According to an agreement signed by the two companies

Oct 17, 2008 19:11 GMT  ·  By

The popularity of the DivX format has grown quite a lot over the past couple of years, most movies and video clips "floating" around on the Internet being encoded using this format or one of its derivatives. Given its popularity, some of the most important manufacturers of audio/video equipment have begun designing and licensing products that support DivX playback right out of the box, one of these companies being Samsung, which has, however, decided to take things a step further.

Thus, Samsung has officially announced the fact that a number of its future HDTV sets will provide DivX video playback right out of the box. This is not the first collaboration between DivX and Samsung, since the Korean company has got a whole range of products that support this format, namely all sorts of DVD players, mobile phones and more. Nevertheless, it's quite an interesting one, since it guarantees the fact that, in the future, users will be able to play DivX files stored onto USB flash drives or via Ethernet connection certified by DLNA.

DivX Inc. seems to be extremely happy with Samsung's choice, as Kevin Hell, the company's CEO, declares: "As an innovator in the consumer electronics space, Samsung has already embraced DivX functionality in a wide variety of products and we’re pleased to extend our already strong relationship to the digital television category. DivX Certified digital televisions enable consumers to easily enjoy the high-quality content they create or discover on the PC in a true home theatre environment."

On the other side, Samsung's statement is a bit more reserved: "We are dedicated to providing the most compelling media experience through Samsung TV and AV devices. The addition of DivX support to our line of digital televisions will significantly enhance the consumer experience," commented Kyungshik Lee, vice president of Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics.

The first TV sets from Samsung featuring DivX support will arrive in stores next year, but no precise price ranges or models have been pointed out for the time being.

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