DivX HD Certification for Seagate

DivX, Inc., a digital entertainment company, and Seagate Technology announced that Seagate’s latest version of its FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player will be DivX Plus HD Certified.

The FreeAgent Theater+ media player is a next generation home theater solution designed to instantly and easily enable people to bring their digital media libraries from their computer to the home entertainment systems. The player makes it simple for consumers to have access to their full library of videos by connecting to their TV via outputs like HDMI. The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ player combines a docking system for a Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive, as well as two additional USB ports and Internet access through an Ethernet port or the optional USB wireless adapter.

Internet video is booming and many consumers have rapidly growing personal video libraries that they want to enjoy on their TV. Once the FreeAgent player is DivX Plus HD Certified, and following delivery of a firmware update scheduled for the first quarter of calendar year 2010, digital Internet videos up to 1080p and Hollywood movies in the DivX format can be loaded onto the portable drive or easily played back via one of the USB drives. Consumers will be able to store up to 100 HD movies on a 500 GB hard drive.

DivX Plus HD Certification is the premium level of certification from DivX, providing consumers with a very comprehensive digital media solution for enjoying high-quality standard definition and high definition Internet video from the PC to the TV and beyond. Only DivX Plus HD Certified devices support playback of DivX Plus HD content (H.264 video in the MKV file container) created with DivX or other third-party tools, while also supporting previous versions of DivX video up to 1080p. DivX Plus HD also enables the playback of Hollywood movies in the DivX format now available on online video download e-tailers in the U.S. and Europe.

DivX Plus HD technology also provides advanced features for a richer media experience, including automatic and authored chapter points, quick start, smooth fast forward and rewind (up to 32x in both directions), and support for high-quality AAC audio, up to eight subtitle and audio tracks, and meta data.

"Seagate’s media player represents one of the exciting new emerging product categories where DivX Plus™ HD Certification will add tremendous value so that consumers can enjoy all their digital video including HD Internet content, personal video libraries, and Hollywood movies in the DivX format," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer at DivX. "We’re pleased to partner with Seagate and enable its customers to take high definition video to the next level on the next generation FreeAgent Theater+ media player."

Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video creation and playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality users expect from DivX.