I wouldn’t say it didn’t get a chance to shine (unless you’re being pedantic and referring strictly to the official spec) - it’s various implementations such as DivX and XviD were widely used and extremely popular on the web back then. Yes, even though DVDs and DVD writers became common, internet speeds were still too slow and uncapped internet was fairly uncommon, so most people preferred to download those 700MB rips. In fact, aXXo’s 700MB XviD rips were extremely popular due to their relatively high quality for those sizes, and anyone who’s sailed the high seas back then would tell you that DivX/XviDs generally had the highest seeds for any given video, thereby indicating their popularity.
DivX-certified media players were also a thing for this very reason - and they weren’t even obscure, pretty much every popular HT OEMs had DivX-compatible players - eg Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Philips, Pioneer etc. And this was back in the early 2000s, so I wouldn’t say that the support came “rather later”. DivX (the first official release, not the bootleg version with the winky face), along with XviD, were born in 2001, and certified hardware players followed only a couple of years later. But don’t forget that HTPCs were also a thing back then, heck, they date back to the late 90s when PC makers started selling PCs with TV tuner or “combo” cards buit in, and I recall them being specifically marketed as HTPCs. Even after DVD players became cheap and popular, HTPCs were still preferred by the enthusiast crowd due to better video quality, wider codec support and flexibility. Essentially, playing ASPs was never really a big deal for people who consumed the format.
So overall, I’d say that ASP not only shined, it dominated. Without ASP, groups like aXXo would’ve probably not existed, and the scene would’ve looked very, very different.
I wouldn’t say it didn’t get a chance to shine (unless you’re being pedantic and referring strictly to the official spec) - it’s various implementations such as DivX and XviD were widely used and extremely popular on the web back then. Yes, even though DVDs and DVD writers became common, internet speeds were still too slow and uncapped internet was fairly uncommon, so most people preferred to download those 700MB rips. In fact, aXXo’s 700MB XviD rips were extremely popular due to their relatively high quality for those sizes, and anyone who’s sailed the high seas back then would tell you that DivX/XviDs generally had the highest seeds for any given video, thereby indicating their popularity.
DivX-certified media players were also a thing for this very reason - and they weren’t even obscure, pretty much every popular HT OEMs had DivX-compatible players - eg Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Philips, Pioneer etc. And this was back in the early 2000s, so I wouldn’t say that the support came “rather later”. DivX (the first official release, not the bootleg version with the winky face), along with XviD, were born in 2001, and certified hardware players followed only a couple of years later. But don’t forget that HTPCs were also a thing back then, heck, they date back to the late 90s when PC makers started selling PCs with TV tuner or “combo” cards buit in, and I recall them being specifically marketed as HTPCs. Even after DVD players became cheap and popular, HTPCs were still preferred by the enthusiast crowd due to better video quality, wider codec support and flexibility. Essentially, playing ASPs was never really a big deal for people who consumed the format.
So overall, I’d say that ASP not only shined, it dominated. Without ASP, groups like aXXo would’ve probably not existed, and the scene would’ve looked very, very different.