Film Fresh to Offer Major Studios' Films in DivX

Author Hugo Jobling
Published 26th Aug 2009
Film Fresh to Offer Major Studios' Films in DivX
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Well here's an interesting development. Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. are collaborating with US online video store Fresh Films to distribute their films in DivX for the first time (legitimately).


The upside of this deal should be self-evident. DivX is pretty much the MP3 of video, playable on a plethora of devices, including (aside from PCs, obviously) TVs, DVD players, Blu-ray players, media streamers and even games consoles; although only the PS3 in this case, apparently - suck it up Xbox 360 owners. Files are DRM-protected, but as this is tied to a universal DivX ID, rather than a piece of hardware, it's slightly less of an issue than it might be.

Okay, so the US-centric nature of this deal means we UK-based folks probably shouldn't get too excited. Nonetheless, seeing studios agree to have their content distributed via ubiquitous standard, not tied into proprietary stores (I'm looking at you Apple and Xbox Live) is a trend we should all hope finds itself emerging this side of the pond.

Fresh Film doesn't mention the quality it will be offering files in, but with the amount of DivXHD logos on the site it would be rather rude if at least a few high definition videos aren't available. Films will cost from $9.99 to $15.99 depending on the recency of their release, and we can only hope a similar, UK-based alternative surfaces post haste.

Link:
DivX.

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comment V.E said on 26th August 2009

@ Jopey
It is ineresting that you see DivX as some out of date codec in which you may have a point but so many devices use it and from a consumers perpsective there is no '... more

comment Chocoa said on 26th August 2009

Yea, as you say jopey cuttin' edge... Clearly not heard of H.264 et al :)

Laying my oft cynical hat to one side..I guess its a first tentative minuscule step forward... more

comment Keith said on 26th August 2009

@suck it up Xbox 360 owners.

Eh!!, Xbox360 does DivX and XVid files.

comment drdark said on 26th August 2009

I've always been fond of DivX... but I won't get into that now. The main problem is, as usual, the price. We don't want our digital media to cost the 'same' as DVDs, we want it to ... more

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