CDTV - is it worth getting one?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Protek wrote:
Does the CDTV have an inbuilt SCSI controller or what type of interface is used in it?

AFAIK it uses some custom interface...

[HyAmi]

@Speelgoedmannetje
You could get an ICD ADIDE40/44. As far as I know, that should give you hd capabilities without too much hassle.

[darksun9210]

yeah its as expandable as an A500, but without the side expansion slot, so options are limited... IIRC, you can upgrade the 1.3rom to 3.1rom, as the base cdtv and cdrom code is held in a seperate rom. pretty cool being able to have a cdrom without having to load drivers

the cd drive is a custom mitsumi(?) interface, so no direct IDE or SCSI to play with without expansion cards... as always, its a giggle to have a play...

enjoy your new plaything

[amigadave]

foleyjo wrote:
If you can get a Keyboard, mouse and external floppy drive then yes its worth getting.

I just recently got the last piece to complete my CDTV, a black CDTV keyboard, thank you Ray from Hawaii.

My black mouse is not an original CDTV mouse, it is the Amiga Technologies mouse that I am not real fond of as I don't think it works as well as it should, and certainly not as well as a Wizard 3 button 560dpi, or AlfaData optical mouse.  I also have an "Air Mouse" for the Amiga that I could try with the CDTV that is black.  It works via infrared, but has its own infrared receiver so it can work with any Amiga.

A member here programmed for me an updated version of the two special CDTV ROMs that I believe contain the CD-ROM controller code as well as some other things, so I now have the latest version.

So, all in all, I am quite happy with my CDTV, but I think I will try to upgrade it a bit further with the installation of an AdIDE hard drive controller, DKB MegaChip 2mb RAM expansion, and a Kickstart ROM switch from an unknown manufacturer with either the 1.3 & 2.05 ROMs, or 1.3 & 3.1 ROMs.

That should make it a very versatile Amiga gamer except for AGA games, which will have to be played on my A1200, A4000 or CD32.  I don't know about options to use regular joysticks on the CDTV.  That would be the only other thing I might be interested in doing to it, or I may just leave it like it is now and enjoy it for what it is.  I have other Amigas that can fulfill the hard drive and multiple Kickstart ROM options.

So obviously my vote would be for any Amiga enthusiast to get a CDTV.  The wireless infrared remote controllers are unique to this model Amiga and kind of cool.

[quarkx]

[/quote]

I just recently got the last piece to complete my CDTV, a black CDTV keyboard, thank you Ray from Hawaii.

My black mouse is not an original CDTV mouse, it is the Amiga Technologies mouse that I am not real fond of as I don't think it works as well as it should, and certainly not as well as a Wizard 3 button 560dpi, or AlfaData optical mouse.  I also have an "Air Mouse" for the Amiga that I could try with the CDTV that is black.  It works via infrared, but has its own infrared receiver so it can work with any Amiga.

A member here programmed for me an updated version of the two special CDTV ROMs that I believe contain the CD-ROM controller code as well as some other things, so I now have the latest version.

So, all in all, I am quite happy with my CDTV, but I think I will try to upgrade it a bit further with the installation of an AdIDE hard drive controller, DKB MegaChip 2mb RAM expansion, and a Kickstart ROM switch from an unknown manufacturer with either the 1.3 & 2.05 ROMs, or 1.3 & 3.1 ROMs.

That should make it a very versatile Amiga gamer except for AGA games, which will have to be played on my A1200, A4000 or CD32.  I don't know about options to use regular joysticks on the CDTV.  That would be the only other thing I might be interested in doing to it, or I may just leave it like it is now and enjoy it for what it is.  I have other Amigas that can fulfill the hard drive and multiple Kickstart ROM options.

So obviously my vote would be for any Amiga enthusiast to get a CDTV.  The wireless infrared remote controllers are unique to this model Amiga and kind of cool.[/quote]

Sounds like a sweet system indeed. Looks like the only things you are missing are the original Commodore scsi Adapter, Hard drive and Black Monitor, but those are not really needed with an Adide adapter. I just think it would look so cool set up, If I got one, I might experiment some way of replacing the CD with A DVD though, I know, I am Dreaming, but upgrading to a DVD (and being able to View it) would really put some life back into it.

[amigadave]

I just remembered that I also have a CSA MegaMidget Racer 030/68882 CPU/FPU accelerator w/32mb RAM that I might be able to fit inside the CDTV.  That might be pushing my luck though and overheat and fry my CDTV.

I wonder how far any other users have pushed their CDTVs?

Your DVD idea is interesting and would be a great addition, but I can't imagine how you would get it to work without an accelerator.  Playback of DVD movies would require more computing power than the stock CDTV can provide, or did you only want to have access to DVD data discs?

[quarkx]

No, I though of just having DVD movie playback, and bringing the CDTV up to date on the original Idea of it, the access to the data disks, would be a nice side benifate though.

[cpfuture]

I don't know about options to use regular joysticks on the CDTV. That would be the only other thing I might be interested in doing to it, or I may just leave it like it is now and enjoy it for what it is.

Here's a picture of one of those joystick adapters for the CDTV.

Link

I got this one fairly cheap, but unfortunately it only works for one joystick. The second interface doesn't react that well. IIRC joystick left and right movements are not registered. Sucks, because I really like playing old school two-player games when I have friends over and the CDTV is perfect as a living room Amiga.

There was a similiar interface up on eBay recently but it went for an absurd price. 50 euros or more I think.

But you're right. The CDTV, despite its failure and quirkiness (or perhaps because of it), is a wonderful piece of Amiga history!
 :-)

[taunusand]

My CDTV and CD32 have theis own places in my living room, but I mostly use the CD32 ;-)

[taunusand]

My CDTV and CD32 have their own places in my living room, but I mostly use the CD32 ;-)

[jmbattle]

Has anyone ever tried to mount the CD32 motherboard inside a CDTV, or would the custom 1x CD-Rom interface be prohibitive?

On a similar note, assuming the DVD-Rom drive could be replaced, and that it was hooked up to a CD32 with the FMV add-on, would DVD movie playback be possible?

I'm just curious...

Cheers,
James
x

[amigadave]

cpfuture wrote:

I don't know about options to use regular joysticks on the CDTV. That would be the only other thing I might be interested in doing to it, or I may just leave it like it is now and enjoy it for what it is.

Here's a picture of one of those joystick adapters for the CDTV.

Link

I got this one fairly cheap, but unfortunately it only works for one joystick. The second interface doesn't react that well. IIRC joystick left and right movements are not registered. Sucks, because I really like playing old school two-player games when I have friends over and the CDTV is perfect as a living room Amiga.

There was a similiar interface up on eBay recently but it went for an absurd price. 50 euros or more I think.

But you're right. The CDTV, despite its failure and quirkiness (or perhaps because of it), is a wonderful piece of Amiga history!
 :-)

Thanks for the link to the joystick adapter.  I wonder how hard it would be to duplicate one of those adapters?  I will have to look on Aminet to see if anyone has come up with a home-built version for the CDTV.

[Pyromania]

Yes, they are very cool. It's where the idea for PlayStations & Xboxes came from.

[Tenacious]

@ AmigaDave

I've read that the CDTV and the A570 coupled with an A500 were virtually the same.  I had great dreams of expanding my A570 system.  It works well with Supra's RX500 fast ram expansion and with 2 megs of chip on the 500 motherboard.  It also works great with SCSI-TV by Amitrix Development (the same SCSI interface add-on for the CDTV).  

I could never get it to work reliably with any accelerator.  I tried mTec's 020, ICD's Adspeed, and Supra's Turbo 28Mhz.  The Addspeed appeared to work for a week but then destroyed the A570.  Commodore replaced it under warranty.  When the second A570 began displaying the same symptoms, I popped the Addspeed out.  It seems that the special CD interface and rom are sensitive to CPU timing signals.

If you try the MegaMidget, be cautious.  

[arion]

Well the cdtv is the coolest looking piece of hardware ever put together.

And from a gaming perspective the Cdtv verison of Xenon 2 is a must have for that computer. But i have to agree with a previous post here get one with 9 pin connections the wireless controller isnt always good for games in fact mine was very annoying at times.

[alexh]

jmbattle wrote:
Has anyone ever tried to mount the CD32 motherboard inside a CDTV, or would the custom 1x CD-Rom interface be prohibitive?

What would you connect to the LCD, buttons etc? I agree that the CDTV case is nicer than the CD32 one.. but a heart transplant is not going to be easy / practical.

jmbattle wrote:
On a similar note, assuming the DVD-Rom drive could be replaced, and that it was hooked up to a CD32 with the FMV add-on, would DVD movie playback be possible?

No. It's an MPEG1 decoder and DVD's are MPEG2.