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DivX Enabled Portable Devices
Rohan Naravane, Jan 04, 2010 1800 hrs ISTWatching videos on them is sheer pleasure
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It is probably appropriate to say that DivX revolutionized digital video. It did the same thing to video that MP3s did to audio. It was almost magical to see how a 4.7GB DVD video was compressed into almost 1/7th its size, while trying to maintain the best possible clarity. For those unfortunate souls who have no clue to what DivX is, let us enlighten.
DivX (Digital Video Express) is a codec that lets you store high-quality video in a compressed, relatively small size. It's the video format that is widely used for all those movie and TV series videos that most of you download (mostly illegally) off the internet.
Now, most mobile phones and multimedia players out there support some form of video playback. But, most don't support out of the box DivX playback. Thus, there's the annoying compulsion to convert your videos into the format the device accepts. Some might also down-scale the resolution to match the device's screen resolution. Everybody knows how painful converting all your movies is in order to watch them on your iPod.
Over the past few years, a few manufacturers have stepped up to solve this hassle by incorporating DivX playback in their devices -- without the need for downscaling/format conversion. This was possible thanks to the high-power CPUs packed in them which could decode these highly-compressed videos on the fly. Thus, all you need to do is drag and drop your videos into your device for direct playback. And now with microSD card prices dropping, an 8GB or more memory card isn't out of reach for many - thus allowing you to pack a couple of movies at a time.
Here's a list of devices that support DivX and watching videos on them is a sheer pleasure. Check 'em out:
Cowon iAudio S9
(Rs. 16,000)
While the iPod Touch is a convergence device that offers much more than media playback (i.e. internet browsing, games and a plethora of other apps), Cowon's iAudio S9 media player concentrates on the basics. Like all Cowons, along with delivering top-notch audio quality, it also supports DivX, WMV and XviD (the open-source alternative codec to DivX) playback without the need to convert. It has an adequately sized 3.3-inch capacitive AMOLED display that makes video viewing a pleasant experience.
Its elegantly curved body is sleek and pretty lightweight as well. Its initial UI firmware was buggy but we've heard newer updates to the software seem to have resolved those issues. Pricing may be a little on the higher side, but if you appreciate quality then the iAudio S9 is waiting to deliver.
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