New DivX Hook-Up with Matroska to Provide Enhanced Video Experience

Good news web video fans. Hot off the presses Doom9’s forums, we learn that the upcoming release of DivX (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 its 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 (SNE) a big advantage over Microsoft (MSFT), 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 a while 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 play back your files. If your computer is more than 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 for 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.

Comments

[rassoodock]

Good article. I've been reading your blog for a while and you do a good job of connecting the world of digital video hobbyists to the financial mainstream. Although there are probably few people out there who really understand both :)

This is great news for hobbyists, but the impact on the bottom line is foggy. However, I cannot dismiss it's impact on DivX's overall value as a franchise, since they have built their reputation on enabling hobbyists to record and manipulate video, and transfer it between devices. As a tech geek, I can see the value in this. It will help the company continue to garner support with the purist "hackers" who want an open and hackable solution, but may be willing to accept something that isn't quite "Open Source", but still very multifaceted and caters to a wide variety of technologies.

I'm actually more interested to see if DivX is going to be involved in Sony's upcoming PlayTV to any extent. The two companies have been awfully snuggly lately, with PS3 support and the Sony Pictures deal. Sony has a large variety of DivX certified devices and they could help provide the "glue" to help "connect" them together. Sony's PR (URL pasted below) has talk about interoperability between PSP, TV's, and mobile devices, which DivX could feasibly provide the software for. Also, if Sony Pictures distribution in DivX ever happens, they could seamlessly put their own content on those devices.

However, Sony may be interested in coming up with an in-house solution rather than paying licensing fees to DivX. DivX may not be the solution that Sony had in mind for their PSN download service. Also, Sony could go with Microsoft for software video and upgradeable DRM support, but this would be giving an awful big nod to a competitor.

This brings on the next interesting talking point. I'm surprised there isn't more murmur about a Sony buyout of DivX. DivX's "Connected" DSM-330 device has been better received than Sony's DMX-NV1. Sony could get DivX support on all their products without having to pay license fees, and help them to compete with Microsoft and Apple with DivX's "open" ecosystem.

I suppose this is pretty speculative, but one has to wonder what pieces of DivX's overall strategy still have yet to be revealed. People aren't asking questions about Stage6 anymore, but that doesn't mean that they have been answered. DivX still has gobs of money sitting around, and it's a bit puzzling why an aggressive tech company would be happy to let it sit around and collect interest, rather than invest heavily in RnD. Unless they think they already have the RnD that they need, and they are keeping their money for other purchases, or waiting to get acquired.

metue.com/06-27-2008/s.../

[Davis Freeberg]

Thxs for the comment Rassoodock, I'm glad that you've enjoyed my posts, it's fun for me to track the company. You raise an interesting point re: Sony. I keep listening to Sony interviews in order to get a better sense of their strategy, but still can't figure out whether or not they are planning a DivX video store or if their plans are to try to cut out all middlemen. Seems to me, that they could just as easily make a video store using the VC-1 codec that Blu-Ray uses.

Here is a link to an interesting interview with Sony's CTO discussing their plans. Other than making it painfully obvious that he doesn't understand what the digital revolution is all about, the video raises more questions than answers re: their plans for DivX and Netflix. From his description one would think that he's talking exclusively about a DivX download program, but his protectionist comments lead me to believe that they didn't learn anything from the walkman fiasco.

www.beet.tv/2008/06/so...

Anyway, I found the whole interview discouraging because it reaffirmed that Sony is going to fight tooth and nail to protect their oligarchy on content, but would interested in hearing your own conclusions from watching the video.

[rassoodock]

That is an interesting video. Singer really goes off on a rant and i'm not sure if he's really getting anywhere. He goes off on what a lot of companies are doing, that isn't working, but doesn't present a vision about what will work. However, it does show that Sony is working hard to own a piece of the future and the PS3 shows that they are willing to sacrifice profits for that. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to be right, or that they will ever successfully compete with pirates.

I actually see Sony adopting walled garden approach with their movie store, and limiting interoperability. However, they are also offering their movies for download in DivX format internationally, so that is a promising gesture of open-ness, and maybe that's all DivX is going to get out of them.

Being a large corporation, it seems like Sony will most likely be slow to embrace an open system and will need a lot of coercing from DivX's dealmakers to out some kind of partnership in the near-term. Longer term, DivX will keep on pushing their branded unified video solution with interoperability and DRM to many CE manufacturers, so it should be interesting to see who picks them up.

[ko]

Just little clarification. Matroska started 2002-12-06 (www.matroska.org/news/...) not in February of 2006. By *that* time they had 3 M downloads. By now I suppose it's a bit more...
Also, older computers can well support mkv. As it is a container format and not a payload format it should not produce too much overhead. The problem is that mkv is usually used together with the x264 codec for HD content, which of course will bring down a mid-range processor from say 2 years ago.

As for Sony, don't count on mkv support soon. Maybe indirectly when they will support divx 7. But as you say - that may take a while to come out itself.