Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!capitol!capitol!thomas From: thomas@capitol.capitol.com (Mark Thomas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: CDTV misleading???!? Air Mouse and things. Message-ID: Date: 5 Jun 91 15:19:32 GMT References: <1991Jun4.204135.17497@cs.wayne.edu> <1991Jun5.002829.22492@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Sender: thomas@capitol.com (Mark Thomas) Distribution: na Organization: Capitol Disc Interactive Lines: 63 In-Reply-To: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu's message of Wed, 5 Jun 1991 00:28:29 GMT > In article <1991Jun5.002829.22492@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> > es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes > > In article <1991Jun4.204135.17497@cs.wayne.edu> jal@athena.cs.wayne.edu > > (Jason Leigh) writes: [ stuff removed for brevity ...] > >Magnavox came out with its CDI (CD Interactive) multimedia competitor for > >CDTV. Essentially the system is like the CDTV system but the software > >available for CDTV was far more interesting. CDTV has the advantage > >over CDI of being expandable to accomodate, a keyboard, printer, disk drive > >and in the future some other form of expansion. The representative at > >Magnavox told me that the CDI was not expandable in anyway, or at least > >Magnavox had no intentions of allowing for attachments. I was however > >quite impressed by the clarity of CDI's images over CDTV's. Could you name the titles that were being shown? I'm curious what they had. > Was that image on a monitor or a TV? BTW, it is also a > good sign that non of the CD-I machines that are coming onto the > market this Christmas are expandable. It'll be an image problem. A couple of points about CD-I. 1. CD-I is expandable. There are provisions for keyboard, mouse, SCSI port, parallel and serial ports, floppy drives... Just because Magnavox is not using these capabilities doesn't mean they don't exist. There are at least three other manufacturers that are going to have players by Christmas. One of these is rumored to have a MIDI interface. 2. By Christmas CD-I will probably have 50 titles out. I think you'll find they will be of consistantly high quality both in content and image quality. Don't judge CD-I by what you see in the demo booths, there's a lot of discs that haven't been seen yet. 3. One advantage CD-I has over CDTV IMHO is that all CD-I titles are designed specifically for NTSC/PAL TV displays, a trait that seems to be missing from CDTV. The CDTV I've seen (admittedly limited) suffer from some poor design choices. If you see a CD-I title you'll notice most of the on screen buttons/controls are quite large and inside the SMPTE TV safe area. Some of the CDTV stuff I've seen has tiny buttons scattered all over the screen. This is fine on a monitor, but the average joe consumer that hooks up a CDTV player to his $299 TV is going to be hard pressed to use some titles. 4. Remember that CDTV vs CD-I is Commodore vs Philips, Sony, Masushita and others. Who do you think will win a pissing contest :-) Please note: I am somewhat biased in this. I do CD-I for a living. Also note that my views are my own, not my company's. -- Mark A. Thomas Capitol Disc Interactive 202-625-0187/202-965-7800 2121 Wisconsin Ave. NW I speak for myself only Washington, D.C. 20007 Best: thomas@capitol.com OK: uunet!capitol!thomas -- Mark A. Thomas Capitol Disc Interactive 202-625-0187/202-965-7800 2121 Wisconsin Ave. NW I speak for myself only Washington, D.C. 20007 Best: thomas@capitol.com OK: uunet!capitol!thomas