DivX versus DVD-R/RW

[maxidrom11]

Just out of curiosity, why would I put my DVD's back-ups into DivX ? Space versus Quality ? I did some DivX encoding and watched from my comp on my widescreen the movies. There is a total loss in quality, even when I encode on the highest settings.
When Sony will hit with their Bleu Ray the market in the US and Europe, aren't you guys affraid then that DivX will die ? There is allready a 100 gig disc that can be burned with conventional hardware.
I am just wondering cause leaving my comp on for hours to rip a DVD into DivX is imho a waste of time, hardware and space ?
Just wanted to know, seeing lots of DivX players coming out but will it still sucseed next year, now that is the question.
Thx in advance for the reply's
DivX (http://www.audio-video-affair.com/)

[t3ch]

Well a lot of people would rather have a dvd copy, but it won't be awhile until dvdr's become mainstream... not to mention all the protections on dvds, which isn't gonna make dvd copying mainstream...

Also, you have to think of the size/download issue. As I already stated, it's a given anyone would want a real dvd copy. However, lets say you wanted Gladiator... but wait, you don't have any friends who own it and blockbuster has $15 in late charges with your name on it... so you open up kazaa and download away.

Accessability is the major issue here... As for blue ray discs; granted those are gonna rock, and broadband is getting faster and more common, it doesn't mean 5gb dvd downloads are gonna get popular anytime soon. Blue ray has nothing to do with dvd copying, as far as I'm concerned. It would be a waste of space, and a hassle to do multi menus (as of now, I'm sure software will be written in the future to correct this).

I think DivX's biggest rival right now would be xvid, as most everyone on any video forums recommends it, and it's only a matter of time before the software for it becomes more mainstream and the newbies start using it.

As a side note, I'm writing this after 2 days of no sleep, so I'm sure half of it is bound to make no sense... I'll edit it in the morning

[t3ch]

oh yeah, I just thought of an analogy and accidentally hit new post instead of edit but oh well

Think of mp3s... Even tho every new computer has a burner and many existing users already have them, aren't mp3s still the most common file... EVER, in the history of stuff? Think about it :)