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DIVX is dead
Breakdown was the first to send the word that DIVX is dead. Hooray! Now, I think I might finally be able to get off of their mailing list. And, if you purchased a system before June 16, 1999, you get a 100$ rebate.
Update: 06/16 01:09 by CT : They cite
lack of interest from studios and other retailers. They also say
that most Circuit City consumers bought DivX (they gave away 5 free titles
and the cost difference was almost negligible so I found
that amusing). All I can say
is R.I.P. DivX.
An ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure, eh? Check out the press release:
All Divx discs, including those previously purchased by
consumers and those remaining in retailer inventories, can be viewed on
registered players anytime between now and June 30, 2001.
The significance of this cannot be overlooked. This is empirical proof that any system that places consumer property under the access control of a remote body can, will, and just did repossess control of those goods, despite the (promised!) expectations of the customer.
Told you so.
The Geek Community was quite clear on this: DiVX gives corporations excessive control over the viewing habits of customers, and was generally an awful idea. Truly, we have the media outlets and electronic stores--corporations in their own right--to thank for realizing the inevitable result of any technically dependant system such as DiVX and protecting as many consumers as possible from what the Geeks always recognized as Bad Mojo.
What can we learn from this? SDMI--the MP3 competitor--is flat out doomed to fail if it attempts any sort of protection dependant on contacting anyone anywhere for permission to play a song.
After decades of ripping off artists, lets hope they don't move onto ripping off consumers. (Again. Spoiler Signal What?)
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
effugas@best.com
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
CD's or DIVX disks look cool after a couple seconds of microwaving. The charge buildup rips nice patterns through the aluminum. No, this didn't (apparently) harm my microwave.
Last night on CNN Headline news, I saw another one of those DIVX commercials. Has anyone told them to stop? Its the commercial with this guy who has so many facial expressions why you should buy divx and only divx can play divx movies. When are they going to give it up?
I've been picking up movies on Laser Disk(LD) for $5-7 a piece.
A couple comments on LD and DVD
* Resolution comparision based on NTSC. For NTSC, all images have 525 lines of vertical resolution. Horizontal resultion varies with the source material: VHS=240, Broadcast=330, LD = 420, DVD = 480. Resolution information from Secrets of Home Theater.
- Grind into dust. Sell as New Age Crystal Aphrodesiac.
- Perpetrate UFO hoax.
- High-tech grinding attachment for dremel tool.
- Clay pigeons
- Mail them to little Timmy, who needs an operation.
- Glue to floor of nasty abandoned warehouse. Open nightclub.
- Very expensive horseshoes.
- Slip onto cellphone antenna for stylish retro-50's radiator look.
- Glue to forehead, go to costume party as ER doctor.
- Purchase universal remote. Now that you have a Record button, tape over them (oh come on, how do you think the signal go there in the first place?).
- Hang them on your office wall. Pretend you're Paul McCartney.
JonAll opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Laser Disc is alive and well. Perhaps you are thinking of those RCA Video Discs which were played with a needle?
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Beta sure seems more hyped now than it ever was when it was alive.
Yes, the original Beta was slightly (not "a LOT") better than VHS in terms of recording quality (resolution). But how good can you get when you're limited by composite NTSC anyway? VHS won out because (a) it was a more open standard (Beta was closely held by Sony), and (b) you could put a full length movie onto a single tape.
The Beta that is used in TV studios and commercial camcorders these days is Digital Beta. Same tape cassette mechanism but a totally different recording technique, and utterly incompatible with the old Beta tape decks. It's the digital aspect that gives it the higher resolution than the old 3/4" UMatic cassettes they used to use (and are still used somewhat).
-- Alastair
What were you doing in there supporting Circuit City anyway if you don't like DIVX?
This announcement is great -- I laugh, ha ha! -- but I'm still not planning on shopping at Circuit City. Not until July 1, 2001, anyway...
(As an ex-military associate of mine is fond of saying, "defeat is in the pursuit". Or as an ex-fighter pilot puts it "don't stop firing when you see smoke, follow him down to the ground". We want to make sure DIVX is not just dead, but is buried, with a large wooden stake through its heart and a bundle of garlic around its neck. To remind others who might come up with similar schemes.)
-- Alastair
What DIVX offers is an improved rental model, where your trips to the video store are cut by more than half.
"Cut by more than half"? How do you figure that?
And in any case, it isn't necessarily true. There are far, far more video rental places than Circuit Sh.., er, Cities. When I return a video I just drop it off in the drive past drop-box, and the video store is on my way to work. No special trip involved. And the rental price is typically about half the price of a DIVX disc, which seems to have the late-return fee built in.
(Or I can rent a movie - VHS or DVD - at my local supermarket and return it next week when I'm back for next week's groceries. Only a buck for the tape, and the DVD rental is still cheaper than buying a DIVX.)
-- Alastair
However, I still think the pricing model is a great idea. No more late fees...
The "great" pricing model just built the usual late fee (and then some) into the initial purchase price of the disc. Unless you're the type that routinely keeps rentals for a couple of weeks past due date, it doesn't win you much. If you usually return rentals on time (easy for me, I drop 'em off on the way to work), it penalizes you.
Around here I can rent two DVD's for a week for what a single DIVX would cost me for 48 hours. Worse than that, if you count mileage to the nearest Circuit City to buy the DIVX.
-- Alastair
The boycott is not just for selling a shoddy product -- there are (a very few) non Circuit City stores around here that sold DIVX and I don't particularly avoid them (besides, if I boycotted every store that ever sold a shoddy product I'd never buy anything) -- it's for designing the stupid thing and pushing it on an ignorant populace. Kind of like a large software company up in Redmond, only worse.
Oh, and as for folks looking for a bargain when they sell off DIVX player back stock, keep in mind that no DIVX player sold on or after today will ever play DIVX discs, because you won't be able to register it (see the news release). (Even if you bought one last week, if you haven't registered it yet you're SOL as far as DIVX discs go.) It'll still play DVDs, but poorly.
-- Alastair
Finally, an example of the consumer masses being too inteligent to fall for a horrible idea or product just because it was slickly marketed.
We now have compelling evidence that the public isn't as stupid as some corporations think they are!
My favorite line (probably most people's):
"Sales at participating Divx retailers reflect strong consumer interest in the Divx feature," said Richard L. Sharp, chairman and chief executive officer of Digital Video Express and of Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC, KMX), the majority partner in the Digital Video Express venture. "The majority of customers purchasing DVD players in Circuit City stores have selected players that include the Divx option. Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain adequate support from studios and other retailers. Despite the significant consumer enthusiasm, we cannot create a viable business without support in these essential areas."
"Strong consumer interest..." "significant consumer enthusiasm". Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.
Tell ya what DIVX dudes... If the consumer support was there, support from other retailers would have been there. Duh!
Hey DIVX, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of marketplace!
[gidyness] [grin]
Actually, only one of these examples has an analogy to DIVX, IMHO, in the sense that consumers rejected the inferior format in favor of the superior one.
That would be the 8-track. The 8-track and the cassette were released almost simultaneously (1964, yes the formats are REALLY that old). Despite extreme marketing on the part of the 8-track camp, consumers finally figured out that cassettes had dramatically less wow-and-flutter, lasted much longer, and could be rewound and fast-forwarded forcrissakes!
As far as the other formats mentoned:
Laser Disks: Excellent format in it's time, superceded by a technologically more modern one, DVDs.
Vinyl: Ditto laser disks. An excellent format for it's day, superceded by newer technology.
Betamax: Actually dramatically superior to VHS in most respects. Killed by awesome marketing by the VHS camp (and Sony keeping the beta format so closed).
MiniDisk: Format that still has it's strong niche, and is likely to for a while.
This thread give many wonderful reasons why DIVX is bad.
IMHO the overriding, super-duper, most appallingly horrendous thing about DIVX was this:
The disks are married to the player.
Buy a new player because you want do upgrade or, worse yet, because your old one broke and your collection of disks that you fscking BOUGHT just became a bunch of coasters.
Can you imagine if when you bought a new CD player, either as a replacement or a second one (a portable in addition to your home unit for example) if all your CDs wouldn't play on the new player and you had to buy second copies of them for the second player?
How outrageous can you get!?
Side note: Is there any truth to the rumour that the divx players play DVDs at lower quality??
Yes, It's true.
And since I can think of absolutely no technological reason for this, I can only assume it was deliberate sabotage to attempt to cause people who bought DIVX players to have a preference for the "superior quality" DIVX releases.
Accually I've found that a lamenating them is the best way of solving the hole problem. Needs to be fairly think lamenation. And try to use a machine that doesn't have to roll it around a spool, as cd's don't like to be bent as easily as paper.
>2) Need to connect to a phone to watch a disc.
I didn't think this was true. I understood that the player would connect to a server through the phone line to charge you for additional viewings after the initial 48 hour rental. I didn't think this happened before any/every viewing. Sounded more like it kept track of your pay-per-views and connected at regular intervals.
Not that I think this is a good idea either, just seemed like the way this was stated was incorrect.
>Divx players are fully featured DVD players, right?
No, not by most accounts.
And as far as saving $100, these players typically cost $100 more than DVD so you are getting no bargain. Now, if you could wrangle one for $100 total, but I would rather not give Circuit City any freebies buy taking one off their hands. Let them realize the full impact of this gaff and pay thru the nose to dispose of all these aborted devices.
Well, my last excuse for not buying a DVD player has vanished overnight. Which one should I get?
>I would suggest a DVD-ROM rather than, or in addition to, a DVD for the following reasons
:-)
;-)
That's a given
Now if I could figure out how to use a PC DVD to play movies and output the signal over to my TV, I'd be set.
Holding out until there is (better/widespread/any) support for DVD rom in Linux, tho...
(Father's day is this weekend, my wife is bugging me for ideas, Best Buy has the Panasonics on sale... hmmm)
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
The problem with DIVX is that it favored the licensor far beyond what it did the consumer. They got their royalties, and then some -- and had powerful and rigid controls. But the consumer got a system less powerful than DVD, and it combined the *worst* aspects of ownership, rental, pay-per-view, and licensing. In fact, DIVX was more anti-consumer than anything, which is why in the end it was a failure to the company that brought it to market.
I celebrate this as a victory, because if DIVX suceeded, this type of arrangement may have spread elsewhere. It is very closed-system, inconvenient, and money-hungry. It'd work great for a monopoly.
1) Add them onto the Holy AOL 30-Day Trial CD Necklace.
2) Coasters.
3) Frisbees.
4) Put one on your head and pronounce yourself the DIVX Angel. (4b: Join the circus)
5) Goes great with cabbage!
6) Amaze your dim friends by telling them that the disk will explode 48 hours after they watch it. 48 hours later, tell them the trigger must have activated but that there was some problem in the ignition system.
7) Keep them above your bed, so the first thing you do in the morning is giggle about the incredible stupidity of DIVX.
8) Label 52 of them differently and start playing DIVX poker at school. Guaranteed to befuddle just about everyone.
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