Hollywood Studios Strike DivX Deal for Download-to-Own Movies

There are a ton of devices that support DivX playback (the PS3, DVD and Blu-ray players, etc), so news of Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros agreeing for their movies to be downloaded in DivX for the first time is actually pretty interesting. And any added competition for iTunes and Cinema Now is only going to help keep them on their toes, right? More »

Samsung YP-R1 PMP Plays Your Torrented Episodes of 30 Rock

We're loving Samsung's new line of PMPs, and as lifelong haters of forced video conversion, we're especially glad that Samsung's been throwing us torrent-using pirates a bone with great codec support and a 2.7-inch touchscreen in its new YP-R1 PMP. More »

1080p DivX Support Coming to LG HDTVs in May

LG has announced support for full 1080p DivX video in their new line of TVs, which begin shipping in May. LG has always been quick to try out new—if sometimes marginal—technologies in their TVs, like DivX playback from mass storage, which LG introduced in 2007. Similarly, this feature is great news for those of us who want a convenient way to play torrented Blu-ray rips our HD home video collection, but will mean absolutely nothing to the majority of people who buy the sets. [Gizmag]

PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.60 Will Bring New Photo Gallery App, More DivX Support Tomorrow

Perhaps taking a cue from iPhoto's whiz-bang smart organization features, PS3 firmware 2.60's biggest add is a new Photo Gallery app that looks like it can sort photos in some interesting ways. More »

Warner Bros. to Offer DivX Downloads

Already the format of choice for, ahem, somewhat clandestine distribution of digital video files, DivX has now officially partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute video in the format. Sony beat WB to the punch by about 9 months, and we'll have to wait even longer for Warner to come around to HD DivX, which won't be ready until September of next year. SD downloads are expected to become available this month. Full details follow. More »

LG Rountable Hypes HD, Cell Phone/Digital Camera Convergence

According to LG, the future of HD video, mobile phone cameras, and the point-and-shoot varietals couldn't be more, well, the same. At a round table event in London this past week, the company hyped up convergence between the industries, and used its camera-happy KC-910 to show why there is no reason why mobiles should not overtake or absorb digital cameras in the near future. When one looks at what the KC-910 (aka Renoir) will bring to the cell phone market, it's hard not to agree. As we've detailed here before, this "phone" comes equipped with an 8-megapixel cam with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens and xenon flash. ISO is rated up to 1600, and it also does VGA video at 30fps as well as high-speed 120fps filming (at QVGA resolution). More »

LG's DVS450H Makes DVD Players Attractive Again, Plays DivX HD

It's becoming all about Blu-ray nowadays, but LG hasn't forgotten the DVD player: its DVS450H is doubly interesting for its design and DivX playing. Check out those sleek lines—pretty sci-fi, especially with that concealed display and sliding-door disc tray lid. LG call its shape "floating", and it can be desk or wall mounted. And its the first "DivX Certified(R) DVD player from a major manufacturer capable of playing HD video" according to LG, with playback capabilities from DVD or hard drives attached to its USB port. It's due in October for around $240. Press release below. More »

VLC Media Player Now Available For iPhone and iPod Touch

Thanks to Zottd, iPhone users can now port the popular VLC media player to their iPhone or iPod touch, making it possible to drag, drop and play MPEG/MPG, AVI and MP3 media formats. He is also in the process of researching playback for VCD, DivX, WMA, and WMV, and he notes that FLAC and OGG are coming soon. The project is currently in beta, but a public release is on its way. Naturally, you will need a jailbroken phone to take part in this awesomeness. [zottd via Macrumors]

Staples to Start Selling Self-Destructing DVDs, Didn't Get the Memo

The tech world is full of inherently terrible ideas, but one especially bad one that just won't seem to die is the idea that people want to buy DVDs that will self-destruct in a couple of days. Beyond the fact that the entire concept is a giant kick to the balls of the environment, it's an idea that consumers have shown zero interest in getting behind. But here we are, nearly a decade after the idea was first floated, and Staples is about to get onboard with them. More »

Hack Apple TV In One Step With the aTV Flash Drive

The idea behind AppleCore LLCs aTV Flash Drive is that users can reflash their Apple TV and add all sorts of cool and useful functionality without having to waste time scrounging around the internet looking for hacks. According to the product website, all you need to do is install the drive and it will do the rest—without voiding your warranty. But what sort of features will it add? More »

Cowon A3 and Q5W Media Players Get 80GB Storage Each

We've reviewed both the Cowon A3 and the Q5W and found them to be fantastic media players with a pretty damn wide range of video and audio format support. Cowon's just bumped up both players to 80GB, which is great since you're probably going to be loading both with lots of video files. We're still waiting for it to go up to 160GB like the iPod classics though. [Cowon]

Panasonic's DMP-BD30K Blu-ray Player Goes DivX Certified

Panasonic's just become the first manufacturer to make a DivX-certified stand-alone Blu-ray player, the BD30K, which will be available in Europe and Russia starting this month. It's not the first machine to have both DivX and Blu-ray (the PlayStation 3 did that a few months ago), but it does signal the continuation of a trend that started with many DVD players getting DivX functionality. Do you really need DivX on your Blu-ray player? Probably not, but if you're frequently downloading stuff off BitTorrent, having another machine that can play back last week's Lost is pretty convenient. More »

DivX's Stage 6 Streaming Video Site Shutting Down

You may only be vaguely aware of DivX's Stage 6 video site (which probably explains why it wasn't successful) but it's going to be shut down entirely at the end of February. Stage 6 was DivX's YouTube-like video site meant to provide a bunch of streamable content for living room and mobile DivX players. The fact that it's being canned speaks to how successful the effort was. Most of you won't miss it, but we'll have a special place in our hearts for the handful of nudie clips we found on it that one time. [Stage 6] More »

Xbox Media Center Comes to Macs

Xbox Media Center, which was originally a media center for some console whose name we can't remember, has finally come to Macs. Why would you need this when FrontRow or other media centers work just fine natively? As the XBMC team (and loyal fans) can attest to, the codec support, usability and functionality is higher than even the Xbox 360 when it comes to playing back downloaded content. 9 to 5 Mac has an interview with one of the developers on the 0.1 version. [9to5mac]

LG KU990 Viewty Touchscreen Cellphone Can Now Record 640x480 DivX at 120FPS

Recording VGA-quality movies is nothing new, but DivX and LG just announced that the LG Viewty smartphone can now record VGA-quality movies at 120 frames per second with what looks like a software update (new ones will ship with it pre-loaded). Best of all, it records in the DivX format, which means you can watch it back on all kinds of DivX devices (your computer, various PMPs, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 for example). Besides recording at such a high rate, the phone can also take 5-megapixel stills, for the times when one picture says more than 120 of them. The Viewty is already available in Europe, and we got a hands-on with it last year. [Mobile Burn]

Sony Pictures Television to Offer DivX Movie Downloads

Adding more gasoline to the whole format war bonfire, Sony Pictures Television has announced that they will start distributing movies online using the DivX format. The files wil play in DivX Certified devices, including the recently updated PlayStation 3 as well as the updated Xbox 360. This, and not Blu-ray vs HD DVD, is the true battle for the future of movie distribution. Discs are so le tired. [Ars Technica]

Linksys DMA 2100/2200 Media Center Extenders Shipping Now

Those Media Center Extenders we told you about back in September (the ones that support DivX, XviD and WMV HD) are finally shipping now. Dell has both the Linksys DMA 2100 and 2200s up for sale, but a reader tells us that his 2100 doesn't actually work with DivX or XviD, and the manual makes no mention of this. It could be user error on his part. Anyone have any experience with it? More »

PlayStation 3 XviD Playback Update: It Works, Kinda

Huzzah! I've discovered why XviD files didn't work in the PlayStation DivX Playback test. Apparently, streaming over Windows Media Player 11 does not work for any XviD files and most DivX files, but it does work fine if you load the files onto an external USB drive or burn it to a DVD. But there's a workaround, kind of. More »

Dealzmodo: DivX Pro Free For a Limited Time

We love watching DivX, but what if you want to create DivX? You'd normally have to pony up for the DivX Pro pack to let you encode your favorite movies into our favorite format, but for a limited time you can download DivX Pro for free. Think of it as an early Xmas present to get more people creating content in their format. Wait, I see what they're doing! [DivX via Wal-You via Cyber Net News]

Stream DivX/XviD to Xbox 360 From Your Mac

Remember Connect360, the app that let you stream music and video from your Mac to your Xbox 360? It's just been updated to support XviD and DivX functionality to match the fall upgrade you installed earlier this week. It still costs $20 if you haven't purchased it before, but you can try it for free to see if it works for you. If this were the policy for everything, we'd have a lot of half-eaten bananas at the supermarket, along with much cleanup needed in the diaper aisle. [Nullriver]

Cowon Q5W PMP Has Wi-Fi, Touchscreen, 60GB Storage, GPS

The Cowon Q5W could be one of the most feature-rich PMPs we've seen yet, even beating out Archos's big boys in terms of how much stuff you can cram into a music and video player. Oh, and it's not nearly as un-carriable as the Archos devices either, which is fantastic. More »

PS3 is Getting DivX; PS3 is Getting Better

Good news, downloadable porn DivX fans! DivX has announced today that they are currently testing the PlayStation 3 before adding their final certified stamp of approval to the device. While we'd seen rumors last week, now it's confirmed that DivX is coming to the PlayStation 3. More »

Pinnacle's ShowCenter 250HD Media Streamer Plays DivX and XviD

We've seen and tested a few streamers before, including ones that play DivX and XviD, but this Pinnacle solution looks like it's going to hit the sweet spot for price/performance. The thing can handle 1080i playback of Windows Media Video 9, WMV-DRM, MPEG1, MPEG2, MEPG4 AVI, DivX, XviD, as well as high definition files like WMV 9, DivX HD and MPEG-4 HD. The 250HD works with Vista and XP PCs that have Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect (not Windows Media Center), and can grab files through Ethernet or 802.11g. All this for a price of $200 means DivX and XviD fanatics have something to look forward to this Christmas. [Pinnacle via Uber Review] More »

DivX CEO Slips, Says DivX Possibly Heading to Xbox 360

DivX's brand new CEO, Kevin Hell, accidentally leaked some juicy info about their Xbox 360 plans when questioned at a JP Morgan conference. An analyst questioned Hell about the new media center extenders that have DivX and Xvid compatibility and whether the same functionality was coming to Xbox. Kevin replied, "Yes! that, uh, we're in discussions with Microsoft on that at this point in time, so I can't go into any great detail on that. Um, that is not a certified, that is not a certified or licensed product at this time." The sweet sounds of backpedaling are like Chopin for our DivX-starved ears. [SeekingAlpha]

Hint of Coming Xvid and Divx Support Slipped Into PS3 Firmware 2.00?

Kotaku's editor from down under notes an interesting but totally unannounced feature following the update to the PS3's freshly baked 2.0 firmware. Previously unsupported file formats (specifically Xvid and Divx) are not only detected by the PS3 now, but it magically has thumbnails and running times for the files. They still won't play, so it might not mean anything, but Luke says it best: "Sony wouldn't have increased the compatibility in there for shits and giggles. Would they?" Well, it is Sony. Who knows why they do anything anymore? Have you guys had similar revelatory experiences? [Kotaku]

Gamepark GP2X F-200 DivX/Xvid-Playing Handheld With Emulator Now Available

The crazy GP2X F-200 Gamepark handheld is available today for $169 on Play-Asia. What's so special about this handheld? For one, it's running Linux and can play back DivX, XVid and MPEG4 at 30FPS, or TV-Out your movies that are encoded at 720x480. For two, it supports emulation, which means you can load your old ROMs on there and play NES/SNES and other retro games you download for free off the internet. So in essence, you could be playing Super Mario 3 and watching that Fred Savage movie about Super Mario 3 on the same device! Did we mention that it was only $169? [Play Asia via DCEmu]