http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/ Engadget Comments for Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/Aug 26th 2009 9:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
HD w/ Surround Sound should be available at start-up for any type of service like this. There is no excuse for anything less.]]>Aug 26th 2009 10:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/Aug 26th 2009 11:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
Fat chance, huh?]]>Aug 26th 2009 11:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
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.]]>Aug 26th 2009 12:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
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.]]>Aug 26th 2009 5:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
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.]]>Aug 28th 2009 7:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price... that simple.]]>Aug 26th 2009 12:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
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...)

]]>Aug 26th 2009 10:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/paramount-lionsgate-warner-bros-and-sony-pictures-movies-finall/
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!]]>Aug 27th 2009 2:35AM