#CD-ROM software
31 messages in this thread
Hilary:
If you end up buying the CD for your Amiga, I'll sell you my copy of the
latest Xetec CD-ROM drivers for $10+5s/h. (I'm moving, and antsy to sell
anything I don't _have_ to move. :^)
You're going to need a driver, like the Xetec or AsimCD, to use the CD.
Erik Flom
>>>(I'm moving, and antsy to sell anything I don't _have_ to move. :^)<<<<
Gee, I'm sure selling that cdrom driver will make your move much easier.:^) Are
you leaving the island?
-Richard
Yeah, the entire package, including that big ole 3.5" floppy disk, must
weigh at least half a pound! ;^)
'Are you leaving the island?'
No, actually we bought a house on the 'island', and will be moving into it
in a few weeks. It's a great old house, built in 1907, with all kinds of
goofy trim and gew-gaws throughout! There'll be a lot to work on, but the
house has far more character than the suburban sprawl housing that was our
other choice (shudder).
(I need the money more than anything else!)
Erik Flom
Hey, congratulations! Just don't sink *too* much money into the house. Need to
keep some for your Amiga. <G>
Mr. Zombie
Thanks!
Though it's too late – we've already sunk more than we have into the
house…..and we can't find earthquake insurance….Yikes!
Erik Flom
No earthquake insurance? Are you in sunny California? <G>
Mr. Zombie
"Are you in sunny California? <G>"
Not _even_ funny! I live about 20 minutes from San Francisco, in a 90 year
old house, and yesterday they published a new study putting us in the 'red
zone' for chances of earthquake damage! Oy!
Erik Flom
Erik,
Your house has been standing for 90 years, what do dat tell you?
C. Davey
That it's due for a fall? (Sorry Erik, I couldn't help myself. <G>)
Mr. Zombie
Zom, my good man, you miss the point. ;^)
C. Davey
It's actually kind of funny….The house was built in 1907 – probably to
replace one that tumbled in the big SF quake. I figure if it didn't
survive the quake, they were probably scared enough to build it extra
strong. (knock wood! :^)
I was crawling around underneath, and it seems pretty solidly built. (I
hate to think of the ancient redwood that gave it's life to provide some
of the humongous timber beams I saw under the house!)
Erik Flom
Sounds good to me. I've got one in Venice that was built in the 20's; it's so
riddled with termites that it just sways in a quake. (knock wood! :^)
C. Davey
'it just sways in a quake.'
I'm starting to have nightmares about earthquakes already.
(It's amazing how important these things become. As a renter, the concept
of losing my house wasn't near as scary! :^)
Erik Flom
>>so riddled with termites that it just sways in a quake. (knock wood! :^)
Don't knock too hard…
Jim
Jaywal Productions, Inc.
Alameda has some really great houses. My 1910 house is in Berkeley. I love it.
I'm surprised you could get financing without earthquake insurance. It's
getting bad for new homeowners since insurance companies aren't writing new
policies and financers won't finance without insurance.
Well, good luck on the new place. At least these redwood frames hold up pretty
well to quakes.
-Richard
A 1910 house in Berserkeley, cool!
(My girlfriend insisted on size, but I insisted on style. You just don't
find the intricate (and at times goofy) detail and woodwork in modern
houses…)
The population density always seemed a little too high for my tastes in
that little college town, but I'm always going through the center, not
through the periphery.
As for insurance, we got a call as we were on the way to sign the papers,
and found a cheaper agent who was actually offering earthquake insurance!
Needless to say, we jumped on the chance…..Hope the details are as good
as it sounded over the phone! (Gulp…)
Thanks!
Erik Flom
Hello Erik. Long time no "see".
Like most things, I take a long time to get around doing what I am thinking
about. Adding the CD-ROM drive is only in my thoughts as a means of loading
the Toaster 4.0 software… when or if it ever appears.
Major thinking is going in the direction of when and whether to ditch the
Amiga, and probably go with a Pentium PC.. plus the trimmings.
All the best, HILARY
Glad to see you've hung onto the Amiga this long!
It still remains a very cost-effective platform, especially if you've got
one integrated into a production environment.
Going with a cheap $100-200 CD-ROM would probably be a good investment.
Not only for Lightwave, but other discs. As has been pointed out, you
won't be able to run Encarta on your Amiga (at least, not painfullly), but
there are a _number_ of discs which would probably be useful on _both_ the
PC and the Amiga.
Personally, I've got several 3D collections, and a number of Corel Photo
CDs and other image discs. The images are great, royalty free, and in
formats you load directly in with programs like ImageMaster – convert them
to IFF, and then you can incorporate them into stills and animations on
the Amiga.
Also, installing programs like Toaster 4.0 are real mind-numbing
experiences when you're stuck with a LoDensity floppy. The difference in
time and chance of error are at least several orders of magnitude less
when using a CD. (Rather than feeding your machine floppies for an hour or
two, you put the CD in, get a cup of coffee, and it's done installing by
the time you finish your cup.)
Erik Flom
Yes… it was the Toaster new software… when it does arrive (?).. that turned
my thoughts to the CD-ROM.
My trials and tribulations in loading the last version of Toaster still linger
in memory. I would get to the 59th disk… then there was a foul up. Next time
to the 48th… and so on,, and on.. and on. In the end I was a nervous wreck,
muttering cuss words that had never been heard before. I even found that I was
trying to pop disks into my pillow case after I retired from the fray. Thank
God I have the damn thing now on a backup tape. I could not go thry' that
again.
What's the latest on the Toaster 4.o ?
All the best, HILARY.
I, fortunately(!), never had any problems with the disks during installs
on my 3000 and 4000, but I've seen lots of horror stories, and my latest
version of ImageMaster was shipped with a bad disk, so I know how annoying
it is.
I'm not sure exactly when 4.0 for the Amiga is going to ship – since they
won't ship LW 4.0 for the Amiga until a few weeks/months later, I haven't
been following too closely. (I did hear that it's $50 more for the
CD/floppy version – $50 that would be better spent on a CD-ROM player
that'll save you hours of time during the install.)
Erik Flom
As someone pointed out to me, one can use the CD-ROM drive to play normal audio
CD's. This is a plus for us, as we carry a great deal of background music and
sound EFX on CD's.
Have you given any thought to the "Flyer"? Notice that NewTek have developed a
stand alone "thingee" for attachment to a PC, whic carries a new edition of the
Toaster… and will take the current Flyer card.
Regards, HILARY.
Actually, I hadn't considered the added benefit of the CD for audio
playback in the studio! (I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't find some
AREXX interface for the CD so you could trigger it, too…)
I'm not really looking at _any_ NLE solution right now. I'm only investing
in 3D related stuff right now, and while I'd love to have an NLE to play
with, I can't justify it for my business, and the price is too high for
hobby use at this point.
(I've currently got the PAR/TBC-IV in a souped up 3000, with an AD1012 &
Ethernet, so it makes a nice enough little DDR, when I need to put
together more than 20 seconds of video.)
Now, in a few years, when all the bugs have been worked out, I'll be
looking to either pick up a Flyer at fire sale prices, or I'll buy
more/better for less. (A truism in the computer industry.)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
I picked up a bit more info' on the CD-ROM project. Get the impression that a
CD-ROM will NOT work with the GVP. SCSI II control card, which unfortunately
is the one inside my 4000/o40.
Perhaps there is a way to connect a CD-ROM drive (IDE type) to the IDE "outlet"
on the 4000's mother board… which is not being used at this time. What do
you think?
All the best Erik, HILARY.
I'd double-check about the CD-ROM. Just today, someone was telling me they
got it to work by mounting it internally – you could put it in the 5.25"
bay, and put one of your drives in an external case.
As for IDE, I'd say you have a snowball's chance in hell of making it
work. Sorry. :^(
Erik Flom
Hilary, (and Erik I guess)
there is indeed a possibility connecting an ATAPI-IDE CDROM to a 4000,
providing you configure it as slave (the HD as master, off course), and make
use of the atapi.device and the CacheCDFS-filesystem.
It works like a charm here on my 4000/30 and a MITSUMI FX400.
Lieven Lema
…on autopilot from Belgium.
PMFJI, I also read the messages about the CD-ROM/GVP-problems, but I think you
shouldn't let them scare you.
My setup is similar to yours (A4000/40 with GVP A4008 SCSI II-controller) and
I have got a NEC 4X CD-ROM -drive and a SyQuest 270 connected to it.
It has been running about 4 months now, and I didn't have a single problem yet
(knock wood).
Regards,
Karl Van Hoyweghen on AutoPilot 1.80
Z7 A4000/40-Tower (kvh@pophost.eunet.be)
The matter of CD-ROM acquisition has now gone to debate.
Have had conflicting news. Some say that a CD-ROM drive will NOT work with my
present GVP II. SCSI control card, while others say it will. Presently in a
holding pattern until that question is resolved.
Regards, HILARY.
My external CDRom DOES work with my GVP Scsi II series card. There was a
special adaptor that came with the CDRom that looked kind of like a gender
changer that did not change the gender. I am told (by Betty Clay, I believe)
that this was actually an external SCSI terminator that can be purchased
separately for under $10 I later found out. I have absolutely no problems with
this CD Rom (its an NEC-25 single speed) playing audio CDs or any other
applications (GIF CDs & Fonts).
Being a very old engineer, every so often one comes across a bloke, who buys
some gadget… hooks it up wrong, and then proclaims to his fellows that the
"X" gadget will NOT work with the "Y" Computer, more especially if it has that
terrible "Z" board in it !
If all the stories about what would NOT work with the Amiga, were put end to
end… it would provide enough toilet paper for the entire Russian nation.
All the best, HILARY.
Erik, do you know of any IDE controllers available for the Amiga A3000? I can
get IDE CD-ROM drives so cheaply, I'd really like to be able to use them with
my Amiga…