DivX Connected Hands-On

Christopher Mascari — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:24:24 EDT

I got to play with DivX's Connected set top box that we showed you last night, and found a few more things out about the prototype. (Much of this could change by launch.)
•DivX Connected Server runs on PC, and does the file serving as well as the decompression of most video content.
•Only supports DivX video. No WMV or Quicktime files worked for us.
•Non-HD video files stream and play quickly / Fast-forward with no delay or lag over b/g WiFi. Without N support for WiFi, HD content needs ethernet.
•Music doesn't support AAC or WMA formats.
•There's nice integration with Stage 6 (DivX's version of Youtube, but mostly filled with geek/porn content) but there's delay in streaming, and it doesn't buffer, even when you pause.

•You can download videos from Stage 6, and since the box doesn't have storage, it actually is queuing the server PC to download the file directly. Download screen shows the speed of the DL and the ETA.
•But over a Wireless G connection 1080p and even 720p HD content will not be playable without stutter.
•Over Wifi G, the menu lags at times; With Ethernet, the UI is quick and works very well (We think the thumbnails don't cache).
•The remote feels cheap but highly functional with dedicated music / photo / video / stage6 buttons, and a mysterious and currently unused internet button.
•The box is a pretty thin client, doing basic openGL graphics for the UI and doing much of the processing of content on the PC. The client software (beta) uses 150 MBs of RAM and put the CPU at about 5-20% on a modern notebook while playing back 1080p video. Not bad.

First Look at the DivX Connected Media Streaming Platform in Action

Brian Lam — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:22:17 EDT

DivX is launching a hardware platform for a media streaming box with openness in mind. The set top box I was shown (a plain looking reference design) had HDMI, component, composite outputs and a b/g WiFi and Ethernet connections for connecting to your PC. The gorgeous UI I saw had PS3-like 3d thumbnails of videos and photos, and music can play in the background as you browse your albums. There's even a front page weather widget. And the whole thing is built on an open API so it should be fairly easy to add metadata or build plugins in a pretty nice UI.

Here's the interesting thing that keeps costs down — decoding of, say a HD DivX video stream is done on your PC and the decompressed (or partially decompressed) video is sent to the box. That keeps the cost of the box down, and although DivX wouldn't say how much the boxes would be when the launched in a couple of months, I'd guess that they'd be below $200.

Minimum requirements for the box are a P4 1.6Ghz CPU, with half a gig of RAM. More as we play with this thing.

Gizmodo: connected

DivX Connected Hands-On

First Look at the DivX Connected Media Streaming Platform in Action