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From: rehrauer@apollo.hp.com (Steve Rehrauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Sony's CD-ROM Data Discman
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.142508.13389@apollo.hp.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 14:25:08 GMT
References: <1991Jun12.195305.27625@cs.wayne.edu>
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In article <1991Jun12.195305.27625@cs.wayne.edu> jal@artemis.cs.wayne.edu (Jason Leigh) writes:
>Just when you thought this discussion about CDTV and CDI is beginning to 
>die out...

To add a bit more noise on this topic, I noticed a brief blurb in the latest
issue of COINage magazine about CD-I.  COINage was interested because one of
the planned discs is apparently an interactive rare coins catalog.  Very
little in the way of facts, though, and no mention of "other" interactive
CD-ROM technologies.  Walter Breen, of the (to collectors) ubiquitous
"Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins", is said to be
advising on the development (this is, in the numismatic world, roughly as
receiving the Pope's blessing is to Catholicism).

I see also a CD-ROM / CD-I blurb in the June 10th issue of EE Times.
Phillips is said to have chosen a particular chip implementation (C-Cube
Microsystems') of the MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) compression
technology for CD-I.  The article quotes Phillips sources as saying that
initial CD-I players, without the full-motion compression capabilities,
will ship in October of 1991 for "about $1400", and that the full-motion
systems will be available in "mid-1992" for "about $1600".  The article
does mention CDTV ("list $995") as being a possible beneficiary of this
pricing, and then goes on to talk about CD-I's compatibility with Kodak's
PhotoCD system, previous Sony "CD-I-like" prototypes, and possible tweaks
(such as blue-light laser diodes) that could result Real Soon Now in
"quad-density" CD-ROMs that could offer "hours of MPEG [compressed] video".

Just the facts, m'am.
-- 
--
"The goons are riding motorcycles, but WE'VE  | (Steve) rehrauer@apollo.hp.com
 got a whole big metal car! This will be like |       Hewlett-Packard
 stepping on ants..." -- Freelance Police     | Massachusetts Languages Lab