# DivX

6 Hacker News commenters recommended DivX and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recall DivX as a strong way to put films on video files instead of discs in its day; the most common caveat is that its MPEG-4 ASP format has real shortcomings.

## Why people recommend it

- Solved disc and computer limits (2 comments): "Not needing to get up and switch discs because you could use divx or xvid instead was a real life improvement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363747)) "They solved problems again which are caused by the limits of the computers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49475964))
- Prime software in its day (2 comments): "Both DivX and XviD are prime pieces of software but they live within unbridgeable limitations of the MPEG-4 ASP profile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49364338)) "Yes, DivX was the sh*t back in the day. So good!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359854))

## What people warn about

- MPEG-4 ASP shortcomings limit quality (2 comments): "Both DivX and XviD are prime pieces of software but they live within unbridgeable limitations of the MPEG-4 ASP profile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49364338)) "DivX and XviD both encode to MPEG-4 ASP which has a lot of shortcomings" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49360271))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [x264](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x264.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.divx.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "DivX", https://hackerapproved.com/p/divx/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).