Get Ready For Divx On Xbox

donnacha points to this ZDNet story which says that hackers have built a Divx player for Xbox. "As previously discussed ( Divx - The Real Xbox Killer App), the ability to play reasonably high-quality films, speedily burned onto inexpensive CDR media, is going to make (modded) Xbox ownership a far more attractive proposition. This will take Divx beyond the desktops of those with broadband connections and into the living rooms of those who don't own computers. Expect to see a resurgence of Xbox sales and much confusion in MS as to whether or not this is a good thing."

Comments

Over hyped

[PyroMosh]

The person who submited the article is seriously overestimating the importance of this. People without computers don't hack their x-boxen. Trust me on this one. I doubt anyone is going to go out and buy an x-box just because of this. But I do wonder weather MS will think this a Good Thing(TM) or not.

Re:Over hyped

[donnacha]

The person who submited the article is seriously overestimating the importance of this.

Um... that would be me. I don't generally have a tendency for hype but, in this case, all the pieces that are needed to make Xbox a powerful proposition are falling into place. It's important to stress that I'm not pro or anti MS, I'm just trying to predict how things will be in about a year or so.

People without computers don't hack their x-boxen. Trust me on this one. I doubt anyone is going to go out and buy an x-box just because of this.

That's not how it will work. There's already a burgeoning community of people willing to either mod people's existing Xboxes or sell pre-modded machines. The wholesale prices of these chips appear to go as low as $30 and they are becoming increasing easy to fit, with 12 wires options now replacing the original 29 wire options.

I would suggest that it will become quite common for people to offer modding for about $90 dollars or pre-modded machines for about $270. In somes cases the prices will be even lower than this as budding entrepaneurs, just like MS themselves, will subsidize the initial costs in the interests of developing a substantial customer-base in their own community to whom they can sell films and games on an ongoing basis.

In terms of both skill and capital, the bars to entry are extremely low and I expect that everyone will soon have a "friend-of-a-friend" who will offer these services.

Re:Over hyped

[Nindalf]

The ease of the mod is only one half of its potential appeal. The other half is value.

The ability to play Divx on CD-R is just not a big deal. Sure, you'll probably see a few hundred or thousand video-trading geeks setting this up, so they can watch their stuff on the TV. There might even be a few who would buy an Xbox specifically to watch movies on CD. But you're just not going to see this make the difference to hundreds or millions of people.

My reaction on hearing about this was, "So what?" And I even know what Divx is, which is more than you can say for the general population.

Ordinary people don't think, "Hey, I'll go out and spend $300 so I can watch piles of the second-rate bootleg videos you can buy from that creepy kid who never goes outside!"

You should learn the difference between, "Hey, this is exactly what I was looking for!" and "Wow! Everyone is going to want one of these!"

Re:Over hyped

[Wakko Warner]

Excellent distinction but, all the same, I really do think that from a price / utility / necessary skill point of view, this trend has all the elements necessary to cause a fundamental shift in content piracy, especially in the majority of the world where most people don't already own DVD players.

That's great, but you're very wrong. While there may be a huge online pirated-movie trade, there's absolutely no physical analog in the real world. I can't drive into the ghetto and pick up "Attack of the Clones" on DivX. (I can get it on VHS or, perhaps, even VCD.) I can't mail-order the latest movies, or even good old ones, on DivX (I can on DVD.)

There's no market for this. There is nobody clamoring for something to play all their DivX movies on (those people already have computers.) Nobody needs this. Therefore, this is not a big deal.

- A.P.
- A.P.

Apparently...

[NTSwerver]

...XBox developers are going to be the first to move into Microsoft's new headquarters.

Re:This is why I got an X Box

[kyoko21]

Yep same reason why I got an XBox. Sure I have a PC. I have in fact several PCs. Too many PCs. But I don't want to move all that stuff into the living room and hook it up to the TV (not to mention buying tv-out cards).

With the XBox hacked to play alternative media formats, such as DivX, VCD, DVD, mp3, WMA, it makes it more useful, and all nicely integrated in the same box.

If MS was smart, instead of letting possible revenue slip away from them, they should just release some form of XBox Media Player that will allow more for more functionality on the XBox. If I could pay $30 bucks to get my XBox to play DivX 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, standard mpeg, standard mpeg2, mp3s, wma, without opening up my XBox, I would pay for it. And since I bought an XBox, and if there are some decent games out there, I just might consider buying a game. (Of course, going back to the issue of quality games because honestly, there just hasn't been that many great ones, except for DOA3 or Halo).

Unless MS want to see potential $$$ slip away, they would jump on the bandwagon. Hey, if you can't release decent games, at least make the box better and get people to buy the console. Heck, it's the same price as the PS2, and I don't see anyone trying to hack that. Though, it is conceivable to get DivX to run on PS2 if you had the Linux Dev kit and compile the code yourself on there... but that's 150 bucks you gota shell out. Do the math.

or you could...

[numatrix]

So let's see, I can spend $200 on a machine that I probably wouldn't otherwise buy to watch divx movies, or I can buy a $50 dreamcast and use the divx player that's been around for a while on that. Hmm... difficult decision. Not to mention there are already emulators for ALL of your favorite old-school platforms for the dreamcast. -jordan

Say what?

[Rogerborg]

• much confusion in MS as to whether or not this is a good thing

You are joking, right? First, this requires a hardware mod, which Microsoft despises - hey, it's a Microsoft Xbox, packed full of juicy Microsoft intellectual property and trade secrets, right? They'll likely have mods prosecuteds as DMCA violation, because they bypasses DRM mechanisms.

But worse than that, it allows godless heathens to run FREE SOFTWARE on their hardware. Given the foaming-at-the-mouth FUD they vomit forth whenever the GPL is mentioned, expect them to suggest that Evil Pirates will run the notorious hacker OS Linux on it, allowing the viral GPL to spread throughout the whole Interweb, corrupting and assimilating all that it touches. ZDnet will faithfully reproduce pretty much any FUD they produce about this.

Further, given that PVR opponents seem to have escaped a mainstream press drubbing for describing ad-skipping as theft, expect them to assert that Xbox purchasers have an implied obligation to purchase Microsoft - and only Microsoft - games and add-ons for it, to support the subsidised initial purchase. I'll even predict the phrase, which will be spoken by a flat voiced, dead eyed corporate zombie: "Of course, the Xbox is about having fun, and we want legitimate Xbox purchasers to have fun. But they have to be responsible about it, and support legitimate software development. We think its very important that we educate legitimate Xbox gamers about this, and that we explain why hacking our Xbox and running pirate and viral GPL software kills legitimate developers. And their children, their beautiful golden haired children. Won't someone think of the legitimate software developers' golden haired children!" Er, OK, that last bit might just be implied (or feature as a ZDnet "editorial"), but you get the point. ;-)

And lastly, what do they care about DivX? They are busy touting the DRM benefits of WMF and trying to persuade hardware manufacturers to support WMF alongside MPEG2. They do not want other players in this game. Note that their apologists at ZDnet invite you to infer that DivX is only useful for piracy. Yes, I know that de facto it is heavily used for distributing unlicensed copies, but that's because it's a damn efficient codec with cross platform implementations. If unlicensed copies switch to using WMF (with the DRM turned off) to distribute, will that become a "controversial" format? I think not.

No, I don't see that Microsoft will be in confusion about how to handle this. It's their box, containing their trade secrets, and we should keep our filthy commie hacker hands off of it. The hobbyist market is simply too small to make a difference to their income: in fact, every Xbox purchased by a hacker loses them money. They won't like this. They won't like it at all.

Analogous to Playstation Mods

[Oishii]

In Australia, the modding of playstation (one)s was a HUGE thing about a year ago. Why? Because then you could play copied games. And yes, neighbourhood kids with a little savvy made quite a decent income out of being an "all stop shop". Mod-chipping was usually a $25AUD fee. ($US15)

Come in, get your PS modded, buy a pirated game or three from my extensive copy library. Build your own collection, yes siree, at just $7 (AU) per disc, you too can have a game collection the envy of your friends.

So, these same gameplaying Xbox owners, what do you think they'll say when the neighbourhood kid starts offering (1) a mod, (2) pirated Xbox games and (3) the latest release movies - especially in countries where hollywood delays the release date FAR behind the US one.

I think there's a large market, provided the cost is right.