Over DIVX-bestanden

DIVX (DivX Video · Videoformaat)

Uitgebracht 1999 Door Jérôme Rota (Project Mayo)

DivX Video (.divx) is een standaard bestandsformaat dat door KaijuConverter wordt ondersteund voor gegevensuitwisseling, archivering en platformonafhankelijke conversie.

Categorie

Video Files

Extensie

.divx

MIME-type

video/x-divx

Bruikbaar als

Invoer

Het verhaal

HOE DIVX
IS ONTSTAAN.

1999

2001

DivX began as a hacker project in 1999. Jérôme Rota — known online as "Gej" — reverse-engineered Microsoft’s MPEG-4 v3 codec and patched the binary so it could encode and decode video inside standard AVI containers instead of the restrictive ASF Microsoft required. The resulting "DivX ;-) 3.11 Alpha" spread virally on hacker sites and became the default codec of the 2000s DVD piracy scene: a 2-hour movie could be ripped to DVD quality in a 700 MB AVI that fit on a CD-R.

Rota and the early community eventually founded DivX Networks and went legitimate, releasing DivX 4 (2001) and later DivX 5 with the legal blessing of patent holders. A competing open-source fork, XviD ("DivX" reversed), kept the scene going with patent-free code. DivX today is a legitimate company selling transcoder products; the codec itself is mostly a historical curiosity, since H.264 and H.265 surpassed it by a wide margin.

WEETJES &
TRIVIA.

DivX 3.11 Alpha (1999) was a patched Microsoft MPEG-4 v3 DLL — the single most consequential piece of video piracy in history.

The smiley in "DivX ;-)" was a nod to the fact that the codec was a hack of Microsoft's work.

XviD (DivX spelled backwards) is the open-source, patent-free fork that kept the same file format but cleaner code.

A 700 MB DivX-encoded AVI could hold a 2-hour movie at VHS-to-DVD quality — the CD-R file size sweet spot for early piracy.

DivX Certified DVD players were a brief but real consumer category in the mid-2000s — they played burned AVIs off discs.

STERKE PUNTEN &
BEPERKINGEN.

Sterke punten

Massively efficient for the early-2000s era — 700 MB for a full movie was revolutionary.
Universal desktop playback via Windows Media Player + DivX codec pack.
Spawned a hardware ecosystem — DivX-certified DVD players.
Open-source fork XviD keeps the format alive.

Beperkingen

Patent-encumbered (MPEG-4 Part 2 patents).
Obsolete — H.264 and HEVC compress 2-3× better.
Quality degrades noticeably on fast-motion scenes.
Tied to the aging AVI container and its 4 GB file size limit.

Typische bestandsgroottes

90-min movie (700 MB DivX target)

~700 MB

45-min TV episode (DivX rip)

350-500 MB

Technische specificaties

MIME type: video/x-divx
Extensions: .avi (container), .divx (branded)
Codec: MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile
Typical container: AVI
Open-source fork: XviD (patent-free)

CONVERTEER VANUIT
DIVX

divx jpg divx png divx webp divx gif divx bmp divx mp4 divx mov divx mkv divx avi divx webm divx flv divx wmv divx mpeg divx 3gp divx mp3 divx wav divx flac divx aac divx m4a divx ogg divx opus divx wma divx ogv divx m4v divx ts divx asf divx dv divx f4v divx h264 divx h265 divx m2v divx mjpeg divx mxf divx rm divx rmvb divx nut divx y4m

CONVERTEER NAAR
DIVX

asf divx dv divx f4v divx h264 divx h265 divx m2v divx mjpeg divx mxf divx rm divx rmvb divx nut divx y4m divx

Veelvoorkomende toepassingen

DVD backup, compressed video sharing, DivX-certified devices