Product Reviews

DivX is best known as a high-quality codec for distributing video over the web. However, this release is all about the ability to play back QuickTime supported video at full screen without the need to invest in QuickTime Pro.

DivX 6.7 collects DivX Player 2 (the first Universal Binary version), DivX Community Codec 6.6, DivX Web Player 1.3.1, and trials of DivX Converter 1.2 and DivX Pro Codec 6.6, which become full versions upon purchase of the Pro version.

Among the Player's features, displaying movies as your desktop wallpaper is a questionable gimmick, but other features such as dimming the desktop are neat touches. Unlike QuickTime, even the free version provides full-screen playback for proper appreciation of high-quality movies such as those on the Stage6 website.

We encountered problems playing QuickTime files - trailers downloaded from the iTunes Store and our own files using H.264 - which consistently failed to resume playback after being paused. The only way to resume playback was to reopen the player.

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Occasional stability issues also arose with QuickTime movies, and we were confused, and ultimately irritated, when we realised compatible files were rejected because they lacked a .mov file extension, despite their clear association with QuickTime. This is unbecoming behaviour for a Mac application indeed.

The DivX Web Player really shines, enabling full-screen playback with a double-click. The windowed mode lifts video out of a page and keeps it in the foreground while you browse. This requires some care, as there's no prompt if you close or leave the originating page - the movie simply closes.

The Context menu has rich, DVD-like features such as alternate audio and subtitle tracks when available. Sadly, Mac-based authoring isn't so comprehensive, as DivX Author, a separate commercial product, is only available for Windows XP. The open-source Dr. DivX does support encoding with multiple audio tracks, and also likes DV files.

DivX Converter is as straightforward as its name suggests. Files dragged onto the window are added to the batch list, and customised settings or one of four presets can be applied. Crucially, DivX can be exported (and played) by QuickTime Pro and other applications.

You can now play video-on-demand (VOD) rentals and purchases on the Mac desktop, but device registration is only possible with a PC, so VOD titles can't be transferred to a DivX-certified device from Mac OS X.

DivX's failings in playing QuickTime files are disconcerting, regardless of free, full-screen playback and great feature set, so we only recommend DivX for playing its own, native format.