What's the story about the multimedia era?

[ElPolloDiabl]

What's the story about multimedia? Commodore thought it was the next big thing and made the CDTV. There were some useful multimedia software that came out like Encyclopedias, but most of it people would not pay more than 5 or 10 dollars for.
When multimedia software came out the developers expected big bucks for putting a few video files on a CD-ROM, but it didn't happen. So they went to games on CD, which was very popular.
So what happened?

[J-Golden]

As far as I could tell, the Technology was not refined enough to replace what was already out.

CD-ROMs were slow and the systems that relied on them lagged big time.  This is why Nintendo didn’t go to that media while others were jumping on the band wagon.

Also the technology didn't mesh well IMHO.  The IR controller for the DV-I and the CDTV were also terrible for response time.

The only multimedia aspect that I see making a big step was Laser Disc Cabinets like Dragon's Lair and the like.  But even those had lag times for loading one clip to the next.

[Kesa]

I'm not trying to be blunt but the reason the multimedia revolution failed was because it was all crap. A quick look at the CDTV and what do you find - no software worth a bother (except for simcity) and it was obviously nothing more than an A500 in a CD player case, etc, etc.

Why? what was the point of it all? How can you use a computer on a CD player type remote anyway? Not even today does this happen. The multimedia computer makes no sense to me. Exactly what is it supposed to be/do?

I remember in school around about 1992 they were trying to brainwash us by using "multimedia" posters all over the place. I remember seeing a poster raving on about using a CD on a computer and how cool it was. I also remember seeing our computer teacher showing us a CD video called "speed" on a pee cee pentium 80Mhz. He made us watch it because it was the future of computing. Hard to think he was an active Amiga user. Apart from that i can't remember much about the "multimedia revolution".

p.s. I am very drunk so excuse me if this post makes no sense

[prowler]

@ElPolloDiabl

I think you will find that the advertises and marketing droids jumped onto the 'multi-media' buzzword almost as soon as it was uttered. Their idea of multimedia was a MS-DOS machine with EGA graphics and a multi-media expansion kit which involved a CD-ROM drive and a really old Soundblaster sound card with wav tables on it.

I have to admit that I remember sniggering at the time of the PC multi-media expansions around, especially when my Amiga did so much more out of the box.

Whilst I think the CDTC was in the right direction, it was an aborted attempt by commodore to jump onto the bandwagon. If they took a little more time with it, it may have been OK. Unfortunately, it is only something which has really taken off in the last few years. Think PS3 etc where you watch movies, listen to music as well as play games, all via the same box on your TV set.

[gertsy]

The Internet is the Multimedia Era.....

[cv643d]

Another good question: What happened to VR-helmets?

I am going through a lot of Edge from 93/94 and VR is hyped liked its some kind of unreleased Playstation 4 system.

[rvo_nl]

I also remember seeing our computer teacher showing us a CD video called "speed" on a pee cee pentium 80Mhz. He made us watch it because it was the future of computing.

well he was right about that, we were all going to have cdrom writers and burn/watch movies on our computers. but that has more to do with piracy than the future of multimedia.. can imagine how awkward it must have been back then though.

[J-Golden]

Another good question: What happened to VR-helmets?[/FONT][/COLOR]

I am going through a lot of Edge from 93/94 and VR is hyped liked its some kind of unreleased Playstation 4 system.

[/FONT][/COLOR]


Well, first the Virtual Boy put a bad taste in everyone's mouth.  I've owned two, almost three.  I never saw what was wrong with them other than the price.  They were ahead of the game but I guess most people felt they dropped the ball by making it stuck to the table (not head mounted) and it was monochrome.


Second, it is still super expensive for the headsets.  I've always been a tech head and have loved the idea of having a device that tracks my movement for a controller.  But All I can find are mini-screens that provide "life like 60" screens" but are all blurry.  All that for the small small amount of $500...


Third, you look like a complete whack-job using one!  Seriously, have you ever been to a VR shop when they were the big thing?  You would stand in a cradled area; spin around while craning your neck to look this way and that while everyone on the outside wets themselves laughing...

[Khephren]

What's the story about multimedia? Commodore thought it was the next big thing and made the CDTV. There were some useful multimedia software that came out like Encyclopedias, but most of it people would not pay more than 5 or 10 dollars for.
When multimedia software came out the developers expected big bucks for putting a few video files on a CD-ROM, but it didn't happen. So they went to games on CD, which was very popular.
So what happened?

CD TV was a good idea, as per usual with commodore, badly imlemented.
It was to expensive, and not allowed to be sold anywhere near Amiga computers.
So punters were confused, and developers wary.
It did not have the grunt to play videoCD, not that videoCD was that popular anyway. And commodore made no effort to get movies released as CDXL. Home computer atitudes of build it and they will come' failed with this machine, they should have paid good money to get software developed for it.

Encyclopedias and video on CD where only of use when the internet wasn't around.

But I have a remote for my Xbox360, and use it play music and all my downloaded video's and DVD's I own. I guess the CDTV was not a million miles away from the genesis of this idea, just a half arsed version

[takemehomegrandma]

So what happened?

It continued to evolve, and suddenly we got Internet and smartphones with "apps"...

[huronking]

Multimedia was the typical marketing of inadequate technology.

I have a Gateway 32-inch CRT VGA monitor from their "multimedia" blitz...

It looks like a really nice TV set, and it will only do 640x480, making it useless.


But at the time alot of money was made in the name of things the state of the art was barely capable of.

[Crom00]

CDTV and CDI failed becuase to do multimedia to an acceptable level you needed at least a PS1 spec machine consisting of:

Fast processor, somekind of 3d hardware, full 24bit display (not 32 or 64 colorsa out of 4096), 16 bit sound, fast cd drive. The PS1 was the machine that hit the acceptable spec for a reasonable price and that was 1995-1996. So Commodore was trying to leverage aging 1985 technology and wrapping it around a concept that really needed 1996 era tech to work well.

If aga had been introduced with the Amiga 3000 and CDTV with 16 bit dsp and 2X cd then you would have had an attention getter. But they were simply trying to charge as much as possible for A500 class tech.

I puchased one from Commodore usa during the firesale for about $250 (months before cd32 was launched) and the design of the system was great. Just too slow and underpowered for what it needed to do. You could see the potential though.

[commodorejohn]

Video looked like crap unless your machine could handle MPEG and CDs couldn't store much reasonable-quality MPEG, sound was all too often mono 8-bit 22KHz, and nobody had any idea what the hell to do with the technology beyond "uh, let's do Myst, but with nonsensical puzzles and ugly-ass graphics because none of us know how to use a rendering program!" At least that's my observation.

[trekiej]

One thing I liked about that era was the add-in decoder card.

[Crom00]

One thing I liked about that era was the add-in decoder card.

The cd32 had a great implementation of the FMV concept. But to expect the user to spend $300 on a console, then almost $300 more for a FMV that got you DIGITAL vhs quality movies as a stretch.

PS1 was such a good implementation of this era technology becuase in game FMV was easily MPEG1 quality as the built in hardware was 24 bit. I even had a dongle that allowed me to play VCD discs. This was very polular in Asia as when over there you could get any movie on vcd for like 10=20 cents.