Filed under: Software, Video, Deals, Holidays
DivX Pro
Remember earlier this year when we posted about how to nab yourself a copy of DivX Pro? Well thankfully if you missed out first time, our colleagues at Download Squad were nice enough to point out that the DivX folks appear to be running this promotion again just in time for the holiday season. All you need to do is supply DivX with the all-powerful email address (although, that may be the deal-breaker for those wanting to keep their inbox tidy) and they'll send you a serial for 'the DivX codec, the DivX file converter, content upload, video player and web player'.If DivX spurs you to think about what other codecs you could play on your Mac you should check out Perian - 'the swiss-army knife of QuickTime components' that makes a nice, free, companion to your free DivX licence.
[Via Download Squad]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Captn Apollo said 12:24PM on 12-13-2007
Confusion: I have perian? Will this make my DivX files run better on Quicktime, or better in the DivX player or will it do anything better? Or just take up HDD space? I don't know these things.
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Simon Arch said 12:41PM on 12-13-2007
Two things:
I got the pro license the last time they did this, and they have NOT spammed me.
The pro version include a browser plugin which is used for sites like Stage6. As I understand things, it's got a better encoder than Perian (assuming it has one in the first place, and I don't know that it does). But I don't think this has any effect on playback of Divx files in Quicktime.
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Wim Leers said 1:46PM on 12-13-2007
Yes, thankfully they haven't. I can't remember a single message sent by them, so that should be good :)
Pete said 12:49PM on 12-13-2007
Thanks for this. Can anyone suggest a way to encode to XviD on a Mac?
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James said 1:28PM on 12-13-2007
Is there any reason to be using the DivX codec? I know that it's still the format of choice for torrents and stolen stuff but is there any reason to actually still be converting things to this codec? It seems like it's less free and less superior than other options (h.264 in an .mp4 container, for one) so I 'm curious as to why people keep using this (Well, people who do the torrent thing at least because most other people still have no clue what DivX is.)
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gazerbeam said 1:33PM on 12-13-2007
I downloaded and installed the package, used the serial number they sent me, all fine. but when I open the converter and then close it, the splash screen then comes up and when I click on it, the converter finally closes. when I open the player, it freezes with "chunks" of the player window on my desktop. I'm running a blackbook with leopard and 2gb ram.
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Geoff said 4:24PM on 12-13-2007
Agreed. This borks my MacBook. Both the player and the converter crash hard, leaving bits and pieces of themselves floating around. Other people seem to confirm it is "Leopard ready," but maybe it doesn't like Intel integrated graphics or something else specific to MacBooks.
Either way, thanks for the license but it's already uninstalled.
isecore said 1:34PM on 12-13-2007
DivX lost it's relevance years ago. Even the pirates have long since abandoned it. Like James says, there's free/cheaper alternatives that do a better job. If you really want to use DivX then use the open-source Xvid-things instead, it's essentially the same thing. Xvid was originally a fork from just before they closed the source, but has since surpassed DivX in every possible way.
This is just another way for whatever company who owns DivX to desperately try to maintain their existence.
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brandon said 1:35PM on 12-13-2007
is it me, or do they give you the same serial every time you apply for one?
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Tim said 2:06PM on 12-13-2007
Since I download a lot of movie files in a variety of formats, I installed both Perian and DivX. A lot of files DivX chokes on, Perian handles flawlessly.
Perian comes out the champion and DivX has become irrelevant.
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DagMX said 3:00PM on 12-13-2007
to the guys above:
the one reason to use divx is that there are a lot of standalone dvd players and video players that support divx and not the other popular formats
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gazerbeam said 3:33PM on 12-13-2007
on restart, it SEEMS ok but the player still leaves a lot to be desired. I can't fast forward with the keyboard (at least not that I could find). opening the divx website in firefox crashes it within seconds (open fine in safari but is filled with ads). the converter gives presets for things like 1080 and mobile phones, but not for things like streaming and apple tv (not that I own an atv but still). and the converted size for a wmv file is larger than the original, and it contains that darn flip4mac watermark. overall, a very disappointing waste of a morning. I'll be uninstalling this asap.
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JeffDM said 7:13PM on 12-13-2007
I try to avoid DivX, it's been a recipe for trouble, and it's a horrible bastard format. MPEG 4 video, MPEG 1's audio in an obsolete AVI container file.
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gazerbeam said 3:26AM on 12-14-2007
here's what I did to uninstall divx:
1. using appdelete, I got rid of the player and the encoder.
2. using a "smart folder" search, I included system files and spotlight items and searched for divx. it found several files, all over the place. I deleted them all, until all I had left was the serial number email (that I got today) and a few browser history pages.
3. restart
4. empty trash
you can't fully empty the trash without restarting, since some divx files are "live".
good luck.
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Simon Arch said 3:47AM on 12-14-2007
I've been able to delete resistant files (usually the ones which the system says are "in use" when there are no apps running) by choosing "Secure Empty Trash". It takes longer, true, but it kills stubborn files dead.
David Brent said 5:02PM on 12-14-2007
DivX is to be avoided like the plague. I´ve used in both a PC and a Mac and it doesn´t do anything that VLC doesn´t...while using a LOT of RAM
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