DIVX/XVID is ambiguous, it is a video format and separately a crappy DRM ecosystem from defunct Circuit City. The format DIVX would compress a full length movie to about 700MB (a CD capacity), where VCD MPEG-1 only got 75-80 minutes. LaserDisc owners were already trying to solve the disc-change interruption problem with premium two sided players. The format was also better to watch, in that the compression artifacts were less obvious. But the Rights Holders at the time, like for music, were more concerned with piracy, even though everything they did would make the consumer experience worse and drive more piracy. DIVX the DRM is a great example of an anti-consumer consumer format, and environmentally wasteful too as the plastic disc became "spent" after 30 days.

Don't forget the discs that had the special coating on them so that they would become unplayable after 30 days.

Why pay to watch unskippable warnings about piracy when you could pirate and never see such crap?

As I thought I reall should had specified what I meant DivX ;) 3.11 and the later derivatives. No restrictions and from a some year - even a built-in support in the hardware CD/DVD VCRs