Digital media firm DivX Inc. said this week it has granted its DivX certification to Matsushita (soon to be Panasonic) for its new Panasonic-brand Blu-ray Disc player (model DMP-BD30EG/EE). Panasonic said it’s the first such certified Blu-ray player to be sold in Europe and Russia.

The player, which is expected to hit retailers this month, will join several existing DivX-certified Panasonic products available globally—including its certified standard DVD players.

DivX compression can squeeze 1080i or 720p onto small standard-type DVDs, downconverting it to produce image quality said to be somewhere between HD and SD. DivX (Digital Video Express) refers to the MPEG-4 video compression standard, which boasts high quality and low bit rate. It was originally developed for DVD encoding.