Evolving DivX

DivX has been a name synonymous with online video for a long time thanks to the codec and player which have been around for years.

However, in more recent years, DivX has tried to break out of these self-imposed walls by trying to enter the hardware market.

But having pretty much failed with its own set-top boxes, DivX is now entering the crowded Internet TV platform market. Which is a risky move.

DivX TV Devices

At the Consumer Electronics Show today, DivX unveiled its DivX TV, an Internet TV platform designed to stream a range of Web content to as many devices as will carry the service.

DivX plans to make its DivX TV service available on as many devices as possible, including TVs, Blu-ray players, and games consoles. LG Electronics is the first hardware manufacturer to sign up to carry DivX TV.

DivX Content

DivX is claiming to already have 70 content channels lined up, with partners including:

* Associated Press
* blip.tv
* Break
* CNET
* Roxio CinemaNow
* Dailymotion
* Diggnation
* Pandora
* Picasa
* Revision 3
* Rhapsody
* TED
* Tekzilla
* The Street.com
* Twitter
* VBS.TV

Conclusions

While some of these content partners are fine and good, they’re not exactly A-list when it comes to video content providers. There’s no Netflix, there’s no Hulu, there’s no premium content which would make this announcement something special.

That’s not to say this content isn’t highly watchable, it’s just that most of it is available online for free already. Whether watching it on television rather than a PC is enough of a draw remains to be seen.

Film Fresh

The DivX format has been with us for many years but has all but ignored and rejected by Hollywood. Until now. This week has seen four major Hollywood movie studios sign up to offer their movies in the format through the little-known (until now) movie retailer, Film Fresh.

Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Lionsgate have all agreed to have both old and new titles sold through Film Fresh.

This signals a complete change of pace for Film Fresh, which has up to now mainly focused on independent titles. Probably not through choice though, more forced due to the majors being resistant selling their product via this method.

Deal Detailed

The titles from the four major studios, which immediately include Iron Man, Watchmen, and 17 Again, will be sold through Film Fresh in the DivX format for between $10 and $16.

These are full downloads rather than rentals, so once purchased the film is yours for keeps. Movie bundle deals are very likely to follow, and a rental service is being planned for the future.

DivX Format

The big difference between Film Fresh and its competitors such as Amazon Unbox and Apple iTunes is the DivX format itself. Although DivX requires a download, it’s a format which has already been widely adopted by electronics manufacturers.

This means there are many DivX-enabled devices on the market, including DVD players, TVs, and games consoles. Should you not have DivX installed on your computer then it’s a simple download away.

DivX encoding also means a smaller file size with no loss of quality. Even better, a movie downloaded in the DivX format can be burned on to a DVD or transferred to a USB stick and moved on to a DivX-enabled device such as the PS3.

Conclusions

This is a major coup for Film Fresh, but more than that it signals the intentions of Hollywood movie studios to embrace the evolution which is taking place with digital media.

Have they finally realized that by resisting to kowtow to what consumers now want was only leading to more and more piracy taking place? Let’s hope so. Movie piracy will never vanish completely but by giving people a cheap and accessible option it can certainly be reduced.

[Via The L.A. Times]

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One of the biggest problems with watching television programmes, or movies online however, is the size of the screen you are being forced to watch it on. Unless you are rich, or an early adopter of future technologies, the chances are your PC or laptop screen just isn’t up to the job any more.

You do have an option though, and that is to hook your PC or laptop up to a projector, and have all your favourite video clips, and web episodes, in glorious full screen, home theater sized goodness. But, where’s the best place to begin?

Buying A Projector

First you’ll need a PC or laptop, and a home theater projector. There are plenty of places to find them, but I’d recommend reading through lots of projector reviews before you blindly purchase one which then doesn’t suit your needs.

Prices of projectors can vary wildly, but you’ll be looking to spend between $1,000 and $3,000 for reasonable quality and a good brand.

Be aware that there is a difference between a projector being HD Ready and actually outputting HD. HD Ready simply means it can accept a HD signal, but may output in standard definition so won’t look as crisp as you might expect.

If you want to make sure your new purchase is 100% HD then look at the output. An 800×600 output is not High Definition, whereas 1280×720 (720p) or 1920×1080 (1080i or 1080p) is.

Connecting Your Projector

Connecting your PC up to your brand new projector shouldn’t be all that hard. Windows Vista for instance makes it as easy as plug and play, in most cases, providing you have the right cables to use.

As with every occasion when you are plugging or unplugging something in to your PC or laptop, you should make sure both are switched off first.

Cable Options

The simplest way to connect the two devices is by using a video cable. Simply plug one end of the cable in to the projector’s Computer In port, and the other in to the PC or laptop’s Video port, where you would normally plug an external monitor in.

For a better quality connection however, you’ll need an HDMI or DVI connection instead. Before you go down this route, make sure that your computer is able to handle it, as an up to date video card is at least essential for this type of connection.

Settings for the projector will vary depending on your computer, and the graphics card installed, but you should be able to at least get your projector working in tandem with the PC or laptop to create a home entertainment hub simply by adjusting resolution settings.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

If you run into any trouble, you can visit the configuration settings to make sure your hardware is working properly.

In Windows Vista open Personalization in the Control Panel and then click Display Settings. In Windows XP open the Display icon in the Control Panel and then click the Settings tab.

Here you will be able to configure projector settings, and use it either as a second display or to display what’s currently being shown on your computer. This second option is usually the default setting.

If you are using a laptop and it is connected to a dock, this may cause problems with the projector being recognized correctly. In this case, disconnect your laptop from the dock before connecting a projector.

For additional troubleshooting, there are a number of resources on the web. Type the specific problem you are having in to your favourite search engine and you will likely find several solutions, so keep trying one until you find one that works.

A World Of Online TV Opens Up

Now that you’re up and running, what to do with your integrated home theatre? The most obvious answer is to watch High Definition content online from places such as Joost, Stage 6, and Miro.

The wealth of streaming videos on these resources should mean that you’ll never get left with nothing to watch.

There is also the option to connect your projector up to other devices such as your PS3 or Xbox 360, which now offer the ability to allow online viewing of movies, as well as playing graphically high quality games.

Then there is TiVo, which you can use to download movies via the Amazon Unbox service, meaning you’ll never again have to pay the extortionate prices being asked to watch films in cinemas or theatres.

Conclusions

Buying a projector can be an expensive business, but the benefits make it a very worthy purchase indeed.

From watching videos online, playing games, or downloading new movies to the comfort of your own home, you’ll soon wonder how you lived without it.

It now seems that in the latest dashboard update, there was the inclusion of limited DivX support, although it’s not 100% functional, and Microsoft tried to call the files anything but DivX.

The Xbox Team’s official blog announced:

“[The Xbox 360] now supports files encoded using MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple and Advanced Simple Profile, [which are] often referred to as Xvid or DivX video files”

This is sure to be great news for the millions of Xbox 360 owners, as it increases the library of media content they can now have access to through their trusty consoles.

Not Quite Full Support

However, it’s not full support, as the Xbox 360 won’t support files which contain additional functions, such as menus or subtitles. It will also only support content encoded with DivX version 5.0 or later.

It’s not the only good news for Xbox 360 owners as we enter the Christmas season either, as the European launch of the Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store has been announced for December 11th.

Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store

From that date, Xbox Live users will be able to rent full length feature films for as little as £2 each (or 250 Microsoft Points) or HD-DVD movies for £3 (or 380 Microsoft Points).

Robin Truchy, European director of Xbox Live said:

“We want to give consumers the entertainment they want, in the format they want, when they want it and at an affordable price.”

“We are already offering HD games, HD music videos and the option to enjoy HD-DVD format films, now we are offering HD movies to download and rent as well.”

The films stay on the console’s hard drive for 14 days after being downloaded from the Marketplace website and must be watched within 24 hours after the play button is first pressed.

Consoles Rapidly Becoming Media Hubs

This is just the latest in a long line of steps taken seemingly to place what were once mere games consoles at the heart of the digital media revolution.

The Xbox 360, along with the PS3 are rapidly becoming more like media entertainment hubs sitting in your front room, rather than just machines to play Mario and Grand Theft Auto on.

Where this will end is anyone’s guess, but with the digital market growing, and television companies increasingly looking towards the Internet to sell their wares, it’s an important step forward for consumers.

The codec technology will be added to all existing PS3 consoles by way of a forthcoming software update, although no date has yet been given for when to expect it.

Up until now, the PS3 has been woeful at supporting multiple video formats, with Sony making the ridiculous decision to ship with just MP4 support, a niche format at best.

Press Statement

Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. announced in a statement:

“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3. Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”

The PS3 Media Hub

“Expand the multimedia functionality of PS3″ is exactly right. This, more than anything to date is helping take the Playstation 3 out of the realm of being a mere games console, and more in to media hub sitting in people’s living rooms.

The PS3 is already one of the cheapest Blu ray players this side of Japan, and this increase in video playing options just adds to its status as a must have gadget for all the technophiles out there.

The news that PS3 owners will now be able to watch DivX formatted videos will bring joy to the ears of every Sony and PS3 fanboy, but there is also a darker element to it all that we can’t avoid mentioning.

PS3 Piracy?

DivX is one of the formats of choice for video pirates. That’s not controversial, just a fact based on it’s standing as the chosen standard for video encoding and compression.

This deal to bring DivX on to the PS3 could then potentially allow users access to the “broad library of content” on pirates computers, as well as everyone else’s.

Xbox 360 To Follow Suit?

So content providers and studios might not be very happy with this news, and Microsoft will probably join them in that dissatisfaction.

There have been numerous yet unsubstantiated rumours of a deal between the two companies for months. Xbox 360 owners have been crying out for their console of choice to get native DivX support, but it seems it’s not to be… yet.

This week has been a busy one for DivX, who also announced the acquisition of MainConcept AG, “a leading provider of H.264 and other high-quality video technologies” in a press statement on Wednesday.

As the terms of the contract state, DivX software will now be offered with a co-branded Yahoo Toolbar and a version of IE7 pre-configured with Yahoo tools. Yahoo!, in exchange, will now provide links to DivX and its online video service, Stage6, within the Yahoo toolbar.

Could Yahoo! possibly be a better partner for DivX than Google?

“We had worked with Google for two years and it was a good relationship. The deal we had with Yahoo was the most attractive to us at this time,” Huntington said. 

Both Companies Will Benefit

No financial details of the deal have been released, but both companies stand a chance of benefiting from this deal, especially DivX, which is quickly becoming a popular standard to encode videos in, whether viewing them on the web or sharing across the web.

“Our partnership with DivX gives Yahoo! the ability to offer our services to its growing global community, providing them with one-click access to the Yahoo! network. 

The partnership will also enable Yahoo!’s users worldwide to discover and benefit from the video technologies that DivX has to offer,” said Vish Makhijani, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Search.

Previously, Google’s search tools were bundled with DivX software, but this seemed less like a partnership, as I cannot recall any promotion of DivX by Google in exchange. 

Then again, Google has already established itself as the internet search leader, a spot which Yahoo! has desperately been trying to recapture. Perhaps, this is their way of directly stealing a piece Google’s pie, so to speak.

Further Integration To Follow?

Look for the new Yahoo partnered DivX tools to launch sometime in November 2007.

DivX Stage6 is no YouTube, but It looks like Yahoo! still has some tricks up their sleeve to win some of the market back from Google. The only question is, is it too late or do they still have time to make a difference? Could this mean some integration between Yahoo! Video and DivX Stage6?

Michael Garrett is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com

The company plans to license an SDK to OEMs and chip manufacturers, and encourage them to build the technology into different products from different OEMs. The strategy is that Divx Connected could be integrated with cable boxes, DVD players, and set-top boxes.

The feature of a Divx Connected box would be similar to most streaming devices. Users could view pictures and video or listen to music from any computer on their network while also streaming video from online video sites like Stage6.

TvSquad recently was shown the interface of Divx Connected devices. Divx is currently in the process of securing third-party hardware partners and showing off the interface is a good way to promote the standard.

Those 70 million devices span from the many partner companies that DivX has teamed up with over the past few years. Davis Freeberg decided to delve a little deeper into these partnerships to see who has come one board with DivX and who has been jumping ship.

It’s Stage6 Day here on Web TV Wire and Web TV Hub (23/04/07). Learn more…

Video sharing sites like YouTube, Daily Motion and Metacafe share one thing in common which has aided their success. They use a simple flash video player that is instantly accessible by almost all internet users without any effort.

It’s Stage6 Day here on Web TV Wire and Web TV Hub (23/04/07). Learn more…

Keeping itself in line as a distribution platform for independent video producers, DivX is running a film festival for members of the Stage6 community. The festival is devoted to storytelling, creation and improving digital media.