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An interesting article DVD vs DIVX
This thread has 11 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Wednesday March 31, 1999 at 11:55
Ziad
Historic Forum Post
As I hate DIVX, i find the article comical.

[Link: commerce.bestbuy.com]
OP | Post 2 made on Tuesday April 6, 1999 at 10:01
ErikS
Historic Forum Post
I'd ask why do you hate DIVX? I've heard some of the reasons, such as:
1. "big brother", machine is hooked up to the office - Then why the hell are you here on the net? Ask the Melissa virus creator how easy you can be watched from here.

2. Pan & scan - I don't have a wide screen TV (yet) so it doesn't really matter & some discs are wide screen.

3. Directors information - I don't care, I just want to watch the movie. I have several DVD's with the info & I haven't used it much.

4. The DVD players are better. Yeah, riiiight, I'm sure companies like Panasonic have 2 assembly lines, one for a DVD player & a separate one for the DIVX machine. Try this, it's the same machine with an additional circut board

5. The machine cost more - BS, be a decent shopper & you can get the player at the same price. Mine is the Panasonic & cost me exactly the same as the DVD only model (an identical clone).

On the positive side:

1. There a whole buch of movies I'll watch for 4.59 but won't even bother with at 13.99 to 24.99.

2. I'm under NO time constraint when to watch the movie. I buy the disk I watch it WHEN I WANT. The 48hrs starts when I hit play, not when I get the movie. I've had several disks for months before I use them.

3. No messing with returning disks. I've tried Netflix, a big pain in the ass & the rentals end up costing more then 4.59 each. Plus I'm under a time constraint to watch the movie. Sorry I'll stick to order/buy the disk - NO RETURNS!!

4. I haven't lost anything, I can still watch DVDs AND I can watch those marginal movies for 4.59 each w/o the return hassle.

I do agree with some of the drawbacks, the silver gold rental plan is strange. Locking the movie to a specific machine is odd, & what happens when you upgrade the machine? Though my thought is that it's a rental & you can't share rentals anyway. I just don't see why the vehement hatred of DIVX, it doesn't harm anything & you don't lose anything with it - just my .02
OP | Post 3 made on Wednesday April 7, 1999 at 08:11
Carl Chapman
Historic Forum Post
I don't agree with you at ALL on any of your points.

1.) Asking why someone uses the net and isn't not concerned about a virus or "spying" does not obviate the "Big Brother" relationship of DIVX central.

2.) It would be hard to explain the cinematic difference between Pan & Scan and 1:1.85 or 1:2.35 to someone who can't see the difference.

3.) Extra features, like pc friendly disks, trailers, bios, interviews, etc. are delightful. My family and I enjoy them very much. DIVX isn't capable. I suppose you don't watch previews at the theater? How 'bout popcorn? We are talking about the experience.

4.) Of course there are different assembly lines. An for the same amount of money, you can bet that DVD is a better unit because it has less junk in it. Why do I need a modem & comm software in a machine to play a movie?

5.) You would hae paid too much for the DVD only machine because you did not shop well enough. Unless Circuit City is now subsidising the sales, then DIVIX will alsways cost more than DVD. It has more stuff in it.

6.) There are places on the net where you can rent DVD's for $3. You can also apply the rental to the purchase price ($17.49 usually) if you decide to keep the movie. Cheaper than silver.

7.) To say that you are under no time constraint is TOTALLY FALSE. You only control when you start watching a movie, DIVX controls when you finish. For that matter, they control where you watch.

8.) I don't return movies either, I am building my library. A second viewing costs me nothing.

The bottom line is DIVX is inferior, more expensive, and invasive. It is a big scam to make more money for lawyers and CC.
OP | Post 4 made on Wednesday April 7, 1999 at 14:02
ErikS
Historic Forum Post
Hey, that's what makes the world go around, different opinions.

1.) Asking why someone uses the net and isn't not concerned about a virus or "spying" does not obviate the "Big Brother" relationship of DIVX central.

>>My only point was that "big brother" is with us everywhere & so I'm not real concerned. Who in the hell want to buy a list of the movies I've watched?

2.) It would be hard to explain the cinematic difference between Pan & Scan and 1:1.85 or 1:2.35 to someone who can't see the difference.

>>I didn't say I couldn't see the difference, I DID say that with my current TV the widescreen look bothers me (I just don't like the "bands"), when I get a widescreen TV I may change my tune, right now lack of wide screen is a non-issue for me.

3.) Extra features, like pc friendly disks, trailers, bios, interviews, etc. are delightful. My family and I enjoy them very much. DIVX isn't capable. I suppose you don't watch previews at the theater? How 'bout popcorn? We are talking about the experience.

>>I don't like advertising with my movies, I hated when they put trailers in VHS (FF right through). I find the trailers at the theatre anoying, I don't want advertising with my movies. This is the same reason I hate Assholes On Line (AOL) you have to wade through tons of advertising before you get to where you want to go. Popcorn, of course, you gotta have popcorn.

4.) Of course there are different assembly lines. An for the same amount of money, you can bet that DVD is a better unit because it has less junk in it. Why do I need a modem & comm software in a machine to play a movie?

>>The price of chips is nothing, check out CPU prices, $50 & under in quantities of 10,000. How much do you think a .50 board adds to the cost of a machine?

5.) You would hae paid too much for the DVD only machine because you did not shop well enough. Unless Circuit City is now subsidising the sales, then DIVIX will alsways cost more than DVD. It has more stuff in it.

>>My machine is a Panasonic DX (SAME as DV) 414, check the price at DVDcity.com. Same as DX, there you get zone free, I get DIVX - same, same.

6.) There are places on the net where you can rent DVD's for $3. You can also apply the rental to the purchase price ($17.49 usually) if you decide to keep the movie. Cheaper than silver.

>>I've tried the mail rental, I don't like the hassle of mailing the disk back. NetFlix sends you the disk, you have seven days to watch the movie & mail it back. Now I have two problems with this. 1. You have to mail it back. 2. No deciding, hmmmm I'm in the mood to see a movie tonight, I'll stop on the way home & pick one up.

7.) To say that you are under no time constraint is TOTALLY FALSE. You only control when you start watching a movie, DIVX controls when you finish. For that matter, they control where you watch.

>>Non-issue for me, once I start a movie I like to watch it all the way through. Though I have returned a lot of movies un-watched because I rented more than I actually had time to watch.

8.) I don't return movies either, I am building my library. A second viewing costs me nothing.

>>If I'm going to watch a movie repeatedly I buy the DVD. The same goes for a movie I really like, if it's just a so-so feeling about the movie I like being able to see it for 4.59.

The bottom line is DIVX is inferior, more expensive, and invasive. It is a big scam to make more money for lawyers and CC.

>>Why inferior, it's just another rental method. The bottom line boils down to this - I can do anything you can do, you CAN NOT do all that my machine can do, I just have more viewing options.
OP | Post 5 made on Wednesday April 7, 1999 at 15:28
Daniel Tonks
Historic Forum Post
Well, I'm a Canadian so DIVX doesn't affect me yet, but:

$4.49 US = $6.85 Canadian. Ouch! I can rent DVDs from three stores within one mile of my house for $3.99 or less.

With the meager title offerings lately you'll need to rent DVDs anyways. Look at the DVD/DIVX releases for April 20th and 27th (both weeks that have titles I want) according to divx.com and DVD Express:

April 20
DIVX: 2 titles.
DVD: 44 titles.

April 27
DIVX: 1 title.
DVD: 66 titles.

Personally, I don't feel DIVX offers any additional conveniences over Open DVD and hence is redunant and unneeded. My logic? With DIVX you can "buy" a tiny fraction of released titles at a tiny fraction of retail stores. Any convenience of "starting when you want" is nullified by the hassle of setting up an account with DIVX and maintaining it though your credit card.

It is a particularly bad idea for "family favorite" films such as Disney classics and Star Wars. The simple lack of enthusiastic support from movie studios should be enough to show that it's not going to fly. And their TV ads drive me nuts! :-)
OP | Post 6 made on Wednesday April 7, 1999 at 19:44
ErikS
Historic Forum Post
Daniel, Ziad, Carl -

Thanks for the discussion, it's always nice to have an intellectual discussion w/o resulting to name calling.

Daniel,

I eny you Circut City is 2 minutes from my house & the nearest rental is about 15 minutes, that's probably what drew me to DIVX in the first place. I agree with you about the number of movies released, it's very low, but I find I mostly use it for those border line movies that I wouldn't watch unless it was REAL easy (read lazy). There is no maintainence w/ the account though, I NEVER silver discs and the account manages itself. DIVX only represents a fraction of the movies, but I can watch BOTH, to me it's just another option not the be all end all. I agree, with Disney & other frequently watchers I always buy the DVD. I also agree the comercials SUCK! But then again there are very few comercials I actually like.
OP | Post 7 made on Monday April 12, 1999 at 00:33
Jason
Historic Forum Post
The Coke one with the Bears during Christmas is always Pretty Good... :)

OP | Post 8 made on Monday April 12, 1999 at 18:35
Yuta
Historic Forum Post
ErikS...

If you dislike commercials so much, then Divx doesn't help you. You wondered in one of your earlier posts about who would want a list of movies you've watched... the answer is a number of marketing firms. I have a feeling that the info Divx Central downloads goes into some database that they sell to various companies with an end result of more junk mail in your mailbox.

By choosing a DVD player I may have limited myself to only DVD viewing, but from what I've seen, most of the competitively priced Divx players have fewer features, and playback quality is lower. I also dislike the machine specific 'Silver' purchase plan. If I buy a 'Silver' Divx for unlimited play, that should include my neighbor's Divx player.

It sounds like you made the best decision for your situation (Circuit City being so close, etc), and kudos to you for making an informed decision. For me, DVD is the best choice.

Cheers,
Yuta

PS. And Jason, I agree about the Coke Polar Bear commercials.
OP | Post 9 made on Monday April 12, 1999 at 19:40
Bevan
Historic Forum Post
I'm in Australia, where I have more DVD titles at home than all titles that's been released in Australia so far...DIVX is deinitely not going to work for me.

I've bought a few DVDs which I'd hope I hadn't...but I've also bought some which I wasn't sure but really enjoyed. For me, the alternative to buying DVD that I'm not sure if I want to spend the money on, is a video.

I'm a little puzzled by this commercial talk...are you guys saying that DIVX comes with commercials?? If that's the case, I definitely don't want DIVX! (Not that I wanted it in the first place!)
OP | Post 10 made on Wednesday May 5, 1999 at 20:55
Daniel Nguyen
Historic Forum Post
Oh well, better late than never. It's been almost a month since the last post, but here's my 2 cents.

Just a little info about myself. I am an engineer, and currently what I do is I design DVD chip set. Totally true, no lie, I don't lie about work. So here's some reply for ErikS about some of his commments in an earlier post:

The price of chips is nothing:
If it is, I'll be out of a job. Or they got to be paying me minimum wage.

CPU Prices:
Come on, the design group for a DVD chip set is around 15, the design group for a CPU is around 150.

$0.50 board:
I haven't seen it. And just for those who are interested, our DVD chip set alone cost more than $0.50, and that's in quantity of 10,000

Just to keep the facts straight...
OP | Post 11 made on Thursday May 20, 1999 at 00:59
Mark Divine
Historic Forum Post
I dont know what all the DIVX hatred is about. Its not going to replace DVD's. Its just an extra option for people to use. I dont know about you but I love the fact that I can walk in to a store and have many choices. Thats what makes a country great!
OP | Post 12 made on Thursday July 1, 1999 at 02:17
Greg Brown
Historic Forum Post
It really doesn't matter now. Does it? The debate is over.


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