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From: davewt@NCoast.ORG (David Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: CDTV News
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.125339.18489@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 14 Jun 91 12:53:39 GMT
Article-I.D.: NCoast.1991Jun14.125339.18489
References: <1991Jun12.192948.20028@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun12.205030.4401@news.iastate.edu>
Organization: North Coast Public Access Un*x (ncoast)
Lines: 57

In article <1991Jun12.205030.4401@news.iastate.edu> taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu writes:
>In article <1991Jun12.192948.20028@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>, rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:
>>CDTV-PIP allows a standard video image from an outside source, such
>>as a television feed or video cassette recorder, to be displayed
>>simultaneously with a running CDTV application. CDTV-PIP will
>>require a plug-in video card that replaces the current video card
>>but requires no software upgrade. It is expected to be available
>>early next year, Rosen said.
>
>   Why will this thing take so long to develop?  This CDTV-PIP device
>is simply a genlock, and Commodore has been producing those for years.
>For Commodore to use this device to advantage over the CD-I competition,
>they should get this device out as soon as possible.
	Where do you see it saying it is a GenLock? I didn't. In fact, the
sub-name is "PIP" which is normally used to mean "Picture In a Picture", such
as is found in some TV's and VCR's. In fact, the description of it sounds
EXACTLY like that. Having PIP is *not* "simply a genlock", which you would
be free to use ANY normal Amiga external genlock to get the effects.
This sounds like a usefull new feature, which is not even available for Amiga
computers yet. Besides, what does having a genlock have to do with CD-I?
The magnavox unit is not even expandable, and I doubt that ANY unit below
$1000 will support a genlock any time soon. Read thr articles before replying
(And stop including paragraphs that are totally unrelated to what you are
making a comment on. We saw the article the first time around.)
>>Commodore announced plans to make CDTV compatible with Kodak's new
>>Photo CD system. Photo CDs, planned for June 1992 introduction, can
>>store up to 100 35-millimeter photographic images on writable CD-
>>ROM discs. Consumers will be able to insert the Photo CD discs into
>>the CDTV player and view their high-resolution photographs on
>>standard TV sets, Commodore said. 
>   This sounds nice, but the problem is that the CDTV's color 
>capabilities are hardly photographic, especially compared to the CD-I
>systems.  Unless the color capabilities of the CDTV are drastically
>improved, the limited color of the CDTV will not do justice to 
>digitized true-color stills.
	Oh please. I am sure this will be SOFTWARE ONLY system. How many people
you know would rather use a system that might not have all the color
clarity (assuming that the disks digitally encode the data which the CDTV
would not be able to represent with 4096 colors. If it is done like the
other disk video formats there won't be ANY difference at all, since the
CDTV graphics will not be used) when it was included for free, or pay for the
special viewer hardware you normally need to play the pictures back (though
some I have seen actually allow the camera to play them back on the TV,
and you can get a color printer that can also read the disks and print them
out). I have not heard of CD-I even saying they intend to support this.
Have you heard something I haven't?
>>
>>Commodore also said it would make CDTV available in a number of
>>additional U.S. centers and in France, Germany, and Italy during
>>June. CDTV was launched in five U.S. cities and in the United
>>Kingdom and Canada in May.
	(Yet another paragraph MB included without making any comment on.
	I think he just spouts off and then hits "send")



					Dave