Digital Video Daze

A new rent-once, watch-anytime movie format called Divx may confuse you. It shouldn't

You've probably heard about DVD, the digital video format that allows full-length movies to be squeezed onto CDs. But chances are you don't own a DVD player--yet. Only around 700,000 people have bought one in the year since they were introduced. So what hope is there for the even newer (and curiously kludgy) format known as Divx?

The first Divx (pronounced "div-ex," it stands for digital video express) players began shipping to retail stores nationwide this month. Since Divx can run the old DVD disks while performing other amazing digital tricks, I suspect the new format is going to cause some...

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