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Divx Now Adware Supported Only
bogomip_bandit writes "The divx codec is no longer free, no strings attached. Until recently, when downloading the codec from divx.com, one could select Dr Divx for a price, Divx Pro for a price, the divx codec for free, or the divx codec with bundled adware to help support divx development etc. Recently the site has changed. Now when one visits the download page, the only free codec you can download is adware supported. This means even to just watch divx movies and not do any actual enncoding, one has to install adware on their machine. I for one will be finding a different video codec." Sounds like a good reason (if you needed one) to look curiously at Ogg Theora. Update: 08/20 20:04 GMT by T : Correction: As several readers have pointed out, the bare codec is still available, it's just listed below the payware / adware versions.
will not be surprised if this creates a slow move away from divx. The quality of divx is outstanding- but there are other codecs that are just as good.. and don't require me to pause my movie to close pop up ads.
Does anyone know how this will effect mac playback, a la by VLC?
This will only help xvid and ogg theora, which is a good thing. DivX might be more fine tuned and official, but the majority of people won't want to install something with spyware regardless that programs like Ad-Aware and Spy Bot Search and Destroy can easily remove. Most people don't go around purposely installing Bonzai Buddy just so they have some other program working.
Oh well, XviD is gaining popularity as well as developmental features. Soon more people will be using XviD and Ogg for encoding.
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Most of the Movies I have downloaded recently use the 3ivx codec http://www.3ivx.com/
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Not sure if its any better than DiVX but it doesnt look any worse
I've not seen Ogg Theora in action, but I have seen xvid do wonders. I'm sure there are many other options.
The problem is just getting people encoding the video to realize what a pain in the ass it will be for the end user to view the video they are encoding. If they've been using divX, they're going to continue to do so especially if they've actually purchased the software.
i could not think of anything clever.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This reminds me of the real player. http://www.real.com/ - It's fun to watch someone find the real player. It's even more fun to watch that person get absolutely infuriated as the real player sets itself to load during startup and just be a general pain in the ass. Fun times.
no alarms and no surprises, please.
You need to have a compiler that can make DLL's. Just create a program that exits as soon at it starts. Run adaware and compile it to a DLL. Copy and rename it to the ones adaware just removed. I can only get it to work with the decoder only. It won't work if you want to encode video.
ok, here's a rant; mod be into oblivion if you like, but i think some users will agree with me here.
windows media player seemed to be the best player for all kinds of video content while any linux player was, well lacking, mainly with codec support. i remember when windows media player would auto-download a codec and everything worked great.
lately, i'm having a hard time playing many video files in windows media player and the auto-download codec thingie is a freakin joke. i don't know how many different codec installers i've been thru trying to make sure all codecs are covered (god knows how much adaware software has been deployed on my xp machine in the process).
frustrated, i've turned to linux for video viewing. i installed mplayer with the gmplayer front end and the w32 codec file.
now, i can play any codec thrown at me. quicktime? windows formats? no problem.
also, there's no better satisfaction then when my friends say to me, 'hey, i can't seem to play this video file you gave me.. how did you see it?'
'with linux.' (did their job just drop? yep, it sure did!)
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FFDSHOW is one Directshowfilter and plays em all:
XVid, DivX3.11, 4, 5, WMV, HUFFYUV, MPG uva...
Get it and forget about DivX...
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
I haven't installed the actual DivX codecs (besides 3.11a) since I found ffdshow. Not only does it handle XviD/DivX4/DivX5, but it does it more efficiently than the codecs themselves.
This should be the part where I link to benchmarks, but I seriously can't find any. I can tell you that average CPU utilization on my P3-450 home theater box dropped from 65% to 35% when I switched (no postprocessing).
i, for one, will start using more and more of my apps under a vmware installation of windows. and yes, i do run windows as my primary operating system. kazaa is already in there, as well as a dozen other apps i want to try without infecting my system. i can disable the network on the vmware os at any time, halt until i need it, and easily wipe it out and restore from a backup image.
i realize this doesn't apply to this story since the submitter is a moron, but the fact is that it would not be surprising when it really happens
This is yet another twist to the many different kinds of software that tries to get users to actually PAY for the product (and who can blame them?).
It used to be we have shareware - the pay-by-the-honor-system system. Then came the time-trial shareware, which expires after the trail period, then came the nag-ware, which pops up with windows reminding you to register your software, crippleware, which had features that were disabled or functionality limited, then came the adware, which allows you to use the software as long as you were willing to put up with seeing ads.
So now, if you combined these (in DivX's case, it's adware and crippleware - the free version has lower quality/less features), you get Distasteful-Free-Alternatives-Ware.
Of course, Open/Free software is ultimately better. I say they should combine more of these alternatives to really give us the choice! I think DivX should also add a full-featured (non-crippled) time-trial version, and a nag-ware version just to complete the whole set. Let US decide which one we want to be annoyed by before we finally give up and go to a free alternative or (gasp!) actually cough up the money and purchase the full version.
FYI, I purchased the pro version of DivX because quite frankly, I watch enough DivX5.05 video files for me to justify it. For me, it was good old shareware - the pay-by-the-honor-system system. Of course, I never considered the adware version even for a second.
Not so fast:
It's just x86 version. Where are Linux/PPC, Linux/SPARC and all other Linux versions?And, by the way, where is the source code of *.so?
Less is more !
Wrong. Unless you use Linux/x86. Linux users of non-x86 platforms are not welcome:
And as you can see the source code is not available.Less is more !
"that no serious group has ever used for a release"
What are you insinuating? That Divx is something other than a DVD pirate's codec of choice? You're not seriously suggesting that it's a commercial video encoding proposition are you? I do video compression professionally and NOT ONE of my clients has EVER expressed an interest in Divx.
NOT ONE.
That was classic intercourse!
...so video professional can get the format being used in a professional environment. The Apple QuickTime MPEG-4 component is shocking for anything over 320x240, 3ivx is dead in the water, and DivX is evil.
.mp4 MPEG-4 needs on Mac OS X, I use OpenShiiva. However, it's really designed for DVD .vob encoding, which is a real shame.
In the meantime, for all my XivD
A QuickTime XviD component will open XivD up to the pro world!
So the moral of the lesson is...don't read and understand the license. Then be surprised when what you thought, and the actual way it is disagree.
Then carry a boatload of anger for the rest of your life about people taking advantage of your naivety.
Heh! You'd think the gracenote incident would have taught people something.
Oh Well! To paraphrase: A fool and his code are soon parted.
Blizzard Entertainment, one of the world's largest computer game developers, are using DivX as cinematic compression codec of choice since a couple of years back when they stopped using the popular RAD Game Tools. An excellent choice IMHO since both DivX and XviD supplies us with and excellent trade off between video quality and size.
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