# DivX **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2001, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204 "2001-03-16T12:09:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/1 "2001-03-16T12:09:10Z")
I’ve heard of it… I have the codec… I’ve seen the java-filled, porn/mp3-like sites that lead to nowhere… But where do you actually find the movies? ftp sites are out there, I know, but which ones… or which search engines would help me find them? anyone? anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/2 "2001-03-16T13:18:47Z")
Try alt.binaries.multimedia Hodge ---
**Author:** ![Evnglion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@Evnglion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evnglion)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/3 "2001-03-16T13:48:19Z")
Also you can keep in check with several different sites. Try checking out [http://www.isonews.com](http://www.isonews.com) reguraly to see what was releasesd most recently. Also, try hanging on IRCs EFnet. There are a lot of people who do their own encoding. If you keep up with the “market” then you can have lots of different releases as they come out… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DJScherr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@DJScherr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJScherr)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/4 "2001-03-16T16:35:32Z")
A question that I can really help out on whoohoo! I personally have a supernews account (25 bucks for 10 gigs of transfer) because their newsgroups are fast and hold A LOT of messages of a LONG time. The only newsgroup I would goto for Divx movies is alt.binaries.movies.divx they usually have a whole load of them there. If you are a survivor fan all of the episodes are posted on alt.binaries.multimedia just a day or so after they are aired. If you don’t wish to pay for good newsgroups and your suck, I would recommend using mIRC found at [http://www.mirc.com](http://www.mirc.com) it is a chat program that allows you to download files and such. I personally find that on Dalnet servers (they are all connected) the channel #Shadowrealm is hosted by the divx people, else just list all the channels and try the divx ones. If you have any questions on any of this just post again, I’ll keep an eye out and see if I can help you anymore. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/5 "2001-03-16T17:12:56Z")
You’ve lost me. Isn’t DivX discontinued as a standard, and they play regular DVD movies? And doesn’t that rely on a physical medium. This thread feels like a “help me get free copyrighted movies” thing. Please set me straight on that. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/6 "2001-03-16T17:34:10Z")
The OP was referring to “DivX ;)”, which is a video compression codec in the same way that mpeg or quicktime are. DivX the failed DVD standard is completely different. The movies encoded are not necessarily copyright violations. Since DivX 😉 is an open source freely available codec (and quite efficient), it is often used to encode original works. ---
**Author:** ![sethdallob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@sethdallob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethdallob)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/7 "2001-03-16T17:40:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manhattan \* > \*\*You’ve lost me. > > Isn’t DivX discontinued as a standard, and they play regular DVD movies? > > And doesn’t that rely on a physical medium. > > This thread feels like a “help me get free copyrighted movies” thing. Please set me straight on that. \*\* With pleasure, manny… DIVX was a standard supported by Circuit City, and its’ main feature was that you could rent movies a la Blockbuster that would self-destruct after playing it once, thus not having to return anything to the store. Of course, you needed a special DVD player to read these. This standard was about as popular as quadrophonic sound and died a nearly silent death. Nearly silent, aside from computer geeks, who stole/found/reverse engineered the codec and began posting movies on the net with it. I don’t know if they still self-destruct (I would assume not), but it has become fairly popular. While most of its’ uses are ‘ilicit’, they might not necessarily be ‘illegal’, as many of the DivX’s are uncopyrighted porn. True, there are some copied movies out there, but usually they are size prohibitive to download, even with a wide bandwidth connection. So, the OP probably just wants to find some good quality downloadable porn so he can stare at his computer instead of interacting with the rest of the world. Perfectly normal; perfectly healthy. ---
**Author:** ![DJScherr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@DJScherr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJScherr)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/8 "2001-03-16T17:46:47Z")
Yes Manhattan you are correct, it is a video format used for digital video on computer. I apologize if posting this information is a breach of the rules. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/9 "2001-03-16T18:17:16Z")
Umm… DIVX the self-destructing DVD rental format and DivX the MPEG-4 codec are two completely different beasts. See for example [Divx Digest](http://www.divx-digest.com/help.html) or [Tom’s Hardware Guide](http://www4.tomshardware.com/video/00q3/000913/index.html) for details on the video codec; I believe that it went open source and its name was changed to avoid this very confusion. Also, the [OpenDVD Organization](http://www.opendvd.org/) has some relevant material. Note that some content on these sites may concern itself with DVD copying against the wishes of copyright holders. However, IMHO the real importance of MPEG-4 is that it enables independent producers to put hours of original DVD-quality video in the smaller space of a CD… which we can create and duplicate on ordinary domestic computer CD recorders… thus avoiding the expense and obstructions of DVD mastering and duplication. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/10 "2001-03-16T18:27:35Z")
As **Sun** said, DivX;) is a hacked version of Microsoft’s MPEG4 codec that also allows sound compression using the MP3 codec. Very high quality. Salon just published an [article](http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/03/15/divx_part1/index.html) on the codec and its creator. Cheers, Hodge ---
**Author:** ![dinotrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc8723/32.png) [@dinotrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinotrack)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/11 "2001-03-16T20:15:14Z")
I still don’t get it. Is the DivX codec based on the Circuit City DIVX or not? If not, then why did they decide to name it DivX? -dinotrack ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/12 "2001-03-16T21:33:18Z")
Here’s the link I was lookijng for earlier, about the open-source MPEG-4 codec: [Project Mayo](http://www.projectmayo.com/). **dinotrack** , my impression is that this unfortunately-named OpenDivX MPEG-4 codec is not now a reverse-engineered version of anything, but is a new implementation of the open MPEG-4 standard. The original DivX:-) codec (whose name apparently included the emote characters) may have been reverse-engineered or cracked; I don’t know. AFAIK, the distinguishing feature of the DIVX rental DVD system was an additional layer of security, or whatever, over more-or-less-normal DVD content. The security interacted with special DVD players. The coding of the DVD content itself was standard. I think. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/13 "2001-03-17T00:17:06Z")
First off, thanks to all for eradicating my ignorance on the whole DivX/DivX thing. (Sheesh, and I thought they were just running out of TLAs. Now the four-letter stuff gets duplicated, too?). So. If I understand correctly, the General Question on the table is “where can I find independently produced films in the DivX format whose creators have consented to public dissemination of their works” and not “Where can I swipe some pirated movies that have been converted to the DivX format,” correct? If that’s the case, please carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/14 "2001-03-17T00:28:45Z")
From the fantastic [http://www.whatis.com](http://www.whatis.com) (referring to DivX the DVD format): > [@](#): > > Divx (Digital Video Express) is a video movie rental system for digital versatile disk-formatted disks. For about $300-500 U.S., the user purchases a DVD player that is also equipped for Divx. The special Divx equipment includes a modem, a encryption microchip, and a proprietary flash memory. The user can then purchase Divx disks (which are essentially DVD-formatted disks that contain encrypted data) at a Circuit City or other store. Each disk allows the user the right to play the disk within 48 hours of hitting the Play button on the player. (Users can elect to pay more for unlimited play any time.) At home, the user establishes a Divx account at the Divx Web site using a major credit card. The player automatically contacts the billing office once a month to update the account. (This is the only time Internet access is required. The movie is actually played offline from the DVD-with-Divx disk.) > Divx was developed and is owned by a partnership between Ziffren, Brittenham, Banca & Fischer, an entertainment law firm in Los Angeles, California, and Circuit City, one of the largest retail stores for consumer electronics in the U.S. Currently, Divx players and disks can be obtained mainly in Circuit City outlets although several other retail chains may soon be offering them. > > A number of consumer groups are opposed to Divx, arguing that its system will encourage a pay-per-play mindset among content owners rather than selling the disk and letting the consumer play it as frequently as desired. Although Divx does allow the consumer to purchase unlimited playing, opposition groups maintain that the system will tend to keep the price higher than it would be otherwise. > > Six major film studios - Disney, Paramount, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, MGM and DreamWorks - have agreed to release their new movies for Divx as the same time that they release a TV video. Because the modem is pre-programmed for calling the billing office only from within the U.S., Divx is not currently available outside the U.S. Compared to video cassette rental, Divx has the advantage that you will never incur a fee for late return since you never have to return it. Those opposed to Divx argue that when you pay for a DVD disk, you should own it outright without restriction on playback. The DivX compression technology is based on MPEG-4 compression technology. I would post links to sites explaining it in more detail, but the ones I’ve seen are without exception warez sites, so I won’t bother. It isn’t exactly a whiter-than-white technology, though: > [@](#): > > DivX is the term used to describe the recently hacked Microsoft MPEG4 codec standard of video compression along with the quality of audio MP3. > > By removing the AVI lock, the developers of the new DivX codec make it possible to encode to the AVI format, and enables users with the proper software to ‘rip’ DVD videos to your computer hard drive or CD-ROM. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/divx/58204/15 "2001-03-17T00:38:26Z")
The DVD content to be found on Circuit City DIVX discs was definitely on the “less” end of the “more-or-less normal” scale. IIRC, they had no widescreen, no subtitles, no alternate tracks, and basically no extras.