DIVX / XVID Playback on DVD Players

[govested2002]

I had a question about playback for XVID codecs. Is it possible to buy a DVD player that plays only XVID but does not play DIVX? I am wondering if the decoding/playback functionality in DVD players is the same for XVID content so that you need to have DIVX decoding feature to play XVID. The reason I ask is from my understanding, DVIX is charging a lot of money to install DVIX playback on DVD players where I understand XVID is not charging anyone. But, I have never seen a DVD player that only has XVID playback without also having DIVX playback. I am wondering, then, if XVID is also based on DIVX so DIVX makes money regardless of the format (XVID or DIVX) of the file.

Another question I had was about the number of files being shared. It seems that there are many more files being swamped in XVID today instead of DIVX. Is that true?

Thanks!

[paglamon]

XviD and DivX are both MPEG4 ASP codecs. The player is supporting MPEG4 ASP in general and not DivX/XviD.

[govested2002]

I don't think that is entirely true, because the DVD manufacturers have to pay DIVX a licensing fee. I know it's based on MPEG-4, but clearly DIVX is giving them something to cause the manufacturers to end up paying something extra. Just wondering if they still have to pay something extra to run XVID, or whether XVID can run on just MPEG4 licensing without paying DIVX anything special. Thanks for your response.