The Microsoft codec originally required that the compressed output be put in an ASF file. The video codec, which was actually not MPEG-4 compliant, was extracted around 1998 by French hacker Jerome Rota (also known as Gej) at Montpellier. ĭivX -) (not DivX) 3.11 Alpha and later 3.xx versions refers to a hacked version of the Microsoft MPEG-4 Version 3 video codec (not to be mistaken with MPEG-4 Part 3) from Windows Media Tools 4 codecs. The company dropped the smiley and released DivX 4.0, which was actually the first DivX version, trademarking the word, DivX. Although not created by them, the DivX company adopted the name of the popular DivX -) codec. The winking emoticon in the early ' DivX -)' codec name was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the DIVX system.
The 'DivX' brand is distinct from 'DIVX', a former video rental system developed by Circuit City Stores which required special discs and players to function.
