Newsgroup: it.media.video.produzione
Titolo: Divx:)) - Come nasce (inglese)

Depending on whom you ask, Divx (once known as ZoomTV) was either an
insidious evil scheme for greedy studios to control what you see in your own
living room or an innovative approach to video rental that would have
offered cheap discs you could get almost anywhere and keep for later
viewings. On June 16, 1999, less than a year after initial product trials,
Digital Video Express announced that it was closing down. Divx did not
confuse or delay development of the DVD market nearly as much as many people
predicted (including yours truly). In fact, it probably helped by
stimulating Internet rental companies to provide better services and prices,
by encouraging manufacturers to offer more free discs with player purchases,
and by motivating studios to develop rental programs.
When it closed down, the company offered $100 rebate coupons to all owners
of Divx players. This made the players a good deal, since they can play open
DVDs just as well as other low-end players that cost more. On July 7th,
2001, Divx players dialed into the central billing computer, which
decommissioned them. (Divx players not connected to phone lines have expired
their playback allowance.) Divx discs are no longer playable in any players.
Developed by Circuit City and a Hollywood law firm, Divx was supported by
Disney (Buena Vista), Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, MGM, and
DreamWorks SKG, all of which also released discs in "open DVD" format, since
the Divx agreement was non-exclusive. Harman/Kardon, JVC, Kenwood,
Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Thomson (RCA/Proscan/GE), and Zenith
announced Divx players, though some never came to market. (Divx models are
Panasonic X410, Proscan PS8680Z, RCA RC5230Z and RC5231Z, and Zenith
DVX2100.) The studios and hardware makers supporting Divx were given
incentives in the form of guaranteed licensing payments totaling over $110
million. Divx discs were manufactured by Nimbus, Panasonic, and Pioneer.
Circuit City lost over $114 million (after tax writeoffs) on Divx.
Divx was a pay-per-viewing-period variation of DVD. Divx discs sold for
$4.50. Once inserted into a Divx player the disc would play normally
(allowing the viewer to pause, rewind, even put in another disc before
finishing the first disc) for the next 48 hours, after which the "owner" had
to pay $3.25 to unlock it for another 48 hours. A Divx DVD player, which
cost about $100 more than a regular player, had to be hooked up to a phone
line so it could call an 800 number for about 20 seconds during the night
once each month (or after playing 10 or so discs) to upload billing
information. Most Divx discs could be converted to DivxSilver status by
paying an additional fee (usually $20) to allow unlimited plays on a single
account (as of Dec 1998, 85% of Divx discs were convertible).
Unlimited-playback DivxGold discs were announced but never produced. Divx
players can also play regular DVD discs, but Divx discs do not play in
standard DVD players. Divx discs are serialized (with a barcode in the
standard Burst Cutting Area) and in addition to normal DVD copy protection
(see 1.11) they employ watermarking of the video, modified channel
modulation, and triple DES encryption (three 56-bit keys) of serial
communications. Divx technology never worked on PCs, which undoubtedly
contributed to its demise. Because of the DES encryption, Divx technology
may not have been allowed outside the U.S.
Divx was originally announced for summer 1998 release. Limited trials began
June 8, 1998 in San Francisco, CA and Richmond, VA. The only available
player was from Zenith (which at the time was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy), and
the promised 150 movies had dwindled to 14. The limited nationwide rollout
(with one Zenith player model and 150 movies in 190 stores) began on
September 25, 1998. By the end of 1998 about 87,000 Divx players (from four
models available) and 535,000 Divx discs were sold (from about 300 titles
available). The company apparently counted the five discs bundled with each
player, which means only 100,000 additional discs were sold. By March 1999,
420 Divx titles were available (compared to over 3,500 open DVD titles).
For more information see the Divx Owner's Association.
Advantages of Divx:
  a.. Viewing could be delayed, unlike rentals.
  b.. Discs need not be returned. No late fees.
  c.. You could watch the movie again for a small fee. Initial cost of
"owning" a disc was reduced.
  d.. Discs could be unlocked for unlimited viewing (Divx Silver), an
inexpensive way to preview before deciding to purchase.
  e.. The disc is new; no damage from previous renters.
  f.. The "rental" market was opened up to other retailers, including mail
order.
  g.. Studios got more control over the use of their content.
  h.. You received special offers from studios in your Divx mailbox.
  i.. Divx players (with better quality and features than comparable
players) were a steal after Divx went out of business.
Disadvantages of Divx :
  a.. Higher player cost (about $100 more at first, about $50 later).
  b.. Although discs did not have to be returned, the viewer still had to go
to the effort of purchasing the disc. Cable/satellite pay per view is more
convenient.
  c.. Higher cost than for regular DVD rental ($3 to $7 vs. $2 to $4). There
were few obstacles to the company raising prices later, since it had a
monopoly.
  d.. Casual quick viewing (looking for a name in the credits, playing a
favorite scene, watching supplements) required paying a fee.
  e.. Most Divx titles were pan & scan (see 3.5) without extras such as
foreign language tracks, subtitles, biographies, trailers, and commentaries.
  f.. The player had to be hooked to your phone line, possibly requiring a
new jack in your living room or a phone extension cable strung across it.
(Players required a connection once a month or so, so you could periodically
connect it to a phone line.)
  g.. Divx couldn't be used in mobile environments, such as a van or RV,
unless you took it out and connected it to a phone line about once a month.
  h.. The Divx central computer collected information about your viewing
habits, as do cable/satellite pay-per-view services and large rental chains.
(According to Divx, the law did not allow them to use the information for
resale and marketing.)
  i.. Divx players included a "mailbox" for companies to send you
unsolicited offers (i.e., spam).
  j.. Those who didn't lock out their Divx player could receive unexpected
bills when their kids or visitors played Divx discs.
  k.. Divx discs wouldn't play in regular DVD players or on PCs with DVD-ROM
drives. Some uninformed consumers bought Divx discs only to find they
wouldn't play in their non-Divx player.
  l.. Unlocked Silver discs would only work in players on the same account.
Playback in a friend's Divx player would incur a charge. (Gold discs, which
were never released, would have played without charge in all Divx players.)
  m.. There was no market for used Divx discs.
  n.. Divx discs are unplayable after June 2001.
  o.. Divx players were never available outside the U.S. and Canada.

In any case, there's not much appeal to being able to copy a set of movie
files (often without menus and other DVD special features) that would take
over a week to download on a 56K modem and would fill up a 6G hard disk or a
dozen CD-Rs. In March 2000, a DVD redistribution technology called DivX;-)
appeared. (Yes, the smiley face is part of the name, whose creators should
be drawn and quartered for the stupid joke, which has confused thousands.
See 2.10.) DivX;-) is a simple hack of Microsoft's MPEG-4 video codec and
MP3 audio, allowing DeCSSed video to be re-encoded for downloading and
playing in Windows Media Player. The DivX;-) creators are now involved in
Project Mayo developing a new version called OpenDivx (originally called
Divx Deux). There's also an open-source variation called 3ivx. In spite of
lower data rates (and therefore lower quality) of DivX;-) et al, the time
and effort it takes to find and download the files is not worth the bother
for most movie viewers. The reality is that people ripping and downloading
DVDs are doing it for the challenge, not to avoid buying discs.
The supporters of DeCSS point out that it was only developed to allow DVD
movies to be played on the Linux operating system, which had been excluded
from CSS licensing because of its open-source nature. This is specifically
allowed by DMCA and WIPO laws. However, the DeCSS.exe program posted on the
Internet is a Windows application that decrypts movie files. The lack of
differentiation between the DeCSS process in Linux and the DeCSS.exe Windows
application is hurting the cause of DeCSS backers, since DeCSS.exe can be
used in the process of copying and illegally distributing movies from DVD.
See OpenDVD.org and Tom Vogt's DeCSS central for more information on DeCSS.
Worthy of note is that DVD piracy was around long before DeCSS. Serious DVD
pirates can copy the disc bit for bit, including the normally unreadable
lead in (this can be done with a specially modified drive), or copy the
video output from a standard DVD player, or get a copy of the video from
another source such as laserdisc, VHS, or a camcorder smuggled into a
theater. It's certainly true that DVD piracy is a problem, but DeCSS has
little to do with it.
Shortly after the appearance of DeCSS, the DVD CCA filed a lawsuit and
requested a temporary injunction in an attempt to prevent Web sites from
posting (or even linking to!) DeCSS information. The request was denied by a
California court on December 29, 1999. On January 14, 2000, the seven top
U.S. movie studios (Disney, MGM, Paramount, Sony [Columbia/TriStar], Time
Warner, Twentieth Century Fox, and Universal), backed by the MPAA, filed
lawsuits in Connecticut and New York in a further attempt to stop the
distribution of DeCSS on Web sites in those states. On January 21, the judge
for the New York suit granted a preliminary injunction, and on January 24,
the judge for the CCA suit in California reversed his earlier decision and
likewise granted a preliminary injunction. In both cases, the judges ruled
that the injunction applied only to sites with DeCSS information, not to
linking sites. (Good thing, since this FAQ links to DeCSS sites!) The CCA
suit is based on misappropriation of trade secrets (somewhat shaky ground),
while the MPAA suits are based on copyright circumvention. On January 24,
16-year old Jon Johansen, the Norwegian programmer who first distributed
DeCSS, was questioned by local police who raided his house and confiscated
his computer equipment and cell phone. Johansen says the actual cracking
work was done by two anonymous programmers, one German and one Dutch, who
call themselves Masters of Reverse Engineering (MoRE).