DivX 7 makes special sneak preview appearance!

BarCampSD 4, one of those “unconferences” sweeping the globe these days, saw a rare surfacing of the long-awaited next version of DivX software that includes support for the H.264 video codec, the .mkv container format and AAC audio.  With long-time DivX evangelist Alastair “digital56k” Mayo, we gave a couple of presentations on the new features in DivX 7 as well as a detailed (or as detailed as one can be in 25 minutes) demonstration of DivX H.264 encoding in action. Al showed how to use DivX 7 in conjunction with popular encoding tools to compress high-quality HD video into much more manageable sizes, without sacrificing visual quality.  Step-by-step Al worked through AVISynth, VirtualDub, MKVToolnix, Haali Media Splitter, DivX H.264 Decoder beta 3, and Media Player Classic.  You can try it for yourself here. (Of course you probably don't get to do it on a Nehalem test bed like Al does!). 

The event was excellent as always, thanks to the “unorganizers” led by Dan “Viss” Tentler, and covered an incredibly diverse range of topics.  DivX was a sponsor of BarCampSD again, along with other notable companies such as Intuit, Microsoft and others.

We presented DivX 7’s goal of providing the widest range of users with powerful yet easy to use encoding tools while ensuring the compatibility among all sorts of hardware devices.  DivX wants to bring all capable devices into an ecosystem where creators and viewers don't have to target specific devices but only a known profile that we can assure will work reliably everywhere. 

Thanks to everybody who participated in Al’s presentations and made BarCampSD the great event it always is.  Keep an eye out here at DivX Labs for more information on the official launch of DivX 7 and look out for us at the next BarCampSD 5 in May 2009.

Check out the t-shirt this guy scored at a previous BarCampSD!

Special thanks to Lisa Brewster, Kevin Baird and Dan Tentler for the use of their photos!