DivX Connected: Round Two
I thought this was important enough to post for everyone to
read. A commenter
named “bobby” had this to say about my thoughts on DivX Connected.
“Wow, I understand
this is a supposed to be a personal option blog, but no one is fooled, this
blog is part of M$ pathetic try at viral marketing.
That said I’m very
impressed how M$ is bad mouthing a product they didn’t even have seen and used,
is DivX Connected *that* threatening for them ?
So let’s recap, the
DivX Connected device plays DivX (and Xvid, BTW, so you got access to 70%+ of
the “content” people are interested in), it does play WMV and WMA and it is
based on an open platform (hello, MKV, H264 and the rest…) I do not think that
lack of file formats and codec support is going to be an issue.
Stage6 support is
more, as I understand it, a demonstration of the capability of the API and the
of online content possibility (full trick play support FYI)
As of the 100M
hardware devices, I believe this is where it is hurting for M$, DivX did indeed
shipped 100M CERTIFIED hardware devices, yes they work with low cost SoC and
3rd party partners, this is the whole point, DivX is not in the business of
selling boxes, they are in the technology licensing business, and in that
regard they did WAY better than you Mr. M$.
I think DivX did a
great job in selecting their Beta users: you were not selected, and I do not
believe you will receive a test unit either, you will have to go buy it in the
stores, but I believe M$ as enough change, that shouldn’t be an issue.”
First of all bobby, I'd invite you to subscribe to my blog
and read the posts. As you will see
below, you are clearly off base with much of your post. I have provided examples dating back years to
show this.
I have been on Microsoft for years about their choices with
file format support. Because of this,
you will find dozens of postings from me about their stupid decisions to limit
file format support to not include DivX and other MPEG-4 based codecs. An example would be right here
and here,
and dozens of other posts that reference it.
I can provide you with dozens of examples, and I’m sure the rest of my
readers could even provide you with links where I have said the same.
I've also been saying for years that DivX is
continuing to grow in several respects, with Microsoft falling behind in
several places (such as hardware support, where DivX is king). DivX is far from “doing well” in my opinion, but
in the hardware field it has been light-years above offerings by Microsoft.
I had also posted a bit of Microsoft bashing when Sean
Alexander posted about DivX Connected (GejBox) back in June. Oddly, the comments are no longer listed despite
the fact Sean had several (Update:Archive.org
showing 4 comments on the post). To summarize, Sean is passing
off DivX as a “offbeat MPEG-4 profile” when it clearly stays within MPEG-4 ASP
and when Microsoft continues to develop new formats that don’t conform to
existing standards. You can't badmouth third parties when your own company is the king of "offbeat."
Back to DivX Connected, according
to the Gizmodo post, it doesn't yet support other formats. As I
noted in the post from the start, it’s based off a pre-production device, and
thus it can change. Alexander
pointed me to the third video which I said I didn’t watch where Mr Gej himself
said it would support “DivX, Xvid, and a variation of MPEG-4... and Windows
Media.”
Having said that, an "open platform" doesn't
always mean that much. There are several
devices on the market today that are "open" and still don't support
third party codecs and file formats. I
want to see native support, as I’ve talked about before I don’t believe in
using transcoding for everything.
Allowing third parties to include support for other codecs and it happening
are often to different things.
And yes, I agree the fact that 100 million devices is
hurting Microsoft. Microsoft should be
contributing to that amount with supporting MPEG-4 ASP on the Xbox 360 and all
future products (Zune, v2 Extender, etc).
I have been saying this for years.
Again, please read some of my other writings before you assume too much.
And yet again, I don't work for or represent Microsoft. Feel free to read the clearly labeled "About
Me" link off to the side.
(BTW, bobby if you are a masked DivX, Inc employee, I would
ask if you would contact me directly and not hide behind a fake a name. I'd love to chat and let you know what I
think of DivX Connected. If you are not
a masked DivX, Inc employee please carry on and read what I have provided you).
