I have a secret to share. Most of my co-workers don’t know this about me, but sometimes you just have to be able to face the man in the mirror. Okay – here goes … I, an employee of DivX for over 10 years, wasn’t using our software to its full potential. To be more specific, until recently I had never tried using the DivX Media Server to watch video on my TV from my computer.
It’s surprisingly easy to cast from your computer to your TV.
So maybe that’s not the type of truth bomb that’s going to make it onto Wikileaks, but it still feels shameful. Co-workers in the kitchen would talk about casting to the TV through the DivX Media Server and I would nervously laugh and nod along, all the while having no idea what they were talking about. When they asked me how I used the media server, I’d pretend my phone was ringing and rush out of the room while attending to “an important call.”
I think I came across more like an I-hear-imaginary-sounds person than a very-important-and-busy person.
Oh the shame.
I had, however, been using the DivX Mobile app. I had been casting video from my phone to the TV for the family to enjoy. Mostly videos and photos I had taken – rather than full shows or movies – and it was fun to watch family hijinks on the big screen instead of huddled around a phone or passing it around for each person to see. Later, when setting up a video for my son to watch on my computer, he wanted to watch it on the TV.
I could sense the stares of disapproval from my co-workers as I stopped dead in my tracks. Wait, I can cast video from my computer to the TV! I simply turned on “Sharing” in the DivX Player, found my device (in this case a Samsung TV), and the video showed up on the TV. Magic!
To my son, I was a technical genius. To my co-workers, I was no longer inept. It’s not much, but I’ll take it. (Want to join me on the esteemed level of “no longer inept”? Here’s a blog post on the topic and a Support article.)
And now, when I’m in the kitchen with co-workers, I don’t have to pretend my phone is ringing … except when the topic shifts to codec algorithms.
Algorithms are hard.
