*Mission Statement*

I'd like this to be a helpful place for Divx info/discussion for anyone that is using their console as a media center or for media playback at all. I will post what I have learned and hopefully it will spark some interest among us gamers who also enjoy watching movies on our consoles.

1) What is Divx?

DivX is the name of a popular new video compression technology developed by DivX, Inc. The format was developed to enable users to play and create high-quality videos in a fast and convenient way, while still maintaining the best quality possible. The DivX codec is currently the most popular MPEG-4 based codec because of its quality, speed and efficiency as well as the wide range of DVD players that support DivX.

If you compare DivX movies to DVDs they're able to offer the same image quality at one-tenth (1/10) the size, which makes them perfectly suited for movie downloads where the bandwidth available usually is limited. This means that you can easily fit a full movie on a single CD, while still maintaining the original image quality of the DVD. The video is usually combined with AC3 or MP3 audio to provide both high quality audio and video. All of these things have contributed to the popularity of the format among those that download movies and videos online.

2) How do I play Divx files on my console?

Currently there are two consoles that support Divx playback. The Xbox360 and the Playstation 3. In a moment I will go into one method of aquiring Divx movies/videos but for the time being lets pretend that you already have a video and want to put it on your system to view. If you have a CD burner on your PC (its 2008 people... we all SHOULD really) its very simple. Just burn a "data" cd and place the Divx file(s) on it and pop it into your console of choice. It should be noted however that not all Divx movies fall under the 700MB CD limit. So for files that are larger, you may need to consider a different type of data storage like a USB drive or Burnable DVD. Both Consoles offer the option of playing the files right from the operating system.

3) How do I find Divx files in the first place?

There are many ways to aquire a Divx movie and I am only going to cover a few simple options. I do encourage people to post their methods as well.

A) An easy way is to download directly from the web. There are some GOOD sites to do this from, and there are some crappy ones too. Heres some good ones:

Stage6.com
Quicksilverscreen.com
Joox.net
Wizmovies.com

Many of these sites give you the option to watch from the web browser, and most movies are available for download. Once you have downloaded the film you can then transfer it to your console any way you see fit. If you are able to stream videos to your console via a home network that may also save you Hard drive space, but that is a discussion/how to I will not get into right now.

* PS3 users can access these sites directly from their consoles web browser and download them to the hard drive without having to use their PC... however if you want to save hard drive space and burn it to a disk, this option may not be to your liking.

A good piece of advice for getting the better quality videos is to read the user comments next to each video. Many times if it is of poor quality (i.e. videocamera in the theatre/chinatown crappy bootleg) the users will tell you before you waste any time downloading it.

B) Another easy method for obtaining your Divx files is to use a Peer to Peer service like Limewire. Limewire can be less reliable for this purpose due to the fact that you may not be getting what the file name says, and your download speed is directly affected by how many other users have the file. A good tip for using this method is to make sure that the files are at least 600 Megabytes for feature length films if you want a QUALITY viewing experience.
You WILL have to use a PC in order to use this method.

Media Streaming

If Hard Drive space is an issue for you (and lets face it.. it is), you do have options. As I mentioned before you can always burn videos on to a CD, DVD, or put it on a thumb drive. You can also pick up an external USB hard drive and use it as your back up storage. However, if money is an issue and you cant shell out between 80 - 300 ($USD) for this space you might consider using your existing PC for Media Streaming.

Whais Media Streaming?

Media Streaming is a process in which your computer acts as a storage device for your media (music, video, images) and lets you view this data from your console via your existing LAN. Both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 support this feature and there is no quality loss on any media while doing it. This lets you use extra space on your PC to store your Divx files and still watch them on your TV by using your console as a proxy.

How do I set up Media Streaming on my Xbox 360/Playstation 3?

Xbox 360
Windows Media Player 11 will let you share files on a network with another system (console) fairly easily. It is also one of the best options for the Xbox 360. For info on setting it up for this system go to :

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/sy...almedia/pc.htm

Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 will stream with Windows Media Player 11 as well. However some people prefer different software for this purpose. Here is a guide from Sony on how to set it up using various software:

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...hread.id=44882

Here is a demo video using the Xbox 360:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HJeZDVfX3PA

Please feel free to chime in with any questions/comments or suggestions you may have

Tags : DivX : Guide : Media Player : pc : PlayStation 3 : windows : Xbox 360

Comments

By: Dragonfly On: 10:20 Jan 30th, 2008 Offline	I certainly can't offer any unique insight into this, but for someone whose clueless about the matter, this is extremely useful, and it'll likely I'll be using the media aspect of my 360 a lot more after reading this. Thanks for putting this together.

By: Evren On: 10:33 Jan 30th, 2008 Online	Thats great information. I would love to watch my movies on the TV rather than on a piddly monitor. Though...My PC has better sound. =P

By: ManicGamer On: 11:10 Jan 30th, 2008 Offline	Streaming info has been added!

By: Samuel On: 01:49 Jan 31st, 2008 Offline	If you don't have WMP11, you can always share your music folder (by right click > properties > sharing) and a networked xbox should be able to find it easily.

By: ManicGamer On: 03:48 Feb 1st, 2008 Offline	I downloaded and watched Ailen VS Predator 2 Requiem last night and watched it on the ol' PS3.... it was near DVD quality! I'm in LOVE with Divx. I got it from QuickSilverScreen.com

By: Corrine On: 05:09 Feb 2nd, 2008 Offline	I still don't really get it, even though this article was extremely well put-together. Seeing as I haven't used this before, I probably won't. But it's good to know anyway. :lol:

By: Samuel On: 03:14 Feb 15th, 2008 Offline	Meh, it's easy. If you computer has a shared music file (and all of them do), you should be able to access that already. Just move all your music and videos there