Oddity Archive: Episode 99 - Disposable DVD’s (DIVX & Flexplay) 

lol

I wished you had won that

I'd hate to be the unlucky kid who managed to win it! ("Mommy, why does this DVD just show boring text? Where's the movie?")

@@chouts1 I agree, it should've have been saved from purgatory.

not a popular opinion, but "a bug's life" is one of my very favorites of pixar's... it is, after all, a more 'family-friendly' version of orwell's "animal farm"... without the terrifying "horse getting trucked off to the glue factory" scene... ;0 a divx "bug's life" would've maybe alluded to - and implanted in the child's mind - the travesty of the whole concept of disposable dvds/anything plastic... "mmmooommmmaaa!!! my fav'rit mooooveeee wooonn't plllaayyyyy!!!" (insert mommy trying to explain why...) whole concept is so metaphor; picturing some exec/head-accountant at some movie-studio back in the day, first reading about the concept at their desk... a) 48-hour disposable dvds, vs ... b) future landfills too dense with non-recyclable plastics ... c) open spreadsheet with the bottom-line of negligible advantages (short-term profits; long-term loss) ... accountant sighs, clicks 'approve' like we do on software-agreements these days

+Fernie Canto That's why it died out. I'm surprised the chemicals didn't ruin the players.

+generalcoon47 I know, right? I would have been scared to death to stick any of those discs in ANY player ... I mean, how do we know the corrosive stuff inside the disks couldn't contaminate the laser?

at the time: they didn't tell anyone HOW the DVDs stopped working at a time. you wouldn't be aware of a potential hazard to your machine.

Back in the late 90s and Early 2000s, during the twilight period of the Dot Com era, there was this push for trying to latch onto anything "Cutting Edge" for a quick Cash Grab, so Investors Savy Businessman from Corporations would instantly cook up any Gimmick that sounded good on paper as long as it guaranteed a quick profit. Problem was, most were so incredibly half baked that its execution results often turned out both short-sided and asinine. I mean did the idiots who thought up DVD D/Flex Play ever consider the thought of DVD overtaking VHS by 2002 and its masters costs significantly dropping by the mid 2000s?

Disposable movies sound good for a movie you want to check out to see if you'd like it for your home video/DVD collection but you can be rid of it if you don't (like I would be if Into the Woods had come out in that format, GOD that depressing piece of bat guano). Then again, we're much better off with movies we can watch once on sites like Netflix and get off the watch list after and never see again.

"It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to believe that DIVX could go under!"

DivX: my belly hurts circus City: nobody cares about you

That's a fair question. Except it's impossible for it to come true, so your question is dumb.

Funnily enough, that's exactly what happened just a year after its initial release, plus Circuit City ended up going out of business just a decade later (part of the reason why they went out of business was from the failed DIVX format).

Yeah, that's likely exactly it. Blu-ray players have stronger lasers than DVD players, since the die is packed tighter on Blu-ray. Odd that his PC drive wouldn't read it though.

​@@drfsupercenterwell it may be using stil la seperate laser vs nowdaus likely fwiw prolly more easu to biild with one laser fwiw to switch between colors for cd dvd an blu ray.

I bought one of these from Staples in 2008 when they were carrying them for 99 cents. This is when Sony's ARccOS protection was in full force, and guess what - the FlexPlay disc had it too. So I couldn't rip it normally, DVD Decrypter and similar programs would fail with read errors right away. I was able to use AnyDVD to rip an image of it, but yeah... based on my one purchase of FlexPlay the discs would use the same encryption/copy protection as the retail discs, take that how you will.

@@drfsupercenter Interesting. I don't remember what software I used at the time.

@@brpadington DVD Decrypter would have worked for most of them, but the ones from Sony were using more advanced rip protection

@@drfsupercenter I'm pretty sure I was using AnyDVD or CloneDVD at the time.

Correction, Flexplay headquarters.

Smedis2 Meeting*

+Dan Mount Didn't hope but still expected it.

+Dan Mount According to legend the Phone Number in the NES Game "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is now a phone sex line.

Yes! I do know about that from the AVGN episode!

No, not at all.

After the AVGN thing this is almost the standard expectation. I myself would hope some weird thing like - number for some random construction site. I dunno.

Keep in mind, it plays halfway through on a Blu-ray player, but those didn't exist when FlexPlay was created. Notice how it didn't work on any of his other equipment. So if you bought this in 2004, it would have worked as intended and been unplayable on your devices after a day or two.

Just had a look through the Wayback Machine, and apparently they closed down the site except a rebate form sometime before October of 1999, and then the site went quiet, supposedly indicating the lack of a registrar for the website. Then, in 2001, someone registered the site and had it link to a "Mayo Project" codec called DivX that originally had no relation to the Digital Video Express, LP company name, but sometime between then and now a few management changes seem to have caused the codec to take on the old Divx name. But no, the codec there isn't the encrypted Divx format, sadly. EDIT: Although, I do admit that it is pretty cool to see the "time lapse" as the name changed hands.

Callie Ray. My hometown somehow still has a Family Video. I have no idea how, my town is just as "with the times" as any other town its size(about 25,000 people, so decent sized). I do see people going in and coming out with movies though(not just old people), so I guess people still go actually rent physical movies for some reason...?

Callie Ray. We also have a couple Redbox machines but even that is a tired, outdated concept I think.

Chloie Kwirant The Family Video near me recently had a thing looking for new hires.

Sears will be next.

Chloie Kwirant I live in a small town that seems similar to how Ben described Aurora, and we have a couple Family Videos. I think what it comes down to is that enough people in this area can't afford decent internet and a subscription to Netflix or Hulu (or at least they think they can't because FV is cheaper for a single rental?)

Yes, that's a feature I do miss that seemed to be dropped from later-model DVD players around 2000-01 or so. I still have a ca. 1998 Curtis Mathes DVD player that has the navigation controls on the front of the player itself. So convenient having those controls there for those missing remote moments :)

+zoikkeli Yeah all it does is tint the layer over the data layer to block the light from the laser from reading the data layer.

I hate to be that "but ackshually" guy, but... everyone keeps mentioning Superbit as some sort of DVD spinoff, when it isn't at all. Superbit *is* DVD, it's a silly name given to their (at the time revolutionary idea?) process of using a higher-than-normal bitrate to get better quality than other companies' discs. They would have just the movie and no extra features, on a dual-layer disc, that's really all it is/was. Nothing special about it, and by the time Superbit came around every other studio was doing the exact same thing... I have plenty of those "2 disc collector's edition" releases where disc 1 is the movie on a dual layer disc and disc 2 has all the extras. I can't speak for any of those others, but they are likely similar things. The mini DVDs comply to the DVD specifications, they're just...smaller. Also while that pre-recorded mini DVD thing was a failure, there were camcorders that used recordable mini DVDs, I got one for my dad in the 2000s. I just googled AniMiniDVD and it's the same exact thing. Just 3" discs, but otherwise DVD-Video standards compliant. DualDisc is perhaps the only one that's actually "different", because the thicker disc required to put audio on one side and video on the other means it doesn't actually comply with the Philips red-book CD spec, and thus isn't allowed to carry the compact disc logo. I am not sure about the video side, but it might be the same way. They claimed it "should work" with any CD players, but it's "technically" not redbook compliant.

Did any company other than Columbia TriStar/Sony even release Superbit DVDs? The only Superbit DVDs I’ve ever seen were of Columbia Pictures films.

@@KoryGilesYT I have seen some from Posa Films(Mexican producer), funnily enough now owned by TriStar/Sony

Short answer: the short-sighted buffoons running the DVD consortium.

Fax Sum (. ).)::::::::::D - - -

I was expecting a sex hotline to have taken over just like what happened to the number featured in the Rodger rabbit nes game

what does it send out then?

Why?

+DarkwingIcarus The joke comes from Oddity Archives having the word "Oddity" and Code Lyoco's episode "A Space Oddity".

+Specter227 Oddly this is the first episode I've seen in a while that DOESN'T have Code Lyoko on the sidebar or related vids at the end. Instead I'm getting mostly Ben's other videos... and some dude who's uploading French movies.

+Specter227 I rather hear about HD-DVD instead!!!

+Foxhack I think that in the last few months the way the sidebar works has changed quite a bit, since I have noticed that what shows up for me is no longer videos with similar words but stuff actually based on things I have already watched, though that in it's self is a problem since it only ever shows me things that I have already watched or know exists but have no interest in watching... so yeah... it's pretty much become a forced version of that useless recommended video feature that no one uses, go youtube.

It would still corrode. I would just make a backup of the disc

+Michael Mangi (theblackdog) I believe the outer edges is also the area a dvd player actually reads first, so that would make the disc it's self unreadable. My theory is that he was only able to play it because he had left it in the dvd player with it running all that time.

+Kandi Gloss actually most media start from sector 0 on the very inside

StefanSreto Yeah, but the movie may not start from there, that could be where the menus start since they're usually one of the first things you see. So I get what Kandi Gloss means

As you can see in the video, it doesn't work in DVD players or PC drives that use red layers (it's rejected or doesn't read). But wiki states that blue lasers (i.e. the one's used in blu-ray players - that's where the name comes from) can get through the darkened disc layer due to the different wavelength of light that they use. EDIT: According to some websites 1:20:20 is the time that the layer change (for Dual Layer DVD-9 discs) occurs. Interestingly, the home video logo and FBI copyright warnings are held in this area - that would be understandable why the DVD player read it then rejected it - it couldn't ignore the user operation prohibition flag on those bits - but bluray players can ignore it IF it finds the film itself - i've noticed this on some DVD's i've played on my Bluray player it will ignore the warning and go right into the film, my region-free DVD player won't ignore the warnings.

InsaneGamers Bluray players typically have 2-3 lasers in them. You have the blue laser for Blu-rays, the red laser for DVDs, and a near infared laser for CDs. Very early players (and even some newer players) can't play cds but can play DVDs. The blue laser can't read the DVD due to its shorter wavelength (405 nm vs 660 nm) in addition to some other factors.

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There is no way to trick the player, but there might be ways to stop the rot from happening. I would imagining putting glue or something around the edges might stop air form getting inside the disc.

+Worstplayer Blu-ray players don't use the Violet laser to read DVDs. There are three lasers in a Blu-ray player; CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

+TGOTR Cool, didn't know that. That makes it even better, it means this mighty "dye rights management"...didn't even work right in the first place.

+Worstplayer I've actually noticed bluray players can handle some scratched and damaged discs very well. I bought a used Sony one (old model, but it was seven bucks) and it read some movies I couldn't play on my other player just fine.

Per the Technology Connections video (a) Bluray players use a separate laser for DVDs, but (b) they could theoretically use the blue laser for DVDs, and that _would_ indeed see through the dye, and therefore (c) Flexplay discs also have a red dye, and a fresh Flexplay disc is bright red, blocking blue lasers.

Per another video on Flexplay from Technology Connections, the black is actually transparent to blue lasers. That's why a fresh Flexplay disk has a red sheen: so it can never be played with a blue laser, even when fresh. That said, most Blu-Ray players actually use a separate red laser for playing DVDs and CDs.

Thank god I didn't have to experience my first DVD like that. My parents never let me use the computer when I was a little kid, I always had to use it when they were at work.

I know right! I've been wanting another one for a while!

+Stephane Tanguay I was thinking this same thing while watching. Don't think it would really work but it's worth a shot

That is a myth, check out Technology Connections video on the matter

There's no point whatsoever.

Is it? I kind of wonder what would have happened had this DIVX been launched in the UK (we had DIVX DVD players too but they played the codec rather this DIVX) I imagine that had this DIVX been launched in the UK that when support ended in the US, the British arm of DIVX would have sent out a Final Disc to every registered owner of a DIVX player that would update the firmware to make all DIVX discs Gold Disks for the lifetime of the player. What would those be fetching on eBay nowadays?

They bought the name or something

It's his own composition.