20th Century Fox Picks Divx for DVD Videos

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has chosen the Digital Video Express, or Divx system, for home videos, boosting the format promoted by Circuit City Stores Inc. The News Corp. unit joins Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, Seagram Co.’s Universal Studios and DreamWorks SKG in backing Divx, a variant of the digital video disk format that allows customers to view a movie for only a 48-hour period. Circuit City is a partner in the group that developed Divx. The format also allows studios to collect a royalty for each viewing, unlike rental videocassettes, and Divx disks don’t have to be returned. The disks are decoded the first time the user plays them and then can be viewed at any time during the following two days. Users can purchase additional viewing time through the Divx machine. Divx has caused tension in the DVD industry because the disks can’t be played in most DVD players made by Sony Corp. and other manufacturers.