Hot Donkey! DivX To Support The Matroska Video Format
June 26th, 2008 Davis
Good news web video fans. Hot off the presses Doom9’s forums, we learn that the upcoming release of DivX 7 is going to support the Matroska video format! Now I know that many of you are probably asking yourself Matroskwho?, but believe me when I tell you that this is a big deal for both DivX and Matroska fans.
A DivX / Matroska hook up will not only give web video creators even more options over how they want to present their content, but it will also ensure that consumers are able to take advantage of these advanced features with their favorite consumer electronic products. In the past, Matroska fans have had to go through a painful and complicated process in order to get their MKV files to play nice with their DivX hardware devices, but with the 7.0 release, it should be as easy as hitting play on DivX 7.0 gadgets.
So What Exactly Is Matroska?
Matroska is an open standards project that is aiming to replace existing media formats like AVI, ASF, MOV, RM, MP4, and MPG. The project had their official launch in February of 2006 and while it may not be the most well known video container, they’ve still been able to rack up over 3 million downloads since that time. While you can find many different genres utilizing the Matroska format, it’s seen it’s strongest support from the Anime community, which tends to be one of the earliest adopters for web video advancements.
In the past, Matroska’s popularity has been limited because there are very few devices that allow you to watch the MKV files outside of your computer, but the 7.0 rollout should give the format a huge boost. According to the Doom9 post announcing Matroska support, it doesn’t sound like older DivX DVD players will be able to support the .MKV format, but I bet it won’t take long before the PS3 updates their firmware to offer support. This would give Sony a big advantage over Microsoft, among the millions of fans who are passionate about the file format.
At first glance, it’s easy to mistake Matroska as a competing video format to DivX, but in reality it’s a different animal entirely. DivX is a file compression format that helps to reduce the size of your video files with minimal impact on quality, whereas Matroska is a container that can hold many different video compression schemes. To use an analogy from the DVD world, DivX would be the actual videos that you see when you watch your DVDs whereas, Matroska would be like a blank DVD. In and of itself, a blank disc doesn’t contain any data, but by inserting DivX or H.264 into the Matroska container, it allows you to enjoy a more interactive video experience.
In his post announcing Matroska support, DivX team member DigitAl56K discussed the balance that DivX has tried to maintain between supporting high end features and also keeping it inexpensive for CE partners to be able to decode the video files.
“It’s important to remember that what brought compatibility across many devices for DivX 5 and 6 was balancing certain bitstream properties so that we allowed for efficient coding with a standard that many devices could work to adhere to. Nothing prevents manufacturers from going above and beyond if they choose to - it happens today. What is important is that there is some known baseline that is consistently implemented and thoroughly tested so that you know if you adhere to it during content creation your file is going to play reliably on any certified device.
If you think back seven or eight years DivX was really the first company to try to find a standard that was designed around bridging the gap between high quality video on the Internet and the general consumer in the CE space. To do this we had to constrain certain properties of the encoder and there was a lot of pushback from many people who wanted an unconstrained MPEG-4 ASP format. I think that now there is a clear precedent that shows what can be achieved if we can find a good compromise.”
What About .AVI?
In the past, DivX has supported the .AVI container for their files, but .AVI does have some limitations. Most notably, it doesn’t support high def content encoded in the H.264 format. Perhaps even more importantly, .AVI doesn’t allow you to insert non-video data into the container.
Matroska on the other hand, not only supports H.264, but it also allows you to include data files with your videos. This means that you can create a video file that includes options like DVD menus, closed captioning data and subtitles for global audiences. It also allows you to include multiple video files into a single download. This would allow a content creator to take one of their popular videos and bundle less well known content along with it. Whether it’s including things like Director commentary and bonus scenes with a download or having the ability to attach an upcoming pilot episode to a more popular season finale download, there are many different ways that content creators can leverage this technology in order to create a more compelling video experience for their fans.
What Are The Drawbacks to Matroska?
Before you start ditching .AVI for .MKV there are a few things that you should consider. So far, we don’t really know when DivX 7.0 will be released, so it may be awhile before you can actually play your Matroska files on your TV. FWIW, I did notice that DivX recently started hosting Stage7.DivX.com on their servers, but the web extension currently redirects back to their main site.
Another limitation of the Matroska file is that you need to have a decent computer, in order to be able to playback your files. If your computer is more three years old, you are probably better off sticking with the .AVI format to ensure a smooth experience.
Whether or not you use the Matroska format, DivX’s decision to support the container will have big implications on the future of video downloads. By working with CE manufacturers to ensure that their processors are powerful enough to decode the format, DivX is paving the way to bring new interactive services to the video download market.
Posted in Technology, DivX, Media, TV, VOD, Microsoft | 3 Comments »
50 Ways To Leave Your TV Provider
June 24th, 2008 Davis
My 2 Dollars has a post up where he lists 35 different ways you can ditch cable and satellite, but still get free TV. Since his list has already grown to 41, it inspired me break out the old Karaoke machine and record a tribute to internet TV. I’m not ready to quit my day job for a professional Karaoke career, but hope you enjoy it anyway. My apologies ahead of time to both Mr. Simon and my readers. This song is dedicated to Comcast for all of their years of craptacular service.
50 Ways To Leave Your Television Provider
The problem has to do with your TiVo she said to me
Fiber’s not the answer if you take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your TV provider
She said it’s really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself At the risk of being rude
There must be fifty ways to leave your TV provider
Fifty ways to leave your TV provider
Use wifi to hack, Jack
Set up a LAN, Stan
You don’t need to comprehend, friend
To set your TV free
Just hop on the web, Deb
don’t need to download much
Just drop in the streams, meme
and get your TV for free
Use Joost to Roost Bruce
make for Beeline Seign
for all your free TV needs
Don’t know what to watch, Gus
no reason to fuss much
Just watch DemocracyTV with Me
She said it grieves me so
To see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do
To speed your downloads again
I said I appreciate that
But would you please explain
About the fifty ways
She said why don’t we both
Just sleep on it for a fortnight
And I believe that in the future
You’ll begin to see the HD light
And then she comped me for a free month
And I realized she was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your TV provider
Fifty ways to leave your TV provider
Posted in Music, VOD | No Comments »