CompuServe Messages

Larry – Glad you asked. About a month ago I posted a long message here listing CD-I video modes, and gave most of the current CD-I vs CDTV arguments in a nutshell. This was in response to Bandito's May 1990 Amazing Computing article. I guess because CDTV hadn't been announced yet, no one paid any attention ;-). DISPLAY PLANES SIZES. All your usual Amiga TV favorites are there: 360/720 by 240/480 (NTSC), or 384/768 by 280/560 (PAL) VIDEO PLANES. There are four. Backdrop/external video, plane B, plane A, and cursor at the front. Planes A and B may be swapped in priority. So far it sounds like dual playfields on the Amiga. Similar, but… There is a full video chip and 512K RAM for EACH image plane. Each image can be almost any mode (see below), changeable on a line/line basis… and each can be dissolved, color-keyed, wiped, or overlaid with transparency, in _hardware_. COLOR MODES. I guess a straight list will do. Delta YUV: 4/2/2 quantitized luminance/color changes. (super HAM) RGB 555 : 15-bits/pixel (5 bits each R/G/B direct color. Uses both planes) CLUT 8 : 8-bits/pixel from choice of 16.7 million colors CLUT 7 : 7-bits/pixel from " … CLUT 4 : 4-bits/pixel from " … RLE 7 : 7-bits/pixel from " …, run-length encoded/decoded on fly. RLE 3 : 3-bits/pixel from " …, " " Drooling yet? 32,000+ colors/pixel (RGB555) makes me slobber. <cont'd>