First Certified DivX/DVD Player Released

An anonymous reader writes "According to this article, a company named KiSS Technology announced at CeBit that they are releasing the first certified DivX DVD players, the DP-450 and DP-500! They are supposed to be able to playback ALL versions of DivX content and digital rights management. I'm completely stoked on this, I would buy one of these in a snap. This could make the purchase of dvd burners slow down in my opinion." (And Yes, it plays Ogg Vorbis, too.) Ebay imports, anyone?

OGM support?

[redhat421]

I wonder if it will support playback of "ogm" files? If not, what format should I be using that can handle vorbis VBR audio and subtitles?

DivX SVCD?

[Viral Fly-by]

Considering even the cheapest PoS DVD player that redneck billy bob bought at Wal-Mart will play both VCDs and SVCDs that are burned on plain ordinary CD-Rs using any run-of-the-mill burner found in your HP Desktop that redneck billy bob also bought at Wal-Mart, the real question is:

Why? Why need support to play DivX format in a DVD player?

Is the DivX format any better quality than SVCD? Using standard CD-Rs, you are going to use close to the same amount of discs to get the same amount of video at the same quality.

DivX may have better audio than SVCD...but nothing will ever provide the DD 5.1, DTS, and 6.1(7.1???) sound quality of real DVDs.

Re:Why not Xbox

[sardonic2]

Well, the box is a Xbox (retail $200). I modded it with an Xecuter 2 Pro [extreme-mods.com] mod chip. This gives me the ability to boot up unsigned code (homebrew software). I then use Xbox Media Player [xboxmediaplayer.de] to do all media playback (excluding dvd currently) but you can find a program out there called Dvd-X that gives you full DVD playback (or if you bought the special adapter from M$ you can use the defualt DVD player). I dropped a 120GB IBM drive in there, so I have storage for games I copy over and so on. I can play files over the network, and I can stream music from a shoutcast server off the internet. It's a pretty cool little thing.
Good (More) Info can be found at Xbox-scene [xbox-scene.com]

Re:Ok, I'll bite.

[gleam]

except that the "scene" releases are now almost 95% of the time (or more) in xvid, not divx3. So, even though they can now do divx3, they're still behind the times. Unless they can come out with a quick firmware flash that will let it do xvid also, I'm not planning on touching it.

I'm also curious as to how many types of subtitles it supports. If it's just a linux box running mplayer, that'll be fine. Especially if I can ssh into it and muck with the config files.

Bonus points if I can play divx/xvid from a self-burnt dvd (burnt as iso9660, not udf).

-gleam

n00b stuff

[scubacuda]

For newbies who ask, "What does this mean to me?"

• Speed: You can convert a two hour long DVD movie into a high quality DIVX movie within 5 hours.
• Space: Two hours long of DVD quality fit on a 750MB CD-(R)W
• Ease of use : Every try to copy a DVD? One-click DVD to DIVX ripping is a lot easier
  than having to make VCDs [vcdhelp.com]. (Even newbie guides [dvdrhelp.com] can be a little cumbersome)
• Cost : Ever price out DVDRs? They're hella expensive. Compare that to, say, a 100 pack of CDRs after rebate.

This brings up an interesting point

Fair use

[gad_zuki!]

How about those of us who record shows via a capture card and end up compressing them into divx? I dont even have a VCR anymore, but its essentially the same deal. Unless you consider that "piracy" too.

Just because its digital and easier to share doesn't mean its illegal or should be made illegal.

Ideally, I'd like to converge my Tivo/PC/DVD player into something simple and usable and this device is a step in the right direction.

I'm sure the device will be used for copyright infringment somehow, but it does have legitimate uses. Not to mention just about ANY video device can be used for CI.