Last Monday, web-users all over the world were shocked as DivX announced its decision to shut down Stage6, its proprietary and unique service allowing people to upload real high-quality video in the DivX format (Yes, the one you can use to burn on CD's and watch on your TV's DVD player), download it to their machines or just stream it online.
This step is a really tragic event, as Stage6 was the only video site in the world which had absolutely no low-fi content, like YouTube, Google Video etc, and moreover, had no intentions of using special online-storage compressing methods that usually result in non-familiar file formats that you have to dig really hard in order to find a compatible player for (not to speak of the special browser add-ons or piracy sites you have to use for the download links in most video sites).
The DivX company had its reasons for this decision.
Officially, it declared "the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide". In plain words: the site operation demanded not only a gigantic amount of storage space for the uncompressed videos, but also high-bandwidth-servers capable of delivering so much content to so many users so fast. So high a bandwidth, that you can actually refer to it as an aircraft-carrier, assuming YouTube is a canoe.
Unofficially, as the announcement implies, there is a wave of lawsuits coming DivX's way, due to its policy of obviously encouraging people to upload copy-protected materials without caring for censorship, even if there was a statement saying the company would not accept this kind of behaviour, a statement that was completely ignored even by the company itself, having countless illegal content "featured" at the site's main page. Closing the site might hold the suers back.
According to the declaration, the company tried raising other companies' interest in buying the service, without success. There is nothing odd about that, for other companies are aware of the huge budget the service requires, so huge that I doubt even Microsoft's ability to handle it. In addition, other companies prefer sticking to the FlashVideo (FLV) format, rather than pushing their luck with the Production Studios lurking around the corner for every new attempt at letting people use DivX (DVD's illegal alternative) on the web.
But it doesn't mean DivX will cease to exist in any form it currently has. DivX-video-dedicated illegal storage services will probably pop-out eventually, and the DivX company will be ready: Right now they are preparing their future version of DivX Web Player, together with a new search-engine dedicated to DivX videos on the web.
Will it be enough to replace the best video-storage service that ever existed? Only time will tell.
This post is an adapted translation of my recent Hebrew post at: http://www.tapuz.co.il/Blog/ViewEntry.asp?EntryId=1202864
