#Divx dvdplayer movie#

Shirley Tedesco Fierro on Forgotten: A&P Grocery.After June 30, 2001, all DIVX silver discs stopped working, which meant no existing DIVX discs could play any content and were essentially worthless. Variety estimated the total loss on DIVX as around $337 million. Circuit City announced a $114 million after-tax loss on DIVX. The reasons stated for the shutdown were the costs of introducing the format, and its very limited acceptance by the public and retailers.

#Divx dvdplayer movie#

By the Formats first anniversary, the future was very grim with only five DIVX compatible players, 0 DIVX compatible computer drives, 478 movie titles, and only Circuit City selling DIVX discs.ĭIVX was discontinued on June 16, 1999.

In May 1999, studio support for DIVX would be phased out with Paramount refusing to convert their titles to “Silver” titles and Disney focusing primarily on DVD production. Good Guys, Ultimate Electronics and Future Shop, a Canadian retailer pulled out of DIVX sales. Sales for the format quickly fell off after the 1998 holiday season. The market share for DIVX players was 23% in January 1999. Pay-Per-View companies saw the product as infringing on their turf and bad mouthed the product. Other retailers, like Best Buy, saw Circuit City being so intertwined with the technology they didn’t carry it either. Rental video giants Blockbuster and Hollywood video refused to carry the discs. Though Circuit City announced a net gain of 4.1% in profit after the launch of DIVX, enormous expenses of launching the format massively undercut any profit made. 87,000 players were sold during the last quarter of 1998, in these sales less than 17,000 DIVX accounts were created. national debut on October 12, 1998.A marketing push for the players for the upcoming holiday season was made of more than $1 million. The format was promoted to consumers as an alternative to traditional video rental schemes with the promise of “No returns, no late fees.” Consumers could just discard the discs after viewing or return them to Circuit City, where they had recycling bins for the discs in the store. On initial release, the DIVX player was twice as expensive as a normal DVD player (starting at $499).Īt DIVX launch, it was sold primarily through Circuit City, Good Guys and Ultimate Electronics retailers. The system had widespread studio support, and DIVX manufacturers expected that demand for the units would be high. DIVX discs used Triple DES encryption and an alternative channel modulation coding scheme, which prevented them from being read in standard DVD players.ĭIVX was introduced in 1997, the format was a partnership between Circuit City and entertainment law firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca & Fischer. DIVX player owners had to set up an account with DIVX to which additional viewing fees could be charged. The status of the discs was monitored through an account over a phone line. At this point why one wouldn’t just buy a normal DVD, to watch it as many times as you want, we will never know, but DIVX was an exciting new technology.Įach DIVX disc was marked with a unique barcode in the burst cutting area that could be read by the player, and used to track discs. Viewers who wanted to watch a disc an unlimited number of times could convert the disc to a “DIVX silver” disc for an additional fee. After 48 hours, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee to play it for two more days. The disk would be watchable for up to 48 hours after its initial viewing. Digital Video Express (DIVX) was a video rental format variation, in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately US $4.50.