| There's a company called DivX, Inc, | | | | play on the new Windows Media Player at |
| formerly the DivXNetworks, Inc. that | | | | that time, reverse-engineered the MPEG4 |
| introduced the DivX family of video | | | | format together with a German Hacker Max |
| codecs. Made extremely popular because | | | | Morice to come up with an MPEG4 format |
| of its ability to produce high quality | | | | encapsulated in AVI instead of the ASF |
| video using lossy MPEG4 Part2 | | | | it originally had. It only took them a |
| compression or MPEG4 ASP, DivX has | | | | week. Between 1998 and 2002, the DVD |
| cemented itself as one of the most | | | | hacking community had independent |
| popular multimedia codec for the home | | | | hackers enhance the format that later |
| market. | | | | came to have the Divx with a smiley |
| DivX is known to create a balance | | | | emoticon  attached as |
| between quality and file size with its | | | | version 3.0. |
| highly efficient compression abilities. | | | | In 2000, Rota was hired by Jorda |
| And because of that, it s one of the | | | | Greenhall to form a company called |
| codecs used for ripping where audio and | | | | DivXNetworks (later renamed to DivX, |
| video are copied from a source to the PC | | | | Inc.) based in the French Riviera. The |
| hard disk for archiving and transcoding. | | | | association resulted in the OpenDivX |
| The commercial DivX competes with | | | | codec a year later. Its source code was |
| Microsoft's Video for Windows in WMV, | | | | open to anyone and could be downloaded |
| Apple's QuickTime in the MOV and | | | | from the website. The following year, |
| RealNetwork's Real Video in the RMM file | | | | the two left for San Diego and developed |
| formats. An open source version released | | | | the OpenDivX software to become DivX |
| by Xvid solutions in 2001 is the Xvid | | | | version 4.0. Other developers took the |
| file format. | | | | Encore2 software to enhance the open |
| While DivX has long been renowned for | | | | source OpenDivX to arrive at the rival |
| its excellent video quality, its free | | | | Xvid format.maintained by Xvid |
| and open source equivalent Xvid today | | | | Solutions, Inc. |
| offers comparable quality, also based on | | | | The DivX Company continued to enhance |
| MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 ASP). In a series | | | | the DivX software that in 2002 has taken |
| of subjective quality tests at | | | | on the fifth version. By 2004, the |
| Doom9.org, the DivX codec has been | | | | features of the DivX format are as |
| successively beaten by Xvid every year | | | | complete as we know it today. In May |
| since 2003.[11] | | | | 2007, the Windows Vista version DivX 6.6 |
| Confusion clarified | | | | for the PC and the Mac was released. |
| DivX are two different things from two | | | | The advantages and benefits of using |
| different companies. One is DIVX created | | | | DivX |
| by Circuit City, a US electronics retail | | | | DivX found itself at the heart of video |
| giant that attempted to market a DVD | | | | piracy in the late 90s as its format |
| rental system that used special players | | | | became widely popular for ripping |
| and discs. And the other is the DivX | | | | copyrighted DVD materials for bootleg |
| multimedia codec trademarked and | | | | replication and distribution. A number |
| marketed by DivX, Inc. which is actually | | | | of generic DVD players as well as |
| a reference to the failed Circuit City | | | | branded ones are claiming to play DivX |
| system. | | | | materials. |
| A short history | | | | What's so appealing about the format is |
| DivX roots can be traced back to 1998 as | | | | that it's free. Same with the software |
| a hacked version of Microsoft's MPEG4 | | | | players you can use to play it with. It |
| version 3 which is inferior to the MPEG4 | | | | belongs to the open source community |
| that we know today. It was a French | | | | together with Xvid offering competitive |
| hacker Jerome Rota who, rather than | | | | if not better quality. |
| modify his video resume which could not | | | | |