Stage6 goodbye...

[0100]

Well Stage6 is gone. Sad day, they had great looking video by using DivX. http://www.stage6.com/

On this note am I the only one who hates youtube? I am not talking recently, I have hated the crap video quality/resolution for years now. I have been doing flash web design for a long time, years before youtube was even around and could get way better quality and compression rates even back then, using squeeze. http://www.sorensonmedia.com/

At least we still have sites like.

http://blip.tv/ (.flv, .mp4, .wmv, .avi)
http://eyevio.jp/
http://www.vimeo.com/
http://crackle.com/
http://www.veoh.com/

[WilloW]

No its not, I think the email/message was a hack. I looked at your message then immediately signed into Stage6 just to watch something stupid, and its still working.

[HyperTek]

it says it on the home page though...
unless they are fooling whoever told em to shut it down by maybe no more updates to the site

[supad0rk]

I read it when I tried to go on to their site, it is the homepage if you click on it from a google search. They say you can still view videos but no new uploads will be allowed. As far as i have seen there have been no new vids posted up recently =( I loved stage6 because it was all high quality vids

I feel like an ass for not contributing now

[Tops*]

Yeah, I'm confused about this too. I went on a downloading spree for nothing?

[hustlervibes]

Why did I have to find out about Stage6 late...

I tried watching a couple vids, but some of them won't load. So they probably really are going away.

[S14DB]

I'm Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I'm writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you'll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I'd like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it's possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it's really as simple as that.

Now, why didn't we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That's a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high-quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren't providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high-quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn't continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high-quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore
strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won't (and can't, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.

So that's where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high-quality video to a
wide audience, and we'll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format.

It's been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

--Tom

[WilloW]

Damn, this suck. Stage6 is one the few things that keep me entertained. Oh well, all good thing must come to an end.

[0100]

I hope it was a hack. I don't see why someone wouldn't buy it, if it had to be put up for sale.

[Pank]

b/c it costs a fuck ton of money to stream out that amount of data. they probably flat out couldnt make it up with ad revenue

[HyperTek]

divx rocked too.. i burned a few vids onto dvdr from stage6 and they work great in my dvd player

[S14DB]

I hope it was a hack. I don't see why someone wouldn't buy it, if it had to be put up for sale.

They were hacked about a month ago and all their code was compromised. They were also sued by universal for some of the stuff that was uploaded. it was a 1-2 that finally killed them all though they had been looking to sell it off since last summer.

Thing that really killed them is that DIVX is a closed format. Even though it has been toughly hacked into XVID and is the major format for movie pirating. You still need a license for DIVX.

No YouTube style site is going to use a format you have to have a license on. Flash/Quicktime/WMP all have much more open distribution agreements.

Unless DIVX gets their head out of their ass thinking their shit don't smell no one is going to adopt their tech. Stage6 was a great demonstrator of their product. But at the end of the day no one is going to pay for it. Unless they open the project back up and get a better business model no one is going to invest in them.

[ManoNegra]

Bandwith is a killer.
HD streaming sites are still a bit off, the Youtube model - adverstising - just can't support it.
Copyright owners are getting more serious about protecting their intellectual property.. etc. etc.

On this note am I the only one who hates youtube? I am not talking recently, I have hated the crap video quality/resolution for years now. I have been doing flash web design for a long time, years before youtube was even around and could get way better quality and compression rates even back then, using squeeze. http://www.sorensonmedia.com/


Probably has to do more with an issue of volume as opposed to quality. Sure Youtube could provide better resoluition, bittrates and longer videos but why when there business model is built around page views?

oh, On2 Technologies flash codec > sorenson spark codec as far as compression/bittrate/quality goes.

[0100]

On2 Technologies flash codec is great, but I was talking in the past, years before youtube was even a thought, I was using squeeze.

b/c it costs a fuck ton of money to stream out that amount of data. they probably flat out couldnt make it up with ad revenue

lol I own a web hosting company, I think I know that. I never said it didn't, I said it has to be worth something. Shit they could sell it for $5 and still be better off, that's five dollars they didn't have before. lol Did you see the page now, it has a link to veoh... hmm http://www.veoh.com/stage6.html

I agree with you S14DB, DivX's closed format has kept it from growing into something that could have been great. People have been saying that for years.

DivX has been around forever it seems, yet most people have never even heard of it, and will most likely stay that way, and eventually die off.

Eventually youtube will be HD as storage and bandwidth prices drop everyday. Only a matter of time.

[ManoNegra]

On2 Technologies flash codec is great, but I was talking in the past, years before youtube was even a thought, I was using squeeze.

DivX has been around forever it seems, yet most people have never even heard of it, and will most likely stay that way, and eventually die off.

Same here, I really liked it's work flow, filter implementation and handling of batches. Just never liked it's flash output even with the new version that supports On2 VP6, buggy as hell.
Wow, I've yet to meet an internet/computer user that hasn't heard of DiVX.

[0100]

I mean normal computer internet users, not hardcore users. I bet if you went to a public place, say the mall and do a poll. 99% use the internet, but I bet 75% don't even know what DivX is or does. Just my opinion. "DivX what? Oh you mean DVD's yeah I know what those are..."

[ManoNegra]

lol.. probably right.. just some stuff I take for granted.

[0100]

I know I am the same way, then I talk to someone and they are like, what the hell language are you speaking. lol

[Bubbles]

I'm pretty sure I've watched every Option, Hot Version, and Drift Tengoku they had on there.

Good times.