DivX coming to PS3

[djskribbles]

QT, WMV etc is more commonly used for websites etc., but when people rip DVD's etc for their own legal purposes (at least i think its legal, not that i do it anyway), most people use Xvid as it is (or was) the best codec to retain detail/quality compressing to a relatively small size to store on their computer for whatever reason. also, WMV and i think even QT (.mov) is just a container type, not a codec. Xvid, Divx, h.264 etc are codecs and .mkv, .wmv, .mov, .avi, .mp4 etc. are containers which is like the type of video and it just stores it. like you could have an h.264 video in an .mkv container or even a .mp4 container. or you could have a divx video in an .avi container or a .divx container.
also, people who record videos from their PVR's usually like to use the xvid/divx codec for the aforementioned reasons

i don't know if its ok to post this (if not, you can delete) but its no secret that there are a lot of people who download videos illegally from the internet whether it be from bittorrent or P2P, and that is where xvid/divx is most commonly used, and those are the people who are really excited about this.

 

[Color me Dan]

I thought most people used the .avi container format, but thats a bit beside the point. I don't see any reason whatsoever not to use H.264 or AVC (basically the same as i understand it) in games. H.264 in my experiance gives the best image quality avalible to date when compressed right. I lack experiance with DivX but understand it to be inferior in tests if you believe Wikipedia. So basically using it in a HD console would be rather useless for games.

For people wanting to watch ripped movies or other stuff i can see it being good, but games...

 

[sevanig]

Cant wait, I have a portable hdd loaded with divx content waiting to be watched...
I wonder if it will upscale divx content too (if possible)...

 

[djskribbles]

I thought most people used the .avi container format, but thats a bit beside the point. I don't see any reason whatsoever not to use H.264 or AVC (basically the same as i understand it) in games. H.264 in my experiance gives the best image quality avalible to date when compressed right. I lack experiance with DivX but understand it to be inferior in tests if you believe Wikipedia. So basically using it in a HD console would be rather useless for games.

For people wanting to watch ripped movies or other stuff i can see it being good, but games...

yeah, i see no benefit for games... h.264 is the superior codec.

 

[patsu]

It's just that there is an existing huge library for DixX content available in underground sites. I have seen some of these people, and their collections are unbelievable.

 

[JPT]

For old stuff divx/xvid is the most popular content.
For newer stuff that is proper HD and might include 5.1 surround sound etc, it seems H.264 for video and AC3 for audio in mvk container is the popular thing.
All tough due to a large "back catalouge" divx/xvid got most of the video content today, but new HD "releases" seems to be mvk based.

 

[-tkf-]

For old stuff divx/xvid is the most popular content.
For newer stuff that is proper HD and might include 5.1 surround sound etc, it seems H.264 for video and AC3 for audio in mvk container is the popular thing.
All tough due to a large "back catalouge" divx/xvid got most of the video content today, but new HD "releases" seems to be mvk based.

Translation: Bootleg copies is moving from divx to mkv, especially for HiDef. Correct?

Still, every dvd released will be followed by a divx bootleg copy. I´m somewhat suprised that Sony and Microsoft would actually support the prime codec for DVD warez.

In regards to DiVX and hidef, stage6.divx.com is the HiDef answer to Youtube, and it´s based on DiVX of course.

 

[JPT]

Translation: Bootleg copies is moving from divx to mkv, especially for HiDef. Correct?

Yes, atleast in my experience.

Still, every dvd released will be followed by a divx bootleg copy. I´m somewhat suprised that Sony and Microsoft would actually support the prime codec for DVD warez.

Yes, but the primce sources are Blue-Ray, HD-DVD and HDTV.
As for Sony and MS well, your guess is as good as mine, but if you get the "pirates"/early adopters to go for your solution in the battle for the livingroom, you can introduce anti-pirate measures later.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Still, every dvd released will be followed by a divx bootleg copy. I´m somewhat suprised that Sony and Microsoft would actually support the prime codec for DVD warez.

Yes, but then if it's a selling point to attract customers and you're not actually being impacted (any more so) by piracy, I guess it's a sensible business move.

 

[Color me Dan]

Off course it is, DivX is quite popular with small hosted clips and stuff; and you don't want to miss out on that when going for mass market appeal. I love the mkv format! they should add it asap, if nothing else there is a huge market for anime that uses it. And japan likes anime... and so do i hehe. It's legal for shows that are not shown outside japan to be ripped and subbed by a subbing community as i understand it from a friend of mine, and everything nowadays is mkv, at least the HD stuff.

DO they support wmv on the PS3? Would be ironic if they did. They'd be forced too by the huge amount of content avalible in that format in the end though.

 

[patsu]

Nope, but they can rely on third parties like the NetFront guy to provide a DLNA server to transcode WMV (among other things).

 

[Limanima]

I don't know much about media, DLNA and all that you guys are talking about, but I've installed a Media Server on my PC, and I managed to stream any format to my PS3. This includes AVI and WMV. And it is working fine.

 

[Red Herring]

^^ DLNA = roughly speaking is a standard for streaming media to various devices.

The media server you installed transcodes (re-encodes on the fly) unsupported media into a format the PS3 understands. If you were to disable that then you will see a lot of media types will no longer work particularly DivX/XviD in AVI containers. But official support for that type of media is coming soon.


MKV support is pretty thin on the ground though it does seem to be moving with Tvix and Netgear's EVA 8000 series supporting it now but given that the rips of HD movies are placed in MKV containers I doubt Sony will be rushing to implement support for MKV.

I picked a PS3 up and I'm liking it so far but the 2.01 update does not seem to have cured the weirdness with the media servers the Nero one I was using is still unreliable and tried a bunch of others same deal (everything was working fine with the stock 1.9x firmware prior to updating).

 

[Limanima]

Nero didn't work for me either. Sound is fine, but the screen is all green.
I'm using... hum.. can't remember the name... TVErsity I think.
I have the PS3 for 3 weeks now, and I keep finding features on it...
I only found it has wireless network connection and that I can turn it on by pressing the PS button on the controller two weeks after I got it. lol
I found out about this Media Server thing yesterday.
I wonder what else is there to discover?

 

[DJ12]

Has anyone tried using WinAMP as their media server?

In the newest version they have made a big deal out of it (I think the functionality was there before) so they might have made some progress with it.

 

[D3B]

It may be coming soon.

As far as upgrade details go, the PS3 is DivX-certified, meaning not only is playback guaranteed to function properly, but game developers can also use the compression format for in-game cutscenes In comparison, the Xbox 360 merely supports playback of DivX-encoded videos

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3-meets-divx/ps3-divx-update-coming-very-soon-333742.php

 

[J_Saint]

Divx and BD 1.1 in the same update would be a pretty big release fro Sony.

 

[Asher]

I still don't understand the advantage of DivX in-game, compared to H264 or VC-1?

 

[Brad Grenz]

Technically I don't think there is any. Maybe a difference in licensing fees. Or cheaper authoring tools. Divx use to be useful for high quality video when PC games were still shipping on CD. It's not as processor intensive to decode as other MPEG-4 solutions, but again that has little meaning for PS3 games. I suppose it might save you the bother of remastering video between a PC and PS3 release of the same game...

 

[rekator]

I still don't understand the advantage of DivX in-game, compared to H264 or VC-1?

PR announcement…
I don't think Divx HD give a better compression and quality than H.264…
The only advantages I see, are put a Divx-Certified on the Box, and use divx for the PlayTv to record TV (don't know if Divx HD is less intensive than H.264 for a direct recording on a PS3… Have we got some info on this from the Linux Side).