacturers will take up an additional chip (read: increased cost) is as yet unknown.

Regards.

[aguillon]

If you own a half-decent PC sporting a video card with a decent tv-out, you can already do all that without the extra hardware involved...
I ve been playing DIVX onto my tv for a year already. And indeed the quality is excellent.

[OptimusPrime22]

It is true that all you really need is a good TV-Out card and a decent pc but I just think it's a cool idea to have a Divx HARDWARE solution. Just like there are now many Mp3 players the doors are opening for Divx as well. Both of these technologies have been the focal points for piracy arguments and now they are getting the chance to go main stream. Even though portable MP3 players are still not as hot as portable Cd players(at least not where I live anyway) it is still a sign of the changing times. I'm looking forward to building a more powerful PC and adding a scan converter to view my desktop images on the TV. I wonder if this means we might even start seeing Divx HARDWARE encoders down the line? Who knows? All I can tell is that changes are comming and we should all hang on for the ride of our lives.

[vitualis]

I wouldn't be too optimistic... I would imagine that any commercial hardware MPEG-4 decoder/encoder would be hamstrung by all sorts "copy protection" type technologies.

Regards.

[RoopeT]

The new EM8470 series, based on the company's award-winning REALmagic® Video Streaming Technology, is the industry's first, and so far only MPEG-4 chip to support full-resolution (720x576) and streaming video based on ISMA specification 1.0. The EM8470 series provides highly integrated solutions for decoding of MPEG-4, as well as DVD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 formats.

It doesn't say it can play DivX, it's just talking about MPEG-4! So DivX 3.11 alpha is probably NOT supported. (and Xvid + DivX 4.xx probably is)