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DivX 7 adds support for Blu-ray rips

by Steve O'Hear

January 12th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsComments

DivX looks set to continue to be the video format of choice for ‘grey’ content, with the company announcing that version 7 adds support for H.264 video and, more significantly, the Matroska (MKV) container.

Anybody familiar with Blu-ray rips found on BitTorrent sites or other filesharing networks will instantly recognize the MKV file format in combination with the H.264 codec as a popular way to deliver High Definition video on a PC. And now that DivX is throwing its weight behind the Matroska container, MKV support should increasingly find its way on a range of non-PC devices, such as Blu-ray players, HD televisions and set-top boxes.

See also: Samsung Blu-ray players to support YouTube and Blu-ray rips!

Look out for the “DivX Plus HD certified” badge and you should be good to go, says the company.

“The H.264 video standard offers great performance and visual quality and has gained traction throughout the industry for a variety of applications”, said DivX CEO, Kevin Hell, in a press release. “With the release of our DivX 7 software and the corresponding DivX Plus HD certification program, we hope to speed the adoption of H.264 by offering a high-quality, consumer-friendly solution that will let consumers playback their HD videos on the PC, in the living room and on the go.”

See also: The history and future of DivX

With its new DivX Plus HD certification program, like MPEG4 and AVI before it, DivX is clearly hoping to be the consumer-facing brand for the H.264 and MKV format. However, non-DivX certified devices that support MKV have already hit the market, such as the Popcorn Hour media extender or the recently announced Digital Entertainer Elite set-top box from Netgear.

last100 is edited by technology journalist and consultant Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve has written for numerous publications, including The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley.

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  • Xander
    Bad article. Divx 7 adds support for popular video formats. Nothing about DivX 7 is at all related to piracy. This is like claiming an MP3 CD player supports downloaded or stolen songs. It does, but that's not the point, Steve O'Hear. Moron.
  • Steve O'Hear
    @Xander

    A quick reality check. The original DivX became popular, in part, because it was (for better or worse) the format used most often for DVD rips found on filesharing sites. Outside of the codec connoisseurs, I never heard of anybody requesting DivX support on their consumer electronics devices other than to play back rips, most of which weren't of their own creation. Likewise, I and just about anybody outside of the format wars, have rarely, if ever, encountered an .MKV file that wasn't a Blu-ray or HD-DVD rip floating somewhere on the interwebs. If you read the article carefully, I never suggested that pirated content was the only use for an MKV (it is just a container like AVI) but that it was a very common one. People who claim otherwise are being a little disingenuous IMHO.
  • Frank
    Still no 64 bit support? Bummer!
  • punterjoe
    I'm glad to see DivX keeping up with other HD formats. It's been my burning format of choice for home videos, since there are so many DVD players which support the format - greatly easing distribution.
    After taking a bath on my HD-DVD player, I have gone out of my way to avoid BluRay (or any Sony developed format). I look forward to seeing DivX7 support on stand alone devices, and will likely be among the first in line when they hit the shelves.
    I only hope my current HD editing/rendering workflow can be easily modified to accomodate the new DivX codec.
  • Alex
    I'm pretty excited about this. I rip all of my DVDs on a USB hard drive in DivX format and just keep that plugged into my PS3. Hopefully this will let me do the same with my Blu-ray movies (though I sure wish the PS3 could read a filesystem that didn't have a 4GB file size limit. Splitting movies into multiple files kinda stinks, and I'm sure that HD movies (even with great compression and encoded at 720p) will need more than just 4GB to retain their pretty quality. <=\
  • Xander
    @ Steve
    Sorry for calling you a moron. I think conflating digital content with filesharing hurts the position that putting media on a hard drive facilitates *playing the media*.

    There are 2 problems with your position. First, the file format has nothing to do with the source - blu-ray rips can go into any container. I'm willing to bet DivX is supporting the MKV container for the same reason that consumers are using it.

    More critically, until Hollywod embraces DRM-free digital distribution (long shot, I know), any freely-playable video file will be "grey" content. So the claim that DivX is supporting a filesharing format is strictly weaker than the claim that they are supporting a popular format. I don't think it is at all disingenuous to claim that people don't just rip their media to share it. Ripping ought to be a perfectly legitimate use of purchased media - hard drives will always be better than plastic discs at file storage.

    You got it right when you characterized H.264/MKV as "a popular way to deliver High Definition video on a PC." Just because Hollywood didn't get the memo doesn't make the format any less legitimate.
  • Steve O'Hear
    @Xander

    Thanks for retracting the moron statement. I was worried there for a minute ;-)

    I actually think we mostly agree and are talking across each other a bit here. Of course ripping the media you own is perfectly alright, all I was arguing is that certain formats have won over others because, for whatever reason (perhaps because they were superior?), they become popular for pirated content. Then DivX (the company) helped push non-PC support for said formats (DVD players, PMPs etc.).

    I too hate DRM, that's why I sourced a non-DRM solution for my own movie - insearchofthevalley.com
  • xanadu
    Will this come in VLC Player?
  • GavB
    Xander:

    Being capable (more or less in your case) of reading does not itself impute validity for any opinions/assessments/assertions/assumptions and the alarming speed with which you make "moronic" (your word) assertions about the author of this article proves that beyond doubt. The immediate retraction is of little value as the harm has been done. I suggest that in future you think before writing such cretinous comments on websites.

    The article did not IMHO make the assertion that DivX (a rather decent format - again IMHO) was solely used for pirating, YOU decided to interpret it that way........ Go off and eat some humble pie and learn a little about life before you make such arrogant and ignorant assessments of other people......

    I should add that I have been victim or such moronic assessments all of my life as I have a stammer and I really feel that someone has to make a stand against this vapid and vaucous use of value judgements from people obviously ill-equipped to make such judgements... Oops! I seem to have made a lazy value judgement myself! :-)

    Hope that you can see the value in my criticism and learn a lesson or two.. Have fun!
  • What's the relationship between DivX and XVid?
  • Gis Bun
    If I'm not mistake, XVid is the open source version of DivX.
  • cng
    So will this speed things along with getting .MKV support on the xbox360?
  • Steve O'Hear
    @cng

    As far as I know, the XBox 360 isn't officially DivX certified. Even if it was, it's down to Microsoft whether or not to add MKV support. Anybody's guess.
  • bosko
    The xbox 360 got official support for divx over a year ago.

    http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/k...

    "Q9: Do you support DivX?
    A9: The Xbox 360 console supports files that were encoded by using MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple Profile, and Advanced Simple Profile. These files frequently are known as Xvid or DivX video files."
  • Steve O'Hear
    @ bosko

    To clarify. XBox 360 can play back "MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple Profile, and Advanced Simple Profile" AKA DivX files but, as I said, isn't officially "DivX Certified" by DivX themselves, unlike the PlayStation 3. This, of course, makes little difference in reality.
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