Qualcomm has licensed the DivX codec technology and will support it in a range of video-enabled chipsets bringing one of the best video formats on the market to CDMA mobile devices, ahead of Adobe’s Flash Video.
It is hard to compare the two formats. DivX and On2 Technologies, which wrote the VP6 codec and a recent H.264 version for Adobe, have both been around for a long time in the video compression business, both have large fan bases, and both produce great video. But the adoption by Adobe of the On 2 codec for its flash player has meant this codec was beginning to be dominant.
A new version of Flash and its underlying run time system, along with a flexible media player, are all due out this year. YouTube has standardized on Flash video, and Flash Lite, which will support Flash video on mobile phones, is about to ship. The last version of Flash Lite got into around 270 million handsets.
If Qualcomm stays solely with DivX, then it will mean that the worlds of CDMA and WCDMA telephony will have diverged, and that web sites that can provide video to one type of handset will not be able to be played on another. Of course there’s nothing to stop Adobe also preparing a copy of video capable Flash Lite for Qualcomm handsets, in fact we’re pretty sure that it will, as Verizon offers an earlier version of Flash Lite in the US. But if is was planning to use Flash for video, why would Qualcomm optimize its chips for DivX? If Verizon is about to switch, it could be quite a setback for Flash video on handsets and a lead for other CDMA carriers.
One of the problems for mobile handsets and video is that they cannot use the full extent of H.264 compression because it is too battery heavy, so Qualcomm wrote its own H.264 compression for its mobile TV service MediaFLO. This was a two tier service with one encoded signal guaranteed to reach every device in transmitter range, and another higher quality signal for those without obstacles. Perhaps DivX will be able to win out in MediaFLO services also once the Qualcomm chips are optimized for it.
Already DivX has certified the Samsung Ultra Video SGH-F500 handset, which is available mostly in Europe and the Far East, featuring
a 2.4 inch, swiveling LCD screen. The phone enables consumers playback of DivX video from the PC or Internet, including files downloaded from the popular Stage6 online video community.