Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 26th 2009 8:00AM
posted Aug 26th 2009 8:00AM
Expect pricing around $9.99 - $15.99 for catalog / new release flicks, with 600 expected at launch, rising to 1000 movies soon after. The DivX system allows for just a single download, but, you can easily back up copies to disc, hard drive or any other storage and still play them directly on DivX Certified (no on Xbox 360, yes on PlayStation 3) devices. Since the DRM ties the file to your user id, not a particular device, one copy should play on any compatible hardware once it's been registered. That includes PCs, where progressive download support mans you don't have to wait until it finishes to start watching. We'll keep an eye on Film Fresh to see if it takes off, but the good news is if you're interested, unlike other services, there's likely already a device in your living room ready and waiting to play these movies.
DivX and Film Fresh Partner to Offer Digital Downloads of Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Films in the DivX(R) Format
DivX-powered FilmFresh.com first U.S. online store to enable playback of Hollywood titles on DivX Certified(R) consumer electronics devices
SAN DIEGO and LOS ANGELES, Aug 26, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), a digital media company, and Film Fresh Inc. today announced that Film Fresh is the first U.S. download-to-own (DTO) online store to provide major motion picture titles from Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution in the high-quality secure DivX(R) format. With this new service available at www.FilmFresh.com, full-length Hollywood movies can be conveniently downloaded and played on the millions of DivX devices that have shipped into the market, including DVD players, digital TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray disc players, and portable DVD players. Consumers have the freedom to transfer their DivX movies via DVDs, USB drives, SD memory cards, and portable hard drives, or streamed over a home network for playback on other registered DivX Certified devices they own--all on supported products from top consumer electronics brands such as LG, Philips and Toshiba.
Film Fresh is an online film destination offering a one-stop shop for movie lovers of all types and ages at www.FilmFresh.com. In addition to Film Fresh's large catalog of Hollywood movies and films from around the world available on DVD and via download, the site offers daily commentary on new films, and extensive opportunities for audiences to communicate using the latest social networking applications.
Titles available for download at Film Fresh will include the latest weekly Hollywood releases; recent popular films such as Pineapple Express, 17 Again, 3:10 to Yuma, Hancock and Watchmen; arthouse titles like The Lives of Others, Religulous and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; contemporary horror films such as My Bloody Valentine and the Saw franchise; classics like Glengarry Glen Ross, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Reservoir Dogs; popular franchises like Spider-Man, Harry Potter, The Matrix and Batman; plus a variety of films for children, including Stuart Little. The catalog of Film Fresh Hollywood titles in the DivX format is expected to grow quickly as new releases from all four studios become available for digital distribution.
"Film Fresh is now a one-stop shop for film enthusiasts of all kinds, and we are quite excited about our expansion into premium Hollywood content," said Rick Bolton, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Film Fresh. "Our partnership with DivX goes back to the founding of Film Fresh. We have always believed that DivX offers the best download choice for consumers, since it gives people the freedom to own and watch films on a wide variety of electronic devices from many different manufacturers. It's a good fit with Film Fresh's central mission--expanding the audience for film. Download-to-own is going to play a critical role in the future of film distribution, and Film Fresh will provide the films people want to see, in whatever form they want to see them."
"Through our agreements with Film Fresh and the studios, we are able to bring Hollywood movies in the high-quality DivX format to U.S. consumers for the first time," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer of DivX, Inc. "This brings the DivX vision to reality by giving consumers the freedom to download high-quality DivX videos and enjoy them on any DivX Certified device from top manufacturers. With millions of DivX devices shipped, including DVD players, Blu-ray players, mobile phones, digital televisions, and gaming consoles DivX presents a powerful consumer-focused open solution that is ubiquitous and already in many homes."
"Our customers have long enjoyed playing back DivX video on a variety of LG devices from DVD players to Blu-ray devices to high definition TVs," said Tim Alessi, Director of New Product Development at LG Electronics USA, Inc. "Now with Hollywood movies available from Film Fresh in the DivX format, our U.S. consumers will be able to immerse themselves in the high-quality movie experience that DivX and our state-of-the-art products provide as they watch their favorite film classics and new releases from major studios."
"Philips has a long history of bringing the best in cinema quality picture and sound directly into consumers' homes, which is why we are excited to be able to take that one step further with the offering of Hollywood movies in the DivX format from Film Fresh," said Todd Richardson, senior vice president of sales and marketing for P&F, the exclusive manufacturer and distributor for Philips televisions and home theater in the U.S. "Now our customers will be able to take their viewing experience on Philips-branded TVs, Blu-ray and DVD players to the next level with easy to download premium content in the DivX format."
"High-quality DivX video playback is a key feature in many Toshiba products, including DVD players and digital TVs, not to mention our newest portable DVD player," said Jodi Sally, Vice President of Marketing for Toshiba's Digital A/V Group. "We're thrilled that our U.S. customers will be able to download Hollywood movies in the DivX format for playback on our products in the comfort of their homes and even on the go."
Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video creation and playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality users expect from DivX.
I bet users still have to register and manage devices. But at least it's a cross-platform solution which means people have a way to manage and transfer their collection if they want.
SD w/ Stereo sound, no XBox support. Not a good start.
HD w/ Surround Sound should be available at start-up for any type of service like this. There is no excuse for anything less.
You can blame Microsoft for lack of support. It's compatible with DivX / XVid content (i.e. ASP encoded data) but it isn't DivX certified which means it lacks support for DRM files.
Well, if they can make it HD with DD+ surround sound, no DRM and movies priced at $3.99, I'd say it'll be a winner!
Fat chance, huh?
Or I could blame Divx for being a straight rip-off of MS Mpeg-4 codec....
XBox can play Divx/Xvid files, the only reason to say there is no support for these on XBox is Divx being pissy b/c MS won't give them a free pass for reverse engineering their codec.
If they were HD w/ Surround Sound I could understand the issue, b/c there are problems with the XBox and HD Divx/Xvid files, but just SD and stereo? That's just Divx being pissy.
DivX 3.11 used a hacked MS codec, later versions of DivX including the certified versions and their associated file formats do not.
As for MS not giving them a "free pass", it probably has more to do with DivX certification requiring they support encrypted content. Apple and Microsoft want all the pie to themselves and aren't going to assist a competing format one, especially one which is not tied to their hardware or operating systems.
So yes you can blame Microsoft for not getting certification. It was a calculated decision to avoid implementing part of the DivX spec but its still their fault.
DrXym - DivX 3.11 is unrelated to DivX. DivX 3.11 is the old hacked "DivX ;-)" thing that circulated throughout the internet in the very late nineties.
DivX is essentially a different lineage, and started with Project Mayo, an attempt to create an open and legit implementation of MPEG-4 ASP.
As far as the "blaming Microsoft" thing goes, when, exactly, did Microsoft become morally obliged to implement anything DivX networks has produced? Microsoft, like Apple, implements MPEG-4 ASP in their products. That has never meant they implement "DivX", or that they're excited by what one proprietary vendor is doing with MPEG-4 ASP.
I like a lot of what DivX are doing in terms of creating standard profiles for ASP and AVC and related container formats, and the open parts of what they're doing certainly deserve to be widely adopted, but when DivX Networks adds their own proprietary gunk, as they've done with the DRM layer, then there's no moral or ethical, or practical reason why others should feel that they have to support it.
And I'm pretty sure that if DivX Networks feels that strongly about it, they're welcome to sell a DivX player for X-Box anyway.
The lack of Xbox support is what it is... the SD video & stereo audio is a real deal-breaker though. This is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately they tripped and fell back 8 years when the music industry also put DRM on their content.
What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price... that simple.
The DRM's a deal breaker for me, though the lack of surround sound is also something that would make me feel twice before forking out that much. $3-4 for this might make sense as a "version of the movie to play on the laptop", but they're charging DVD level prices which would be ridiculous to pay just for a portable version of a movie.
This isn't a competitor to iTunes. It's a competitor to UMD. And there's a reason why UMD was a monumental failure, even amongst PSP owners. (No, not just because it was made by Sony...)
"What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price...that simple."
I could not agree more, TechGuyNate!
It's just that our idea of a "fair price" is MUCH lower than the Studios' idea of a "fair price".
We're the realists, saying that, in the current world, or calculation of the price is basically:
Free bittorrent + cost of internet access + cost of hard drive space + cost of hassle (searching for file, waiting for download, possibly converting file format, manual organizing) + a buck or two for the honest cost of making content = the price we think is fair.
So that comes out to about $4-$5 for DVD quality and maybe $7-$9 for Blu-ray quality.
I can tell you this - if I could be sure that I could go to any physical store and all of the DVDs would be priced at $4-$5 and all of the Blu-rays priced at $7-$9, I'd feel extremely little incentive to rent or download! I'd probably still rent Blu-rays that I knew I wouldn't want to keep forever, but other than that - if those were the standard prices? I'd be buying all the time!
And same goes for legitimate downloads. Those downloads would have to have completely equal video AND audio quality and they would have to be DRM-free, but at $4-$5 SD and $7-$9 HD, I'd be more than happy to pay the studios.
But the Studios still live in a dream world of $20 DVDs and $30-$40 Blu-rays. The cost savings of rip/rent/return or bittorrents are just too large to ignore! The Studios think they can sue the world back to their dreamland prices. But the cat's out of the bag and she ain't going back in!