Sony Pictures Television to bring downloadable shows via DivX

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 11th 2008 at 2:15PM }

Sony Pictures Television has just announced a deal to release "secure" and "high quality" downloads in DivX format for all DivX certified machines. The PS3 is the only gaming console to be DivX certified (Xbox 360 is not DivX certified).

"This milestone agreement lays the foundation for Sony to offer high quality video content in the DivX format to its retail partners for playback on next-generation DivX Certified devices," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. "Consumers want the flexibility and choice to enjoy high-quality video content from a range of retailers across a variety of devices. We are very pleased Sony Pictures Television recognizes the value of the DivX digital media solution and look forward to working together to offer a great experience to consumers."

Some shows that could possibly make the jump include Blood +, The Boondocks, Damages, Days of our Lives, Rescue Me, The Shield, and more. For a complete listing of SPT's offerings, click here.

[Via Engadget HD]

Tags: divx, sony-pictures

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mark Perkins @ Jan 13th 2008 10:18AM

Days of our lives?! Bleh!

Nate @ Jan 11th 2008 2:26PM

Wow... looking at their list of TV shows. There's not a single one I watch. Not that they're all bad, just none of them are good enough to warrant time better spent doing other things.

Tim Parsons @ Jan 11th 2008 3:42PM

same here but the only shows I currently watch anyway are Smallville and StarGate:Atlantis,. Mind you i watch em on my PS3 anyway,.but why pay for shows that you already pay for on your cable/satellite bill? In my case I usually end up missing the show and then Downloading it free in HD that night or within a cpl days from http://www.xtvi.com/

this is just a deal to add SONY shows,. to an already exsisting service that the PS3 doens't ,. YET support

see http://www.stage6.com/PS3

Ed @ Jan 11th 2008 3:55PM

Same here. Nearly everything I watch is on NBC or an NBC-owned network. However, it looks worth a try, at least.

eclipse27 @ Jan 11th 2008 2:32PM

Awesome!!!!

Imbro @ Jan 11th 2008 2:38PM

What??!? I don't get it. Why go with an inferior codec? h264 (or mpeg4 avc) is the way to go.

Popfrogs @ Jan 11th 2008 6:04PM

Why? Uh, maybe to prevent you from waiting 2 days to download a full-length movie. The DVDs I recode to Divx land in the 700MB range and are acceptable quality.

Imbro @ Jan 12th 2008 4:43AM

Actually h264 ain't that slow to encode. I mean for most people it's slower, but x264 is doing a much better to utilize multiple core than any divx encoder (even xvid). On a dual core or less, divx wins, but quad core and up, it's pretty much equal. Then again sony probobaly have hardware encoders or cell clusters doing the encoding part.

Aside from this, there is a lot of momentum behind h264 these days. Just about every new media device has a h264 decoder installed.

Matt B @ Jan 11th 2008 2:47PM

Bring on the movies too!

drdre74 @ Jan 11th 2008 3:06PM

I don't understand this. If Sony owns all these shows why the hell aren't they on the PSN like the 360 marketplace? This is stupid. Seinfeld alone would sell and the Boondocks. Sony sucks when it comes to doing stuff. I know they've been talking about putting movies and TV shows up forever now and I doubt we'll see anything year. But dang they own all this content and none of it on PSN.

M @ Jan 11th 2008 3:29PM

i wish they included the divx web player too

Organic_Shadow @ Jan 11th 2008 3:30PM

Wow. If Sony keeps this exclusive to PS3 and doesn't put it on XBL they could grab a lot of..... homie gee's.... attention with The Boondocks. I live in Houston and I think im the only person in the entire city that doesn't like that show.

Tim Parsons @ Jan 11th 2008 4:01PM

this is just a deal adding sony movies to an already exsisting DivX service, see http://www.stage6.com/PS3 ,. or just www.stage6.com ,. many high end DivX player support this already ,. its nothing new,. but would be awesome if the PS3 gets able to use it,. All this article says though is that SONY is adding it's own line-up nothing more. Not all DivX devices support this,. and currently the PS3 falls to this,. this ability doesn't fall into DiVX Certified standards,. it just means it can play DivX files nothing more.