kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) (04/06/91)
I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San
Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they
were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales.
=====================================================================
Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute - kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu
"Duct Tape is like the Force...
It has a Light Side, a Dark Side, and it holds the Universe together"
=====================================================================aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) (04/06/91)
In article <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: > >I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San >Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they >were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales. Our dealer just got one last week on Monday or so. Its an interesting looking device. So far we only have one application for it. Can't do very much with just Backgammon. :-) More to come, when they get more shipments of products. Sri
huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert E. Huebner) (04/08/91)
In article <9746@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) writes: >In article <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: >> >>I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San >>Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they >>were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales. CDTV also got some press today on CNN headline news. In their coverage of a multimedia expo, CDTV was the only product mentioned by name. Strangely enough, they interviewed Timothy Leary who has been assocated with Amiga is past products. Our dealer now has several CDTV disks and I've also seen it run what I believe are CD+G disks. Your dealer should also have a CBM published catalog of CDTV titles available now along with a few future titles in it. Has anoyone seen any other the peripherals (keyboard, mouse) yet? Can it use any standard Amiga disk drive in its disk drive port? -- | Robert E. Huebner | "Death is nature's way of telling | | huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu | you to slow down" | | huebner@aerospace.aero.org | - Unknown Author |
kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) (04/08/91)
In article <1991Apr7.182022.28413@en.ecn.purdue.edu> huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert E. Huebner) writes: >In article <9746@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) writes: >>In article <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: >>> >>>I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San >>>Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they >>>were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales. > >CDTV also got some press today on CNN headline news. In their coverage Amazing received 6 CDTV's in the shipment & have already sold several of them. I went in yesterday to look at them before they were all gone :^). They had the C= demo, the World Atlas (which is nice but has some bugs in its control software - go try to zoom in too far on Paris & you end up in Africa), several CD-ROM games (just repackageing of existing games and some InfoCom-type games), and some CD+G audio CD's. The graphics images, etc. were interesting, but were horribly primitive. Does anyone know of any CD+G (audio) which have decent graphics stuck on them? They didn't have anything which showed of any animation capabilities either (at least we couldn't find anything) ===================================================================== Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute - kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu "Duct Tape is like the Force... It has a Light Side, a Dark Side, and it holds the Universe together" =====================================================================
hrlaser@crash.cts.com (Harv Laser) (04/08/91)
In article <9746@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) writes: >In article <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: >> >>I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San >>Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they >>were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales. > >Our dealer just got one last week on Monday or so. Its an interesting looking >device. So far we only have one application for it. Can't do very much with >just Backgammon. :-) More to come, when they get more shipments of products. > > Sri I was in Creative Computers' store in Lawndale (Torrance) CA yesterday. They have received their first shipment of CDTV and looked to have a pile of about twenty of them in white shipping cartons for sale to anyone who cared to wave about $900 at a salesman. In the rear of the showroom they had cordoned off a corner with one of those portable office wall thingies and had set up a very tiny living room: a couple chairs, a magazine rack, some art on the walls, and a nice black 21" Sony trintron tv on a tv rack/stand with the CDTV on the shelf below it. They didn't have much software - just whatever comes packed with the unit, plus a "Barney Bear" children's game disc, and some CD+G music disc. They said more titles were in transit. Customers were welcomed to sit down with a saleman "for a private showing" as per the sign taped to the store's front door but in the crowded typical Saturday shopping frenzy, customers were playing with the CDTV remote on their own with only occasional intervention by a salesman to make sure no one was damaging the uniit or trying to pocket the discs. At the "Home Media Expo" held last week at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel I got a "Spring 1991 CDTV Catalog" which lists about 80 CDTV titles, both available on launch and promised for near-future release. A disc that was running on Creative's unit had screen shots and recorded-huan-voice narration offered customers the ability to page through descriptions of all of these 80 or so titles (and perhaps more.. I didn't take the time to explore the entire disc... when you go adventuring on a graphical CD there can be HOURS of sound and screens on them :-) I asked three different Creative salesmen why they had the unit kind of buried in the back of the showroom and all three of them told me it was because Commodore had insisted on them not demoing it "mixed in" with the regular Amigas nor were they to present it to the public as a "computer." Thus the mini-living room ambience. How are other dealers showing CDTV? Creative is the only place I've seen it so far. I also learned from a CBM Int'l rep at that Home Media Show that they (CBM) were going to try to get The Wherehouse (So. Calif's largest retailer of records (well... hell, they don't carry vinyl LPs anymore), CDs, Cassettes, and movie rentals) to carry CDTV discs and I saw a number of CDTV software sales packs in those CD "long boxes" made to fit right in with regular audio-retailer's display shelving. It should make for a very interesting session of dealer education when it comes time to explain to the typical record store employees what CDTV is and how to explain and demo it to customers. The idea of packing CDTV software in CD long boxes seems to go right againist the current trend of certain outspoken environmentally- oriented (or so they claim) artists and record companies who are purposely going to repackage their audio CDs withOUT the long boxes since those boxes are mainly an anti-shoplift device more than anything else and most customers just throw them away after opening them and removing the CD in its jewel case, thus just more tree-killing cardboard to end up in landfills. Oh, one other curious note: CDTV does not have an electronic motor-driven eject of the disc and its "caddy". It has a mechanical pushbutton next to the CD slot. For a thousand dollar unit I was kind of surprised at this. PUsh that button too briskly and the caddy comes flying out the slot and onto the floor. At least it did on Creative's demo unit and the salesguys were constantly warning customers about pushing the eject button with too much gusto. Harv Laser {anywhere}!crash!hrlaser "Park and lock it. Not responsible." People/Link: CBM*HARV
es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (04/08/91)
In article <2257@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: >In article <1991Apr7.182022.28413@en.ecn.purdue.edu> huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert E. Huebner) writes: >>In article <9746@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) writes: >>>In article <2240@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: >>>> >>>>I suppose this is a little late, but Amazing Computing here in San >>>>Antonio got their first shipment of CDTV's in last Monday. C= said they >>>>were the first ones to be shipped for retail sales. >> >>CDTV also got some press today on CNN headline news. In their coverage > >Amazing received 6 CDTV's in the shipment & have already sold several >of them. I went in yesterday to look at them before they were all gone >:^). They had the C= demo, the World Atlas (which is nice but has some >bugs in its control software - go try to zoom in too far on Paris & you >end up in Africa), several CD-ROM games (just repackageing of existing >games and some InfoCom-type games), and some CD+G audio CD's. The >graphics images, etc. were interesting, but were horribly primitive. >Does anyone know of any CD+G (audio) which have decent graphics stuck >on them? > >They didn't have anything which showed of any animation capabilities either >(at least we couldn't find anything) > At the WOA show there were about 8-9 different applications, and I believe about 3-4 CD+G disks shown (i.e. for sale). CD+G IS primitive, but that isn't really Commodore's fault. They didn't make the standard. Also, the better the grapics the more you are taking away from the sound quality. Some of them were decent/interesting, but they all just showed the lyrics with some background pictures. The World Atlas, although some small problems (the one I found was that Israel was spelled Isreal), is still a great product. The whole word is on maps, there are cities, flags, cultural music, pictures, statistics, etc. Very well done and very easy to access. There was the American Heritage Dictionary which was nice. There were Time Line/Encyclopedia disks (2). There were about 3 games, including Defender of the Crown and two shoot-em-ups. Oh yes, there was that detective mystery game. There was a "Barney Bear" educational "interactive storybook". There was also a list of 50 titles by June, including stuff from Grolier's and Guiness (book of world records). The CDTV IS an Amiga, which gives it all the advantages that come with that. >===================================================================== >Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute - kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu > "Duct Tape is like the Force... >It has a Light Side, a Dark Side, and it holds the Universe together" >===================================================================== -- Ethan Q: How many Comp Sci majors does it take to change a lightbulb A: None. It's a hardware problem.
es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (04/08/91)
In article <8441@crash.cts.com> hrlaser@crash.cts.com (Harv Laser) writes: >Oh, one other curious note: CDTV does not have an electronic motor-driven >eject of the disc and its "caddy". It has a mechanical pushbutton next >to the CD slot. For a thousand dollar unit I was kind of surprised at >this. PUsh that button too briskly and the caddy comes flying out the >slot and onto the floor. At least it did on Creative's demo unit and >the salesguys were constantly warning customers about pushing the >eject button with too much gusto. > Part of it is that the ejector button is also an auto-reboot button. Instead of making people shut the thing off or figure out what it means to "reboot", when you eject the disk the system resets. Also, I didn't see any instances of CDs flying through mid-air. 8-) > >Harv Laser {anywhere}!crash!hrlaser >"Park and lock it. Not responsible." People/Link: CBM*HARV -- Ethan Q: How many Comp Sci majors does it take to change a lightbulb A: None. It's a hardware problem.
cleland@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Thomas Cleland) (04/09/91)
In article <1991Apr8.042803.11141@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes: >In article <8441@crash.cts.com> hrlaser@crash.cts.com (Harv Laser) writes: > >>Oh, one other curious note: CDTV does not have an electronic motor-driven >>eject of the disc and its "caddy". It has a mechanical pushbutton next >>to the CD slot. For a thousand dollar unit I was kind of surprised at >>this. PUsh that button too briskly and the caddy comes flying out the >>slot and onto the floor. At least it did on Creative's demo unit and >>the salesguys were constantly warning customers about pushing the >>eject button with too much gusto. >> I wondered why that cartridge deal was there in the first place, rather than a regular CD-player style drawer. I was told that the cartridge system adheres to the CD-I standard, such as it is, presumably with intent to make CDTV compatible with CD-I whenever the latter should see fit to exist. Is this true? What say the Wise Ones? >>Harv Laser {anywhere}!crash!hrlaser -- Thom Cleland // tcleland@ucsd.edu \X/ I'm having fun now.
kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) (04/09/91)
cleland@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Thomas Cleland) writes: >I wondered why that cartridge deal was there in the first place, >rather than a regular CD-player style drawer. I was told that >the cartridge system adheres to the CD-I standard, such as it >is, presumably with intent to make CDTV compatible with CD-I >whenever the latter should see fit to exist. I think the caddies are standard fair for CDROM drives. The mechanical pushbutton arrangement sure sounds weird tho. Surely an electronic eject button could also reset the computer. kev <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) (04/09/91)
In article <18107@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cleland@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Thomas Cleland) writes: [Re: CDTV using a cartridge transport for the discs.] >I wondered why that cartridge deal was there in the first place, >rather than a regular CD-player style drawer. I was told that >the cartridge system adheres to the CD-I standard, such as it >is, presumably with intent to make CDTV compatible with CD-I >whenever the latter should see fit to exist. Actually, those shuttered cartridges are what normal audio CDs should have used in the first place. In mass production I doubt they would have effected the price by more than a dollar. One major reason they use the shuttered jewel boxes is to protect the discs. You see, you can scratch an audio CD and possibly suffer no audible loss in performance. Generally, a CD player can make up for the errors. However, a scratch on a CD-ROM could be much more fatal to the disc. If you damage graphic or audio data, you get trash. If you damage executable code, you're lost. Of course, I expect that many users will only own a handful of the shuttered cases and software vendors will save a buck and use the standard jewel boxes, so you lose most of the safety of the shuttered case. Theoretically, though, there should be no reason for a CD to be ever touched by human hands. >Is this true? What say the Wise Ones? I doubt it has anything to do with CD-I. Such cases have existed for quite a while, primarily used by CD-ROM drives. >-- >Thom Cleland // >tcleland@ucsd.edu \X/ I'm having fun now. Greg -- Greg Harp |"How I wish, how I wish you were here. We're just two |lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year, greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu|running over the same ground. What have we found? s609@cs.utexas.edu |The same old fears. Wish you were here." - Pink Floyd
hal@hpsciz.sc.hp.com (Hal Work) (04/10/91)
I saw CDTV at HT Electronics. I watched only for a few minutes as what was
available on it looked pretty lame. The Atlas program seemed _very_ limited.
I didn't see the backgammon, but someone was playing checkers.
HT is in Sunnyvale, CA ... btw
Hals892011@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Mr.Scary) (04/11/91)
hal@hpsciz.sc.hp.com (Hal Work) writes: >I saw CDTV at HT Electronics. I watched only for a few minutes as what was >available on it looked pretty lame. The Atlas program seemed _very_ limited. >I didn't see the backgammon, but someone was playing checkers. Yeah, we had a CDTV at RMIT on Wednesday. It looked nice, but the demo didn't work properly, the batteries for the remote control were flat, which seemed to impair the operation of the machine, and I *swear* the demo had a section telling you how to plug your CDTV into a power socket (there were pictures of wall sockets on the screen). The C= reps said that they'd only got the think together the previous night, hence it's not-working-properly-ness. >HT is in Sunnyvale, CA ... btw RMIT is is Melbourne, Australia ... btw :) > Hal Mr.Scary ---------------------------- "Wretched, isn't it ?" - s892011@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au Marvin the Paranoid Android
fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (04/16/91)
As I said in another thread, I and a lot of other people were quite intrigued by
(interestingly enough) the CD+G ability of it; audiophiles are a fairlly
untapped market. There are enough CD+G discs out there that people with spare
change (rare these days, admittedly) might go for CDTV as a super CD player
and then go for the games...
--Rick Wrigley
fhwri@conncoll.bitnet