Na na na na hey hey hey goodbye... OK, this has nothing to do with Windows per se, but anyone that cares about technology at all will be happy to hear that Circuit City subsidiary Digital Video Express LP has announced the death of the bastardized DVD format known as DIVX, which briefly threatened to divide the DVD world into competing camps. DIVX, which was probably the worst technology idea since the IBM PC Jr., will cause Circuit City to take a one-time $114 million charge this quarter on the way to a $88 million loss. Ah, justice.
The real joke behind DIVX, of course, was that players cost $100 more than comparable DVD players. And for the privilege of owning a DIVX machine, you were given access to "disposable" $5 DVDs that would only play for 48 hours. To view the movie after that, you could call a toll free number and shell out some more money. This sort of on-the-fly rental scheme was an attempt at getting consumers to keep paying for a movie, every time they watched it.
Well, consumers who were hoodwinked by this plan can take solace in Circuit City's $100 rebate for anyone that bought a DIVX player before June 16th. And DIVX DVDs can now be viewed continuously until June 30, 2001 without any extra payment. After that, they're coasters