Divx, (the pay per view DVD sold at Circuit City)

[pstokely]

know anyone who got a Divx player instead of a full DVD player?

[HamstersFromHell]

1. If I recall correctly...

Circuit City issued some form of "trade in" for Divx players and discs in the form of store credit on regular dvd players. They HAD to do something or it would have been class action hell for them after they promised "you'd own it" after you paid for it and they didn't want to maintain that "unlock" database for purchases forever and ever. They lost enough money developing and pushing the format to begin with.

I suspect most folks took advantage of the trade in.

[Touchdown]

2. Actually Divx players would play regular DVDs.

Which actually became the format's downfall. The only difference was some firmware to read the discs, and a phone jack to call in the charging service. Warner Bros. flooded the market with cheap $15 DVDs (that WAS cheap in 1998) when Divx was trying to make a splash, and thus few people bought those $5 watch and pay discs. WB hated the format, and felt that it would cause a format war, and destroy DVD out of the gate.

[regnaD kciN]

3. WB wasn't the only one that hated DIVX...

...I was a member of several home-theater sites, and DIVX was thought about as highly there as * is here. It was assumed (not without justification) that DIVX was a plan to eventually make all movies pay-per-use only -- you wouldn't be able to "own" a film without having to shell out to the studio each and every time you watched it.

When DIVX died (June 18, 1999, if I recall correctly), there was massive celebration among home-theater enthusiasts (some of whom still keep the date as "Freedom from DIVX Day") and one site owner posted a clip of himself singing "Don't Cry For Me, Circuit City"...