Chicago (IL) – DivX has released a preview of its upcoming v7.0 video playback software, which now includes support for high definition H.264 files, with an extension for most Windows media players, and the surround sound AAC audio format.   

DivX is gearing up for a major release of its media player software and the new 7.0 Beta 1, released earlier today, provides a first glimpse what the software will be capable of.

As a key feature, the new DivX Player 7.0 Beta 1 supports H.264 high-definition video data wrapped into MKV files. H.264 is generally considered as important video compression standard that delivers a much better video quality, but requires much more CPU and GPU horsepower than previous formats. DivX previously released three beta versions of the H.264 decoder as part of its “Remoulade” project, but the DivX Player 7.0 Beta 1 is the first DivX player that actually contains this capability.

DivX said that the Beta software also includes the DivX H.264 Decoder filter and the DivX MKV Demux filter, which are DirectShow filters that extend playback support for MKV files with H.264 video streams to all other DirectShow-based media players.

In August of this year, DivX released a first alpha version of its H.264 encoder.   

Another noteworthy feature is the integration of AAC audio. A format that comes with support for multichannel audio and studio-quality sample rates, which promise movie theater-like surround sound. While DivX said that it used MP3 as the standard audio format in all previous DivX media player versions, it said that AAC audio has “fewer audible artifacts than MP3 at very low bitrates and requires less bitrate to achieve transparency.”  

The DivX Player 7.0 Beta 1 can be downloaded here (registration required).

Who uses Divx anymore when there is VLC?

Nov 07, 2008 23:13     

VLC had H.264 decoder a long time ago. Divx is just bloat wear now and it crashes all the time. VLC will play any format, it does not crash and it's free. I stopped using Divx two years ago and it wouldn't work with Vista. It's just a little too late Divx.
AJ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Wow

Nov 08, 2008 07:13     

Too late Divx, you guys suck...
Ish report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

*sigh*

Nov 08, 2008 10:01     

Ever hear of K-lite? How about VLC? Why would anybody use Divx now of days?
shinobi904 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

VLC is good...

Nov 08, 2008 10:59     

but it has its drawbacks. try CCCP, CoreAVC or K-lite first.
CvP report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

CoreAVC

Nov 09, 2008 09:35     

CoreAVC, IMO, is the premiere decoder for h.264. I find it does the most efficient (less CPU-usage) job of all of them. DivX is seriously behind the times. This evident by them proclaiming AAC as superior to mp3......congrats DivX, you are just discovering something other companies have been using for a long while now.
Silchas Ruin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

divx is old

Nov 09, 2008 12:00     

that h264 codec. i needed it 2 years ago when i was watching naruto and bleach on veoh. vlc had it then, and the k-lite media pack even had it. goodbye divx. we have moved on.
jonas report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Cool! That only took 3 years too long.

Nov 09, 2008 15:07     

Gotta love that. h.264 has been standard for 5 years. Now if DivX was smart enough to add a DVD to mp4 converter that was good enough to keep menu's, subtitles, etc (all the DVD features)... and I could play them back in a mp4 file with a couple different players.. I'd buy a copy.. heck I'd buy 10 copies. "H.264 is a standard for video compression, and is equivalent to MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). As of 2008, it is the latest block-oriented motion-compensation-based codec standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and it was the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are jointly maintained so that they have identical technical content. The final drafting work on the first version of the standard was completed in May 2003"

mvrx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Re: mp3 better than AAC (@Silchas Ruin)

Nov 09, 2008 15:14     

Umm.. AAC is better than mp3. In every way. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...s_over_MP3 "Overall, the AAC format allows developers more flexibility to design codecs than MP3 does, and corrects many of the unfortunate design choices made in the original MPEG-1 audio specification. This increased flexibility often leads to more concurrent encoding strategies and, as a result, to more efficient compression. However in terms of whether AAC is better than MP3, the advantages of AAC are not entirely decisive, and the MP3 specification, although antiquated, has proven surprisingly robust in spite of considerable flaws. AAC and HE-AAC are universally accepted as better than MP3 at low bit rates (typically less than 128 kilobits per second). This is especially true at very low bit rates where the superior stereo coding, pure MDCT, and more optimal transform window sizes leave MP3 unable to compete. However, as bit rate increases, the efficiency of an audio format becomes less important relative to the efficiency of the encoder's implementation, and the intrinsic advantage AAC holds over MP3 no longer dominates audio quality."

mvrx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

A supplied link to Hell

Nov 10, 2008 13:29     

It is of my opinion that to try a Divx Beta is asking for trouble. Their release versions have always been more trouble that they are worth from my experiences.
Quasar report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

master

Feb 23, 2009 12:54     

none
jose soto report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0