BARCELONA—Rovi, the company behind online video service DivX, announced the launch of DivX Stash at Mobile World Congress this week. Stash acts as a sort of DVR system for web videos, allowing users to save videos and programs from all around the web in one spot to watch later, be it from their home computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet.
According to Rovi’s research, the number of Internet video users is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2016, with general video traffic taking up a large chunk of online activity. Stash helps people keep track of what they want to watch and organize it into playlists.
“DivX Stash is designed to alleviate the clutter and make the online video experience far more personalized and enjoyable by allowing consumers to build personal video playlists that can be enjoyed anywhere,” said Sebastian Braun, Rovi’s director of distribution and analysis.
I had a chance to play around with Stash at a demo on Wednesday, and though the live beta still has some issues—vertical scrolling on the iPad isn’t as smooth as it could be, and Facebook videos can’t be saved from places other than Timeline or News Feed—I found the system easy to use and liked having all of my content in one accessible spot. It feels like an Instapaper for video content.
You start by creating a Stash account and installing the browser extension through Chrome, Firefox, or Safari; in addition, you can download the accompanying apps onto your iOS or Android devices. Once everything is installed, start browsing videos, and you’ll notice a blue Stash button next to video players on common sites, including YouTube, Facebook, Funny or Die, Vimeo, Hulu, Daily Motion, and TED Talks. If you want to save something for later, hit the Stash button. Stash lets you organize your videos into different playlists for optimal organization—shows, movies, funny stuff, music, you name it. There’s currently no cap on the number of videos you can save.
Because Stash is cloud-based, adding a video via your browser will also add it to your mobile device—and vice versa—as long as you have the app installed on your phone or tablet and linked through the same account. You can drag-and-drop videos in a different order, delete them at will, or mark them as played, and all of the changes will sync across devices.
DivX Stash is currently in an open beta, and is available as a free app for iOS and Android, or as a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.