#CDI big push…
26 messages in this thread
Oh dear oh dear,
I've just been to Harrods (a major department store in London) and Philips
have a CDI unit on display in almost EVERY window, and there are lots of
those. There is also a major display inside the store and also units for
you to try dotted throughout the store. The promotional theme aimed at the
younger market is `Backing the Future'.
Oh dear………
-Andrew
Andrew,
Hmmm, that's interesting. From what I've seen in the States both CDI and
CDTV could be considered "flops" as consumer items (if measured along the
lines of VCRs, TVs, Stereos, etc.)
From what I understand, Commodore is working on an "upgraded" model of CDTV
(CDTV 2000) but I have no details as to what it does (here's hoping they
drop the caddy!) or when it will be released. I think you may see hints if
not a release (just guessing) at the WOC/A show in Pasadena but I don't
think Commodore will show *anything* before then.
I'm curious as to whether Phillips' push works. Do you know if the models
on display are incorporating MPEG compression? I know both CDI and CDTV
are supposed to support it "ASAP" but I don't know if MPEG has even been
finalized, yet.
-Chas
Charles,
I couldn't bring myself to take a good look at the machine… Perhaps I'll
go back and see how much the sales people know !
Andrew
You may also be interested to know that Commodore U.K. is offering a
trade-in deal on CDTV and the A500. Trade in an A500 and you can knock 200
Pounds off th price of a CDTV (making it either 299 or 399). Not that bad
of a deal considering if you trade a 512K or 1M A500 with one floppy for a
CDTV. Buy the pro pak (keyboard, mouse and floppy drive) and you're all
set (with a CD-ROM to boot!)
-Chas
Charles,
C-Cube has been supplying Philips with a customized (extra features)
version of their CL450 MPEG decoder chip for about a month, and I know some
developers have been working on full motion video CD-I apps for much
longer.
The FMV board which will plug into current CD-I players is due for sale
late this year, perhaps for as low as $200 according to magazine reports.
The Philips CDI-360 hires color LCD portable player is also due out in
October. I believe the latest VIDEO magazine has a picture of the prototype
which is currently being demonstrated to U.S. dealers. Sony, Sanyo and
Kyocera have also recently shown or announced both normal and LCD handheld
units (the Sony handheld is already being sold to developers). Matsushita
and Yamaha recently reannounced their intention to make players later this
year as well, altho I don't know which models (if any) will show up in the
US right away.
I think Philips was pushed into early CD-I US and UK intro by CDTV.
Otherwise they and all the Japanese companies have mostly been laying low
waiting for FMV capability. I also wouldn't be surprised if we later see
movies available on CD-I discs in Blockbuster stores.
best – kevin
That should be interesting. Sony also just made an announcement of a
prototype blue-laser CD-ROm that can store over 3 1/2 hours of video on one
disk!
-Chas
Charles,
Actually, more CDTVs were sold in the first year of distribution than CD
players were sold in its first year of distribution… Not a flop yet.
Let me know when the window units and all the rest of the unsold inventory
get marked down to 200 pounds, will ya? <g>
Michael
…..on AutoPilot
200 pounds…. in Harrods ? Heaven forbid :^)
Andrew
Andrew … even the local `Tempo' store (that's a smallish brown and white
goods electrical chain here in the UK) has a big CD-I demo stand where
customers can go and play. The only thing they seem to have running is a
golf game (which does look, to the average punter, very impressive indeed).
Philips also did a big techo-fair in a local shopping mall, where CD-I and
DCC was on display.
The same store stocks CD-TV, but there's no demonstration running (`because
Commodore will not supply the point of sale material' is the response from
the salesman).
I still believe that both CD-I and CD-TV have a problem in the market place
since nobody is too sure what they both are. The recent Commodore ads for
CD-TV added to the confusion.
My own formula is to build on existing concepts that the public has
recently discovered … audio CDs are now established, but it took several
years for their real worth to be understood. If Commodore were to plug the
CD-TV as a normal domestic CD player that would also `just happen' to play
Amiga games (and the majority of Amiga games was transferred across to CD),
and they had done it last Christmas, they'd have been fighting off the
rush!
Of course, market psychology in the US and UK are two very different
things.
Mike (from the UK)
Mike,
I'm from the UK ! Never heard of Tempo though. Harrods was running the golf
game funnily enough but there were quite alot of titles on display.
I like your formula, but how much would transferring the games onto CD bump
up the already high prices ?
Andrew
The extra cost? It obviously depends on quantity, but assuming audio-cut
prices they'd cost about #6 each in quantities of 50 or less … about #2
for 2000+
Of course, a CD-ROM requires rather more than an audio-cut and will require
additional work to produce the CD image, but a realistic price would be
about #3 extra in reasonable quantities. (I stress that I'm basing these
figures on audio-CD costs, with an approximate weighting for the data
aspect)
I did have one idea a long time ago … a company could put _all_ its Amiga
titles onto a single CD. That would reduce the production cost
significantly. All they then did was `destroy' the CD surface except where
the specific CD title was located. Any attempt to read the other titles
would result in read errors (you'd obviously have to ensure that the
directory structure remained intact).
Mike (from the UK)
Mike,
That's bizarre, since Commodore _has_ a point of sale disc…
Denny,
They have a point of sale disk alright, but they want $$$ for it. 🙂
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Oh dear is right……..and not a CDTV in sight, I am sure! But then, not
everyone in England shops at Harrod's.
I thought EVERYONE shops at Harrods ! :^)
-Andrew
Betty,
<<and not a CDTV in sight, I am sure!>>
I live in England and I did see a CDTV on display. Of course it was in
an Amiga dealer<g>.
-Sean
Also seen a CDTV. In a dusty corner turned OFF
wonderful what promotion can do 🙁
Pete from West Dorset in Englands West Country – via Whap!
Come to think of it, the one I saw wasn't on either…
-Sean
You know! Now that ya'll mention it, can't say I've seen one of the
things on either!
Rodger
What is the deal?! Maybe it's a conspiracy of black boxes.
-Sean
Well our CDTV is never off and is always doing something intersting. Today
we had it hooked up to a DigiView and we were digitizing pictures with the
beast.
My only complaint about CDTV is the 2MB limit (1 Meg granted by virtue of
the DKB Megachip which works nicely in there.)
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Well I can tell you that our local Radio Shack's that have the Memorex CD-I
system are attempting to blow them out the door on close out for $499.
Hello Kevin, anytime I mention anything about CD-I I hear from Kevin!
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Hello, Mark! You rang, sir? 🙂
Yah, Radio Shack is closing them out at a good price. The official story
is that Tandy refused to carry titles as Philips wanted them to.
The unofficial story is that Philips didn't like the way most stores
weren't doing a good job of displaying players.
The rumor story is that Tandy is coming up with their own PC-based black
box… which would seem to mostly be competition to CDTV if it were
expandable into a full home computer as well.
Personally, I'm kind of hot for that Philips portable player. MSRP is
supposed to be $1995, which isn't bad for a notebook-sized 68K computer
with an active matrix 756×556-pixel color LCD screen. Just add a CD-I
keyboard. It even has the same FMV board slot as the current boxes. Now
if only AmigaOS had DIG…
cheers – kevin
Andrew,
The Phillips CDI has been out here in the U.S. for about a year now.
No real success. What is you impression of sales over the pond?
Rodger
I have no real idea how well they are selling but judging from the number
of demo units I see dotted around and the advertising in the Sunday
glossies they are trying very hard indeed.
-Andrew