DivX TV to Launch As Firmware Upgrade For LG Blu-ray Decks

DivX TV will launch in October as a firmware upgrade to LG’s Blu-ray players, DivX Brand Director Thomas Huntington told us. LG is shipping the BD590 ($379) Blu-ray player featuring DLNA-compiant media, WiFi and a 250 GB hard drive as well as the BD570 ($279), which drops the drive.

The DivX streaming service will join Vudu as part of LG’s NetCast service and focus largely on free Internet content, Huntington said. Since CES, DivX increased number of “channels” available to 80 from 70, though Huntington declined to identify the additions. Among the channels already disclosed are Associated Press, CBS, Break.com, DailyMotion, CNET, Pandora, Picasa, Revision3, Rhapsody and others. The channels are listed by topic, including news and info, entertainment, science and technology, sports. Revision3 was among the content providers for DivX’s original Connected platform that DivX TV is replacing. DivX TV will be stores in a Blu-ray player’s flash memory, company officials said.

DivX’s agreement with LG “contemplates” adding the streaming service to TVs, which also feature NetCast. But that won’t happen this year, Huntington said. DivX will be a built-in feature of LG Blu-ray players expected to be introduced at CES in January, he said. An LG spokesman declined to comment on the exact timing for the Blu-ray player firmware upgrade this fall. “We're really focusing right now on signing content providers,” Huntington said. “Right now everyone has their heads down working on the implementation with LG."

DivX’s proposed sale to Sonic Solutions won’t affect DivX TV plans, Huntington said. Sonic’s RoxioNow video download platform is being built into a range of Blu-ray players and TVs. It also is the base for branded services from Best Buy, Blockbuster and Sears/Kmart. But RoxioNow-based platforms, which focuses on premium content, won’t conflict with Internet-centric DivX TV, which also uses the Sonic software, Huntington said.

"Best Buy and all of the other sites that RoxioNow powers are premium content sites that could be part of DivX TV,” Huntington said. RoxioNow wants “to power every non-Netflix store so that when you buy a movie from any of these sites it is automatically uploaded to this RoxioNow digital locker and that has a lot of synergy with DivX TV.” While DivX has download agreements with Lions Gate, Paramount, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Brothers, separate negotiations would be required to add studio content to DivX TV, Huntington said. DivX doesn’t have download pacts with 20th Century Fox or Universal Pictures.

With the sale to Sonic expected to close in September, integration of the two companies is “in the very early stages,” Huntington said. Sonic has said it plans keep DivX offices in San Diego. “From what I have seen and the people I have met, we're all very optimistic about it,” Huntington said. “Our strategies and cultures so far have seemed very complementary."

DivX HD Plus certified products will start volume in shipments in the next eight months, including those from Iomega, Panasonic Philips and Seagate. Philips is expected to deliver a DivX Plus HD Blu-ray player in Europe. Some Plus HD products are expected to debut at IFA in Berlin in September. Plus HD can deliver 1080p H.264 content in the MKV file format. The DivX format has proved more popular in Europe than the U.S., potentially giving Sonic an avenue to a market where it currently has little presence, industry officials have said. There are about 1,100 DivX-certified DTVs and 350 Blu-ray players, DivX has said. The number of DivX-equipped cellphones has grown to 70 models from 55 earlier this year, including models from LG Electronics, Pantech and Samsung, Huntington said. Motorola also signed a DivX license, but hasn’t shipped certified product yet.