9:00am, April 24th 2007

DivX Stage 6 BETA

Stage6

I’m not normally a fan of even the word ‘DivX’. It’s like some arogant codec that people have to go on and on about when ranting about which codecs some new techy device supports.
But this next titbit bit of news is a definate plus point on the DivX sheet of things done good.

DivX Stage 6 BETA is essentially another YouTube site, only it promises much more than the smelly old YouTube. Offering hugely superior compression technology than Flash, and the ability to upload videos of up to 1080p resolution, it actually has something special to shout about. It also allows you to download videos, which is never a bad thing.
The only minus point is that you have to install the ‘DivX web player’, which isn’t particuarly great considering the Flash Player penetration for video playback is something like 99%. But at least the plugin installs within the browser, and no need for downloading an .exe file with lots of extra software you don’t need. It’s fairly inoffensive.

After checking a few videos, I’m very impressed with the quality, even at full screen most videos remain clear and crisp. If DivX start talking around to get their web player pre installed in various browser versions, the DivX web player could be a contender for Flash video.
So, yes. DivX Stage 6 BETA ftw.