[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I have found the following about DivX vs. Flash on the web:

The DivX Web Player is an application which allows the streaming of DivX and similar-format videos from web servers.
Why the DivX Web Player?

The DivX Web Player is better than the Flash players out there. And here's why:

• It provides higher-quality video by decoding high-efficiency file formats and video codecs such as the DivX codec. With such codecs, your web-site can deliver higher quality video without additional bandwidth costs.
• It decodes efficiently. Many of today's computers slow to a crawl when viewing Flash-based videos at full screen. Not the DivX Web Player! As it is designed specifically for viewing videos, it can deliver higher performance without using up all your system resources.
• It comes with a rich feature set, including neat gimmicks such as the desktop dimmer and windowed mode.
• It is completely adware and malware-free. You get nothing more than you bargained for.

It seems to me that this is just a hype. Flash .FLV files can use h.264 video codec which is ubiquitous nowadays and its quality is superior to the DivX.

I haven't noticed any performance problems when using Flash player, but I had problems playing DivX videos on my computer. Plus everybody uses Flash nowadays and I don't really want to have another impediment of asking users to install DivX Web Player.

DivX offers DRM protection of its videos, but I'm not sure whether it can be used for streaming videos or not. Plus DRM is a real headache even for legal customers.

So my plan right now is to use Flash h.264 videos for my web-site. Are there any better alternatives? Do I miss anything about DivX?

[cata123]

Flash is better for video streaming. You can read more about H264 here :

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flash_Player:9:Update:H.264

I am using Flash to do HD LIVE streaming and I can tell you the video quality is very good.

[Stream Recorder]

I prefer flash to divx. The quality of H.264 flash videos is very good and the flash is much more reliable than divx. I had lots of problems playing online divx files including browser crashes,... Plus Adobe Flash Player is ubiquitos, but you need to ask many users to download divx web player.

p.s. At the same time it is good that flash player has some rivals. Competition is always good for customers.