CD-ROM Info?
13 messages in this thread
Can anybody give me some information on CD-ROM systems? This may be
something I'd like to invest in, but I don't know that much about it. Any
info would be appreciated, including price and what's available on disks.
I'm really not interested in CD-TV. Thanks.
Glenn, there are several CD-Rom drives out on the market now, and each has
their own advantages/disadvantages. First thing, be sure you get a SCSI
CD-Rom drive. Some of those "Bundle" deals, like from DAK, include a Sony
CD-Rom drive that is NOT SCSI, so it wouldn't work with the Amiga. Although
most of the drives on the market use "Caddys", there are a few appearing
that don't use caddys and you can insert the CD-Rom directly, and that is
what I would buy now. Caddys are a pain, plus an extra expense that is not
needed. There are only a couple of companies producing software drivers for
CD-Rom/Amiga. One is Hypermedia Concepts and the other Xetec. Hypermedia's
driver will work with certain CD-Rom drives and Amiga controllers, so if
you are interested I would suggest you call them to find out what
drives/controllers are compatable. Xetec's driver only works with the
Chinon CDS-431 CD-Rom drive, but is compatable with several Amiga
controllers. But I'm not so sure why you would want a CD-Rom drive if you
are not interested in CDTV titles? The only other Amiga CD-Roms available,
other than CDTV, is the Fred Fish Public domain collection on CD-Rom. If
you want to use some of the IBM and Mac CD's, then you need a BridgeBoard
or AMAX Mac emulator. You see, even though you can access the data on a IBM
or Mac CD with an Amiga CD-Rom drive, most of these CD's have a special
"Search engine" or program that uses this data in a certain way. And those
programs are written for an IBM or Mac. Actually, some of the CD's
available for the IBM are appearing on CDTV format, and are usually
cheaper. I don't have a phone number for Hypermedia Concepts, but I'm sure
one of the other AmigaUser members can supply you with that information.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
If you are interested in things like NASA planetary images, they have made
most of the Voyager images available on CDs at very reasonable prices. The
Magellan Venus radar images are being published on CDs too. All are
readable on an Amiga, although display software is currently a bit
primitive. (ie you have to run a conversion program and use Display)
Selden Ball
I'm working on an article for AmigaWorld on CDs that were designed for
other computers, but are usable on the Amiga. (In other words, this is not
another CDTV article. 🙂 I do plan to talk about those nifty Voyager
CDs. A long time ago, I called the University that makes them, but I never
got a response about buying them. Do you have a lead on other interesting
governmental CDs? I'm about to go to Washington DC for the CD ROM Expo,
and I plan to do some digging. I'd like to make a direct viewer for those
images, instead of using that conversion program.
Also, if you know about other interesting CDs that contain data that can be
used on the Amiga, please post… for example, most clip art collections
are in EPS or TIFF or PCX format, which can be placed in DTp programs or
converted with an image processing program.
Do you have the info on when/where in DC this CD Expo is? I live in DC and
might like to attend it.
It's at the Washington Hilton & Towers. Conference management is at (800)
225-4698. Note, however, that it's $825 registration – not exactly an
AmiEXPO. 🙂 Just the exhibit hall, keynote by IBM's James Cannavino, and
program guide is only $30. The high-rent seminars don't look very
high-tech, they look more like a nice vacation for expense-account
management types. It looks like there's about 80 exhibitors, including
Commodore International, supposedly.
Thanks for the info… sounds pretty high-dollar tho <sigh>.
John,
In your search for CD's that work on the amiga (or bridgeboard for that
matter) have you came across anything by the NFPA (National Fire Protection
Agency), or anything thing to do with building codes and standards? I am
specifically looking for something on the NEC (National Electrical Code).
..Steve
Whap!ping from beautiful coastal South Carolina
John,
Try Wes Baker, 70274,1353. He plays around with AmigaVision and laser
video and has bought some disks.
Karl
– via Whap!
Didn't the Chinon come out last in Benchmarks presented in the September
Byte?
-Greg
– via Whap!
Yep, the Chinon did come out last in the Benchmarks, but as you know,
benchmarks don't tell the whole story. It has probably the slowest access
times, but the transfer speed for all the drives is only about 150K/sec.
And the actual speed depends a lot on how well the driver software is
written. But I did suggest to Xetec that they look at some of the other
drives on the market, and I'm sure as the CD-Rom market heats up, they will
try to keep up with the competition.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)