Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mcnc!ecsgate!ecsvax!ruslan
From: ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Xetec CD-ROM drive
Keywords: CD-ROM, ISO 9660, SCSI, CD audio
Message-ID: <1990Oct28.043628.23763@uncecs.edu>
Date: 28 Oct 90 04:36:28 GMT
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 111


I have gotten some more information concerning the Xetec CD-ROM drives,
so I thought I'd pass it on.

There are two rather distinct sources for this info - one, a 10/17 phone 
call to Xetec, talking with "John" the "Sales Manager" and - two, a 
return letter dated 10/23 from Dave Nilson the Customer Service Technician.  
For obvious reasons most of my info is from the latter source.


Q - what about the filesystem, how does it get along with AmigaDOS, etc.?

A - They wrote a filesystem to the High Sierra/ISO 9660 specs... to Amiga
DOS it looks like a standard, but read-only, AmigaDOS partition (i.e. hard
disk device but read-only.)  The mountlist looks much like that for an FFS 
partition.  (Phone - It's normally called "CD0:", a SCSI device.)  

It doesn't need a DiskChange command sent when changing CDs; the filesystem
handles that stuff.

(Phone - Some SCSI controllers don't handle "SCSI command 28" well, and the
drive needs this.  Just in case you're worried about whether _your_ SCSI 
controller can get along with the SCSI the drive wants, the Xetec bbs 
supposedly has a "test your SCSI" program online that'll let you know whether 
the drive would be happy. [The bbs is (913)827-1974.]  The 2091 _should_ 
work...)


Q - Compatibility - OSes, CDTV?

A - The system and drivers are compatible with 1.3 and 2.0.  
(Phone - compatibility with 2.0 is working, sort of, but could perhaps 
stand some tweaking - some comment about "overlapping windows"...'Course,
it could be the sales manager that needs tweaking. ;^))

They haven't had a chance to test compatibility with CDTV, but they plan
on maintaining compatibility.  They support the mixed Audio and CD-ROM
formats, but they DON'T currently support the CDTV's CD+G format.

	
Q - Audio?

A - They provide an "Audio CD device" for accessing standard audio CDs.
You apparently can't (musn't?) access the CD audio data directly since
"all drives are prohibited from doing this due to copyright laws."  But...
	- there's a "CD Audio program" for "accessing" CD audio from the
drive (Phone - it's like a player, with screen representations of a normal
CD player's buttons.)
	- "We also provide commands that access the data from CD audio
disks directly from a programming level, via a device."

I'm not sure why they're fudging around here.  It could be that if it's
perceived as a "sample data off CDs" box - the computer equivalent of
needle-dropping - then the music lobby would break down their doors with
lawsuits.

The "device" could also just a CD audio equivalent of AmigaVision's 
videodisc player, where you can pre-set start and stop "frames", like by 
time tracking, and then send a command to play that audio segment when the 
user gets to X point in your program...  That would be nice to have.

Does anybody who better understands CD audio and computer interfaces for
them have comments on what Xetec might mean?


Q - Accessing data from current CD-ROMs?

A - You need to develop an Amiga software "engine."  (Translation - you
need to build your own info retrieval software.)  The Xetec folks are
looking into doing a few of these.

(Phone - text data can be accessed fine.  [He wanted to be sure that I
knew - ahem - that I couldn't run the Mac or PC retrieval software/binaries,
that might be on the CD ROMs, directly.]  Image files, of course, would 
need conversion to an IFF format from whatever they are stored in on the
CD-ROM, but are apparently not a problem in and of themselves either.)


Q - Hardware gory details?

A - Drive is made by Chinon.  It follows the Sony/Philips CD ROM drive
standards, and is CD Red Book and Yellow Book compatible.

Power supply in the external unit... has an AC wall adapter.  So, as 
long as you get some other wall adapter that can feed the unit "14 VAC/20 VA" 
you can use the drive elsewhere in the world.

No fan, doesn't need it anyway (this is probably a _good_thing_ considering 
the dust problems other optical-type drives have had.)

One year warrantee, from date of purchase, to original purchaser.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Details to save future bandwidth, from the October 90 AmigaWorld ad:

Internal drive is called the CDx650i, US $599.00, for 2000/3000.
External model is the CDx650e, US $699.00, for all models (assuming the
SCSI, of course.)

Phone numbers - Info (913)827-0685, orders (800)445-0611, 
fax (913)827-6023, bbs (913)827-1974.

Land address - Xetec, 2804 Arnold Road, Salina KS 67401

(...no I don't know of any net addresses for them.)

Disclaimer - don't have the drive, have never bought anything
from them, don't work for them... you get the idea.
-- 
Robin LaPasha              |Keeper of the Amiga
ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu   |Hypermedia Mailing List