CinemaNow to distribute movies in DivX format

Forget about needing WMV and DivX compatibility, CinemaNow just announced plans to distribute movies using DivX technology - no surprise considering the slew of hardware on shelves and coming soon that includes support for the format. Good news for Expect to catch flicks on the PC, cellphone, gaming system and disc players, and even though they didn't mention which content providers would be first on the block, we've got to figure Sony Pictures is ready to go. Sounds like perfect timing, what with a totally unbiased survey finding in-store renting is soon to join Cross Colours, British Knights and SUVs as bygone fads.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2008 3:37PM]

Why doesn't DIVX just die? There format's been inferior for years, just let H264 have it all and we can move on to devices that play universally!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2008 4:52PM]

wrong. Divx Ultra surpasses H264 in terms of functionality. I can flip subtitles on and off without needing to keep them in a separate file or hard muxing them into the video (therefore no option to turn them off)

I think Netflix should start offering their collection in divx ultra so they could ship with sub titles.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2008 7:31PM]

@inteller:

h264 is far superior then DIVX in term of quality. MKVs (h264) files can also enable and disable subtitles. Also, h264 has better video quality even at lower bitrates then DIVX

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 14th 2008 3:11PM]

That's like saying, "why does Wal-Mart sell DVD anymore when Blu-Ray is clearly better?"

There are over 100 million existing devices that support DivX with DRM. There are zero devices that offer DRM for MKV H.264 files which makes that option a non-starter for premimum content distributors like CinemaNow.

Apple could sell protected MP4 H.264 files but they do not license their DRM so that limits your market to iPhones and AppleTV owners. In contrast, there is a lot of variety from DivX including portable DVD players, in-car units, picture frames, televisions, PS3, etc. Also consider the cheapest thing that will play video from Apple is a $150 iPod but many DivX DVD players cost less than $40.

DivX isn't going away anytime soon. All things considered, it's clearly the best option for selling digital media because of the size of the potential market and the low-cost for consumers. It has nothing to do with who-has-the-highest-compression.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2008 4:12PM]

Interesting service. CinemaNow turns out to be behind the DishONLINE service on my Dish Network VIP622.

http://www.cinemanow.com/Aboutus-Background.aspx

Website says nothing about the quality of the downloads though.