CD32 Mpeg card

[Darrin]

Yes they do. My TopGun plays ok, StarTrek etc. Perhaps not the ultra-cheap-o DVD players?

Noooo they don't and if you do a search then you'll find a lot of people state the same thing.  I've owned 8 different DVD players and recorders over the years and none of them would touch a CDi disk and yet would happily access a Video CD (And that includes a recent Philips model too which plays everything else including AVI and WMV).

So, my Star Trek VI, Top Gun, Waynes World, etc wouldn't work while my Queen, Kate Bush, Tina Turner, Mr Bean and Have I Got News For You would.

and most of the VCDs I bought for my CD32 were actually CDi format.

No such thing. Or at least "CDi format" is not the correct terminology for it.[/quote]

The CDi disks are what is known as "white paper" format (IIRC) and this was an earlier draft of the Video CD standard ("green" I think).

Edit:  I checked and I got it the wrong way around:

"CD-i is an older format ("Green Book") than Video CD ("White Book"). It supports interactive computer games as well as movies.
You can play VCDs on a CD-i player, provided that it has the DV cartridge. But there's about 30 movies released by Philips on CD-i which you can only play on a CD-i player, because they use the "Green Book" standard: you can't play them on a VCD player or on a PC. These CDs are labelled "Digital Video" or "DV".

Matthew Sparby (matthew AT sparby.nu) sent the following information by e-mail:

CDi Videos (Green Book Video) is an older standard than VideoCD. It uses the same MPEG-1 encoding but it uses a different filesystem. The only dedicated hardware that can play these discs is a Philips/Magnavox CDi system with a Digital Video cartridge."

Obviously these are the disks I have and the Amiga FMV was also capable of playing them too.  They may have been rereleased later in VideoCD format, but the ones I have are the original release Philips CDi disks and are marked "CDi" and not "VideoCD".

IsoBuster

That's the one.  Great program.  Now I just play them of a burned DVD and I don't even need to worry about the disk swap as the files just flow together.  ;-)

[MikePh]

Quite right about Isobuster. My (hopefully soon-to-be-sold) Amiga FMV card played the CD-i disks. Got the Cream of Clapton - a very rare CD. Used Isobuster to convert it to DVD, so I rarely used the Amiga CD32 player after that.

By the way, Xingplayer software, an early Mpeg player for  Windows 95(!) played the CD-i content on a PC, except for the last tracks.

However, for "completeness-sake", there are some Amiga collectors who need this card, some games need it, and maybe for other reasons as well.

Finally, thank you to all who registered their interest and suggestions. Because of the surprising interest, I have decided to sell the FMV on eBay and notify all of that intention. I think the eBay format will cover all sorts of issues about the price and the selling and delivery processes.

Regards to all,

Mike
 

PS: I have just entered this item on eBay for anyone interested: Amiga CD32 Full Motion Video (FMV) Card 270121568988
 
 

[InTheSand]

To solve all problems: buy a CD-i player instead! :-)

Or a HiSoft SMD-100 (stand-alone box with SCSI in (for CD-ROM drive) and SCART out, was supposed to link to the Amiga but the software never happened)

DVD players generally don't play CD-i CDs. Note that some CDs marked as "CD-i" on the packaging are in fact standard VCDs and are playable on anything.

The key seems to be with the catalogue number - those marked with xxx 1xxx are typically CD-i discs, whereas those with xxx 2xxx are generally VCDs.

Examples:
811 1001 - Top Gun - CD-i packaging and a real CD-i title
811 2041 - Crocodile Dundee II - CD-i packaging but a VCD
811 2036 - A View To A Kill - VCD packaging and it is a VCD

 - Ali

[MikePh]

Have recently sold the FMV card on eBay - a good price too - to an Amiga collector.

An inquirer from Germany is interested in contacting the buyer but can't through eBay as the sale is completed and I can't get in touch with him - antik321deins is his German eBay name.

If you - antik321deins - are in touch with this forum please email me through sales@lascellesproductions.com and I will get you the buyers email (if I have his permission).

[motorollin]

alexh wrote:
CD32 owners have a longing need to put something in their empty slot :-)

You must introduce me! :evilgrin:

--
moto

[_ThEcRoW]

I recall playing cdi titles on my pc many years ago. Don't remember the player, but i think that it was one included in one of the movies. Gotta search in my old cdi titles...

[whabang]

motorollin wrote:

alexh wrote:
CD32 owners have a longing need to put something in their empty slot :-)

You must introduce me! :evilgrin:

--
moto

:lol:
I actually mis-read slot the first time, thought he'd written "slut". ;-)

EDIT: Oh, my! did I just type "writted"? :-)

[whabang]

What are the capabilities of that card anyway? How programmable is it? Any chance of getting it to decode MP3's?

[Matt_H]

whabang wrote:
What are the capabilities of that card anyway? How programmable is it? Any chance of getting it to decode MP3's?

Yep. You can supposedly just put cd32mpeg.device into Amplifier's hardware decoding gadget. Unfortunately, Amplifier always crashed on startup on my SX-1/CD32 so I could never get that far.