CompuServe Messages

Martin, If Commodore had come out with an incompatible audio disc player back when CD-DA was announced, it wouldn't have made CD-DA any less of a standard. The same is true now. CD-I is here to stay, is heavily backed, and by this time next year, there will be many more players available in the US. The reason there won't be any competition is not because something better couldn't be made (it could), but because consumers won't stand for another *company-based* standards war… and the major companies realize it (this is partly why Sony and Philips have now cross-licensed DCC and MD technology). I'm sure you're right that Philips et al would rather have waited until MPEG decoding was ready before marketing CD-I players. But remember, Commodore had the chance for _last_ Christmas all to themselves. They originally announced that CDTV would be out by then, and with "a hundred titles." They've also had a year since then to market CDTV. BTW, I still use my ten-year-old Beta VCR sometimes 🙂 regards – kevin