dhg@sinix.UUCP (David Griffith) (03/27/91)
Does anyone know anything about the NeXT CD-ROM drive? Can you
play audio CD's on it, if so how? I believe some audio CD players
have digital outputs. Is it possible to feed this into the DSP port?
I understand that there is an ISO standard for CD-ROM's, so if I buy
a NeXT CD drive and one of the CD encyclopaedias that seem to be
available, is there any software on the NeXT that can handle it?
Dave Griffiths
PS: Apologies if these questions are answered in the NeXT Third
Party Catalog or NeXTAnswers, but I don't have access to either.eht@cs.cmu.edu (Eric Thayer) (03/28/91)
In article <1991Mar27.120647.1302@sinix.UUCP> dhg@sinix.UUCP (David Griffith) writes: > Does anyone know anything about the NeXT CD-ROM drive? Can you > play audio CD's on it, if so how? I believe some audio CD players > have digital outputs. Is it possible to feed this into the DSP port? > > I understand that there is an ISO standard for CD-ROM's, so if I buy > a NeXT CD drive and one of the CD encyclopaedias that seem to be > available, is there any software on the NeXT that can handle it? > > Dave Griffiths > > PS: Apologies if these questions are answered in the NeXT Third > Party Catalog or NeXTAnswers, but I don't have access to either. The NeXT CD-ROM drive will read disks in ISO-9660 format (although I've found a bizarre counterexample to this, but I am not sure where the 'fault' lies at this point (i.e. bug in the driver or bug in the mastering)). In fact, you can use a Apple SCSI CD-ROM right now with 2.0 (I've done it) and away you go. Be aware that this does not necessarily mean that you can use Apple CD-ROM's themselves. Many (all?) are in an Apple data format that is not ISO-9660. I don't have an Apple CD-ROM I can borrow to test whether they work or not. If the SCSI commands for a Mac drive were documented somewhere I'd whip up a music player for the NeXT, but alas, they are nowhere easy to be found (anyone with the first Developer conference notes? The cmd's are proportedly in them).
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (03/29/91)
In article <CNH5730.91Mar28141743@maraba.tamu.edu> cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu writes: >In article <1991Mar27.120647.1302@sinix.UUCP> dhg@sinix.UUCP (David Griffith) writes: > I believe some audio CD players > have digital outputs. Is it possible to feed this into the DSP > port? > >if you're serious about plugging a CD-ROM into a NeXT, you need to be >looking at the ones which have a SCSI interface. Actually, that's not what he's talking about. I just bought a CD player with a digital output, and I'm trying to find what the format of the digital data coming out of the thing is. The bandwidth is there on the DSP serial ports brought to the back of the machine to stuff it in, and I intend to do just that. Does anyone have any leads on what that format is? Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu
keen@ee.ualberta.ca (Jeff '876393' Keen) (03/30/91)
In article <1991Mar28.224042.23398@nntp-server.caltech.edu> madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) writes: >In article <CNH5730.91Mar28141743@maraba.tamu.edu> cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu writes: >>In article <1991Mar27.120647.1302@sinix.UUCP> dhg@sinix.UUCP (David Griffith) writes: >> I believe some audio CD players >> have digital outputs. Is it possible to feed this into the DSP >> port? >> >>if you're serious about plugging a CD-ROM into a NeXT, you need to be >>looking at the ones which have a SCSI interface. > >Actually, that's not what he's talking about. I just bought a CD player >with a digital output, and I'm trying to find what the format of the >digital data coming out of the thing is. The bandwidth is there on the >DSP serial ports brought to the back of the machine to stuff it in, and >I intend to do just that. Does anyone have any leads on what that >format is? > >Mark Adler >madler@pooh.caltech.edu I just happen to have somewhere in my files the sony document that specifies what the format is and another doc which explians the electrical specs. Actually when my NeXT came in I was planning to do just this. Also somewhere from a radio electronics, I believe, there is a circuit meant to transform optical out into digital signals and the RCA type digital outs. I'm pretty sure that this circuit, which involves filtering the raised cosine pulses and running it through a Sckottky buffer to bring the levels to TTL, could be used to bring the digital out data directly into the computer thougha DSP port or possibly even a serial port if its fast enough (I think its around 1-2M bits/sec but all this is from memory). Once it is in the machine you have to use the format spec to 'synch' with the signal and remove the subcode and all the other wonderful data they throw in there just for fun (like stopping DAT's from recording other DAT tapes). The spec for subcode is not in this doc, it just explains which bits are subcode and not what data they contain. If anyone is really interested I can email or post where the doc's can be found once I find them in my files (they're not that organized). If anyone knows where I can find the subcode format I'd be grateful. -- ----------------------------------------------------- Jeff Keen University of Alberta alberta!bode!keen -----------------------------------------------------
chin@sg1.chem.upenn.edu (Chin Wu) (06/18/91)
Hi,
Does anyone know what third-party CD-ROM can be used on NeXT? If
you shop for a CD-ROM, what specifications are you looking for? What
kinds of software you can get for NeXT?
Although NeXTConnection does sell CD-ROM for NeXT, some third
party CD-ROM seems to have better price and performance. But without
knowing if they are suitable to use on NeXT, plunge ~500$ is not very
wise. Besides CD-ROM without any software won't be of any use. I will
summarize if people are interested.
--
Chin Wu
chin@sg1.chem.upenn.educarnes@cartier (John Carnes) (06/22/91)
The other day I had need to read an ISO-9660 CD. The office down the hall had an Apple CD-ROM drive hooked up to a mac. I borrowed the drive, found a SCSI-2 cable, and pluged the drive into my cube. The CD showed up as a folder in the browser. No problems copying the data off. It couldn't have been much eaiser. --------------------------------------------------------------------- John Carnes NeXTmail: carnes@adobe.com Adobe Systems Incorporated 1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900 Mountain View, CA 94039-7900