The war between two digital-video formats -- DVD and Divx -- is escalating into a battle royal on the Net.
Video discussion forums have been flamed to a smoking ruin by bitchfests between Divx proponents and DVD partisans, who believe Divx -- a pay-per-view protocol developed by Digital Video Express, with backing by retail giant Circuit City -- is a rip-off. It threatens widespread adoption of the DVD standard by confusing the market, they claim. Opponents also object that Divx creates an egregious environmental hazard with a flood of throwaway plastic junk.
DVD is the clear popular favorite on the Web, with sites such as Ban Divx and Death to Divx outnumbering sites like ProDivx five to one.
Despite the fact that Divx players will play DVDs, essential differences exist in the business models behind the two formats that are fueling the incendiary online reaction.
DVD discs -- which look like standard CDs, but carry four times the digital information -- are marketed like VHS videocassettes. You can buy a DVD disc outright and view the film encoded on it as many times as you wish, or you can rent the disc from a video store for a modest fee.
While the initial outlay for seeing a movie on a Divx disc is much lower than for DVD, there's a huge catch. You can only view the film for a 48-hour period. After that, you must pay a fee to view it again. Playing periods are clocked by chips in Divx players, which dial up Divx headquarters in the middle of the night to update the status of the Divx discs in your household.
No pay, no play. When you've seen the film on a Divx disc as many times as you're willing to pay for it -- well, the discs make fabulous high-tech coasters for holiday eggnog.
If the notion of the Divx central computer being kept up-to-date on what you're watching leaves a strange taste in your mouth, you're not alone. Certain vociferous posters on alt.video.dvd would have you believe that Divx is the second coming of Big Brother. But your rental record at Blockbuster could be just as exploitable by the enemies of privacy. Divx proponents point to the convenience factor: Divx discs are like digital-quality videos that you never have to schlep back to the store -- without the late fees. And they point to the number of recent film releases that are available exclusively in the Divx format.
Besides, they say, by paying an extra fee, you can convert a limited-play Divx disc to a Divx "Silver" disc that allows unlimited replays.
Even-handed sites like Peter Postma's Divx Myths: A Fair Assessment are rare. Recently, the anti-Divx fervor would seem to have sparked the launch of several sites supporting Divx.
But the content of these fan sites raises a question: Are they authentic amateur sites created by those who love Divx, or marketing ploys by employees of Circuit City and Digital Video Express?
ProDivx presents itself as the creation of a single individual, like any fan site. One link touts a personal perspective, "Divx: My Experience," though there's nothing behind that link yet.
The look and language of ProDivx, however, have a corporate aura.
"Divx is a giant leap forward in home-entertainment concepts," the site gushes. Contests with prizes of free Divx discs are offered. An Internic inquiry reveals that the home office of ProDivx is in Richmond, Virginia -- where Circuit City headquarters is located.
Digital Video Express spokesman Josh Dare denies that ProDivx is orchestrated by someone from his organization or Circuit City.
"Nothing I can find out about that site would indicate that it's a sanctioned site, and they have me sign off on almost everything," said Dare, adding that Digital Video Express has a "strict policy about not participating in Internet banter."
But Dare admitted, "It's an awfully slick-looking site."
When it was pointed out to Dare that -- unlike most labor-of-love sites on the Net -- there is no webmaster's name published on ProDivx, or even a mailto link on another Divx fan site on the Angelfire network, Dare quipped, "I'm wondering if just being a Divx supporter doesn't make people behave that way."
Calls to the ProDivx webmaster were not returned, and several emails produced a single reply, signed by "William," who wrote, "I do a great deal of traveling and have just now had the opportunity to check my mail."
Another elaborate so-called unofficial pro-Divx site, Absolute Divx, located on Geocities, uses language that smells even more like suitspeak flackery than ProDivx.
"In the simplest terms, Divx is a variation rental model for DVD," it advises. When a Divx player makes its late-night call to headquarters, "the appropriate bill is ... charged to a credit card of the consumer's choice. It's really rather simple." Ryan Mannion, the webmaster of Ban Divx, thinks that cooked-up fan sites would be "an outright disgrace to the years of work that the major [film] studios have put in to bring DVD around." He's even more disturbed by the hard-sell approach used by retailers to hype the format.
"It's the lying on the sales floor and on the Web that casts a bad light on Divx," he says.
One Circuit City sales representative who asked to remain anonymous said that Circuit City employees had a storewide quota for Divx sales. Even those who worked in other departments, he said, were pressured to pitch in.
"Every salesperson in the store was expected to sell Divx players. And video salespeople were expected to sell five times more," he said.
Employees were exhorted to sport Divx buttons and steer customers coming in for VHS or DVD players toward Divx machines. "Instead of Circuit City, we turned into Divx City," he recalled.
Another Circuit City sales rep said that the commissions on Divx players were higher than on any other item sold in the store -- 9 to 10 percent, as opposed to the standard cut of 2 to 3 percent.
To date, Circuit City has invested over US$100 million in developing the format.
Even if a thousand Divx sites popped up tomorrow, however, it may be too late to influence popular opinion.
Glen Oliver, the TV columnist for the influential movie lovers' site, Ain't It Cool News, thinks Divx is "an ugly duckling that has no place in the industry. It's time for the powers that be to help out with the overall cause of adopting DVD as the standard."
Film aficionados like Oliver prefer DVD because it offers enhanced features -- like widescreen viewing and additional documentary material -- that Divx doesn't.
In Oliver's view, "Divx is DOA."
