They don't offer all the features of DVD, and they expire 48 hours after they're first used - although customers can pay more money for extra viewings or permanent ownership.įoes of Divx contend that it represents a step toward Big Brother, because Digital Video Express can tell what movies each customer watched, and when.

It offers crisper picture and better sound, plus features such as freeze frames and instant rewind.ĭivx discs look just like DVDs (and compact discs), but they only work in special Divx players. households, with the number expected to grow to 1 million by the end of the year.ĭVD, which stands for digital video disc or digital versatile disc, eclipses video cassettes in movie quality.

It comes at the very moment the long-awaited DVD revolution appears poised to catch on. 'How would you feel if every time you pop a disc in your compact disc player, you had to pay for it?' asks John Giberson, 47, a real estate agent from Flower Mound, Texas, who runs 'How long before, when Divx gains popularity, you're going to have pay-per-listen CDs, and pay-per-use CD-ROMs, and pay-per-everything?'ĭivx is a DVD variant that hit the marketplace as an experiment in the Bay Area and Richmond, Va., in June, and is rolling out nationally next month. But the downside is a move to metered entertainment. The controversy centers on Divx's pay-per-view scheme, in which consumers rent video titles that 'self-destruct' in two days via digital scrambling.ĭigital Video Express, the Circuit City-backed company that rents and sells Divx titles, touts this as a big selling point because it eliminates the hassle of returning movies to the video store.

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