I’m just going to say it: I hate YouTube, but have yet to find anything worthy enough to replace it. I like it’s huge collection of videos, but the fact that people spam video tags so badly that searching for a video can sometimes bring up posts with hundreds of categories with no relation to the desired result makes me want to rebel against humanity.

With the introduction of the beta for DivX Stage6, web video just got better looking. By using the slick interface and tools provided by the DivX format, up to 1080P resolution, and the ability to download the videos for viewing on other devices such as a DivX compatible DVD player, Stage6 could be another big contender for YouTube. This video can attest to the quality that is available from the site:

More details inside

As Web TV Hub puts it:

* High Quality video – DivX is well known for its effective compression technology that keeps files sizes small but video quality high. This means you can watch high quality video on Stage6 without having to wait for it to download first. DivX supports HD up to 1080p.
* Great design - It is definitely one of the hottest looking video portals on the net.
* Widescreen video player - The videos are shown in widescreen 16:9 ratio and can be quickly viewed in true full screen mode and also launched in their own window.
* Stage6 TagsSearch tags within tags – Each video comes with tags to describe what the video is, these tags are searchable. This in itself is not that unique but Stage6 also allows you to search tags within tags, so for example you could search for videos tagged as Music and also tagged with Classical. This feature could be made clearer on the site, you need to click the little arrow and plus sign next to the tags.
* Stage6 HotnessWhat’s hot – Based on user reviews, ratings and other criteria Stage6 is able to arrange videos by hotness.
* Branded Channels – Stage6 allows video producers to have their own customizable channel which they can brand. The channel features all their videos, their own blog, a forum, pictures and a list of subscribers.
* Stage6 downloadDownload Videos – A simple but great feature! You can download the videos to your computer’s hard drive and do what ever you want with it. DivX recognize that if you can watch it for free online, then why the hell not let you download it for free too. Stage6 gracefully gives you that freedom. The download button is next to the play button on videos as shown above to the right.
* Consumer Electronics – After downloading your videos you are able to watch them on any of the 70 million DivX compatible electronic devices including DVD players, cell phones and portable media players.
* Universal Search – Well you can search videos, nothing really surprising here.
* Community - A growing community for content creators and video lovers to network, share ideas and broadcast videos.
* Your Stage - Each registered Stage6 user has a personal ‘My Stage’ page where they can receive watch alerts, upload and organize videos, post on their own blog, and create and manage channels. The rest of the community can view other people’s stages.
* Stage6-KarmaKarma – What goes around comes around and Stage6 has a number of ways to measure people’s Karma which is publicly viewable. Good is rewarded and bad is punished. Those good users have a more profound effect on the site, for example their ratings will be worth more.
* Fighting Tag abuse – Have you seen completely irrelevant tags posted along with videos on sites like YouTube just so that video gets some extra visitors? On Stage6 content creators can remove inaccurate tags and community members can vote for a tag’s relevancy.
* Recommendation Feature – As a member of Stage6 the site will present you with videos that it recommends, based on your own use of the site and the actions of users with tastes similar to yours.
* Quick and Easy publish tools – Stage6 has worked hard to make uploading video a painless process. You can even upload multiple videos at once.
* Publicize your Brand – Marketing tools such as promotional spotlights, pass-along features (e.g. video greetings, friend invites), widgets, and affiliate programs can be leveraged not only to attract viewers, but to turn them into loyal fans. Monetization features for video producers are in the works.
* Great for serious video producers - HD resolution video, Unlimited file size and Unlimited number of videos per account

1080P over the internet sounds great to me, since I am growing tired of pixelated YouTube videos with links to download the high-resolution versions from some site. Streaming HD is the new sliced bread.

**UPDATE**

This video is another good example of the quality of DivX web players:

1. L.T. says:
   April 23rd, 2007 at 3:02 pm

   It does look nice but the real question is how easy is it to customize? Also if web designers don’t support it, you can forget about Adobe making their web software compatible with it.

   I’m still betting on Microsoft Silverlight or the new streaming version of Quicktime since they both don’t require you to reencode into another format.

2. DeusPayne says:
   April 23rd, 2007 at 4:07 pm

   ??? So, converting it to wmv or qt is different than encoding in divx?

   ANYwho… youtube is the devil, and if anything does end up replacing it, I hope it’s this. Divx is the one and only format that should ever be used for anything. (I emphasize for effect) But… divix is definitely the shit. Nice to see that I might actually accept web embedded videos for as something more than a bygone relic of internet porn infancy. When videos were such shitty quality that you had to watch from 20 feet away just so the 4 pixils on the screen would blend into something reminiscent of a nipple. 1080p, and the ability to download them and play them back on all this divx ready software/hardware that i already have… ftw

3. DeusPayne says:
   April 23rd, 2007 at 4:13 pm

   PS: “DivX recognize that if you can watch it for free online, then why the hell not let you download it for free too”

4. www.greatmarketingstuff.com/blog says:
   April 23rd, 2007 at 8:13 pm

   This site give’s a clear information to us,although here i am liking u a relevant site to get more details.

   online marketing

5. moclippa says:
   April 23rd, 2007 at 9:03 pm

   I’ve been using this for a while now, on and off… seeing as they haven’t developed a strong enough base of content to keep me coming back often yet. The divx player itself is also quite buggy and can often be prone to crashes if you are not gentle with it. Which gets me thinking… why the hell do I care about Microsofts 720p response to Adobe, when I already have Divx stage6 hitting 1080p already? screw the games, we’re talking video programming here.

   What they need to be doing is offering better viral advertising to get more customers on board, since its caused little stir, and also include features to allow for quick and simple transfers of youtube video to their site, so they can get more content up right quick. Some other flash upstarts have used the latter tactic to get more content faster, why shouldn’t Stage6?

6. nyphonejacks says:
   July 28th, 2007 at 9:14 am

   I also noticed the buggy divx player, however you can use other players to open divx files, like WMP, which i am using for all of my downloaded divx movies… i thought perhaps the ocassional crash of the divx player might be caused by some compatibility issues with vista, as the encoder software on there site does not yet support vista…

   I have used stage6.divx.com and also veoh.com for all of my online video needs, the quality is at least as good as DVD, I can store the files locallay on my hard drive, or burn DVDs not to mention how many hollywood movies are available in high quality on these site, unlike youtube, or google video