#CD ROM
21 messages in this thread
OK, I've been trying to get a cdrom player going on my Amiga. I started
with a Trumpcard 500, CDROM-FS, Highland's Fred Fish on CD-ROM and a
Toshiba XM-5100A1 external CDROM player. I quickly found out that
Trumpcard doesn't support DIRECT SCSI commands, and that you need the WB
1.3.2 or newer mount command (1.3.1 and ARP Mount do not pass on the
commands, and ARP Mount uses SIZEBLOCK instead of BLOCKSIZE).
So I got a used (3 months old) A2000, GVP Series II Faastrom 33 Mhz '030
board with 4 meg of ram (plus the 1 meg chip) and scsi controller which
supports SCSI direct.
I again installed the CDROM-FS software. The drive is terminated (as the
last drive on the external scsi connector), set to SCSI ID 3 (the internal
80 mg HD is ID 0 and the scsi controller itself is ID 7).
By following the CDROM-FS instructions, (changed the TOSHIBA: entry in
mountlist.cdrom to read gvpscsi.device and id#3) I mount CDROM: (I changed
it in the mountlist since Toshiba: didn't work, and this is shorter) prior
to loading workbench.
I now get a disk icon on workbench called CDROM:CDDA. But the info command
says CDROM: no disk present. Clicking on the icon gets a WB error. And the
HD light flashes intermittently like it's looking for a disk.
There IS a disk in the drive, the Fish on CD rom. I know the CDdisk is
good because I can read much of it on the IBM.
Any suggestions? Oh yes, I'm using CDROM-FS V.701 and I do know .702 is
out.
Only Commodore cards and Hardframe will work with CDROM-FS. If you have
other cards, like I do, bug CDROM-FS developer to get with it and get
compatible. Xetec CDROM drivers are compatible with every controller, why
can't CDROM-FS.
Raman
Rick,
I use the Xetec CD-Rom and filesystem with no problems although i did have
some initial teething trouble. Maybe some of the following will help…
This is my mountlist entry:
CD0: Device = scsi.device
FileSystem = l:CDxFileSystem
Unit = 4
Mount = 1
Flags = 0x0004
Surfaces = 1
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 1000
Reserved = 2
BlocksPerTrack = 50
Buffers = 50
BufMemType = 5
Stacksize = 6000
Priority = 10
GlobVec = -1
MaxTransfer = 0x001FFFFF
Mask = 0xFFFFFFFE
DosType = 0x444F530 #
Obviously the filesystem is different, but that setup has a nice readahead
buffer and works perfectly for me.
The flashing drive light is the fault of the Hypermedia file system. Its
checking to see if you've changed the disc. The Xetec software gives you
the option to turn Auto Disc Change off, then when you change dics, you
just issue a DiskChange command.
The Disk Icon – CDROM:CDDA signifies that you have loaded an audio cd. If
the filesystem was reading the disc properly you should get the Fish Disc
icon.
Try fiddling with the mountlist. If you get no joy, I'll configure my
software for a GVP interface and see if the (auto generated) mountlist is
any different.
Good luck,
Andrew.
What's "Highland's Fish on CD ROM". I know of HyperMedia Concepts version,
and the one that Xetec bundles… I'm looking for one that PRESERVES the
Amiga-style file names, within LZh or ZIP files. For some reason, the
HyperMedia one did not, and I'm not ready to format or sell my floppy Fish
until I know I've got a perfect copy on CD
. Meanwhile, because of similar
incompatibilities between drivers and controllers on the Amiga, my nice new
CD ROM drive only works on my Mac and PC.
John,
I'd like to get a CD drive that can work with Amax II and the Amiga
3000. I was going to wait for a Commodore drive but it now seems that
theirs will only work with A500's. I was considering a Xetec but am not
sure that they supply a driver for the Mac. It would probably be easiest
and cheapest to get a drive with Mac drivers that will also work with
Hypermedia and the 3000. Does anyone know drives that will fit the bill?
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
Don, I called Xetec about the Mac drivers because I also would like to see
if Amax will work with my CD Rom drive. They indicated that their next
shipment of drives, due in this week, will have the Mac drivers with them.
I plan on calling them again at the end of this week to check on the
status.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
John,
If that is true then Xetec is definitely the ticket. Why is it
though that the CD Rom drives for the Mac seem to be 1.) cheaper, & 2.)
able to play CD audio disks? vs. the one drive made specifically for the
Amiga, Xetec? Also, it seems as though the major rag retailers don't
advertise the Xetec. None of the major Amiga retailers in the Phila area
carry it. I prefer buying major hardware purchases such as this from a
store vs. mailorder.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
The Amy drives can play CD audio.
BEN:Leigh's Computer's
Ben,
OK. I didn't realize that most/all CD Rom drives could also play audio.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
Maybe some of the Mac external CD Rom drives are a little cheaper, but not
that much. Most of them that I've seen in MacUser magazine are still in the
$700 price range. And one thing to consider is that the Fish & More Vol. 1
CD comes with the drive, plus they have done a lot of work to make their
drive compatible with CDTV CD's. I'm not sure why you have the impression
that Amiga CD Rom drives can't play Audio CD's. The Xetec software comes
with a special program and when executed a picture of a CD player scrolls
up the screen. You place your favorite audio CD in the caddy, put it in the
drive, and use your mouse to punch the buttons on the CD player just as you
do with your audio player at home. It has memory, shuffle play, repeat,
fast foward, rewind, etc etc. I just put it in the background and listen to
my favorite music while I'm doing other stuff with the Amiga.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
John, do you have to go through that entire interface to play audio CD's?
Or can you just type: CD PLAY, or something like that? (does the
interface stick around while the CD is still playing, or can you hot-key it
away and then back, etc?) And finally, can you play audio CD's without
powering up your amiga and running it's audio play program? I'd assume it
has it's own power supply, so is there a simple "PLAY" button on the box
anywhere? (ie. with amiga off) Lots of questions. That's what you get
for being the first on the block!
–jp–seattle–
No, you don't have to go through the entire interface to play audio CD's.
They have a nice library of routine's that can be called from most any
programming language. They provide plenty of technical information for
using the library. You can "Turn Off" the interface when the CD starts
playing in the regular play mode, but I'm not sure how it would work if you
had the tracks set up to play in a particular order. For the present you
have to keep your Amiga running to play audio CD's. All the commands go
through the SCSI port. The only button on the front of the CD is for eject.
John
Oop's, I forgot to reply to all your message. As to why you don't see more
Xetec advertisement's I'm not sure about that. There are some companies
that just don't have the bucks to do any major advertising in the rags. I
believe Xetec has some product's for the Mac & IBM markets, so possibly
they concentrate their advertising $$$ in those. I'll ask Dave from Xetec
about that the next time on log on to their BBS. He left me a message
yesterday letting me know that the Mac driver software was available now,
so I ordered it today and should be here the end of this week.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
John,
I guess the reason I didn't know Xetec could play CD's was that lack
of advertising. In the ads I did see some months ago I don't recall any
mention of that capability. I'm not so interested in the ads but it seems
that the retailers are not promoting it either. At a user group meeting I
went to last month there was a lot of interest in CD Rom applications. I
spoke with Mac & IBM users and they agree with the advent of larger
programs it is definitely a major needed product. I do think its kind of
silly to put a program that would fit on one or two disks on CD Rom though.
I also think its silly how CBM is marketing their CDTV. If they don't put
it in K-Marts, Best Catalog Stores, & Sears they can just forget any
success with it. So far I haven't seen it at any of the above.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
I will have to agree Don, putting a program such as "Lemmings" on CD Rom
without making any major improvements or adding new levels is a little
silly. But, then again the CD Rom version is about the same price as the
disk version, and they did improve the sound quality. CD Rom is such a new
technology that it's full potential has not been used as yet, IMHO. Most of
the IBM CD's I've seen are pretty lame, and while there are a few good CDTV
disks, there are a few other's that get boring in a hurry. We had a very
active thread going here on the future of CDTV a couple of months ago. With
the introduction of CD-I this fall, I'm not giving CDTV much of a chance,
but who knows? It will take a major marketing effort from CBM, and
considering CBM's past history in marketing, they will more than likely
botch any effort to get CDTV off the ground.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
John,
I know that the importance of marketing this machine was discussed
before but I think now is a good time to evaluate the situation since the
machine has been out for a while. I think if CBM does not sell a lot of
machines this Christmas season then all bets are off on its success once
the CD-I version comes out. CBM doesn't want the computer dealers to sell
it since they don't want it thought of as a computer but have you seen any
appliance dealers carrying it? Do they really think they'll sell a lot of
machines mailorder?
At least Tramiel was able to get the C-64 into the K-Marts etc and
sell a lot of machines. It seems that the company now has no one capable
of pricing and pushing this machine to success. It would take a massive
intense marketing effort to succeed against the Philips & Panasonics.
I really like the idea of CD Roms and hope that the CDTV makes it so
that we Amiga owners will have a bulk of CD Rom software to choose from.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
Well I certainly hope CDTV makes it also Don. Even though having the Fred
Fish library on CD Rom is nice, I certainly would like to do something else
with this Xetec drive. I'm not sure how CBM is going to market CDTV, but I
understand that the big push is supposed to be this fall. They are going to
have a tough time competing with the likes of Philips and others that jump
on the CD-I bandwagon. Then the consumer is going to be confused as hell
because we have 2 different formats. Reminds you of the VHS vs Beta
controversy. But then look at the outcome, VHS won out over the superior
Beta format. It's going to be interesting to watch what happens this
Christmas season.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
I don't think CD-I will be ready yet this Christmas. That's why this is
the year CBM has to do it with first digs. The software companies have to
like the fact that Amiga's can run CDTV titles also since that adds a
substantial number to the potential user base.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
Hi John,
I was indeed referring to the HyperMedia Concepts version. It's version 1.2
which covers through FF disk 480. There's a new one due out in a couple of
weeks.
I finally got it working (changed from a Toshiba CD player to a Chinon due
to a bug in CDROM-FS .701), and it appears that Amiga-style filenames are
indeed retained in the lzh files. At least on the couple I've checked out
so far.
I'll check it out further tomorrow at the store, I only got it working
Saturday night (or was it Friday night… it's been a LONG week! <g>).
Once I got into it, I discovered why I couldn't get into the lzh directory
on the CD player attached to the BBS. The name of the directory is
LZH_FILES which is 1 char too long for MS-DOS. It showed up as LZH_FILE.
Supposedly on the 1.3 release the directory is now called LZH.
I've got the 1.2 version of the CD, too… Now what could I have done
wrong, to think that the LZH files contained upper-case filenames? Are you
*sure*? (Obviously, now I'm not!) And I'd hate to have to dump my Toshiba
for use on the Amiga. The 3301 is one of the top drives out there today,
only very recently bested by the NEC-73 in throughput. It snapped on the
back of the Mac without a hitch, and even works on the PC, but not on the
Amiga. Wonderful. 🙁
To be honest, I'm not sure about the uppercase filenames… So far, every
disk I've extracted from the LZH's worked fine (even after being
null-modemed from the Amiga to the PC network and back at 19.2). And I've
run a number of the right off the disk.
Toshiba makes a fine drive. I have tried the 3301 yet, the ones I tried
were the 3101b and the 5100 external (it may be a 5200 or 5300, not sure as
I'm at home right now).
Supposedly the problem is fixed in the .702 version of CD-ROM FS, and I
think he even states in the docs that .701 is SUPPOSED to work on the 3300
(but the CDDA won't).
Anyway, .702 is out, and the 1.3 version of the CD should be out this next
month or so.