Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu!rjc From: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) Subject: Re: What the heck IS "Interactive TV"? (long) Message-ID: <1991Apr12.131236.5282@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: news@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu Organization: The Internet References: <1991Apr11.090415.5276@ncsu.edu> <1991Apr11.143222.13728@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Apr12.022130.3180@ncsu.edu> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 13:12:36 GMT Lines: 34 In article <1991Apr12.022130.3180@ncsu.edu> kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes: >In <1991Apr11.143222.13728@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> > rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes: >I can accept most other arguments to back any system, but to actually >promote less capable hardware for the masses because of lame brandname >loyalty, is not what I expected, especially _here_ of all places. > >It's a little disappointing. And scary. sadly - kev The problem is, I don't think CD-I's hardware is all that great. What happens when the market gets littered with this CD-I "standard"? It will be hard for any other machine to get on the market. What about when CD drives improve in a few years and get better transfer rates? HDTV? What about cheap MPEG chips and 24bit color vs RLE compression? What about having a 68040 as the standard processor onboard? You see, CD-I doesn't make any significant improvements in graphics rendering, or CD-ROM technology. Instead, it's been kludged on top of the old hardware except for a few VLSI chips. It doesn't even have a blitter as standard. I bet CD-I games will fall very short of Amiga games. All the faults CD-I has, CDTV also has. The reason I'd rather have a less capable machine promoted ahead of a mediocre machine because what's good for Commodore (profit) is good for the Amiga. If those big Japanese companies would have developed a better CD-ROM drive perhaps transfer rates would have been fast enough for HDTV when it arrives. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu | // The opinions expressed here do not in any way | | uunet!tnc!m0023 | \X/ reflect the views of my self. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+