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DivX Competes With Microsoft

Techstination feature for Wednesday, June 15, 2005

More competition for Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. It's a battle to determine which compression format is used for movies and other video content…in the new digital world. Microsoft is pushing its Windows Media format….RealNetworks has its technology….and DivX..is out with a new version of its software that includes new digital rights management features. The company's Eric Grab says DivX has won millions of fans on the Internet by being able to squeeze big files down to size while preserving quality…

"Normally video takes up about six or seven gigabytes of space for a typical movie. We can take that down and fit it onto a CD of about 600 or 700 megabytes. So it's a huge amount of compression that enables you to enjoy and move content much easier."

That makes for easier storage of those family vacation and birthday videos on a CD or DVD as well. DivX sells its converter software for about 30 dollars. It can take video from just about any format and convert it to DivX complete with menus and subtitles. The player is free…and is being used on a growing number of consumer electronic devices….

"Primarily DVD players. We have all major brands of DVD players have certified models. We also have portable devices, like little handheld players. We're also moving into mobile phones. Basically, the number as of 2004…20 million players were DivX certified."

Like Windows Media…DivX is capable of high definition video as well. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.