[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] CDtv + DCtv

wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) (04/25/91)

I have been asked to join a project on Campus (Purdue) that will involve
graphics, animation, and they want real time interaction and NTSC quality
if possible!  Wow, I know that's a lot for them to ask.  Since I am a
Amiga fan and own a 3000 and am a C= student rep, I am trying to push
the CDtv.  

My brainstorm/question:
I have access to "burn/write/make/press-out" my own cd's.
The CDtv will do decent interactive video but with less than NTSC quality.
The DCtv will do GREAT NTSC ouput from it's own small IFF file input which
  will output as fast as it gets input, right?

Why couldn't I put DCtv format IFF files onto a cd, play the cd interactively
on a CDtv, and then run the CDtv output through a DCtv?

Will this work?  Why or why not? 

If this does work, wouldn't it be GREAT!  Does anyone know of a system
comparable to this?
-- 
Art Warner                      Amiga makes it happen..........
wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu       IBM,Mac,Sun,& Next make it expensive!

jtravis@dworkin.Amber.COM (Jim, Sysop) (04/26/91)

wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) writes:

> I have access to "burn/write/make/press-out" my own cd's.
> The CDtv will do decent interactive video but with less than NTSC quality.
> The DCtv will do GREAT NTSC ouput from it's own small IFF file input which
>   will output as fast as it gets input, right?
> 
> Why couldn't I put DCtv format IFF files onto a cd, play the cd interactively
> on a CDtv, and then run the CDtv output through a DCtv?
> 
> Will this work?  Why or why not? 
> 
> If this does work, wouldn't it be GREAT!  Does anyone know of a system
> comparable to this?
> -- 
> Art Warner                      Amiga makes it happen..........
> wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu       IBM,Mac,Sun,& Next make it expensive!

        
        Well, I'm not too sure you can just plop in th erequired memory into 
the CDTV that easily..what you MAY want to consider is a Xetec or the new 
CBM CD-ROM drives and placing them on an accelerated 500 (the Xetec can go 
on your 3000..) - should be about the same price (well..) and you'd be 
completely compatible with CDTV. 
        
        Jim
--------///-----------------------------------------------------------
       ///   Jim Trascapoulos  *  CSAccess BBS  *  609-584-8774
      ///        * jtravis@dworkin.Amber.COM (Jim, Sysop) *
\\\  ///    "I was told once that people don't like to think. So I
 \\\///            tried to sell one a Mac. It worked."
--\XX/----------------------------------------------------------------

monty@sagpd1 (04/26/91)

In article <1991Apr24.182421.18561@en.ecn.purdue.edu> wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) writes:
>My brainstorm/question:
>I have access to "burn/write/make/press-out" my own cd's.
>The CDtv will do decent interactive video but with less than NTSC quality.
                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    On what do you base this false statement?? The CDTV is for all intents
    and purposes an A500 in a different package. A500 has NTSC output, 
    So does the CDTV. True if you connect a CDTV to a TV set via a
    rf modulator (or was that built in also - I can't remember) the resolution
    is limited, but why not connect it to an RGB monitor and get full NTSC
    quality??

    Have I been asleep for 5 years or have not ALL Amigas had NTSC video 
    outputs?

    Monty Saine

wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) (04/28/91)

In article <1991Apr26.161602.3024@sagpd1> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:
>In article <1991Apr24.182421.18561@en.ecn.purdue.edu> wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) writes:
>>My brainstorm/question:
>>I have access to "burn/write/make/press-out" my own cd's.
>>The CDtv will do decent interactive video but with less than NTSC quality.
>                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>    On what do you base this false statement?? The CDTV is for all intents
>    and purposes an A500 in a different package. A500 has NTSC output, 
>    So does the CDTV. True if you connect a CDTV to a TV set via a
>    rf modulator (or was that built in also - I can't remember) the resolution
>    is limited, but why not connect it to an RGB monitor and get full NTSC
>    quality??
>
>    Have I been asleep for 5 years or have not ALL Amigas had NTSC video 
>    outputs?
>
>    Monty Saine
This is not a false statement.  When I refer to NTSC, do you even know what I 
am saying?  This is a broadcast "standard".  I am not saying that Amigas
are not NTSC compatible, just that their output does not fully implement ALL of 
the NTSC standard's capabilites.  For one: COLOR.  Unless you are still watching
the Simpsons on your 9" b&w, you must already know that NTSC supports more
than 32 colors!  Even if you try to counter this with HAM mode, your 
resolution gets even poorer than NTSC.

For your information, the only Amiga that has ever had color in its NTSC
"COMPATIBLE" output was the A1000. The rest have ALL had monochrome composite
and analog RGB NTSC "COMPATIBLE" outputs.

Remember, NTSC is a TELEVISION standard, not a computer monitor standard.
It just so happens that our GREAT "Amy" uses most of the same hardware
timing standards.  Of course this wasn't by chance, someone made the 
smart (IMHO) decision to do this.  BUT, this is also why we have flicker
when displaying single pixel lines.  TV doesn't really have the capability
to display single pixel lines as precisely, so the lines tend to be fat and 
non-flickering.

If you had just woke up from that sleep 5 years ago and read some technical 
papers/books on NTSC standards, then you would have already known this and 
not wasted both our times. 8)
-- 
Art Warner                      Amiga makes it happen..........
wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu       IBM,Mac,Sun,& Next make it expensive!