I-O Data announced that the AveL LinkPlayer (AVLP1/DVD) DVD player is now DivX certified. The DVD player was released a couple of months ago in Japan and supports network communication with personal computer via Ethernet equipment, being able to process video, music and photograph data in DivX, XviD, MP3/WMA and JPEG formats.

It is the first time that “DivX Certification” logo of DivX Networks is acquired for stand-alone DVD players. The new firmware that will apply the DivX capabilities to the DVD player will be released by the end of March.

The firmware apart from applying the newest functions of DivX Certification, will also apply network hard disk and flash memory communication ability.

In addition, although there is no software which can create DivX files, it is due to be released by the end of this year from DivX Networks.

There is no further information regarding American or European release of the product.