OK, I gotta weigh in here on DIeVX. First, there are many anti-DIeVX sites out there that provide a great deal of information about what is wrong with the format (yes, format, not DVD "enhancement.") The big failures like having no extras and no wide-screen are certainly clear, but there are more subtle drawbacks that no salesgeek will ever mention or will try to obfuscate.

It is not cheaper than DVD to rent. Locally, I rent DVDs for $1.50 to $3.00 for from one to seven nights. DIeVX can't compete with that. Also, the late-fee argument is bogus since late-fees are rare for most people. In fact, I think I know only one person who has ever paid a late fee. Many of the anti DIeVX sites show clearly the annual costs of DVD -vs- DIeVX.

Here's the really nasty one though. Big Brother is watching you. All of your viewing habits are reported back to DIeVX headquarters. All else being equal, this one is the killer. Granted most people don't understand freedom or privacy issues anymore, but this is a clear invasion of your privacy and DIeVX owners are just giving it away and paying for the privilage.

If you think that this is innocent, think again. A person who was injured in a California grocery store lost his suit because the store reporduced his purchase records to show he purchased booze periodically. Don't participate in those "discount" programs.

Glenn

Ironically, the other day I was looking for some new DVD titles, noone had them, not Hollywood Video, Not Hastings, not even Best Buy, guess where I found them, Circuit City. CC's DVD selection has really grown, maybe they are taking a "if you can't beat em, join em" approach

The only people that are upset about Divx are the people who already invested in DVD player. They are afraid that titles with be released on Divx and not DVD, and I don't blame them. So I guess its time to upgrade to a Divx/DVD player, everything become outdated sooner or later. I love the Divx idea, I order a dozen or so of the latest movies from Divx.com every month and watch them at my leasure, buy the good ones, dump the rest. Also buy some regular DVD's, have the best of both worlds.

Hmm, a dozen every month? According to DVE's home page there's a total of only 8 DIVX movies coming out this May. June gets busier with a grand total of 13 - so I guess you'll be seeing all of them! :-)

There's 194 titles coming to Open DVD in May, and 161 (so far) in June. That's 1590% more movies than DIVX. DIVX will fail simply because there won't be anything to see!

OK THEN WHATS THE DIFFERENCE SOME ONE TELL ME I DARE YA THANKS

OK then, I guess I'll take the challenge.

First, the marketing, the usage, and other stuff:
1. Phone line connection. I don't know about most people, but I do not like to run cable all over my house just for a piece of equipment, plus the fact that that particular piece of equipment is calling SOMEWHERE that I don't know about. Yeah, the call will be in the middle of the night, but for some reason, that's usually when emergencies happen.

2. Viewing habit. Of course, DIVX people say they're not going to sell your info to other people, but let's consider the following: what about to DIVX's affiliates, DIVX's investment groups... And can you really trust them?. Have you ever receive junk mail stating that "We were referred by so..and..so...".

3. Monopoly. Whenever you're using something that is totally exclusive to someone or something, then there are no competition, and the result will be greatly exaggeratted prices, with lousy service... sound like a product running on a computer that I'm writing this post on. But even though I uses it, that doesn't mean I like it.

4. Support. The real meats and potato. Where's the DIVX stuff?. Studios are releasing stuff on Open-DVD faster than I can say "DIVX-sucks".

5. Cost. DIVX player cost more than DVD player. And only a few companies are making them, raising long term support issues.

6. Portability. Panasonic came out with a really nice portable DVD player, which can be use on the road. Some laptop now has DVD player, which can be use on the plane (now, now, you know the movie on the plane aren't that good). So how can DIVX disc be played?. If the answer is to use the phone on the plane (which costs a fortune) to activate the DIVX player (which does not exist yet), then you know where I am (rolling around on the floor with laughter). Of course the same applies if you want to take your DVD collection to your friend's house, who happens to have a TV that is 0.01 inches bigger than yours (for now..).

Now the technical stuff:
1. DIVX can't do widescreen. The whole idea of having a home theater is to reproduce the experience of being at a movie theater, so what is the point of not having widescreen. Yes, there are movies that are still released on 4:3 format, but more and more are widescreen now.
2. Picture quality. DVD (both Open-DVD and DIVX) video are based on MPEG-2 compression. This is an aggressive algorithm requiring a lot of hardware computation. Add on another layer of encryption, and the bandwidth (for the final display) goes way down. That's why DIVX movies sometime breakdown.
3. DIVX is not an international standard. DVD is. Of course there are regional codes, but at least DVD have them. The whole idea of technology evolving is to make everybody share a common usage platform, sharing the same data. This has been done with CD. Not we're stepping backward with DIVX.
4. DIVX is missing a bunch of features. The additional joy of owning DVD is to have a number of features that standard VHS simply cannot deliver. To upgrade to a digital standard without these features is simply not worthwhile. Sure, the studios can put these onto DIVX disc, but let's talk present time. I feel that the Y2K problem will hit us before DIVX can be anywhere near the quality of DVD.

Conclusion:
DIVX is simply a marketing ploy, conjured up by people who want to know who you are, your viewing habits, charging you for every viewing, then sell your information to others for marketing purposes. It is lacking technically. It limits your freedom of ownership and your rights to privacy. It is a failure both as an idea as well as a product.

Well said, Daniel!

I think DIVX is a great idea, and by the way they do have widescreen version available. What I do is buy the movies I know I want and use DIVX instead of renting it. Hell my local Blockbuster video is not renting DVDs yet. I think you guys are giving DIVX a bad rap. Shure they will know what your watching but look around at all your ordering habits and tell me that there not watching too.

No mater what we do Big Brother has been watching us for the past 15 years.

Mark,

Ok, just to keep the record straight. I checked Divxflix for the latest movie releases. There are a total of 19 DIVX releases in May, 14 releases in June. Of these, not a single one of them is in widescreen.

Statistically, that's pretty bad...

Anyway, when Im on a plane I can kick back, throw a DVD movie in my laptop, plug in my headphones and enjoy the movie. Anyway DIVX passed away. Die in peace Divx. Long live the DVD.

Had a buddy of mine, who against my recommendation, purchased a DIVX player a few (4) months ago. What suprised even me was the stunning lack of help he received from the "support line". I don't know all the specifics, but there were a number of setup problems, as well as phone-line related problems. Between VERY VERY VERY long hold times and then VERY bad "recommendations" by the help desk, he returned the player after a week. Didn't even get to watch a single movie. His return included a swap to a DVD player. He's had no problems with it.

My $.02