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Convert DivX to MP4

This may come as no surprise, but we at DivX think DivX video is great! DivX video’s high-quality and small file size and can be played back on over 1 billion DivX devices (devices like DivX Certified TVs, in-car players, Blu-ray players and more). DivX playback across screensHowever, some unfortunate souls may not have a DivX Certified device and still want to watch a DivX video on their phone, TV, etc. One easy solution is to convert your DivX video into an MP4 video. 

Good news! It’s simple to create MP4 video with the free DivX Software suite installed. The software includes the DivX Player and DivX Converter for high-quality video playback and converting. Here are the steps to convert DivX video to MP4:  

  1. Install free DivX desktop software
  2. Open DivX Converter
  3. Drag your video file onto DivX Converter
  4. Pick a profile (in this case MP4) and click “Start”

Convert to MP4

There you go – you just converted DivX to MP4 using free DivX software. Now your file will play back on a huge variety of devices including iPhone, iPads and more.

Along with converting DivX video, get additional information on how to convert AVI, MKV, MOV and MPEG video to MP4.

Want more information? Read about DivX Software or visit our Support section to get answers on all things DivX (here’s a direct link to FAQs about DivX Converter). 

Good luck and good converting!

The Birth of the DivX Revolution

Jerome and his alter ego, "Gej"

Jerome Rota didn’t set out to create a digital video revolution—he just wanted to show off his work and maybe attract a few clients along the way. In 1999, Jerome (nicknamed “Gej”) was a young compositing animator and video engineer living in Montpellier, France. Fresh out of school, Jerome was looking to create an online portfolio that would showcase the video and animation work he was doing for various clients.

The state of the Internet in 1999, needless to say, was quite different than it is today. Dial-up was still the primary connection method for most users (broadband was a luxury that wouldn’t roll out to the mainstream for a few years yet) and the idea of high-quality video over the Internet was a novelty, at best. Streaming video, to the extent that it existed, meant grainy, postage-stamp size blips in the corner of the screen. 

But things were starting to change. A group of leading technology companies had collaborated to create a new video compression standard called MPEG-4 that promised to deliver high-visual quality at file sizes small enough to distribute online. Microsoft released an early version of an MPEG-4 compatible video codec (a portmanteau of “coder/decoder” that encodes a data stream or signal for transmission and then decodes it for playback) that looked encouraging, and for the first time high-quality Internet video seemed like a realistic proposition.

Circuit City DIVX
Circuit City’s failed DIVX product

That’s where Jerome came in. He played around with an early MPEG-4 codec while putting together his video portfolio but was dissatisfied with some of the settings and format options. After a few hours of tinkering, he created a version that produced the kind of quality and compression performance he was after. Jerome called the codec “DivX ;-)”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to an early competitor to the DVD format from Circuit City called DIVX that was widely reviled by the online video community for its cumbersome digital rights management restrictions. Not thinking too much about it, he shared his creation with a few fellow video technology buffs online and went about his business.

It wasn’t long before “DivX ;-)” found its way into the wilds of the Internet and was widely adopted in video technology circles for its ability to create highly compressed video files that maintained visual quality at small file sizes. In true viral Internet fashion, millions of people were using the codec to encode and share DVD-quality videos over newly created peer-to-peer networks, and a true cultural phenomenon was born. “This is hard to believe,” Jerome is quoted as saying at the time. “It grew all by itself.” (CNET, 2002).

Young American entrepreneur Jordan Greenhall watched the DivX ;-) phenomenon grow with great interest from across the sea in San Diego, California. An early executive at streaming music pioneer MP3.com, Jordan had turned his interests toward video and thought DivX ;-) might be just the thing to ignite a still nascent industry. After much searching through the untamed IRC channels that made up the online digital video community at the time, Jordan attempted to track down Jerome.  “Nobody knew whether he was real,” Greenhall is quoted as saying (CNET, 2002). Eventually, Jordan managed to get in contact with Jerome and suggested they form a company, create a new codec from the ground up that would build on Jerome’s version, and see where it all went. 

Despite some early reservations, Jerome soon agreed to give it a shot. Before he knew it, he was boarding a plane bound for San Diego, with nothing but a couple of bags and a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. Jordan recruited Project Mayo logothree other budding technology entrepreneurs, and together the five co-founders launched a stealth start-up known as “Project Mayo,” the company that would one day become DivX®, Inc.

It was agreed from the beginning that the team would create a new codec from the ground-up that built on the work Jerome had created. Toward that end, the team went about the work of tracking down and recruiting the best video codec engineers they could find from all around the world. Soon, Jerome and company had assembled an international team of video technologists from multiple countries, including Italy, France, England and Russia, and brought them to San Diego to collaborate on the new project.

Without an office space to call their own, the team rented a house in the Mission Beach area of San Diego. Fueled by burritos and local craft beer, the global crew worked around the clock to create a codec that built on the MPEG-4 standard with innovative, proprietary features that improved compression and performance. The first iteration of a new codec was released as an open-source project by the Project Mayo team in January 2001. Called “OpenDivX”, the codec was a kind of “alpha” version designed for community feedback and testing. After a few beta releases, DivX 4.0, the company’s first official product, was released on August 22, 2001

The new codec was MPEG-4 compliant but featured significant performance and quality improvements. This included new features such as 4x improvement in encoding speed, multi-pass encoding and two different variable bit rate modes, improved visual quality and de-interlacing. DivX 4.0 was an immediate hit with the digital video community thanks to its groundbreaking ability to enable near DVD-quality video over the Internet, which was virtually unheard of at the time. “Our remarkably talented team of codec engineers and video technologists has worked tirelessly to optimize the performance, speed and quality of the codec, and we’re amazed by the result of those efforts,” Greenhall said at the time. (DivX 4 Press Release)

In the first five months it was available online, DivX 4.0 was downloaded over 5 million times, and subsequent versions of the codec would go on to reach over 1 billion downloads (and counting). The codec was licensed to numerous software companies, including CyberLink and Magix, for use in video editing and playback products, used by leading video game companies such as Blizzard for in-game cinematics, and was the foundational technology that enabled the DivX Open Video System, the company’s video-on-demand platform. Future versions of DivX technology were integrated into over 1.5 billion consumer electronics devices, enabling Jerome, Jordan and team to build a massively successful company that would go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange six years after the team first got together. 

Twenty years after the first DivX codec was released, the name DivX is still synonymous with high-quality video. DivX continues to innovate in order to deliver groundbreaking experiences to consumers around the world. 

Old DivX logo      Old DivX logo      DivX Logo

“It was just a good codec,” Jerome said at the beginning of the DivX era in 2001. “I made it for me, for my infographiques.” (Salon, 2001). The rest, as they say, is history.

The First (and Second) Rule of Installing

Not to get all Brad Pitt in Fight Club on you, but … the first rule of DivX Software is there are no viruses in DivX Software. The second rule? THERE ARE NO VIRUSES IN DIVX SOFTWARE. Even though it’s been written here in all-caps, why do some antivirus software programs flag the DivX Software installer? Fight Club PosterThe reality is some users may see a ‘false positive’ for malware from their antivirus software (e.g. McAfee, Symantec) when downloading the free version of DivX Software. Why? This is likely due to third-party offers within the DivX installer. As you’ve probably seen, when you install our software we may offer you an ad for an optional software product — which you can always decline. For what it’s worth, it usually takes a few days after a new version of our software is released to get whitelisted.

So if offering these ads causes issues, why include them? Quite simply, we include offers or ads in our software so we can make it available for free. (If you choose to purchase DivX Pro or Ad-Free, you will no longer see any outside ads in the software or installer.)

As you can imagine, there are costs associated with running DivX. There are employees (including high-priced blog post writers), technology fees and licenses, offices and more. One main way we cover these costs is to include partner offers during installation. Of course, if you aren’t interested in the product offered by our partners, just decline the offer. 

One way to get past this inconvenience is to make sure you’re running the most up-to-date antivirus software, which may fix false positives. Please try updating your antivirus and/or try temporary disabling your antivirus software when running the DivX Software installer. Also, be sure you have downloaded an authentic copy of our software from DivX.com or are updating through our in-product updater. We don’t recommend downloading a copy from any other site.

We know this situation can be frustrating and we’ll keep trying to resolve it as quickly as possible. If you have any troubles installing, check out our Support article. Please keep enjoying the software and, unlike Fight Club, feel free to talk about the first and second rules of installing DivX Software. 

Music Videos in Your Car … and the Return of the Car Mixtape

Unless you were born after 1999, you likely know the joy of a mixtape or mix CD. The enjoyment and effort of curating the perfect mix of 10-12 songs to give to a friend, significant other or keep for yourself was a time-honored tradition. The handwritten list of songs — along with the thoughtful care put in to song order — created the ultimate personal playlist to enjoy in the car, on your walkman or through a boombox. While I know you can make playlists on all the streaming music platforms, it’s definitely not the same as the pure, tactile experience of the mixtape. 

So why so nostalgic about mixtapes? Well, we all know watching videos while driving is a less-than-ideal way to stay alive. And you may know that many cars now have DivX Certified® devices that allow passengers to enjoy video in the car. You also may know that you can go online and download music videos to be played back later. Soooo, this means you can create a sweet “music video mixtape” (or “collection of videos on a disc or USB stick”) to play in your car. You can enjoy the music and your passengers can enjoy the videos. The mixtape (of sorts) is back!

Play music videos in your car

If you’re interested, you can learn more about DivX in-car playback or find out if you have a DivX Certified device. If you need to convert video to ensure it works on a DivX device, just use the free DivX Converter (included in DivX Software) And if you buy a new stereo for your car, and want to revisit the pure joy of creating a killer mix of tunes, don’t forget to look for the DivX logo.

Boombox
Boombox not DivX Certified

Not-So-Scary Halloween Comedy Movie Trivia

It’s the time of year when everyone embraces the dark and frightening themes of Halloween. Every TV show, candy brand and TV commercial features something creepy. For those of us that don’t love scary things, we can’t wait for November 1 to roll around and be done with the frights. For you fellow scaredy-cats  — and everyone else, really — we present Halloween Comedy Movie Trivia. We may have been a little ‘fast and loose’ with the definition of a “Halloween Movie”, but it’s not like we’re calling Die Hard a Christmas movie. (We can debate that another day…)

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Scroll down to find the correct answers (and the movie’s trailer). Grab yourself a cup of coffee and GOOD LUCK!

Coffee with ghost

  1.  Say his name three times and he appears, but it’s not the Candyman … although he was the Batman.

 

  1. Of all the experiences at Disneyland, they made a movie out of this one? Even Eddie Murphy in his prime couldn’t get this movie above a 14% Rotten Tomatoes score.

 

  1. There are many zombie apocalypse movies, but this one is the funniest (and the best use of a cricket bat). He needs to straighten his tie, straighten out his life, and get things straightened up with his ex before … you know … zombies eat his friends and family. 

 

  1. A story of “Fleshies” vs ghosts sounds like it’s going to get gruesome, but this 1995 ‘friendly’ film will still allow you to fall asleep … even if your bed brand name is the same as the title of this movie. 

 

  1. There was another movie about reviving a dead pet that still freaks me out (Pet Sematary, yikes). Fortunately, this tale of reviving Sparky is much more fun. Yes it’s Tim Burton, it’s Halloween-themed and it’s stop-motion animation … but which movie is it? 

 

  1. If you’re going to name your kid after a day of the week, you better make sure she’s as calm, cool and confident as the daughter in this movie. Although they’re creepy and kooky, I always wanted to be in this family. 

 

  1. Apparently all the classic monsters (mummies, Frankenstein’s monsters, vampires, wolfmen/women, etc.) need a place to get away now and then — especially when the resort owner’s daughter is celebrating her 18th (checks notes …) make that 118th birthday! 

 

  1. Inventors creating creepy living creatures is a staple of monster tales (thank you Dr. Frankenstein), but sometimes they die before the project is complete. It could’ve been worse — he could’ve used rocks or paper to finish the job.  

 

  1. Puberty is challenging for everyone … but it’s even more interesting when you start turning into a werewolf. And who knew that werewolves were so good at basketball? (Just realized that a Fox turned into a Wolf in this movie.)

 

  1. If it’s about ghosts, does it kinda make it a “Halloween movie”? Much like the immortal question of “Who let the dogs out?”, this movie posed the powerful question, “Who ya gonna call?”

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No Cheating 

 

 

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1. Beetlejuice (1988)

2. The Haunted Mansion (2003)

3. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

4. Casper (1995)

5. Frankenweenie (2012)

6. Addams Family (1991)

7. Hotel Transylvania (2012)

8. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

9. Teen Wolf (1985)

10. Ghostbusters (1984)

How’d you do? Did you get them all? And, yes, I know some of these aren’t technically “Halloween” movies (Teen Wolf and Ghostbusters … and Beetlejuice and probably Hotel Transylvania), but close enough.

Header photo by cottonbro from Pexels
Coffee photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

How the Original “DivX ;-)” Guides Us Today

Next year, DivX® will celebrate 20 years of creating video technology. While we’re still hard at work on some new and exciting innovations, this looming milestone has us reflecting on our past and the wild ride of nearly two decades in the tech industry. There have been impressive accomplishments (Over 1 billion software downloads! Live 4K streaming! A billion DivX Certified® devices worldwide! Occasional blog posts!) and interesting twists and turns along the way (multiple acquisitions, massive shifts in how we consume media). Even as the industry changed and our role shifted, we’ve always remained true to our original mission: to create a better media future.

The original mission, and the story of how DivX came to be, is an interesting one. Instead of a garage in Silicon Valley, the DivX story began in an apartment in Montpelier, France when Jerome “Gej” Rota created “DivX ;-)”, so he could better share his video creations online. The name was a dig at Circuit City’s DIVX (Digital Video Express) product that sold proprietary DVDs that could only be played on DIVX players and would expire after 48 hours. (Here’s a great TV ad for this failed product.)

 
DivX (the company) was formed soon after, as a collaboration between Rota and Jordan Greenhall, a former MP3.com executive based in San Diego, and three other founders. DivX quickly developed a codec that offered DVD-like visual quality with great compression and became an immediate internet phenomenon.

 

Long story short, after many versions of the DivX codec and adoption around the world, the company they formed continues to be guided by the initial desire to create a better video experience. Through many different products and years of innovation, this same desire drives us to create products today with the optimism and enthusiasm the team felt nearly 20 years ago.

Whether you’re a DivX user from when it was called “DivX ;-)” or downloaded the software for the first time this week, thank you for being a part of this journey and for helping us create a better media future. (And stay tuned … more to come soon!)

Still striving for a better media future…

DivX In-Car Playback: Highway to (Video) Heaven

For years I’ve been trying to get the office to go all in on a DivX Certified® car windshield to play stunning DivX® video while driving. I would get the usual responses like, “Ha, ha, ha, yeah totally … wait, you’re joking, right?”, and “Please stop talking to me about your absurdly dangerous windshield idea.” Ah, co-workers.

While my dream (nightmare?) of 4K windshields is on hold, playing video in your car is not.

DivX In-Car Devices

You may know that over a billion devices supporting DivX video have been shipped worldwide (Blu-ray players, TVs, gaming consoles, etc.), but you might not know that you can enjoy DivX video in your car. Each year, more and more in-car entertainment systems are capable of DivX playback, and supporting other video formats enabled by DivX technology as well. Brands such as Land Rover, Infiniti, Nissan, GM, Volvo, Hyundai and more are offering DivX-enabled features on many of their cars. This means you can bring your favorite videos on the road to entertain you and your passengers.
Say you’re going on a roadtrip with your family or friends and want to keep everyone occupied on the long drive. You can transfer movies to your car through a disc, USB drive or even SD card slot. With the low cost of storage, you can get a 16GB flash drive for less than $5 USD (I picked up a Kingston Digital 16GB for $4). And even 16GB will store tons of DivX video content since DivX video files have been compressed but remain high-quality.  

Finding Videos Online to Play in Your Car

There are many ways to download videos that you enjoy. In addition to peer-sharing, there are sites like Vimeo offering videos that can be downloaded to your computer. Even the kids (the young ones at least) luck out as you can download videos directly from Sesame Street’s site at https://www.sesamestreet.org/videos. Check out their collection of Sesame Street short videos, click on the video and select “Save video as…” to save a copy to your computer.

Playing Music Videos In Your Car

Skip the DJ banter and fast food ads on the radio by curating your own music video playlist. Find music videos online and download them to your computer. Depending on the file format, you can always drag and drop the file onto DivX Converter to convert the video to a format that will work in your car, such as the DivX Home Theater profile. (More on video conversion below.) Put those music video files onto a USB drive and take it to the car. Your passengers can enjoy their favorite videos and you can enjoy the music.

Why Doesn’t My Video Play in the Car?

Soon you’ll have an assortment of videos to keep your rear seat passengers entertained. The only problem is, the videos will likely be in a variety of formats that may not play in your car. For example, some car systems won’t play high definition MP4 files. You’re in luck as that’s where DivX Converter comes in (part of the free DivX Software suite). Simply drag and drop your videos on to DivX Converter, choose the Home Theater profile (many of the in-car systems are certified for standard definition playback) and click “Start”. DivX Converter crunches your video files down to the standard definition Home Theater profile that is compatible with your DivX Certified in-car system.

Once conversion is completed, simply copy the converted videos on to your USB flash drive and plug it into the USB port. That’s it. No need to worry about DVDs that warp in the hot sun or get coated with sticky fingers. The USB drive just plays file after file with no fuss. You can even watch along on the front seat monitor … while you are in park. While driving you’ll only hear the audio (no video) but that’s still pretty handy if you have a collection of music videos or TED lectures.

Registering your device is usually unnecessary

Keep in mind that you only need to register your device with DivX if have purchased DivX content to play. If your content was downloaded from Vimeo, Sesame Street or wherever, you won’t need to register your device to enjoy your videos. Just plug and play!

Now you know how to enjoy videos while you cruise around in your car. If I could just keep you another minute to pitch you on my 4K windshield/screen idea … wait, where are you going?

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New Year: New and Improved DivX

It’s been an eventful year for DivX! We’re excited to round out 2018 with an update to our software (version 10.8.7 is now live) and the launch of a new website.

After DivX® became independent again this year, we had a lot of work to establish ourselves as a standalone company. Fortunately, we’ve wrapped up the behind-the-scenes work and are ready to move forward. The first step is the release of a new version of our free software.

The launch of DivX 10.8.7 brings you a smoother, better operating software suite. Play a variety of video formats up to 4K in DivX Player, cast video from your computer to your TV with the media server within Player, or drag and drop video files onto DivX Converter to convert video to play on your computer, phone, tablet or device. (Check the version history for specifics on what’s new.) You can download the free version and start using DivX 10.8.7 today. Plus, if you want the best possible experience, get DivX Pro® to make the most of your video. Learn more about why it’s worth it to buy DivX Pro.

We’re also happy to announce that we’ve redesigned our website. In addition to a new design, we tried to streamline information to make the site easier to use and more valuable to our visitors. Check it out and see for yourself. You can find out information about DivX Software, learn about the features of DivX Pro, search for DivX Certified® devices or get your Support questions answered. If you have any specific feedback, please let us know.

As we start a new year, we’re excited about what comes next. Thanks for being a part of our history as well as our future.

Happy holidays and happy new year!
-The DivX Team

Halloween Movie Trivia

With Halloween around the corner, we thought we’d test your skills at Halloween movie trivia. Below are ten clues to ten of the top scariest movies of all time. Scroll down for the answers and see how you do. (FYI: The answers are linked to the movie trailer.)

Halloween Movie Trivia

  1. Call me a dull boy, but I’ve never tried Red Rum, and I’m not interested.
  2. The top three things to consider when buying a new home are location, location, location … and ensuring that location is not on an old cemetery. Also, make sure you get a good cable provider. You don’t want your TV to have a bunch of static.
  3. “After school got out we, ya know, worked on our tans, went to some parties and, like, may have killed a guy.”
  4. As if hockey goalies weren’t scary enough, this movie kinda sealed the deal.
  5. At least Brad Pitt didn’t sparkle in the sunlight.
  6. No map, no tissues and clearly no tripod.
  7. For sale: A lovely 2-story tract house in a nice San Diego neighborhood. This house features crown molding, a walk-in closet, and a tortured demon.
  8. Is it a Halloween movie? Is it a Christmas movie? Is it TimBurtontastic? Definitely.
  9. This movie is why I don’t go to motels. Or use a shower curtain. Or shower at all, for that matter.
  10. Sadly, this may be when many people first heard of fava beans. And why we get the chills if we see lotion in a basket.

Answers Below….

No cheating….

  1. The Shining
  2. Poltergeist
  3. I Know What You Did Last Summer
  4. Friday the 13th
  5. Interview with the Vampire
  6. The Blair Witch Project
  7. Paranormal Activity
  8. The Nightmare Before Christmas
  9. Psycho
  10. Silence of the Lambs

How’d you do? Not sure if you should be proud or a bit frightened if you got them all correct.

Happy Halloween!

Converting Vacation Videos

Your summer vacation is over, your sunburn has (mostly) healed and you’ve got tons of video clips of your trip. How can DivX help? First off all, try gently rubbing aloe vera on the sunburn. Secondly, let us help you make your videos more manageable to preserve and share your memories.

Drag and Drop
To convert files, you can simply drag the files you want to convert onto DivX® Converter. Choose which profile you want from the dropdown menu (there are new profiles specifically for PlayStation) and click “Start”. Hopefully it’s as easy as I just made it sound. If not, don’t hesitate to check out our Support articles or contact our Support Team.

Combine Multiple Clips
With the free DivX Converter, you easily combine multiple videos into one, single file. In addition to compressing your video to help you save space (video files can get pretty massive), if the files are from the same source – say your phone or video camera – you can check the box for the cleverly named “Combine all videos into one file”. Drag all the videos of people jumping into the pool to make one pool-jumping-montage video. Read more about combining files.

Custom Settings
Another free feature of DivX Converter is to choose custom settings before you convert your file. You can limit file size, create a custom resolution and more. One feature that may be particularly useful is the ability to rotate or flip a video. If your videos are showing up sideways (likely from your phone), you can correct them by simply checking a box. Additionally, if you have a series of files like this, you can create a preset that rotates your video by selecting the “Save Preset” button. This new profile will show up in your list of profiles and you can easily bulk convert videos to correct their orientation. Read more about custom presets.

Make your memories easy to enjoy. Use DivX tools to convert videos, combine multiple clips and to share them with friends and family. Also, don’t forget to use sunscreen.


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