On July 7, 2001, all Divx user accounts expired, and registered players could no longer play Divx discs. Some players were automatically decommissioned, while others were left in a quasi-registered state where they dialed out constantly, trying to contact a defunct billing system.

The players no longer have the internal software settings required for Divx playback. Essentially, there are no authorized titles in the title table (no valid keys) and the player is no longer authorized; either one is enough to prevent decryption.

If you try to use a Divx player and disc now, one of the following will happen:

1. If the player is fully decommissioned, meaning that it is has no leftover account settings, a screen will tell you the player must be registered with Divx to play the disc.
   
   
2. If the player was not decommissioned after the shutdown of the Divx billing system, the player will display an error screen telling you the device has a technical problem and you should contact Divx tech support to solve it.
   
   
3. If someone has tried to decommission the player after the billing system shut down and you try to play a Divx disc in it, you'll get a message telling you that the player needs to be connected to a phone line to contact Divx, because the player had to successfully contact the billing system for a final exchange of registration data. Connecting the player to a phone line will not solve the problem, because the Divx central billing system no longer exists, and even if it did, you'd end up with a decommissioned player, which would have to be re-registered to play Divx discs.
   
   
4. Some players sold after Divx was discontinued in June 1999 have had their Divx compatibility physically disabled; for example, a fellow I knew had a Panasonic player that had a crippler patch installed, which caused the player to reboot itself if the user attempted to play a Divx disc.

Note: if you have a player in state 3 or 4, keep it disconnected from the phone line, as it will dial out every few minutes in a vain attempt to contact the now-nonexistent billing system.

Divx discs were not intended for out-of-the-box unlimited play like DVD discs. They were only licensed for use in one limited viewing period. A Divx disc was issued one free viewing period during its lifetime, and after this had been used, further use of the disc required extra payment.

With the Divx central billing system gone, there is no way for a registered player to complete the billing cycle and audits, and therefore the internal security features have locked the Divx playback capability. Unregistered players are incapable of playing Divx discs, because they do not have the required settings in the secure onboard computer that drives the Divx playback capability.