DIVX

DIVX (of English. Digital Video Express) described an attempt by the American electronics supermarket chain Circuit City and the entertainment law firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca and Fischer to create an alternative to video rental stores in the United States. DIVX is not related with the DivX video codec.

Technology

DIVX was a system in which the customer is a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) purchase at a low price and the film contained it then could play any number of times within 48 hours after the initial viewing. To refine by this deadline can continue to access the content was there a fee that was normally $ 3.25. DIVX media could only be played on special DIVX / DVD hybrid devices, which had to be connected to the telephone network. Users of this system also required an account of which the consequence charges were withdrawn. When watching a film of the DIVX player called the accounts server to unlock the playing fee, similar to today's pay- per-view systems. For a higher fee, the medium could also be placed in a so-called " silver status " in order to make the content accessible to unlimited. In this process, the disk of the status of the DIVX disc on the server has not changed, but adjusted accordingly. Such a " silver disc " could be sold or given away as a regular DVD.

History

The DIVX rental system was launched in 1998 in time for the Christmas season on the market and are set again on 16 June 1999. This was due to the high implementation costs of the format, as well as a lack of acceptance in the population. There were two years in which their customers DIVX discs could still play, then they were for each purchased prior to June 16, 1999 player $ 100 refunded. Media that could not be sold until that date were destroyed. On 7 July 2001, the program was finally stopped. The DIVX format is no longer playable now.

Acceptance

Many movements on the internet, especially in forums for home theaters, directed against DIVX. Some people were afraid that there would be releases exclusively on DIVX and suffer the then new DVD format including. So, for example, Disney planned to bring DIVX exclusive movies on the market, other studios would probably have followed the example. When the format was finally abandoned, made correspondingly wide relief.

Another factor that led to the failure of the DIVX format, was that the management of Circuit City their employees allegedly continued to lead potential buyers of DVD players astray. Since the DVD was still at that time in its infancy, there was many customers still unsure of the available formats before. Seller went so far as to intimidate customers by stating that films of certain directors would never be available on DVD. Such allegations have been rejected by Circuit City, however.