The truth about Divx

2 good things about Divx

1. You don't have to get the disc immediately before a rental, you can get it weeks or months before. If you change your plans you can view it later instead.(You will need this as Divx retailers are likely to be far away and close earlier than your local video store)
2. If you don't want the disc then you don't have to return it.(That there will be no late fees is not 100% true as the late fee could be seen as included in the higher rental fee)

35 bad things about Divx

1. More expensive hardware The Divx players are more expensive to make than comparable DVD players. Circuit City is not carrying the least expensive DVD players or are only selling them at higher prices to make their customers believe that Divx is not more expensive. According to Richard Sharp CEO of CC and Divx the Divx players costs 200 dollars more than a comparable DVD player when using the best offers from other stores. "We said for sometime, since we first announced the product in September, a year ago, that we though the right price spread for Divx - the feature warranted about a $100 premium to the consumer. We're obviously faced with the situation today, where the consumers found over a $200 premium, when you include the software."
2. More expensive software Buying a Divx disc you just pay for the first 48h rental period. This is far more expensive than a rental of a fully featured DVD title.
3. More expensive and complicated hookup You will have the extra expense of installing a permanent telephone lines to all your Divx players. If disconnected from the phone line for a longer period the Divx player will simply not work again. This is unlike any other consumer electonic device using a telephone connection.
4. Lower quality and less content While there are now 3 widescreen Divx releases, about 99% of them are only pan&scan. No Divx discs contains both widescreen and pan&scan versions of the films or all the extras people are getting used to with DVD. The strong watermark(noise added to the picture to be able to track a VHS-copy) will also result in visible image degradation for some display devices.
5. Few stores As there are so few Divx accounts(20k?), because selling the discs means double inventory, because there is so little profit margin on selling the first Divx period and because Divx is owned and controlled by a competing electronics store there are nearly no other stores willing to carry the Divx discs. In 3 states there are no stores at all.
6. Hostile to the environment Many people will throw away the Divx disc after the first viewing as the plastic disc is then worthless. This in not exactly environmentally safe.
7. Incompatible Divx discs can't be played on the about 1,5 million DVD-Video players or any of the about 7 million DVD-ROM drives sold so far. There will never be any DVD-ROM drives or portable DVD-Video players that will support Divx. This will assure that Divx can never be as big as DVD-Video.
8. Confusion Launching a competing format will confuse the consumers and confused consumers will not buy anything. The consumer acceptance of DVD will be delayed worldwide. The delay may be so long that it comes too close too the launch of the next DVD generation with HDTV resolution.
9. Fraud Many average consumers will not understand that the Divx disc they buy can't be played in any DVD player and they will also have problems understanding the rental system. Less honest people will take advantage of the confusion and sell Divx discs as used DVDs. This has already been observed several times at ebay.
10. Lies In order to sell Divx lies and half-truths has been reported to have been used in allmost every CC store. Even the official info and ads from CC and DVE has been marked by this.
11. Not for families with children Paying full price to get an exstended(no, they are not unlimited) rental period will not be possible with all titles. Try to calculate what 1 year of Lion King would cost and try to imagine explaining to the kids that they can't see the title even if it's on your bookshelf.
12. No 2nd hand market You can't sell your Divx movies even if you have paid Divx full price to "own" the titels.
13. No more video nights with your friends If you take a Divx disc you "own" over to a friend not only does he need to have a Divx player, he will also have to pay a 48 hour rental fee to play the disc.
14. Expensive demos It will not be possible to show a part of a scene on a Divx disc to demo the new digital video format without having to pay a full 48 hour period for it. The Divx retailers will equally not be able to demonstrate their players with actual Divx discs.....
15. You will have to lock the video player away Imagine if the babysitter would take a short peek(Looking for cool menus and extras...believing that it's real DVD discs) at 50 of the movies in your collection that you do not yet "own" or have not yet watched. Hiding the discs/player or setting a password is something that actual consumers(those with 12:00 blinking on their VCR) are not likely to do.
16. Expensive errors "Hey, this is the wrong film!" How many times have you put the wrong VHS or CD into a player? That error will now cost you a 48 hour rental.
17. Films can become unplayable If another company buys the rights to a movie or if Disney again put one title on moratorium expect that a Divx disc you have paid full price for can suddenly become unwatchable.(If you believe I'm just inventing this you should carefully read the Divx customer account agreement).
18. Everything you do is surveyed Divx claims that their system will survey the consumer no more than that of an ordinary video rental store will do. This is not true. With Divx they will have to keep track every item from the day the item is manufactured until the Divx system is discontinnued. They will also know the exact hour you are watching the movie. As if this was not enough each disc is individually numerated so they can(well, they actually have to) track where you are taking the disc. National agencies will be lining up to get access to the Divx surveilance system. If a crime is commited in your area and you just watched a similar crime on video don't be surprised to get a visit from the police.
19. Only low end players Only the manufacturers selling the lowest quality players supports Divx. The first manufacturer to sell Divx players filed bankruptcy under Chapter 11 the 22th of May 1998.
20. Can't support the best extra material You will not have the cool extras that many DVD-Video titles will have when used on a computer with a DVD-ROM player. This because a Divx disc can't be played on any DVD-ROM players.
21. No price competition With Divx you will only be able to re-renting from one company. If the format gets accepted among the consumers they will have a monopoly and can set the prices without any competition.
22. No rare titles or special editions If Divx is accepted they will take over the market from specialised video stores who will have to close. The profit margin they can get from selling Divx discs are simply not enough for them. How many rare movie titles do you expect to find at the local grocery store if they start to sell Divx there? Contrary to the claims Divx will mean that the consumers will have less titles to choose from as it will kill nearly all specialzed video stores. Apart from less choice many jobs would also be lost.
23. More spam Contrary to their claims the company behind Divx is already selling their address list for direct mail purposes. They also use the Divx player to send unsolicited commercial offerings directly to your Divx player so that they can be displayed on your TV.
24. You are in their pocket No information system is without errors. What if you find that you are charged for viewing a disc you know you have not seen the last month. How can you prove it to them? If you refuse to pay they may simply disable your Divx account.
25. You will have to pay more and more What will you do when they start charging you a monthly fee for having a Divx account? Will you pay whatever they ask or will you throw away the film collection you paid for "unlimited" viewing of? (If you believe I'm just inventing this you should carefully read the Divx customer account agreement)
26. You better walk and talk like us To watch video if you have no credit(or bank debit) card or where you have no phone line? Forget it!
27. You have to follow your check and Divx account closely If your check account is not balanced when the automatic(and surprisingly high) Divx payment arrives then Divx may close your Divx account and you will suddenly find yourself unable of viewing the entire movie collection you have already paid full price for.(If you believe I'm just inventing this you should carefully read the Divx customer account agreement)
28. No long vacations What will happend if your phone line is not working for a period or if you go on a longer vacation and you are not willing to leave the player connected?
29. The hookup is ready for more surveyance The system could also be used to monitor all DVD and CD titles you play on the Divx player. Even if the players don't do this today only a small software upgrade is all that is needed.
30. No moving over borders allowed If you move to another country your entire Divx movie collection would become worthless.
31. Incentment to piracy People are not likely to accept paying each time they view a title they already have in their house. They could copy it to VHS using a macrovision buster. It would even be fully legal for the consumers to do this. How do you expect the studios to cover their loss?
32. Not for movie collection What will you do with the collection of Divx discs you "own" if/when the whole Divx project is stopped? Do you expect that you can still watch a Divx disc you "own" 15, 10, 5 or even 2 year from now just as you can with VHS, Laserdisc and ordinary DVD?
33. You may have to pay for others If your player is stolen and you don't inform the correct Divx instance in the right way or rapidly enough you "may be liable for payment to Divx for charges incurred from unauthorized use of your Player.".
34. There may be more coming... If Divx succeeds expect similar systems to be used for DVD-ROM and DVD-Audio. By releasing software only on a Divx system they hope to push the consumers into supporting this more expensive rental system.
35. Dead when hacked No matter how impressive the encryption is there will always be a loophole. To modify a Divx player so it "forgets" it has played a disc should not be too big a challenge for many hackers. Expect such players to become mainstream in the USA and the rest of the world if Divx by any chance takes off in the USA. Remember that the Circuit City chairman Richard Sharp warned that early adopters were taking a risk. This is indeed true with Divx. If Divx is not killed right after the launch expect a new system called something like Divx-2 soon to be launched rendering the old Divx players outdated and the old discs unplayable.

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