DivX to shut down Stage6 video sharing service

by Brad Linder Feb 25th 2008

DivX has announced plans to shut down its video hosting service Stage6 on February 28th. As of this morning, the company has disabled the uploading feature, but if there's a few videos you've been meaning to watch, you've only got a few days to cross them off your list.

Stage6 never really got the kind of attention that its competitors like YouTube and DailyMotion have. But Stage6 has supported high definition video streaming longer than almost anyone else. Their video player is slick and easy to use, and we can only hope that another company will license the technology.

Last year DivX considered selling Stage6 or spinning the service off as a private company, but neither option seemed economically feasible. The company has now decided that it can't justify the cost of running the bandwidth-heavy service and instead will focus on working with hardware makers to deliver DivX-certified devices like media extenders, DVD players, and video game consoles.

[via Electronista]

Tags: divx, stage6, tweet-this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

kingkool68 said 11:16AM on 2-25-2008

I always liked Stage6 but you know I never really went there. It's kind of hard to spread virally when you require a DivX web player plugin to watch the good stuff. Looks like we are finally seeing some corrections to the video hosting industry.

Axe said 1:20PM on 2-25-2008

Crap! there goes joox.net!!!

R said 2:00PM on 2-25-2008

I don't think anyone is surprised here. Flash is king. Most users don't want to take the time to install plug-ins and codecs to watch random videos. Now we just need to wait for Silverlight to die.

anon said 2:47PM on 2-25-2008

true silverlight needs to die, but divx actually made for a better player than flash due to the high quality it could deliver without taking ages to load. If no one can be bothered to install more addons then what does that say for progress. Flash may be king but I'd rather have divx delivering video quicker and in higher quality.

hazard said 7:36AM on 2-26-2008

"Most users don't want to take the time to install plug-ins and codecs to watch random videos"

That's right .. I know most users personally (my facebook account tells me so) and they all refuse to use plugins of any sort ;)

hito said 3:27PM on 2-25-2008

Flash is plain horrible. horrible quality, horrible sound.
Yeah it takes a few seconds to load a video on youtube but why? I can unplug my cable and turn on my tv if I wanted horrible grainy snow.

archpope said 4:29PM on 2-25-2008

Another major problem was the DivX player plugin itself. Despite having DivX already installed on my computer, Stage6 told me I needed a DivX plugin anyway. I tried on many occasions to install it, but it never worked. Even the manual install failed. That's the part of Flash that DivX really needed to compete with: the "it just plain works" factor.

PsypheR said 4:36PM on 2-25-2008

Stage 6 was born prematurely. It had great offers in terms of hosting high quality videos, but not much going for it beyond that. Even the site's name is awkward, if not horrible (appending a number to a word?).

There was a study done that suggested that most people did not care so much about the quality when viewing a short clip. Stage 6 is slower for most of us because it is a larger, yet quality-high, format. Most people would also participate in YouTube as that is where all the attention and focus is at. The name has become synonymous with online video. You also had to install the DivX web player plugin to view the videos...

Knowing that most people have no clue what DivX is, they normally tend to see it as some malicious and suspicious program. They will think, "Why do I have to install this? YouTube let's me watch without installing." Again, ignorance is all but uncommon in the world of technology...

I enjoyed the site for music videos. It seemed the site was a festering breeding ground for anime fans and drama lovers. Websites were extended unofficially from that site to support movie piracy, and that is where it hurted Stage 6 the most. Oh boy, imagine how much bandwidth they lost from that! You know how much bandwidth means to them when they actively deleted pornographic material and pirated movies!

I will say, though, that I am very surprised Stage 6 lasted this long. I applaud them for trying something new. I hope to see another site adopt the player and become successful, but I feel it is still early to profit from it.

PsypheR said 4:39PM on 2-25-2008

Duval said 7:35AM on 2-26-2008

All good things come to an end, but this is an especially hard hit for those of us with XBMC (xbox media centers) that we rely on stage6 for High Quality video on, i can still watch youtube videos on it, but its just not the same..

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) said 7:32AM on 2-27-2008

NOOOOOO!!!!! i loved Stage6! it was a great place to get my illegally downloaded.....uh.....great place to watch great videos! its ashame its kicking the bucket. the quality was always light years better than YouTube. i seriously wish YouTube would release a YouTubeHD or something to heal my wounds cause i can only watch so many grainy viral videos. once you've had HD, everything else just doesnt seem to cut it.

savestage6 said 7:38AM on 2-27-2008

Please people sign the petition enter to:

http://www.savestage6.com

Time is running!

James Churchman said 11:47AM on 2-27-2008

http://www.petitiononline.com/pros599/petition.html

shuki said 6:15AM on 2-28-2008

are you guys crazy?
I read every single comment and I just don't believe it!!
not even 1 good thing to say about "stage6.com"?? - you are out of your mind!!
this is by far (away) the best site ever to watch videos online!! the quality and content..
what is the alternative?? the borring crappy clips on youtube?? - O please.. no!! please...
I'm just sure that stage6 is going to up and running in less than a month, its just a trick they pull for the one they are intersted to buy them..
they are for sure the best thing happened on the net in the last year - and for sure "playing" with the market just because they can..
they'll get there... you'll see.. just give it a few seconds!
(they already have after all)..
its 28 of feb 2008. today and I guarentee you in 10 years they will still be here!!! bigger than ever..
you'll see..

KARBGHAZI said 8:18AM on 3-01-2008

The best site ever which provided whole high quality vids and was too great a resource of entertainment where you can find anything is finally gone.I loved stage6 and youtube is nothing compared to stage6 offering very low quality videos.I hope stage6 comes back or more sites like it.We miss you stage6

Doofus said 3:14PM on 3-01-2008

LOL...Skuku...they took the entire site offline today (as promised) and I know for a fact they were deleting content off the servers beginning last night and well into today.

It's over. Stage6 is gone and that makes me sad. I LOVED STAGE6!!!! I have NO idea what all you dorkaloids are talking about with xtra plugins and blah blah blah blah blah. Divx has proliferated the PLANET! 90% of folks already have it installed and if not, it's a very fast and totally painless installation. The quality was orgasmic. The content was ethereal. I would give my left nut to have them stick around...but they're dead now. Gone forever.

LOL..you'll see. I see alright...they're GONE! pbbbbttttttt!!

tom said 4:17PM on 3-01-2008

I'm sad about the close down of stage6. It was the best site to get videos.

Jess said 12:58AM on 3-02-2008

Keep Stage 6 Alive!

http://stage6.forumer.com

The Stage6 DivX Community Forum is online now for all stage 6 members to stay in touch and keep up to date with whats going on, hopefully we can work together here and keep the community alive and get stage 6 going again. Thanks to all the great uploaders and posters and stage 6 members that are the people that made stage 6 the best site on the net.

Keep in touch here,and please pass the address on to other ex stage6 members you know, stage6 was a massive community and there were lots of online friends and contacts surrounding stage6.

http://stage6.forumer.com

Arleen said 8:37AM on 3-02-2008

I really loved Stage6 just because of the good animes and movies for free at great quality.
I am really going to miss it :((

The Joker said 6:21PM on 3-02-2008

Don't worry, Google will buy Divx and everything will be alright....

No really im serious. Maybe the problem with Divx is that it didnt get enough financial backing from bigger, more powerful companies. Perhaps if a better company buys it, it could revolutionize the video-sharing industry for years to come. Imagine, high-def movies on my cell phone in less than 500 mbs....

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