Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!news.cs.indiana.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!mcnc!taco!hobbes!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: CDTV vs CD-I again (long) Message-ID: <1991Apr10.104048.20534@ncsu.edu> Date: 10 Apr 91 10:40:48 GMT References: <1991Apr8.085845.24662@ncsu.edu> <1085@cbmger.UUCP> Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 89 In <1085@cbmger.UUCP> peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY) writes: In article <1991Apr8.085845.24662@ncsu.edu> kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes: > >>> The advantage that CDTV has is that it is an Amiga. It has the whole >>> library of Amiga software if you add a diskdrive. >> >> Yes, I've said many times that this is a slight advantage IF it allows >>CDTV titles to be more easily created. So far that's not very clear. > > Oh, developers already received long ago the guidelines how to make up > a normal Amiga for a CDTV development platform. It's easy. Hi Peter. The context was, "more easily created" than CD-I titles. But perhaps I should've also added, "quality titles": Just putting an application or game onto a CDROM disc is something you can do for almost any brandname computer... that's nothing special, and has little to do with the unique concept of consumer Interactive TV titles. Good titles require a lot of data-gathering, manipulation, programming and scripting. I mean a _lot_. You'll need good-quality sound and video digitizing, artists, programmers, managers... it's like shooting a movie. To check on progress, you'll also really want a good CDROM emulator. So it is still unclear if a group using Amiga hardware and software can create a quality title "easier" than a group using CD-I authoring systems. And tho the Amiga hardware is cheaper for now, it's the time which costs. >> But they might care that CDTV is incompatible with all other players. > > The CDTV is NOT "incompatible with all other players". Not long from now, when a potential customer walks into a store he will see a selection of CD-I players from Sony, Magnavox, RCA, Panasonic, JVC, Sharp, Sanyo, Pioneer, Yamaha, Matsushita and others. These players will all be compatible with each other, and come in a variety of prices, extra features, and styles. They will also have superior graphics (and it sure sounds like superior titles). So yes, I think that early CDTV buyers might later care that they're incompatible with all of the above. I don't debate that many Commodore fanatics will buy CDTV units. But I suspect that even they will end up also getting CD-I players in the end. After all, aren't all Amiga owners staunch advocates of superior, affordable technology?? > It's one of the plusses of AmigaOS that you can use various file systems. > So the CDTV CAN read HighSierra AND ISO9660 (or what was the number). File systems mean nothing. It's the data & code on the discs that matter ;-) > And as CD-I runs also on 680x0, perhaps someone succedes to do an emulator > of a CD-I system? (Ok, sounds difficult, as they also have many custom > chips, but who knows.) Difficult, yes. How would an Amiga emulate a dual playfield of: 120-color realtime color RLE animation overlaid on a 150,000-color DYUV background? OTOH, it might be possible to create some kind of addon board. Not sure. > And perhaps someone also ports IBeM, the new PC emulator, to the CDTV > and then we can use all the PC CD-ROMs. Or how about AMAX on the CDTV > and running Mac CD-ROMs? I think you get the picture: Amiga is the world > champion of emulations, and so is CDTV (or will be). I'm afraid that you have pretty much missed the point of these players, which is to bring interactive TV into homes as a standard A/V component. Even CBM acknowledges this with the way they don't allow CDTVs to be shown next to Amigas or other computers. People are going to buy interactive TV units in order to be entertained. You do NOT buy a home A/V component in order to access data on the discs you mentioned... you buy a personal computer with a CDROM drive. And when you talk about using an expanded player, you're no longer talking about "CDTV"... you're talking about using an Amiga computer with a CDROM drive: >> Yet the major sticking point to me still is: it would make more sense >> to buy an Amiga and add a CDROM drive, than to buy a CDTV and then add >> on the disk drive, keyboard, mouse, etc... if expansion is your plan. > > Yes, all possible in the future, I believe. But sure much more expensive > than a plain CDTV plus perhaps a disk drive and a keyboard. > Hmm, let's see... :-) I sure hope not :-). I would much prefer a CDROM drive on my Amiga which could make use of disc data, and even play some CDTV discs... than to buy a CDTV player and add keyboard, mouse, floppy, hard drive, memory, etc. Regards - kevin (semi-reluctant devil's advocate :-)