Hate Flash? Try DivX HiQ

By  |  Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 12:36 pm

A recently released version of the DivX player comes with DivX HIQ, a plug-in that works with any browser. It’s a replacement for the Flash player that’s used to play videos on YouTube and at other sites–and boy, does it boost performance.

You’ll see the DivX HIQ option right below YouTube’s Start and pause button.

Among other things, DivX HIQ:

• Reduces dropouts indicated by that rotating circle you often see when Flash is downloading the streaming video. The stream is definitely smoother.

• Reduces CPU use, making it ideal for notebook and netbook users, because you’ll save battery life.

• Has a better looking maximized viewing window, plus a nifty, smaller pop-out window you can move to anywhere on your screen.

• Optionally saves YouTube videos automatically to your hard drive.

One thing not to try is DivX’s offer to permanently substitute itself for YouTube’s default player — at least until DivX HiQ is out of beta. For now, I’ve noticed that YouTube’s player sometimes starts first and runs for a few seconds before DivX HiQ kicks in.

 

Click on DivX HIQ for a smoother ride.

 

Watch the DivX HiQ product manager take you through an introduction and demo some features. [Thanks, Roger.]

[This post is excerpted from Steve’s TechBite newsletter. If you liked it, head here to sign up–it’s delivered on Wednesdays to your inbox, and it’s free.]

 
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Ryan Patterson Says:

    Nice advertisement. How much did DivX pay you for this “article”?

    How about some actual evidence that this does what you claim (i.e. measurements, analysis, etc).

  2. @ryanwtaylor Says:

    @Ryan Here are some screenshots from real users testing DivX HiQ out for themselves and posting screen shots:
    http://labs.divx.com/node/16273