Personal Opinion from an old stick-in-the-mud:
Maybe I'm getting old or something, and I hate to be a party-pooper, but all of this stuff just strikes me as "too little too late".
People have been harping for years about the lack of DivX-compatible
i.e. mpeg-4 hardware (non-computer) related playback equipment. Now, YEARS later, the powers-that-be are finally getting off their duffs and coughing up the goods, if only in minute quantities.
Mpeg-4 compression is far superior to standad dvd-mpeg-2 compression. If it were not so, DivX would be dead. Mpeg-4 is the only thing keeping DivX alive. Not without good reason of course. With mpeg-4 (divx or non-divx versions) you can get a terrific looking, full-length dvd movie to fit on the lowly 700MB compact disc.
Which today, means very little in practical terms however, because blank dvds are selling (at least locally) at cheaper prices than blank cdr-s. I can buy TWO blank dvds for the price of ONE blank CDR.
Yahoo and the DivX people should have done all this stuff 2 years ago when there WAS a bigger price difference in media prices.
Now..... I don't do my homework very well, but does not
Nero Burning ROM's new RECODE *also* produce stunning, exemplary, mind-bogglingly terrific MPEG-4 encodes?
I visited Doom9's site the other day, and everyone is squeaking delightedly about the new
Nero Recode. Simply based on the mountains of stuff I have read, I get the distinct impression that Nero's version of mpeg-4 encoding beats the pants off DivX's. In fact, Nero's mpeg-4 encoding is not compatible with DivXs (I don't think) because
Nero incorporates more quality mpeg-4 features than DivX hasn't even thought of yet. (There's tons of quality-enhancements that only hard-core encoding-enthusiasts like Doom9 can understand).
So, in my opinion, DivX (and DivX-related hardware players) are WAY too late. And not just for the reasons stated above either, (lesser quality than
Nero, plus cheap media prices), specifically :
Newer, higher-density recording formats just around the corner. I'm not talking about Hollywood's next-generation retail HD movie format, whatever form that may take. But rather, *consumer* home-recording format(s). It could be Blu-Ray, or it could be something else. The data-storage capability of the new home format(s) is staggering. When the hi-density consumer discs get here (many predict by next year), you're going to quickly forget ALL about DivX hardware players. And perhaps even
Nero Recode as well.
When you see that you will be able to archive a dozen or so present-day dvds on a single disc with NO loss of quality, you're going to forget ALL about DivX.
Yeah yeah, I know - I'm a pessimist, but I still say....
"Too Little Too Late". And I think that YDP-530 player looks absolutely ridiculous. It would be an embarrassment having it in the house.
[End Of Speech].