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No DivX on Extenders, Ever! - Chris Lanier's Blog

No DivX on Extenders, Ever!

Ian Dixon pointed to why the Xbox 360 most likely will never support DivX on The Media Center Show.  Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb) said on his Podcast that “I don't know of any commercial disks... DVDs that are sold that are using the DivX codec. [..]People are using it to backup their DVDs, and I'm using backup in quotes... or some of the other folks are probably using it to share files and break a lot of copyright laws.”  Alexander Grundner picked up the news here.

I think that way to much is being put into DivX and “breaking copyright”.  Let me explain how DivX started and why WMV9 is being just as much as an underground codec as DivX once was/still is.

DivX started out as a hack of Microsoft’s MPEG4v3 codec.  MS MPEG4v3 was ever meant to allow encoding into an AVI container, only ASF.  This hack was used widely for “underground” encoding of commercial movies that then distributing them via P2P Networks, IRC, USENET, etc.  In 2000, DivXNetworks was formed and they released DivX 4 which was supposed to have been completely re-written so that is didn’t infringe on Microsoft’s codec.

Now, a large secret to many is that Microsoft’s WMV9 has “replaced” DivX as the pirates choice for many HD encodes.  People will capture HD from cable/satellite sources and use the WMV9 VCM to encode the content.  They will then demux the AC3 audio track from MPEG-2 Transport Stream, then mux the WMV9 and AC3 into an AVI container.  Crisp, clear, and high quality audio/video using Microsoft WMV9.

Not supporting DivX because no commercial content is sold encoding with it, is not a good reason to not support.  There is no real commercial content being sold encoded with WMV9 (a few exceptions here, now of which tackle the masses)  A good reason not to support it is the licensing fees to DivX Inc or the licensing fees to the MPEG LA/Via (or whoever licenses MPEG-4 now).

What Microsoft should do is open up the Xbox 360 to allow DivX Inc to write a decoder and then allow people to purchase and install them via the Xbox Live! Marketplace.  However, I can understand that the architecture of the Xbox 360 most likely doesn’t allow to easy implantation of third party video decoders.  Not everyone is going to want to purchase hardware that allows for transcoding of content to a DLNA Compliant format (WMV9/MPEG-2).  The Xbox 360 supports both MPEG-2 (DLNA Compliant format) and WMV9 (Optional DLNA Compliant format).  MPEG-4 is also DLNA Compliant, but like WMV9 either have to be supported in a DNLA Compliant device.

Here’s the fact of the matter, Microsoft’s Media Center Extenders, including first generation standalone devices (Linksys/HP), Xbox v1 Extender, and the Xbox 360 are all DLNA Compliant!  All of them support JPEG (Image Requirement), LPCM (Audio Requirement), and MPEG-2 (Video Requirement).  PCs are coming that will allow for transcoding of formats like DivX to DLNA Compliant Formats.

Published Monday, December 12, 2005 7:27 PM by chrisl
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Comments

# re: No DivX on Extenders, Ever!

Actually, DiVX is totally uninteresting. It's full MPEG-4 support that is interesting.

And for non HD pirated content, XViD is probably most used codec. For pirated HD content WMV9 is the most used codec at the moment.

WMV9/VC-1 finally has some competition:
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

Since everyone EXCEPT Microsoft now is supporting this codec Microsoft needs to have NATIVE support for this.

Do you really think people will buy Media Center Extenders if they can't play the majority of their content?
There is a big risk for Microsoft that the PlayStation 3 will replace any MCX device in a couple of years.

Microsoft really needs to listen to the USERS. The users wants full MPEG-4 support. Pirated content cannot be the issue since Microsoft has been supporting the most successful pirate codec ever; MP3.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 3:20 AM by Jason

# re: No DivX on Extenders, Ever!

I forgot to mention this:

"Larry Hryb did say (almost in passing) that Microsoft would consider supporting DivX, but only when all the major studios started releasing DivX encoded DVD movies to the general public".

Well, start implementing MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 then! Apple sells TV shows and music videos in this format.

I know it is probably a dead end since the content is protected with Apples DRM and Apple will refuese to license it to Microsoft if Microsoft should ever want to.
Apple is really trying to create a monopoly here. One store and only one device.

Microsofts alternative is several stores and several devices.
But you have to admit that Apple knows what it takes to marked their stuff even though it's more expensive and have less features.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 3:30 AM by Jason

# re: No DivX on Extenders, Ever!

Good write-up (and thanks for the history lesson). I agree that Microsoft should be open to supporting third party decoders, at the very least. In my opinion, it would just be another money stream through Xbox Live and would extended the functionality if the console even further.

However, it's a little unfair, like Andru at Gear Live states, that MCE users can view DivX encoded videos through the Media Center application today without a special plug-in. It seems that Windows Media Connect just needs to get the thumbs up from Microsoft to transcode DivX video into a compatible format for streaming on Media Center Extenders. This is the kind of thing I hope to see happen in Vista with their new, all-transcoding, media server application :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:48 PM by Alexander Grundner

# re: No DivX on Extenders, Ever!

The whole argument is pretty ridiculous. We won't do it because nobody is selling DVD's with it?

They need to do this because it's what their customers obviously want. By customer I mean us folks that fork over so much cash, non the IP owners MS is always trying to hop in bed with.
No other reason is needed, market forces want. The windows media codecs can and are used for just as much piracy and as was pointed out nobody is really selling MS encoded dvd's, nor are they going to any time soon.

It's all about connivance. I have half a terabyte of data in divx. All my movies all my kids movies. Why would I possible want to reencode them, and loose quality, to play nice with the 360? It's a ridiculous proposition and the only reason MS is holding back taking the obvious step of supporting all common formats is because they are trying desperately to bludgeon their their way to market control with their proprietary codec at the expense of their customers time, energy and sanity. Ridiculous.
This is classic case of a big companies knows best. Nobody wants their stupid format, nobody wants sony stupid memory sticks but we all get this type of proprietary crap jammed down our throats every time some big company thinks they have enough muscle to get away with it. it is definably Evil and stupid of them and it's exactly the type of *** that makes people go all crazy and HATE microsoft, sony and every company that feels the need to behave this way and pointlessly cripple their products in the hope of making a buck off of somebody else down the road.

I was going to buy 3 xboxes (when they actually exist in the retail channel), one for each rooms of my house to stream my content. No divx support, forget it, I might buy one just for games. The 360 will never ever be a useful media extender to anyone who already has digitized their content, and is just sad.

I wonder if Sony is going to trully do better in this regard, hard to say since they can't be trsuted either.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 4:45 PM by Griffon

# Divx on the 360 Petition

There is now i online petition going to get xbox to add Divx support, please sign it and pass word on about the petition, the more signatures the better.

http://new.petitiononline.com/Divx4360/petition.html

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:53 AM by Mat1983