Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!aelric From: aelric@aix01.aix.rpi.edu (John S Schroder) Subject: CDTV impression and marketing (NOT!) Message-ID: Keywords: cdtv marketing Nntp-Posting-Host: aix01srv.aix.rpi.edu Date: 28 May 91 16:23:42 GMT Lines: 59 Hello All! Recently I was introduced to a Commmodore Dynamic Total Vision, CDTV for short. The only reason I actually knew that this machine was available at my local Amiga dealers was because of recent usenet posts about people encountering them on their trip to amiga stores. After a quick tally of who wanted to go a, few friends and I jumped into the car and headed to the store. When we arrived, there was nothing announcing that the store even had CDTV (no posters or stickers on windows). Well maybe they havn't put any up we thought. As we walked in we looked about but could see nothing. When asked if they had a CDTV the guy said yup but when we asked for a demonstration for some reason this caused the dealer to laugh and say that he couldn't do that. A little bewildered we asked why? It turns out that when they received their CDTV unit they were told by Commodore that in NO sense were they to advertise or promote the product (typical CBM marketing strategy) or they risk loosing their license to sell Amigas. After some bewildered looks they said we could play with it anyway. When we finally got over to the machine it looked like, well a CD player with a Nintendo remote controller. The machine as billed has a stereo component look to it. To the average person it looks to be nothing more than a CD player. As we all know it's not just that but also contains a 68000 Amiga inside with 1 meg of chip ram. Most of the CDTV GFX output seems to be in low color - low resolution which makes sense as the output would most liklely be going to TV's only. Even with low res some fairly impressive GFX can be produced as seen by the screen when a regular music CD is inserted (look for a mag. pic of this). CDTV will allow users to view CD+G GFX but the fact is that VERY few CD's have this encoded and the GFX are of very low resolution. It also takes about 10 seconds for a full picture to fade/wipe into view. The few examples of software they had were of questionable quality. They were just adventure games to speak of (like Cinemaware games but by another company). The GFX were ok and sound was excellent, not to surprising as it was reading sound data from the CD. We didn't see any arcade games where the true test would lie. What I defintily did NOT like was the way you inserted a CD into the CDTV unit. First you must insert the CD into a small plastic case that looks alot like a normal CD case. You have to then insert that case into the player. Now at the rate I change CD and tapes this would never do for a serious music listener. Meaning it's really a weird way of doing it. Why not just your typical eject box system that most CD's have? As I am also looking for a CD player I would not buy CDTV currently because of this 'feature'. All in all it is a revolutionary concept but to what extent people will buy it questionable. In my humble opinion it would not do well as a CD player. Yes it can do more than that but will Commodore let people know or keep stifling it's dealers??? -- /John S. Schroder + SCA: East Kingdom, Shire of Anglespur \ /Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute + Underachiever, And Proud of It Man! \ /aelric@rpi.edu + Amiga 3000 - THE ONLY Computer \ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\