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DivX 6.5 offers Universal Binary player, encoder

DivX has released what Macworld is calling their first official player for Mac OS X (though I could have sworn I've used DivX software in the past in a pinch). In case you aren't familiar: DivX is an independent video codec that has quite a strong following, and it isn't just for computers; many portable devices and even some DVD players support the DivX codec, offering a useful alternative to the sometimes difficult and clunky DVD burning standard.

The company didn't short us on options either - this 6.5 Universal Binary release includes a stand-alone Converter application, as well as DivX 6 codec software for QuickTime so users can convert their video from within any QuickTime-compatible video software. A 15-day free trial of DivX 6.5 is available, at which point you must register for $19.99 to continue using the conversion software; the player, as always, remains free.

DivX has released what Macworld is calling their first official player for Mac OS X (though I could have sworn I've used DivX software in...
 

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Tucker

Marcel, divx/xvid are pretty standard and have been for a while now. The files aren't tagged as ".divx", they're typically presented as .avi and will present a codec error in the absence of the codec. I've never bothered with the crap-ass players that come with codecs, VLC is really the only way to go.

May 30 2006 at 12:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Marcel Bischoff

Plus, the player does crash almost every time I try to launch it. This is useless. Besides, I seriously doubt that the world is ready for yet another video/container format (.divx).

May 29 2006 at 9:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

Alright, the other thing that really bothers me is its automatic checking for updates that you cannot turn off. Blah @ DivX.

May 26 2006 at 4:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

Yeah, the Player and Converter are still PPC. After some digging, I went to /Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS

and did:

lipo -info DivX Decoder

and the output was "Architectures in the fat file: DivX Decoder are: i386 ppc7400"

The same goes for the encoder. So I can only deduce that DivX was too lazy to make their apps universal, but were nice enough to port the Quicktime components. This kind of pisses me off, since I have sworn not to install any PPC programs on my MBP, and this one did it while claiming to be a Universal.

May 26 2006 at 4:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iFelix

"though I could have sworn I've used DivX software in the past in a pinch"

You may have, but in the past there was only a codec, this is the first DivX player for the Mac.

Before now you played the DivX files in Quicktime.

May 26 2006 at 2:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan

Yea, and it KILLS Safari too

May 26 2006 at 12:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jorge Salvador Caffarena

Yep the player is not universal, the only thing that are universal are the codecs not the applications.

May 26 2006 at 11:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
x264

Divx and xvid are history. x264 is the best open source video out there!

May 26 2006 at 11:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben

The X is capitalized in DivX.

May 26 2006 at 10:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

after installing it, the finder says it is still a "powerpc" program. but the release notes say that there is universal binary in the code. what do you guys think?

May 26 2006 at 10:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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