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DIVX Fallacies
There are several fallacies regarding DIVX circulating on the Internet. Most of these are not only unfounded but also illogical. Hopefully the truth will dispell these misconceptions.
Civil liberties fallacies
Sevral misconceptions regarding DIVX are based on the claim that is a grave new threat to consumer privacy. Here are the myths and the facts.
Myth) DIVX is a new threat to privacy because the exact time and place a person watches a movie
can be monitored. Also the exact scenes from the movie that the person watched can be monitored.
Fact) This so called "threat" is not new or limited to DIVX. The same information is known every time someone orders a pay-per-view cable movie. Scene viewing cannot be monitored because the individual chapters of the disc do not have their own digital id's, which are required for monitoring. The only thing that can be determined other than the time and place of viewing is which movie was played.
Myth) DIVX enables the monitoring of which standard DVDs and audio CDs a person plays also.
Fact) This is not possible, as only DIVX discs have digital IDs with which to be tracked.
Myth) Circuit City will sell the information it gathers on peoples' viewing habits.
Fact) This will not happen because it is illegal under the National Video Privacy Act.
Anti-DVD fallacies
One of the most serious misconceptions regarding DIVX is that it is a rival to DVD. DIVX is a feature of DVD, not a rival format. No one wants another BETA vs. VHS fiasco.
Myth) DIVX "Gold" discs are competition for DVD. DIVX gold discs perform essentially the same function as standard DVDs but with lower quality and less features for the same price.
Fact) Divx "Gold" discs do not exsist. The initial DIVX press release gave described DIVX "Gold" as a DIVX disc that could be played in any DIVX equipped DVD player an unlimited number of times, regardless of who held the account to the machine used. This made DIVX "Gold" functionally the same as a standard DVD, and therefore people viewed it as competition to DVD. It should be noted that the DIVX "Gold" category was dropped before DIVX ever reached the market. Most of the URLs responsible for circulating anti-DIVX fallacies do not reflect this fact. The only DIVX categories that are actually avaliable, DIVX "rental" and "Silver", have different functions than standard DVD. Therefore DIVX is not competition to DVD.
Myth) In an effort to gain market share, certain movies will only be released on DIVX, making it a rival format to DVD.
Fact) All major movie studios have announced support DVD so this is false.
Technological fallacies
Myth) Because of the extra hardware needed to implement DIVX's registration system, DIVX equipped DVD players will always cost around $100 more than standard DVD players.
Fact) DIVX equipped DVD players sell for the same price as non-DIVX equipped DVD players.
Myth) DIVX equipped DVD players require dedicated permanent phone lines.
Fact) DIVX equipped DVD players work with exsisting phone lines. Each unit comes with the foot phone cable and splitting jack required to connect the unit to the customer's exsisting phone line.
Myth) The copy protection embedded in the sound track of a DIVX movie, known as water marking, causes an audible degradation in sound quality.
Fact) Watermarking is completely inaudible to most normal people.
Myth) DIVX will not offer the special features of DVD such as wide screen aspect ratios or behind the scenes footage.
Fact) There are wide screen DIVX movies such as DEEP IMPACT. The studios have indicated that they would be willing to incorporate other special features into DIVX should the public demand it.
Myth) DIVX offers an inferior picture to standard DVD.
Fact) DVD is capable of a maximum of 600 hundred lines of resolution, compared to DIVX's 480 lines. Remeber, only the more expensive televison sets can display anything resolution past 525 lines. Besides, DIVX is still far superior to the 280 lines avaliable on VHS.
Myth) If DIVX goes out of business, then every DIVX disc will be useless.
Fact) DIVX "Silver" discs will continue to run because the DIVX equipped DVD players has an internal record of the movies that one converts to "Silver" status. As for the "rental" status movies, customers will likely be offered the opportunity to conver those discs to "Silver" status. DIVX would not pass up all that potential revenue.
Stupid anti-DIVX scenarios
Many anti-DIVX URLs give ridiculous scenarios to make DIVX seem like a bad idea.
One such scenario has the baby sitter starting the intial viewing period on all of their client's unwatched discs.
Come on, if you think this could happen then lock up your unviewed DIVX movie collection.
Another scenario has the consumer accidently starting the intial viewing period themselves on their unviewed discs by mistakingly put the wrong movie in the player.
If the disk has not been viewed yet then it probably still has the shrink wrap over its case. This makes an accidental viewing highly difficult.
It is suggested that if junior decides to show his friends just the car wreck scene on your "rental" copy of JURRASIC PARK, then you will be billed for another viewing period.
This is why DIVX has a PARENTAL LOCK OUT FEATURE.
Because the billing agency bills your credit card directly, there is no itemized list of charges, and hence no way to varify that your bill is correct.
You can access an itemized list of charges to your DIVX account through your player's on screen menu. If it makes you feel better, you can even record this list with your VCR.
DIVX requires that you have a phone line connection. Some people do not have phones.
These people live in 12'x12' shacks in Montanna and spend their time writing their manifestos, not watching movies.
