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To: John Rieman who wrote (26547)	12/11/1997 10:34:00 PM
From: Peter V	Respond to of 50808

Divx-the product we love to hate. When Divx starts to roll out next Spring, the street price of Divx discs will be around $4.50, compared with rental of non-Divx discs at a likely $3.50. Lessee .... I rent videos for $2.00 and they cost about the same as DVDs, but somehow DVDs are going to rent for $1.50 more??? I'm guessing that if DVDs inititally rent for more than videos, they will eventually get down to video rental prices, but I'd bet that Divx will remain about $4.50. I don't think that most video renters are willing to shell out DOUBLE the cost of a rental just so they won't have to take the disc back to the store, and then have an ever-growing collection of dormant discs around the house waiting to be "rented" again. They also argue that their business model is more consumer friendly than open DVD - giving the single-view renter a lower priced product - albeit on a higher-priced player. I disagree that the disc is more consumer-friendly, at least not to consumer's pocketbooks, or to those wishing to borrow a friend's disc, or the used disc market that is likely to spring up like the used CD market of today. In short, the Divx proponents are full of crap. They believe that the VCR will be around for the next 30 years and DVD will not slow or replace it. Either they are truly naive, or think we are. When recordable DVD becomes affordable, VCRs will sell like turntables do today. Very slowly. Existing VCRs will continue to operate, but most last only about five years or so, and are hardly worth repairing. If you can transfer your videotapes to longer-lasting and MUCH smaller DVDs, why keep the big old videos around? Once again the Divx proponents are full of crap. Stereo Review had an article on Divx (pronounced "div-ics") this month. Comparing the positive and negative aspects of the format, they had about twice as much text devoted to the negative aspects. I hope we all encourage our friends to kill this format that benefits only the studios and Divx, and NOT the consumer.