News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

December 12, 2007

software

DivX is free for all…for a limited time only

Posted Dec. 12, ’07, 9:19 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software

DivX‘Tis the time of year for cheap and even free software. The folks over at DivX are offering a deal: for a limited time, you can trade your email address for a free copy of DivX Pro. DivX is a video codec that’s used to encode movie files at decent quality with a pretty small file size, and it’s often used among the ahem shadier parts of the Interweb.

Of course, the codec isn’t illicit in and of itself, and it can be pretty handy for encoding videos for plenty of legit purposes. For example, as of the most recent software update, the Xbox 360 now supports playback of DivX content. On the Mac side, playback can be accomplished with Perian or the free codec from DivX itself.

So what does this temporarily free Pro version net you? Well, usually the only part that’s free is the software that gives you the ability to play back video; the Pro version, which normally costs $20, lets you actually encode content (even exporting from QuickTime Player or iMovie), and also contains a batch conversion utility. What does DivX get out of it? Well, your email of course, though they say that it will only be used to send you your serial number and other mailings “in regard to your product.” The amount of email I get, that’s hardly a drop in the bucket anyway.

[via Infinite Loop]


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