An end to DIVX, not DivX

DIVX — not to be confused with DivX — was Circuit City’s proprietary pay-per-view DVD playback system. The developers of DIVX started a company called Cinea that was later acquired by Dolby Labs. The DIVX technology was applied to a product called S-View, which was sold to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in an effort to reduce video piracy, especially the screener copies of movies nominated for Academy Awards that hadn’t yet been released on home video.

S-View discs required a custom player that was connected, as were DIVX players, to a central server for verification prior to playback. Regular DVDs also worked on the players, which were sent for free to Academy members who vote on the Oscars™. The hardware was made by KiSS Technology of Denmark, which was later acquired by Cisco Systems.

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So far, so good, but it was up to each movie studio to decide whether or not to use the special DVDs. After a promising start, resistance to Cinea grew within the industry, and only a few studios joined the program. Eventually S-View was dropped, and Cinea concentrated on other digital security projects.

Without any announcement or notice from Dolby that I can find, Cinea as an entity is apparently now gone. If you go to Cinea’s address you’re directed to the Dolby Labs home page. And with the end of Cinea I assume we have seen the last of what began as DIVX.

Jonathan Ross and his “Juvenile Radio Prank”

I was flummoxed by how many items and editorials that originated in the UK today about the Jonathan Ross brouhaha didn’t explain exactly what he and his radio pal did. But now I have the story, and it’s strange. Here’s one of many write-ups about it. Sounds like typical shock jock antics, but where everybody knows each other, in one way or another.

Wait! This just came in from our man in Scotland, Petula Clark fan Dave Moncur.

Thought you might like this article which tells a bit about Ross’s fall from grace.

Click here

He is paid £18 million over 3 years, and he and his cohort Brand, thought it would be funny to mock the granddaughter of one of our beloved comedy actors, and to leave a filthy message about having shagged her on the guy’s voicemail.

In England, where they live, that is a criminal offence.

It wasn’t a live programme, it was recorded and “signed off” by a BBC executive.

So frankly, it would, in my opinion be good if there were a series of resignations. The manager, producer and to two so-called stars.

As I write, it seems that Brand has done the decent thing and resigned. Ross seems to be a little too fond of his £18 million to do that, but I hope he will be prosecuted under the Telecommunications Act which makes lewd calls a crime, and hopefully the BBC will sack him. This is not what we all pay £140 a year for!.

Incidentally the said Ross, was horribly patronising and rude to Petula when she appeared on his show in 2002 to promote the Ultimate Tour and Album. She was VERY polite, and a little cold back, but I’m pretty sure the little pipsqueak knew that he had been put in his place by someone who has been a superstar longer that he’s been alive.

From that time on I haven’t watched him or listened to him. Frankly most of his humour is a bit childish and crude. You know, anyone can get a laugh out of saying “fuck” or “wank”. It takes talent to get a laugh out of something less crude.

Hope your health is better now.

Thanks, Dave! Yes, my back is completely better. In fact, it’s better than ever and I can say I’m almost glad it happened.

Sorry to hear that Mr. Ross was anything other than sycophantically worshipful of Petula. The swine. But as a comic book fan, I have to give him credit and thanks for producing “In Search of Steve Ditko”.

Jonathan Ross in a row

The BBC’s Jonathan Ross, who I have praised up and down here, not only for his documentary “In Search of Steve Ditko,” but for his BBC2 radio programme, is in major hot water. I don’t even know yet what the furor is all about, but I heard enough on the BBC World Service on WBUR in Boston to know it’s big trouble.