This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (132 messages)
The Encyl. publishers are not so worried that you will copy the entire CD onto a hard disk, as you will copy entire articles, etc. SOme of the current CD versions let you save to disk/printer in limited amounts. THus you arent as likely to plagerize an article. and it…
I'm not sure what they mean by CD-XA "bridge" disks. CD-XA is a standard and there are drives that play it now. It is basically a way to play interleaved CD-DA sound (digital audio) out the audio jacks while transfering data to the computer. The sound/data tracks are interleaved and…
let me quote from the Nov. 91 issue of Business Tokyo, an article titled "Fated to Feud: Sony vs Matsushita": (with editing to save you Ci$) Whats ahead for the Sony-Matsushita rivalry? The biggest battle will center on the mulitmedia system…While US manufacturers view this …as an extension of today's…
Mac fonts do transfer to the Amiga. We did it for most of the fonts used in the Xiphias CDTV titles. The utility we used was on the Fish disks. I dont recall its name off hand. It had difficulty with some types of fonts. It only wanted to deal…
The way CDI is FMV-capable, is that it has a slot or a socket for the FMV chip when it comes available. Thus they can keep modifying the FMV spec for another four years and then bring out a chip. Of course, they'll need new cd's to support the latest…
Have you explored the end of the Keywords list? There is a keyword for each of the "effects". Each story that has an effect has a keyword for that effect. The effects keywords are at the end of the keyword list. Selecting one will show you all articles with that…
#14050-
Encyclopedias?
Message #14079
The Comptons from Britanica Software already has a list price that is up there near 7 or 8 hundred bucks! putting the britanica on cd would be in the five or six digit range. They are probably being both snobish about EB as well as cautious. It is quite easy…
#14029-
#CD-ROMS & CDXA QUESTIONS
Message #14078
1. Yes -most- cdrom drives can play standard audio cd's. Those that can will have a set of audio output jacks (phono connectors or headphone). 2. Exactly how you control the CD-rom depends on the platform. For PC's the Microsoft extensions (MSCDEX 2.0+) support audio track playback. It is also…
You'd be suprised at what kids can turn into a game! We found kids loved the CDTV version of American Heritage Dictionary because there were LOTS of cool images (fighter planes, helocopters, etc). The slighlty older ones like the TimeTables for the pictures and the neat exploring you can do.…
Yeah, in 5 years the IBM/Apple/Sony box will be out, along with something competive from the MPC type people. The SECOND (or 3rd, etc) generation will be the successful one. I hope I'll still be in business! Kevin: as for VR system, I think you'll see them about that time…
#14020-
#Encyclopedias?
Message #14074
The paper I read said the grad schoolers (3rd and 5th grade?) had trouble with the Booleans. Another paper suggested a real nice non-boolean way to get similar effects: Accept a Natural Language string, strip out stop words, stem the remaining and do search for each – effectivly a boolean…
#14018-
#Encyclopedias?
Message #14073
I think you got the wrong letters in your msg… >I saw an *IBM* version of an encyclopedia entitled "It All Started with George" >(history of the Presidents), and it did have CDTV. When run on an "oarnge book" >box, it looked pretty good. The IBM woman says that CDTV…
Most print media folks havent a clue as to electronic stuff (other than their word processors/DTP, if that). The big publishers would rather license their materials for FAT up front charges and let us little folks do the implementation (e.g. Am.Her. Dictionary) Then we take most of the risk and…
Most of the Full Motion Video i've seen demo'd for CDROM is either in little windows or low quality or both. I cant see putting a 1/4 or 1/8th screen window up for video. People buy 21 inch TV's so they dont have to sit 3ft away to see it.…
PIM will probably change their methods in the future for several reasons: 1) The Market needs titles NOW, and the previous methods were too slow 2) Major management changes at PIM (dump the lawyers!) CD-I dev costs will probably decrease in the future too. Right now there arent many dev…
CDTV, CD-I etc.
Message #38080
Yes kevin, most of our editorial was done on MAC as was the digitizing. But that is because X had lots of MAC's already. The Time Table of Science has been available as a CD for MAC since 1987! It is one of the most ported CD applications in the…
#CDTV, CD-I etc.
Message #38078
Well, for a BIG publisher, i guess you mean someone like Msoft? As for a popular publisher, like Xiphias, that big capital investment, plus paying programmers and artists to climb another learning curve, is VERY prohibitive. Most CD-ROM publishers (and wantabees) are small houses. Corporations are watching these technologies as…
CDTV, CD-I etc.
Message #38077
yes, the "deep content" titles like encyclopedias would seem to be the best use of a CDROM. but then why hasnt Phillips encouraged the development of such things? There are only two or three titles for CD-I that are not games and no encyclopedia on the near horizon (both sides…
#CDTV, CD-I etc.
Message #38076
Don, Thom & lurkers, TTSI does not use full motion video. We used a simple slide show for all the animation series images. The trick is to get full screen images as fast as possible. It is not possible to go very fast without extra compression, etc. The current solution…
my 2 pence: CDTV has only two things in its favor right now: 1) it has some deep content titles available now (re: encyclopedia. CD-I wont have one for another year or more the way they do business) – and you get Grolier's $300 title in the box, not just…
C= was adamant about our titles working on all their hardware, but equally adamant that Xetec, etc will NOT get CD-XL. I think the solution will be to include hooks in the program that detect CD-XL or non-CBM drive and play different animations. Since the X shell will (may?) be…
It's trivial to plug a printer in yes, but which printer are you using? and what driver software, and what about printing graphics and …. printers are not a simple issue from the software perspective. To add to the how-do-you-do-it problems, is how much do you print? eg. Some text…
C= is planning to release their own CDROM drive for the Amiga 2&3000 series machines. They want to be sure the CDTV products work on that platform, so the 3000 users will be supported. The trick is CDXL. It is a very proprietary system as far as C= is concerned.…
Because CDXL is a patented process. I am not familiar with the details, but C= is not planning to release the process to the world, especially Xetec. They want ya'all to buy their drive.
The biggest difference is that most MO drives have distinct "cylinders" or donut tracks where data is recorded. CD-ROM is one big spiral track like the phonograph it (CD-audio) replaced. CDRom suffers many performance problems that are inherent in its use of the CDaudio standard as a starting point. The…
The $40 price for TTSI is a bargin when you consider that the poor fools who buy the MAC version (list $90) are stuck with a black and white version. The PC version (included in the NEC bundle) just came out. It's interface was taken from the CDTV version. It…
Yeah it was dumb that printing wasnt supported by any of the X prods however, we only recieved information on the C= approved printer driver and selector stuff at the end of August, so ya cant blame us… To those who liked the TToH/Science disk, have you tried TToH/Business? Also…
I doubt you will see C= supporting CD-XA on their boxes. They are quite happy with their own standard CD-XL. While it doesnt do CD-DigAudio, the amiga sound it can play is decent enough for many apps. They will be including CD-XL support in their 2-3000 compatible CDROM drive when…
When CBM failed to show at SIGGRAPH last week, even tho they were confirmed for the final vendor listings, the rumor was that a large portion of the marketing staff was fired/laid-off/quit. Odd. I didnt realize they had a marketing staff.
I am a contract programmer with Xiphias, which means I am closely associated with the two TimeTable of History disks, the SilverPalette cookbook, the Amer. Heritage Dictionary, and the Grolier Encyclopedia. (most of the "reference" disks now available) I'm up in the Marina Del Rey area. Xiphias is nearby. It…
If you are in Las Vegas July28-Aug2, stop by Siggraph and look me up. Otherwise, try me in LA. as a major cdtv title programmer, im interested in overseas impressions.
#26712-
Interactive Media
Message #26918
I think the CAD visualization thing is ok. It breaks into several markets: Product design, Scientific visualization and presentations Product design is where you design a new bottle for floor wax, etc. S.Vis is a real complex compute problem, not for the lay person or small budget production shop. Presentations…
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