Some ideas are fantastic – betamax tapes, Concorde, HD YouTube. Some ideas are short-lived – betamax tapes, Concorde and HD YouTube.
Unfortunately, Stage6 is one of those ideas. DivX has decided to close the door on the next-generation high definition media portal. Videos on Stage6.com will be available for viewing and download through February 28, 2008. DivX will work with certain content publishers to migrate content to alternative web distribution platforms.
More info after the jump>
According to Engadget, Stage6 just became too expensive to run.
Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. said “By no longer expending resources on Stage6, we sharpen our focus on creating a global standard for digital video” – so, business as usual for DivX, sans Stage6.
It’s a shame that such a great idea failed to meet expectations, but when bandwidth, storage, and processing power is cheaper, I expect a similar system will come around, maybe even YouTube will start officially hosting HD content itself. In the meantime, there’s always Vuze.
Graham
