Divx - Am I misinformed? (1 Viewer)

[Robert Floto]

I noticed an acquaintence was bidding on a huge lot of Divx movies, and e-mailed her to make sure she knew that they were no longer able to be played on a Divx player, and that she wasn't confusing Divx with DivX.
She e-mailed the seller, and they sent her this message:

Is this correct!?!
I checked the Divx Owners Association website at (ironically named) http://www.the-doa.com

 

[Neil Joseph]

DIVX (Devil X) is the reason that Circuit City will never see a black penny from me ever again. I also campaigned haevily against this system. The DIVX disks are about as good as paper napkin coasters. When they developed this Devil X scheme, regular disks as well as DIVX disks could play in their players. Now that the entire Devil X scheme is no more only regular disks will play in the DIVX players. There is no system in place anymore to do the rental charging for the DIVX disks. Tell your friend not to waste their time.
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Link Removed
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My Favourite DVD's

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Robert,
The seller is correct in what she said about the two different formats with similar names. One is DIVX and the other is DivX (upper/lower case differences).
July 7th was the official shut-down of Circuit City's DIVX system and the disc can no longer be played. They incorporate a unique barcode for each disc easily seen on the inner playing surface in which the special player read. They could not play on regular DVD players.
The other DivX is a MPEG-4 compression codec that people use to rip movies from commercial DVD's and share much like Napster. The code is "open source public domain" but the concept is illegal.
At this time, DIVX discs are only good as collectibles for people who either collect "dead" mediums or novelty items.
Supposedly there are people working on workarounds but none have been successful yet on decommissioned players.

 

[Julie K]

Sounds like your friend is bidding on this auction .
The seller added a note this morning stating
"Sorry I am not correct. pushing certain buttons will not let you play them again. I was told this and
this is wrong. I dont know how to make them play again. sorry."
They ought to change the name from eBay to eScam.
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My DVDs
"Some people think I'm over-prepared, paranoid...maybe even a little crazy. But they never met any pre-Cambrian life forms, did they?"

 

[Matty B]

This is the United States of America, and hundreds of thousands of people DIED so that their is no such THING as an illegal concept. We live in a country where there is a thing called the first Amendment, making any concept ANYONE wants to have LEGAL. It's called free speech. DivX cannot therefore be illegal even in practice. There ARE non pirate uses for it you know.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

The seller is correct in what she said about the two different formats with similar names. One is DIVX and the other is DivX (upper/lower case differences).

And a smiley face. Talk about a bad name. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go test-drive a new Volkswagen Hitler.

- Steve

 

[Robert Floto]

Yes Julie, that was the auction. Fortunately my friend was outbid...

Supposedly there are people working on workarounds but none have been successful yet on decommissioned players.

That is what I was wondering about. Thanks Steven, I was pretty sure I was right, and now the seller has even stated that they were wrong.
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[Inspector Hammer!]

DIVX, just saying that word again makes me want to vomit!
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To the men and women of the N.Y. police and fire department
God bless you.
To the victims and their families
God keep you.
To the dirtbags who caused all this
God help you!!!

 

[Kyle McKnight]

The other DivX is a MPEG-4 compression codec that people use to rip movies from commercial DVD's and share much like Napster. The code is "open source public domain" but the concept is illegal.

DiVX is not used to rip movies. All DiVX is, is a video compressor. True, a lot of people that rip DVD's use DiVX to compress them, but they don't rip the DVD's with DiVX.

 

[Bill McA]

quote: Yes Julie, that was the auction. Fortunately my friend was outbid...[/quote]
Your friend is not quite out of the bidding just yet.
If the current high bidder retracts his bid, the second highest bidder then becomes the highest bidder once again and is responsible for purchasing the discs if she remains the high bidder at the auction close.
The same thing will happen to the 3rd, 4th etc. bidders if the subsequent bidders retract.
Your friend needs to RETRACT her bid (stating that she bid under false seller info), just in case this is what happens.
[Edited last by Bill McA on November 08, 2001 at 03:17 PM]

 

[Nick_Scott]

I admit it, I might even buy a DIVX dvd if they find the hack for one.... alot of them sell for $1 on ebay, and I think a few of those havnt been remade into Real DVDs.
People who bought them before the system shut down were able to do the "clock-trick" to unlock the discs.
I'm one of those who bought a DIVX player only becaues CC was unloading them for $125 with 5 free DVDs (non-divx) and a set of Monster Cables.
The latest hack attempt involves making a DIVX "Red Box".
Instead of hooking up to a phone line, you'd hook up to a computer that would generate the same unlock-signals that the real network did... Granted, since the real network shutdown, its kinda hard to find out what those signals should be.
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nick scott

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

DiVX is not used to rip movies. All DiVX is, is a video compressor. True, a lot of people that rip DVD's use DiVX to compress them, but they don't rip the DVD's with DiVX.

True... but they do work hand-in-hand so one is as guilty as the other. But that wasn't the topic of this thread.
If anyone finds a workaround, especially software, let me know. I am the owner of 65 DIVX movies... and yes, there are some that have not and may not ever reach DVD.

 

[Robert Dunnill]

Who is right?

The DOA is - unscrupulous eBay sellers are merely trying to sell the now-unplayable discs at inflated prices.
Cheers, RD

 

[Matty B]

True... but they do work hand-in-hand so one is as guilty as the other. But that wasn't the topic of this thread.

Your logic is so fascinating! Well writing and anthrax letters go hand in hand, so I guess you are as guilty as the terrorists. This is so much fun!
Money and money laundering go together so if you spend money I guess you are a money launderer.
This logic is fool proof! Im off to tell everyone know that because breathing and living work hand in hand they are as guilty as murderers, who also breathe.

 

[Robert Floto]

I admit it, I might even buy a DIVX dvd if they find the hack for one.... alot of them sell for $1 on ebay...

...And with 97% of Divx discs not being OAR, you're still being ripped off!
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[Nick_Scott]

>>...And with 97% of Divx discs not being OAR, you're still being ripped off!
Doh!! Well, nevermind then. Plus, I just heard that the DIVX DVDs use a lower resolution then real DVDs (320i?).
If thats true (no OAR and 320i), I'd be better off to get a used LD player to help fill my collection of cheap movies that are not DVDs yet.
As for a software hack, I think DIVX used triple-DES, which is also used by the Government (I think?). So they may be pretty annoyed if the decryption keys are released.
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nick scott

 

[Jesse Skeen]

If you play a DIVX disc in a non-"enhanced" player you get a funny onscreen message. I have 15 DIVX discs I bought for my dead format collection!

 

[Thomas Newton]

quote:
We live in a country where there is a thing called the first Amendment, making any concept ANYONE wants to have LEGAL. It's called free speech.
[/quote]
There are some limits to free speech. Knowingly shouting a false claim of "Fire!" in a public theater is not protected. Neither is intentionally making a false statement with the intent to defraud another party.
I believe the DIVX-Silver "party line" went from "they're playable forever without charge on your machines" to "they're coasters; here's your money back." The "money back" part is undoubtedly what kept Circuit City from being punished by the FTC or brought up on criminal charges for having made the discs into coasters.
There was probably also some confusion about whether the DIVX players needed to have a phone line link to the Big Brother computer just to play DIVX discs for the first rental period. (They did.)
So the question is, does the seller know that the DIVX discs are useless, and is the seller intentionally misrepresenting the disks as useful? I'm not going to try to answer these questions for this particular seller. I will say that I wouldn't give 2 cents for a DIVX disc except perhaps as a souvenir of a video format and an associated business model that deserved to die.
[Edited last by Thomas Newton on November 10, 2001 at 01:36 AM]

 

[Matty B]

There are some limits to free speech. Knowingly shouting a false claim of "Fire!" in a public theater is not protected. Neither is intentionally making a false statement with the intent to defraud another party.

That isn't a concept, that is speech. Yet more false logic. That's called a straw man. You responded to something I never said.

 

[Carl Johnson]

I think it's unlikley that someone just happened upon a truckload of Divx disc and decided to Ebay them without taking the time to figure out that they were unplayable.