Announcing DivX Fusion and the DivX Media Format

[DigitAl56K]

Today we are releasing through the DivX Labs website exciting new DivX technologies and products including:

• DivX Media Format sample files
• DivX Fusion Player
• DivX Fusion Codec update
• DivX Fusion SDK

The DivX Media Format is the beginning of a new era of DivX video. Visit DivX Labs today for access to demo content and creation tools.

[tdwest]

Wow great news thanks for the heads up!

[LordRPI]

No problem, and thankfully I just got my connection back at my apartment!

[fewtch]

Sorry for coming in so late, but will the Pro Fusion codec co-exist with DivX v5.2.1? It would be interesting to try it on Win2k (given it's only been tested on XP according to the site).

[nicco]

Cool,
but...

To play these sample files and access the DivX Media Format features you will first need to install the DivX Fusion Player.

frustrating...


I hate this kind of uncompatibility "you will have amazing features, but you will use only my softwares" (it sounds like Micro$oft)

I wish you are planning to make this new cool features to be available also with other players!

Another question:
.MP4 format supports multiple audio track and menues too, why did you create another container?

[DAvenger]

Originally posted by nicco
I hate this kind of uncompatibility "you will have amazing features, but you will use only my softwares" (it sounds like Micro$oft)

I wish you are planning to make this new cool features to be available also with other players!

Don't worry. More players will support these amazing features really soon. We are already working on DivX 6 support in RadLight Right now it just crashes the player

[bond]

the facts (and opinions ):

- they use the .divx extension (indeed, the easiest way to exclude competing formats also based on .avi!)
- .divx files are .avi files (try renaming)
- video is mpeg-4 asp (as already produced by divx5)
- all audio is mp3 (1 vbr, two cbr)
- the audio is stored as normal audio streams in the .avi (all in all 3 in lastmanstanding), what about menu audio?
- the menu video is hidden somewhere (of course: .avi has problems storing multiple video streams "the normal way")
- for the subtitles dxn doesnt seem to use the way alexnoe used in avi-mux gui to store subs but an own one (they even created an own sub format, as if we dont have enough of them already...), this means that these subtitles will not be playable in any player except divx' own one
- if the files are currently tagged than dxn has invented a new .avi tagging format not compatible to standard avi tags (as setable in virtualdubmod), which millions of files use already...
- the divxplayer is not dshow based (menus and subtitles will only work in the divxplayer)

dxn you could have done this far more userfriendly...

[stephanV]

Originally posted by bond
the facts (and opinions ):

- they use the .divx extension (indeed, the easiest way to exclude competing formats also based on .avi!)
- .divx files are .avi files (try renaming)

again, it are not AVI files, in the same way OGM files arent Ogg either. A different extension is surely not a bad thing.

[DAvenger]

Originally posted by bond
- the divxplayer is not dshow based (menus and subtitles will only work in the divxplayer)

Uhm, no that's not entirely correct. I have yet to see the actual implementation of subtitles and menus but we've been told DXN guys are working on a set of interfaces that will allow us to easily implement support for these new features in our player.

[bond]

Originally posted by DAvenger
Uhm, no that's not entirely correct. I have yet to see the actual implementation of subtitles and menus but we've been told DXN guys are working on a set of interfaces that will allow us to easily implement support for these new features in our player.

well the divxplayer doesnt install a new avi splitter or any other dshow filter that looks like being able to handle the menus, subs aso...
i think its currently done internally by the divxplayer

btw these .divx files play fine with the default windows .avi splitter in graphedit (of course without subs and menus)

[Geza Anda]

any chance the existing divx certified players will be updated to play all the new stuff (subtitles, second audio stream) ?

[bond]

Originally posted by Geza Anda
any chance the existing divx certified players will be updated to play all the new stuff (subtitles, second audio stream) ?

- if your player already handles multiple audio streams in .avi (has been possible for years to create such stream. dxn now presents it as something new...) than it will handle these too (as its exactly the same)
- dxn wrote that most divx certified players already support these subtitles (actually subtitles in avi have been possible for some time too already in .avi, but dxn chose to use another way not compliant to the existing method and not compliant to the default windows dshow avi splitter)

[SeeMoreDigital]

LOL,

VLC can't play the LastManStanding file at all, even when renamed to .AVI

ShowTime player displays the video element perfectly, but plays "all three" audio tracks, at the same time. And can't read the subs!

MediaPlayer Classic displays the video element perfectly, can select between "all three" audio tracks. But can't read the subs (if it has subs)!

Windows Media Player 9/10... well enough said

AVI-mux was able to extract the audio streams but not re-mux just the video stream.

mp4UI could import the entire file, but (of course) b0rks the audio. Meaning each track has to be imported separately.


That's about it... so far......but my brain is not working right at the moment.

EDIT: DivX Player 2.6 does not play the audio element of the file properly and can't select between tracks


Cheers

[stephanV]

like i said these are not ordinary AVI files...

they only play fine in the DivX fusion beta player

[Darrius "Junto" Thompson]

Originally posted by stephanV
like i said these are not ordinary AVI files...

they only play fine in the DivX fusion beta player

Blah, lets' clear this up. The DivX Media Format files *will* be able to be played back in other players including windows media player and any other player that wants to support it. Yes right now it only plays back in our player *well*. That's why it's a beta! If you installed the *latest* fusion codec and then drag one of these files on WMP you'll see that a little systray tool will show up. If you look at this tool you'll see that there are menu items ready for the new features once we're finished with the plugin. We designed DMF with the goal of being able to playback the features in other players thus the SDK. So *yes* we intended and intend for these files to be playable in other players. Just because you don't see it this very second doesn't mean it isn't going to happen shortly. Check out the systray tool in WMP and you'll see this was our intention all along. We're all advocates of making sure we can playback files in whatever our player of choice is. I for one use WMP and VLC.

Darrius

[stephanV]

of course, it will be more widely supported, i will not argue what that. im actually hoping for it.

that doesnt make it AVI though

im all for the divx extension, its much clearer.

[Darrius "Junto" Thompson]

Originally posted by stephanV
of course, it will be more widely supported, i will not argue what that. im actually hoping for it.

that doesnt make it AVI though

im all for the divx extension, its much clearer.

Yeah you're right from a techical perspecitve you can call it an extended RIFF. We did it this way because it makes support of the format much simpler since everyone is very familiar with it inlcuding the hardware manufacturers who have extremely tight hardware and cost constraints. Additionally this also makes software support very easy. The great thing is that since they already supported .avi it was very easy to extend support to .divx and support the new features. As someone already mentioned support of subs, and multiple audio tracks is already in place on devices that are being sold today. I completely agree calling it .divx is much clearer. I like knowing that it means that the file is likely to contain the new media features.

D

[bond]

well calling the files .avi would have done it too and wouldnt have created incompatiblities (caused by the different extension) with existing avi tools

also what about people wanting to use xvid (or any other mpeg-4 codec) as video codec in that files, should they use the .divx extension...

[Sharktooth]

I'm for the .divx too.
There's already too much confusion in the container "world".
.divx could be similar to .avi (well it's an extention) but at least you know what you need to play it back...

[bond]

an additional extension will not help reducing the confusion

actually it will not take long till people start editing these files in virtualdub ("how can i cut..."), changing the different streams, aso...
after all its still 100% normal .avi with an extra menu and subs stored in the riff tree

bingo