Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 26th 2009 8:00AM
posted Aug 26th 2009 8:00AM
Expect pricing around $9.99 - $15.99 for catalog / new release flicks, with 600 expected at launch, rising to 1000 movies soon after. The DivX system allows for just a single download, but, you can easily back up copies to disc, hard drive or any other storage and still play them directly on DivX Certified (no on Xbox 360, yes on PlayStation 3) devices. Since the DRM ties the file to your user id, not a particular device, one copy should play on any compatible hardware once it's been registered. That includes PCs, where progressive download support mans you don't have to wait until it finishes to start watching. We'll keep an eye on Film Fresh to see if it takes off, but the good news is if you're interested, unlike other services, there's likely already a device in your living room ready and waiting to play these movies.
DivX and Film Fresh Partner to Offer Digital Downloads of Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Films in the DivX(R) Format
DivX-powered FilmFresh.com first U.S. online store to enable playback of Hollywood titles on DivX Certified(R) consumer electronics devices
SAN DIEGO and LOS ANGELES, Aug 26, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), a digital media company, and Film Fresh Inc. today announced that Film Fresh is the first U.S. download-to-own (DTO) online store to provide major motion picture titles from Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution in the high-quality secure DivX(R) format. With this new service available at www.FilmFresh.com, full-length Hollywood movies can be conveniently downloaded and played on the millions of DivX devices that have shipped into the market, including DVD players, digital TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray disc players, and portable DVD players. Consumers have the freedom to transfer their DivX movies via DVDs, USB drives, SD memory cards, and portable hard drives, or streamed over a home network for playback on other registered DivX Certified devices they own--all on supported products from top consumer electronics brands such as LG, Philips and Toshiba.
Film Fresh is an online film destination offering a one-stop shop for movie lovers of all types and ages at www.FilmFresh.com. In addition to Film Fresh's large catalog of Hollywood movies and films from around the world available on DVD and via download, the site offers daily commentary on new films, and extensive opportunities for audiences to communicate using the latest social networking applications.
Titles available for download at Film Fresh will include the latest weekly Hollywood releases; recent popular films such as Pineapple Express, 17 Again, 3:10 to Yuma, Hancock and Watchmen; arthouse titles like The Lives of Others, Religulous and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; contemporary horror films such as My Bloody Valentine and the Saw franchise; classics like Glengarry Glen Ross, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Reservoir Dogs; popular franchises like Spider-Man, Harry Potter, The Matrix and Batman; plus a variety of films for children, including Stuart Little. The catalog of Film Fresh Hollywood titles in the DivX format is expected to grow quickly as new releases from all four studios become available for digital distribution.
"Film Fresh is now a one-stop shop for film enthusiasts of all kinds, and we are quite excited about our expansion into premium Hollywood content," said Rick Bolton, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Film Fresh. "Our partnership with DivX goes back to the founding of Film Fresh. We have always believed that DivX offers the best download choice for consumers, since it gives people the freedom to own and watch films on a wide variety of electronic devices from many different manufacturers. It's a good fit with Film Fresh's central mission--expanding the audience for film. Download-to-own is going to play a critical role in the future of film distribution, and Film Fresh will provide the films people want to see, in whatever form they want to see them."
"Through our agreements with Film Fresh and the studios, we are able to bring Hollywood movies in the high-quality DivX format to U.S. consumers for the first time," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer of DivX, Inc. "This brings the DivX vision to reality by giving consumers the freedom to download high-quality DivX videos and enjoy them on any DivX Certified device from top manufacturers. With millions of DivX devices shipped, including DVD players, Blu-ray players, mobile phones, digital televisions, and gaming consoles DivX presents a powerful consumer-focused open solution that is ubiquitous and already in many homes."
"Our customers have long enjoyed playing back DivX video on a variety of LG devices from DVD players to Blu-ray devices to high definition TVs," said Tim Alessi, Director of New Product Development at LG Electronics USA, Inc. "Now with Hollywood movies available from Film Fresh in the DivX format, our U.S. consumers will be able to immerse themselves in the high-quality movie experience that DivX and our state-of-the-art products provide as they watch their favorite film classics and new releases from major studios."
"Philips has a long history of bringing the best in cinema quality picture and sound directly into consumers' homes, which is why we are excited to be able to take that one step further with the offering of Hollywood movies in the DivX format from Film Fresh," said Todd Richardson, senior vice president of sales and marketing for P&F, the exclusive manufacturer and distributor for Philips televisions and home theater in the U.S. "Now our customers will be able to take their viewing experience on Philips-branded TVs, Blu-ray and DVD players to the next level with easy to download premium content in the DivX format."
"High-quality DivX video playback is a key feature in many Toshiba products, including DVD players and digital TVs, not to mention our newest portable DVD player," said Jodi Sally, Vice President of Marketing for Toshiba's Digital A/V Group. "We're thrilled that our U.S. customers will be able to download Hollywood movies in the DivX format for playback on our products in the comfort of their homes and even on the go."
Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video creation and playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality users expect from DivX.
I'll stick to The Pirate Bay, thanks.
nearly a decade after Suprnova.org the media industry puts out divx copies.
laaaate.
oh man pirate is so 7337 and cool!
get a job and pay people for the works you enjoy. ass.
We moved to Xvid years ago.
Grammer should'nt that be 1337?
Well, he loves Apple, what did you expect, Grammar Delinquent?
I'm affraid things are not looking good for the pirate bay lately. They have had to relocate their servers several times this past month due to ISP blocking service to them following threats from the gov.
No 5.1 surround. No deal.
"competitor against the likes of iTunes, CinemaNow and Zune."
Ye, with DivX.. Anyone want to talk about how old that is?.. Take a page out of W.D's book and get ahead of the competition, dont just lurk around because you know you will maintain market share regardless..
tl;dr: MKV OR BUST... I have a lot of SD DivX movies but MKV really is a better container.
"MKV really is a better container."
How so? Are we talking differences that matter little to the average person or huge differences that will be night and day? Because as wonderful as open projects like Ogg and Thedora are, they just aren't supported widely enough to be of much use to me on average.
To me, Divx is much like MP3. Sure, most people have moved on, but quite a few devices continue to add and support the aged standard. I still have a fondness for Divx because I can do surround sound via AC3 on my PS3. My receiver is too old to natively support aac.
Divx = codec
MKV = Container
Divx can be in a MKV
MKV container supports the Divx 7 codec
wtf are you talking about? you make no sense
damn those DRM.
I am not gonna buying it.
Lol.
I will still download these movies or watch them in the movies if needed.
What a bunch of fools!
so when people prefer HD content and .264, they want to release some cliche stuff in SD and Divx for the price more than DVD price?
When will the music and video industry learn that what customers want are fast, convinient services? Valve has got the recipe right for games with Steam. Video and music can catch up, but not with lower quality content like this.
Don't you mean "customers with super fast connections"?
no i think he means that i can download a 20gig game from Valve in 30-45 minutes on a standard cable connection. That Valve gives you full content (not half ass compressed to hell, low bit rate crap like the apple (and every other digital) movie store has).
We have Terabyte HDs, let me download full bitrate Blu-Ray quality and ill consider digital download of movies.
Great so can damn MP3 players finally support this? If ever there were a format perfectly suited for them, this is it, and yet I have to re-compress an already compressed movie, using a third-party tool, into a format no better than DivX just to watch them on my iPod/Zune/Walkman/whatever.
@adrian DivX has nothing to do with 5.1. The press release says nothing about it not being supported -- and yes there's plenty of DivX movies with DD 5.1.
I'd go for this if they were to do this for those "on demand" titles for new movies. It's a harder sale for ones already available on DVD (and other formats...)
Only Apple sells devices capable of playing iTunes protected content. Nothing "fair" about that.
I'm still no fan of DRM, however, one of my primary concerns is that I don't want to be limited in the devices I can play back the content. With the proliferation of DivX capable devices from multiple manufacturers this may be a reasonable compromise.
DiVX
5.38
-0.03 (-0.55%)
...sigh
If Hollywood thinks the average Joe is going to go through the process of registering their DVD player or any other device to play a downloaded movie on their TV, they are dumber than we thought. The whole process is much too complicated for the average person.
Burn a disc, pop it in the DVD player, press play, now that might work. Geesh The whole registration process is archaic and cumbersome.
Sorry, I moved away from divx as soon as I got a DVD burner. I'll be moving onto Blu-Ray once blu-ray media is down to acceptable levels.
As always from the content industry, too little too late.
Not interested in this at all.
I like how DivX has come full circle now. The name started out as DIVX, the DVD replacement, became "DivX ;-)" the hacked MS codec, then became the DivX we know today. And now they're back to selling movies...
xvid
So question, this looks to be DRM free... is it? Hell if it's DRM free sign me up, I'll pay for that. Basically I pay for it and I can download a vid file that's mine to keep, copy however I want and play on any device that can play movie files?
Oh.. and if it IS DRM free, the first poster is a complete tool.
It's not DRM free. Not exactly sure what "secure DivX(R) format" means but I can almost guarantee thats synonymous with "you sign away every single one of your rights."
I also laughed a little bit with the "we are using cutting edge technology by releasing movies in DivX" attitude when the entire scene stopped using DivX and went to Xvid years ago. I don't think there is anybody who bought their "DivX Certified device" for actual DivX playback, they all do it because it plays Xvid. All that said, it is good to see the industry making baby-steps in the right direction. Now they just need to keep going. This announcement is still a LONG way from any real solution with a viable alternative to piracy.
We can bicker over which format is better or whose looks the best, but that doesn't matter as much as what this means to the regular consumer. Basically you can now back up your digital movies to DVD or other hard drives and consumers can play them on equipment that is found in a lot of homes.
For someone who isn't willing to engage in civil disobedience to get digital movies, they've really had very limited options when it comes to being able to burn them and play them on a DVD player. Not everybody has a PS3, but a lot of people have cheap DivX supported players to watch movies on. In the past, you had to have special (expensive) drives and discs or some kind of a direct connection at your television, but now people who want to pay, are able to buy movies off the net and transfer them to their TV without having to have the latest studio supported equipment.
It's hard to say how big this market is, but Apple's done a good job of creating demand and more and more less tech savvy people are continuing to discover online video. Apple may still be treating their TV Dongle as a hobby, but DivX is already in 40% of the players sold in the US. That's a lot more potential eyeballs to go after. Film Fresh scored a coup by being the 1st and no doubt the extra publicity should help them now. The longer that other movie rental services hold out, the better their head start.
Really? This would be news maybe like 5 years ago. Today, H.264 is much more efficient and better quality. Most portable player would support H.264, while support for divx (usually either in AVI or .divx) are dwindling out.
Yes. It would be much more relevant if it was in H.264. DivX is old hat now.
Seriously industry people,
What exactly do you not understand about the fact the the pirate product is a better product because it's not downrez'd?
I think this relationship you you have with DIVX is great, but it's useless until the quality is near the same or even better than the pirated product. Otherwise, what is the "draw" to your product? Don't say its "because our product is legal" because that is not really a selling point since the pirated product is free and the MPAA has not started policing the downloading yet. They seem to only want to go after those seeding or uploading of their product thereby infringing on the IP.
Please help me understand why anyone would want an inferior product for pay when the superior pirate product is free?
Why would I pay $16 to own a DivX file? I'd rather pay them $1 for a 24 hour rental DivX file.
I'm perfectly happy with RedBox rentals and Netflix rental discs and streaming. My $18 a month to Netflix provides me waaaaay more entertainment than buying any *one* movie for the same price.
I'd rather pay $1 every time I wanted to watch a movie... than pay $16 for a DivX file and hope I watch it 16 times in my lifetime.
I'm not ready to own a "digital shelf" of movies.