In the era of seamless 4K streaming from Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, it’s easy to forget the awkward teenage years of digital video. Before the term "streaming" became a household name, there was a format war, a controversial rental model, and a tiny piece of software called DivX VOD .

DivX VOD was the Betamax of online rentals: technologically superior to early streaming, but ultimately defeated by convenience. Do you have an old DivX Certified DVD player collecting dust? With a USB stick and the right software, you can still use DivX VOD principles to watch modern video files on it today.

Today, the DivX brand still exists (owned by Fortune 4 Global), focusing on video codecs and conversion software. But the "VOD" part is a ghost—a reminder of the bridge era between physical discs and the cloud.