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DivX Going Open Source - Updated
JimRay writes "According to this C|Net article, the DivX program will soon be open source. NOTE, this is not Circuit City's failed out DVD rental plan, but a set of programs for lossy compression of digital video. Is this the mp3 for video or what?" DivX is based on MPG4 - and contrary to earlier submissions, Project Mayo has stated they own all copyrights to the code - it is not a knocked off version of Microsoft's MPG4.Update: 01/17 02:52 PM by H :Thanks to paradigm from Mayo for sending this update/correction: "This is a release of our codebase as it stands now, we have cvs, mailing
lists, bug tracking, everything set up. We are working towards our current
goal of releasing Divx ;-) Deux which will, of course, rock. This code
works, but we are making it better. We are developing this code still, not
just throwing it to the open source world for the hype, we just thought
others would want in...all of our developers are on the mailing lists and
activly post in our forums."
We want to make DivX as open as possible. The video world is a little weird, so we had to make some concessions. For example, if you want to use the code but put it into a larger application that is closed and you want to sell that application, you can do that. We'd prefer that you don't (for many of the reasons mentioned in the LGPL http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html), but if you must - you can. If you do, however, you can't call it DivX until we get a chance to check it out. This isn't exactly aimed at small open source developers ;)
Same thing with the encoded content. We'd prefer that everyone make it open. But if you don't want to, no big deal. Again, however, we reserve the right to ping people who want to close their code as it were. But don't get edgy - this isn't aimed at people like Brandon. Think a bit bigger ;) We are just trying to do our part to keep things a level playing field.
I used to use DivX;-) for backups also but I prefer to use VCD or SVCD format instead. The benefit... if your standalone DVD player supports VCD AND takes CDRs then you can watch your backups in a standalone DVD player. So far, DivX;-) encoded movies can only be viewed on a computer.
I like being able to take home movies (I have a digital camcorder that transfers the film over firwire), convert them to VCD, burn them onto a CD, then watch them on my DVD player. IMO, a much better way to view and preserve home movies.
VCD info
BTW, it's possible to convert DivX;-) into VCD but it takes HOURS. You can get info on how to do it at the above link.
OpenDivx is not Open Source, at least as opensource.org defines the term. For example, you are forbidden by the DivX copyright terms to use the software in a way that does not implement MPEG-4, and you are forbidden from using it where "Encoded Content is a primary or substantial product."
I'm not saying that releasing OpenDivX with a promotional copyright is itself harmful or immoral, but their misapplication of the "Open Source" term to a scheme that shares few of the public benefits that attract developers is misleading.
I'm sure I won't be the first (or last) to say this, but I just don't think DivX ;-) really has a big effect on movie piracy. The simple fact remains that most people do not have high-speed net connections, and most people don't want to be bothered with finding and downloading movies.
I can't even believe you're halfway serious, or that you got modded up. Dude, do a search-and-replace on your post and replace "movie" with "music" and "DivX" with "mp3".
You're saying the same things about DivX as people once said about MP3. As more and more people get broadband access, DivX will get more and more popular. Movies are just as (if not more so) attractive to pirates than music. And bandwidth WILL eventually allow more and more people to trade with DivX.
It's already quite popular at colleges where bandwidth is plentiful Ring a bell? Sound like the mp3 story? God, some people do NOT learn from history even if you beat them about the head with it. Argh.
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I'm sure I won't be the first (or last) to say this, but I just don't think DivX ;-) really has a big effect on movie piracy. The simple fact remains that most people do not have high-speed net connections, and most people don't want to be bothered with finding and downloading movies.
Most people have never even heard of IRC, much less know where to go to get pirated movies. Even if they did, DivX ;-) has two things working against it: file size, and an extra codec.
First, DivX ;-) movies are, on the whole, quite a bit larger than their ASF brethren. Joe Sixpack doesn't mind the lower quality of ASF if it means he has to download 200MB less to watch it.
Second, if Joe Sixpack does decide to download "Shaft-DVD-Rip-DivX.avi", he'll get a nasty surprise when he tries to play it: "Codec Not Found". In the age of transparent auto-updates, this is a big problem.
Finally, let's say DivX ;-) lets more pirates put movies on CDs, etc. Who's going to have them? The same people who buy pirated VCDs and VHS tapes right now! Just because they become more commonplace doesn't mean it'll be any easier to get them without venturing into questionable neighborhoods.
As such, I don't see that DivX ;-) is really a major threat to the MPAA, certainly no moreso than Windows Media. Ironic, huh...
I managed to get all of the project Mayo files last night and test it on a flick. I tried it on a misc DVD I had lying around... All I have to say is WOW!
The new DivX is awesome! What's amazing about it is that it has support for automatic insertion of I-frames! To do a quality rip with old codec, you'd have to cut your media into low and fast changing scenes and recombine them at the end. Now, that's automatic. VKI is something that was missing before and we got numerous promises that it's gonna be in there and now it's finally reality.
The second thing that's amazing is better overall image quality without post-processing! That's right, no post-processing. This was one of the bottlenecks in the old design and now it's gone!
Specks say that new decoder decodes around 80fps on a PIII 700. Well, I have an Athlon 800 and I'm seeing frames whiz by me so fast that I actually believe them.
After a big flop of 3ivX, I can say that these guys have delivered... and delivered big.
As a side note, M$ released their WM8 Encoder Beta 2. Check it here.
Let the battle begin!
Hold it, hold it, hold it....
In their "license overview" page, they state "if you want to sell the
content itself commercially, you have to get permission from Project
Mayo first".
WHAT???
So Fender guitars controls my music just because I happen to use their
instrument? So Adobe controls my web graphics solely because I created
it with Photoshop? So Mathworks controls the results of my simulations
simply because they wrote Matlab?
I've got to be *way* off base here. Tell me I am. Enlighten me. Or are
things just that fscked up?
Brandon Matthews
Co-Senior Lab Administrator
Information Processing and Transmission Engineering Laboratory
Florida State University
(850) 410-6415 - UNX, RX-7 - old-tech, efficient, the both of them
MPEG-4 is a format, DivX is a codec.
Is this an open standard?
MPEG-4 is, yes. The standards docment can be found here.
Does this mean that file that is MPG4 playable on something that supports MPG4 or do you still need access to a proprietary codec?
You need a codec, I don't know if there are any non-proprietary ones, there may be.