Warner Bros. gives green light for DivX distribution
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 14th 2008 8:47PM
posted Oct 14th 2008 8:47PM
Remember when DivX was a format only understood by the hardcore BitTorrent users and P2P mavens who shared low-quality videos online? No more. DivX is stamping its name on all manners of devices these days, and now it's getting in with the always-guarded content providers. Today, DivX and Warner Bros. have announced that the studio's material will soon be available for distribution in the DivX format, meaning that any DivX Certified consumer electronics device could play it back. The pact is similar to the one signed with Sony Pictures Television and Sony Pictures Television International, though not everything is particularly peachy. Content will be available in SD DivX as of this month, but HD DivX won't be streaming until September of 2009. Ah well, at least we've a date to hold 'em to.
So, does this mean no DRM, or does it just mean they use the format? 'Cause DivX with Sony DRM is like 8-track with Sony DRM.
No, it has DRM. I have a DiVX certified player and you have to enter a code to watch protected content. You can download it however you like but it is encrypted.
'Remember when'? I remember when DivX was a lame pay per view DVD format... Ah, now that was a fun format war!
DiVX seem to be doing a great job of co-opting standards and palming them off as their own invention. First MPEG-2 ASP for SD and more recently H264 for HD. It sucks that they managed to gain such leverage from open standards. I suppose in their favour some good may come from it since ASP & H264 has so many profiles, levels within profiles, resolutions that its very hard to produce an mp4 file that plays everywhere. Maybe getting certification will bring devices into line.
It doesn't help that they purchased MainConcept.
What does it matter? If it's DRM, it's a waste of time.