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From: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: CDTV's are here.
Message-ID: <46908@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 9 Apr 91 09:37:14 GMT
References: <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> <9746@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <8441@crash.cts.com> <1991Apr8.042803.11141@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <18107@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
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In article <18107@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cleland@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Thomas Cleland) writes:

[Re: CDTV using a cartridge transport for the discs.]
>I wondered why that cartridge deal was there in the first place,
>rather than a regular CD-player style drawer.  I was told that 
>the cartridge system adheres to the CD-I standard, such as it 
>is, presumably with intent to make CDTV compatible with CD-I
>whenever the latter should see fit to exist.  

Actually, those shuttered cartridges are what normal audio CDs should have
used in the first place.  In mass production I doubt they would have effected
the price by more than a dollar.  

One major reason they use the shuttered jewel boxes is to protect the discs.
You see, you can scratch an audio CD and possibly suffer no audible loss in
performance.  Generally, a CD player can make up for the errors.  However, a
scratch on a CD-ROM could be much more fatal to the disc.  If you damage
graphic or audio data, you get trash.  If you damage executable code, you're
lost.  Of course, I expect that many users will only own a handful of the
shuttered cases and software vendors will save a buck and use the standard
jewel boxes, so you lose most of the safety of the shuttered case.
Theoretically, though, there should be no reason for a CD to be ever touched
by human hands.

>Is this true?  What say the Wise Ones?

I doubt it has anything to do with CD-I.  Such cases have existed for quite a
while, primarily used by CD-ROM drives.  

>-- 
>Thom Cleland         // 
>tcleland@ucsd.edu  \X/   I'm having fun now.

Greg

-- 
       Greg Harp       |"How I wish, how I wish you were here.  We're just two
                       |lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year,
greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu|running over the same ground.  What have we found?
  s609@cs.utexas.edu   |The same old fears.  Wish you were here." - Pink Floyd