One day only! Hurry up and get your free copy of the DivX Create Bundle during their 5th year anniversary. Sure, I’ve already paid for my copy, but I’m making sure to get a couple extra serial numbers while I’ve got the chance.
I’m still a little miffed at how DivX handled the whole release of version 6, but I’m also somewhat attached to the codec. You see, the Create Bundle comes with a little app the gives you a no frills way to quickly convert videos to DivX6. Unfortunately it was initially buggy as all hell and crashed with the most useless messages. DivX’s response was… nothing. They took about a month to really communicate with their paying customers and rather rudely pointed out how to get refunds since we were so impatient rather than provide us with any real information on when things would be fixed.
But there really aren’t many other options for decent video codecs out there. XviD will never release a standard binary that assures all videos will play properly on different machines. WMV is just way too proprietary and leaves me with DRM nightmares. Quicktime is one of the biggest pieces of crap, and pretty much forces you to install the horrid iTunes along with it. Real… well that goes without saying. Nero Digital looks most promising, and since I paid for Nero I already own it. However, it’s still in limited use and there’s no guarantees I’ll ever be able to play it on my precious DVP642.
That leaves me with the least of many evils… for now.
(thanks to Owen, for the link not the rant)
I’ll have to download this tonight, and it reminds me, I have to ask you a few questions. With my DVR unit ready for pick-up Friday, I’ll have to talk to you about how to save the really good stuff to my PC – not that I plan on archiving the entire Sharks’ hockey season for Eva or anything 🙂
Let me know what kind of DVR you’re getting and I’ll look up what you’ll need. The only problem with backing them up on the computer is that you actually “record” show over the firewire connection. Which means if it’s a 3 hour game, you’ve got to let it record for 3 hours. But that’s why I do a lot of it overnight or while I’m watching the show.
Time Warner actually replaces your cable box with a cable/DVR unit, I don’t know if yours is a stand-alone unit or what. In any case it records 35 hours so I can get a few hockey games on there before I have to move them off 🙂
I’ll have to check it out when I get home tonight, and see if it recorded everything I wanted.