Farewell Stage6
It's a sad day when a true video streaming service closes its doors. Stage6 has publically been given the axe. As of February 28, 2008 the website will officially be off line. Apparently, DivX could not find a buyer or successful create a private company out of Stage6 and is forced to close it in response to a myriad of issues -- one of which is just the ridiculous amount of money required to run such a service.
Stage6 was（technically still is) a great site to watch video online especially for video quality nuts like me. Let it be said, YouTube sucks. The video quality is crap, Flash sucks (due to usage limitations and quality issues), and the limitations on YouTube's service stinks (what can you do with 10 minutes).
Stage6 offered a home to independent film makers and more importantly, a way to watch various media in decently quality, pretty much immediately.
Now, recently, I haven't been much of a DivX fan (I'm more into mp4 and ogg now-a-days) but you have to give credit where credit is due. DivX has become a very solid form of video compression. Stage6, although initially not much, became quite the impressive internet video destination. This shouldn't be happening. YouTube and Veoh should be shutting down. The world is a messed up place boys and girls.
I dreamed of a day when DivX would unite Stage6 and DivX mobile in to the ultimate video empire. Alas, that day may never come. Let us hope one day Stage6 returns from the ashes.