My memory fails me... what were the pay-to-watch DVDs of the late 90's called?

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geno

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
In the late 90's when DVD was gaining popularity, a company came out with a set-top box which had to be connected to a phone line. You'd first buy the disc, then pay each time you wanted to watch it. I want to say it was called Divx, but any search / wikipedia turns up the codec rather than details of the goofy set-top box they were pushing at the time. Am I on the right track here?
 
geno

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
thomsbrain said:
You are right, they were called DIVX.
Click to expand...

Ok so I'm not going crazy, just finding info on it might be tougher than I thought. I'm explaining the concept to my friends and they don't even remember it existing. I thought it would be cool to bring it up as a blast from the past.
 
P

Possessed Freak

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 1999
6,045
1
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My dad, buyer of doomed technology had a divx player... as well as a laserdisc player, and before that he had a betamax player. I am sure if there is some tech media war going on he will be on the wrong side of things. Do what I do, wait till he makes a decision and buy the opposite.
 
Mo0o

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
24,227
3
76
Possessed Freak said:
My dad, buyer of doomed technology had a divx player... as well as a laserdisc player, and before that he had a betamax player. I am sure if there is some tech media war going on he will be on the wrong side of things. Do what I do, wait till he makes a decision and buy the opposite.
Click to expand...

does he have a HDDVD player as well?
 
arrfep

arrfep

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2006
2,314
16
81
Lol. I remember seeing the display at Circuit City around the same time that I first saw regular DVD's in the stores. I thought "Digital Versatile Disc" was the dumbest acronym, and the technology was sure to fail. I mean, who wanted a smaller version of the laser disc?
 
B

brownzilla786

Senior member
Dec 18, 2005
904
0
0
My family actually had one. I think it was a combined DVD/Divx player, but I can't really remember. Regardless, we watched about 2 Divx movies, then only bought DVD's after.
 
Triumph

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
yeah even then Divx was universally hated. no one was interested in the idea. And it wasn't very "green" because if you didn't want to pay to watch it again, you just threw it away.
 
lupi

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
An abomination and probably a leading cause to the fall of CC. I mean, who would want to buy special hardware to buy a disc that cost not much cheaper than a regular dvd but with severe use restrictions.
 
G

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Possessed Freak said:
My dad, buyer of doomed technology had a divx player... as well as a laserdisc player, and before that he had a betamax player. I am sure if there is some tech media war going on he will be on the wrong side of things. Do what I do, wait till he makes a decision and buy the opposite.
Click to expand...

Did he buy an HD-DVD player as well? :)

Edit: oops you already annswered that :D
 
G

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
lupi said:
An abomination and probably a leading cause to the fall of CC. I mean, who would want to buy special hardware to buy a disc that cost not much cheaper than a regular dvd but with severe use restrictions.
Click to expand...

Didnt CC also try to buy Blockbuster or something? I remember them buying something a couple of years before their implosion. And everybody said this is the dumbest mistake that will lead to their implosion.

Also I hate CC because everytime that Cars song comes on I think of their shitty red stores.
 
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