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Online subscriptions to content you don't own are such a "great" idea. A DRM crippled PC/game console will be ever so useful when this "company" goes belly up and you don't own any of the bits stored inside.

Anyone remember DIVX? (Not to be confused with DivX.) Kind of the same thing, except targeting the DVD market. Supposedly "better" than DVD. Thankfully, it failed the miserable death it deserved, but not before parting idiots with their money.

They tried stuff like this, it sucked.

Note, that's not to be confused with the DivX standard used by those nasty "pirates". There are other types of disposable DVDs floating around. The main one that comes to mind now is the one that oxidizes when you open the package.

Anyway, it especially pissed off the Slashdot crowd.

DVD makers should learn from Circuit City's costly mistake. Consumers like the traditional media distribution model. People like to buy stuff and then OWN it. That means use without restriction. I bought it, I should be able to play it in my car, computer or MP3 player.

The same model has made DVD a success. It would be a dumb strategy to mess with it.

For those that don't remember; info on Circuit City's failed experiment can be found here.

-ted

Divx and DivX are not the same format.

...are these DivX DVD players or DIVX DVD players? :)

Can't wait for that particular bit of irony to hit the fan(s).

Huhn.

The problem with doing away with VHS isn't, "what format will I get my pre-recorded content on", since DVD seems to win over VHS in several categories (durability, quality, etc), but rather "when I want to tape Hardware Wars, how am I going to quickly and cheaply record it"?

Yes, there are DVD recorders available, but they're expensive. And Yes, digital recorders like Tivo and ReplayTV are available, but not widely (certainly compared to the installed base of VHSs).

Given this is the company that tried to cram DivX (the old version, not DivX ;) Deux) down consumers throats, completely ignoring that this was NOT a convenient format for them, I suspect this has more to do with profit margins than a whole hearted embrace of new technology. VHS players are a ridiculously cheap commodity item, while DVD players are still considered (to the mass market) "new" items, and are therefore more expensive.

Sure if it's your own recorded media you can make a backup before it's too late, but if it's a commercial video, sorry pal, be seeing you again at the video store soon (and your little wallet too)!

The days of Tape/VHS cassettes were glorious for the record and movie industries. They'd sell a cassette, and the customer's tape deck or VCR would promptly munch it. Back to the store where you're obviously not going to get a refund for mangling the merchandise. Instant repeat revenue.

Then CDs and DVDs were born. Cheap, durable, and reliable. TOO durable and reliable. Sure if you're a moron you can scrape them up, but if you're a moron you can scrape up your nose picking it too. Careful and responsible owners were no longer victims of freak munchings, and the industry never forgave themselves for not making the damn things shatters inside the players (most of the time... hey, remember those gimmicky ads for 100x players back before DMA66?).

Right now, the movie and record industries are salivating all over themselves trying to figure out how to sell you the same damn thing over and over again (like teeny pop and the late 90's onslaught of natural disaster cinema). Like Circuit City's DIVX (the scam disc format, not the codec) was one of the first examples. Now the music industry wants to let us buy digital music, in multiple proprietary formats, and pay for it for each playback device we own, even when we've already bought the physical album!

D-VHS probably will and should replace Beta, et.al. in the professional sector, but I don't think it would have ever seen the light of day in video stores if the media was as durable as some of the new high capacity DVD/optical technology coming out.

But maybe I'm just biased against magnetic media because of all the data I've ever lost!

Yeah, and then they could make it only work for 48 hours. I wonder what they could call it? Maybe DIVX?

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It's not shown on www.bandivx.com yet, either.

It is now. (They're also playing "Video Killed The Radio Star" in the background to go with the news. :-) ) I heard about the good news from news.com first and then went to check the Fight DIVX page; they had already made a quick hack to their page to note DIVX's demise.