DivX Compatible

It seems that DivX compatible DVD players need activation prior to actually being able to play homebrew, rented or purchaced DivX movies. I found this out by trying to get the player to accept my movie disc. After I got the disc burning solution figured out and went to try it, this strange menu came up. While digging around in the menus I found the activation code I would need to activate the device.

An activation movie needs to be played in the compatible player before it will play the movie I created.

The way to create the activation movie is within the Divx Player on the Tools menu. There is an option to select called Device Manager. After completing that process and burning it to disk I popped it in the player and played the movie by selecting it from the wierd menu.

I guess If I ever read the the manual I might have know this. But really, how often do you think I read DVD player manuals? NOT!

The movie disc though actually has really good quality considering it's burned to a cd-r disc when I played it.

4 responses
very niffty. I always read the manuals. snicker..
I think having a proprietary standard on something like a DVD player is just asking for trouble. DVD players are supposed to follow a common set of standards. When I actually use a DVD player, I don't want to have to worry about whether or not the DVD player will be able to read my disc. It's the kind of crap I expect on computers, not consumer electronics. The HD-DVD versus Blueray thing is another fine example of this crap.
I agree. I fail to see why a device needs to be registered to playback divx on the player that is "suposedely" compatible. It would seem that the manufacturer would have registered the device. Of course, look what the MPEG group did with DVD decoders codec...they are commercial in that you have to have a dvd player installed on your PC in order for Windows Media Player to be able to play DVD's.
In this case all you need is the DivX player and they merely gleam your email address to offer you email letters and setup a support account. So the way they attempt to get thier money is a little backhanded,
I think you got it: it's all about marketing. ;)