[Ghitulescu]

My point was that no manufacturer would have dared to launch a product supporting a codec/format/file whose legal status was uncertain. And certainly, most AVIs created before comprising divx video, as well as divx files created before divxn provided a licence basis, would not play (correctly) on those players, and they have to be reencoded to specs.

In other words, if I would have created an MKV off my hobby video, discarded the originals, convinced that this file would play onto the players at that date, and today, because the MKV changed its specs, won't play anymore, I am stuck. The old, compatible players might be broken, so I have to reencode the file or whatever other manipulation, that might affect the quality, my storage space and my time.

That is the danger of forcing upgrades to "stabilised" formats.
I hope it'^s clear now.

It does not concern those that "save space" allegedly ripping BDs into a space saving MKV of 2 or 4 GB. They should have the initial files at hand, as well as the time to do whatever they want. It concerns people that invested into a format.