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Frequently Asked CDTV Questions Answered. What is the CD/TV button for? What is the Genlock button for? I own a PC, Whats the difference? Can I play Commodore CD32 games on the CDTV Can I play Video CD's or DVD's? Can I play CD+G or CD+Midi CD's and what are they? Can I listen to MP3's on my CDTV? How can I make CDTV bootable CD's? Can my CDTV go on the internet? Can I upgrade the Operating System? Can I add a harddrive? Can I add more memory? Can I upgrade the CPU? Can I add a .....? Where can I buy a CDTV from? What is the CD/TV button for? This button is for CDTV's with the PAL video card in, It switches between the CDTV's display and the signal from an ariel if connected to the RF in, So if you are waiting for a image to be rendered or something you can switch to the TV. This doesnt let you capture a TV image or merge the two images for video titling, It also is not present on NTSC systems or CDTV Genlocks. What is the Genlock button for? The Genlock button is for switching screens when you have the optional Genlock video card fitted, As standard the CDTV screen is visable but if a video signal is connected andyou press this button the CDTV's normal screen will be merged with the external signal, Pressing the button again will display just the external signal and pressing it again will return the display to just the CDTV's display. A genlock is normally used for adding titles to home videos but special effects are also possiable. When the CDTV's signal and the external signal are mixed one colour is kept for the genlock, When this colour is displayed by the CDTV the genlock will fill the colour with the external signal (If 1/4 of the CDTV display is the Genlock colour then only 1/4 of the external signal will be displayed, No scalling of the external signal is possiable). More information on the Genlock can be found on the Genlock page What is the Difference between a PC and a CDTV? Lots, The OS is held on chips so there is no more waiting, Just turn the CDTV on and its ready to use. The CDTV uses DMA to its full extent, It can play CDXL movies with almost no CPU usage, The same goes for disc reads. The graphics chip (GPU), Sound chip (DSP) & CPU all share the same memory which means you can have a 1 Meg sound card (The average Sound Blaster has 128 Kb), A simple memory upgrade will help the CPU, Graphics and sound, Letting you display large 4096 colour pictures very fast, Large sound samples with no jumps or stutters when you load another program and lastly it lets you run better programs, What happens when you put more memory in a PC? The CDTV is designed to be almost second nature to use, The PC is over complicated, Bulky and slow. A simple test is to time the booting of a 7Mhz CDTV and then an 800 Mhz PC, The PC will take mintes, The Amiga will take seconds. If your thinking that the PC can do more your wrong, There are more programs written for it but the CDTV's hardware is very advanced and can do anything the PC can, The only time you will need to upgrade your CDTV is if your trying to run programs made for latter Amiga's, This is because the latter operating systems incorperate premade buttons and sliders (Called Gadgets) and programs for the latter Amigas expect them, The CDTV can do it all, It just takes a few minutes longer for the software developer to draw the icons. The CDTV has its own version of MP3, Its called MOD and its size is approximatly 250Kb for an average 3 minute song, Now do you really want MP3 at over 15 Meg? The difference between the operating systems is great, Workbench (The CDTV's GUI, Like Windows) is almost never loaded, To play a game you dont need a full OS, Just the system control so why load it? Workbench can be loaded if needed, Just put your disk in and it will load in another 5 seconds to load a multitasking, Multimedia monster. Can I play CD32 Games on my CDTV? No, Simple answer. The CD32 uses a different graphics chipset which lets it display 24 Bit colour, The CDTV can only display 9 Bit but that isnt actually the reason, The CDTV's chipset will not understand the CD32's "AGA" Instructions so the program will fail, There is no way to upgrade the CDTV to play CD32 games as the CD32 needs twice as many connections as the CDTV. If you do want to try to see if your CD32 title will load then you should re-burn your CD32 CD with CDTV.TM instead of the CD32.TM file (Using an Amiga CD Burning program), If not you will just end up with a dark red screen when you put the CD in. :( Can I play Video CD's or DVD's on my CDTV? No, There are two ways any computer can play these CD's, 1: Using special hardware or 2: software emulating the hardware. Now software emulating any chip is CPU intensive (IE: A 1 Gig PC can only emulate a 50 Mhz Amiga), a CDTV would need a 68060 50Mhz CPU to software emulate the VCD hardware which isnt available for the CDTV yet. Using hardware is possiable and this would let you play both VCD and DVD (DVDs will need a DVD Rom and SCSI interface) but was never developed for the CDTV (The CDTV CR was to have a VCD upgrade and the CD32 does. There are part hardware / part software ones as well but Im not going to go into that. :) The best way is to install a harddrive into your CDTV and run a software VCD player telling it to save the frames as iff files (As most do, I use Frogger) and either turn them into the CDTV's Anim or CDXL formats but this is only if you really want to as it will take ages at present. Hopefully someone will make this easyer in the future (Maybe even me). Can I play CD+G & CD+Midi CD's and what are they? Yes you can, Both standards are fully supported by the CDTV's standard Audio CD player, Just put the CD in and select the bottom right button (And press play). So what are they? CD+G is more commonly known for Kareoki, The words to the song appear on the screen and change colour when the word should be said, CD+G also supports images but they will only load slowly and are normally only used for displaying the makers logo (IE: Sunfly). CD+Midi is along the same lines as CD+G but lets you connect a midi instrument to the CDTV and play along to your favorite band/group. I have not tried this bu tI am guessing either the notes are displayed or a digital representation of the instrument is shown with the correct button changing colour when you should press it. Can I play MP3 on my CDTV? No, As standard the CDTV can not play MP3 tracks but there is a hardware Mpeg 3 decoder for all Amigas (Including the CDTV), It is called the MAS player and is made by Eyetech (www.eyetech.co.uk). The device plugs into the parralel port, The software for it comes on disk (So you will need a diskdrive) but can load MP3's from any source that the CDTV can read (Which is most). You can also add an Amiga 1200 sound card like the Delphina Flipper A1200 and Melody A1200 which can both decode an MP3 track with less CPU time but you will need to have the clockport adapter and to upgrade your OS to V3.0 or above (And an old version of AHI) but this does give you a 16 Bit sound card which includes audio capture. Click here for information on the Clockport adapter Click here for information on the Eyetech MAS Player How do I make a CD CDTV bootable? The CDTV can only boot of special CD's that have a preferences section in the format, This can be made using either the CDTV developers kit (Which is found on all Amiga Developers CD's) or using an Amiga CD Burning program like Burn-it or MasterISO. You can burn CDTV ISO images using any computer (Even a PC if you have to) as the ISO image stores the CDTV preferences in the file. The preferences stored include how much data the CDTV should read at a time, How the files are layed out and adds support for features like Direct Read (DMA) and more. Can my CDTV go on the internet? No, There is no software available for a CDTV running the original OS, Most Internet dialers need OS2.04 and most web browsers need OS3.0 but there are a few older programs that will run on the CDTV but you will only be able to check E-Mail, Upgrading to a more recent revision of Workbench will let you run a browser and more (FTP uploads, IRC and web cams) but only in low memory mode with graphics turned off. No program has been designed to run on a CDTV so nothing will be optimal but to check E-Mail the CDTV can do well, Web browsing would be hard as you would have to use a maximum of 32 colours and with only 1 meg to work with but it could be done, Hopefully I will be able to write one but I have only just started learning programing. Can I upgrade my Operating System? Yes, The OS is held on a single chip inside the CDTV, This chip is used on all 16 Bit Amigas, The current "Kickstart" (The OS chip) is version 3.1, This chip can be bought from all Amiga shops like Power Computing or Softhut. The CDTV will need two other chips to be replaced if you are upgrading the os, These chips add the CDTV's screens and CD-Rom drivers. The chips are available from A.M.I.G.A., A US Amiga club, Or they can be downloaded from this site and "burnt" on to the correct chips. The new OS has lots of new features, The change is only noticed if you use Workbench (The OS's GUI), The new Workbench can read PC disks, Have a background picture, Error sounds, Much better preferences (Including a screen selector that lets you have 32 colour, high res Workbench's or 24 Bit true colour screens with a graphics card), The best thing is a program called Multiview and the Datatypes library, Multiview can display lots of different file formats including Jpeg, Iff, Png, Tiff, Gif, Voc & Wav using the Datatypes library (Which lets any program open and save the earlyer file types). To order the OS and CDTV chips vistt the CDTV shop section for your local dealer and the E-Mail address for A.M.I.G.A. Can I add a Harddrive to the CDTV? There are lots of upgrades available to add an SCSI 1 interface to the CDTV, Most have internal and external connectors. Amitrix sell interfaces for both the CDTV and A570 CD-Rom, These are called the SCSI-TV and SCSI-TV A570, They have space for a vary rare 2.5" SCSI harddrive to be mounted on the card or the normal internal and external connectors, This will let you add a cheap harddrive, Scanner, DVD and more. W.A.W. also made an SCSI interface called CDTV 2 SCSI which has both internal and external connectors and mounts flush with the back of the CDTV (Amitrix's SCSI-TV sticks out a little)(Both of these cards have a disable switch to turn the card off when wanted) Commodore did make both an SCSI interface and external harddrive for the CDTV, The interface is the same as the W.A.W's card (But without the disable switch) but the harddrive is in a specially designed case. The Commodore Harddrive is very rare, Mainly because they cost more than the CDTV. Visit the Upgrades page for more information on SCSI interfaces. Visit the CDTV Shop page for shops selling SCSI interfaces. Can I add more memory to my CDTV? Yes, There are two types of memory you can add to the CDTV, Chip Ram & Fast Ram. Chip Ram can be used by the sound card, Graphics card and the CPU, It is also where the CD-Rom data is stored untill the CPU gets time to read it, There is a limit of 2 Meg of Chip ram on all Amiga's. Fast ram is only used by the CPU (IE: Computer programs) but the only limit is from the CPU, The CDTV's original CPU can have upto 8 Meg of fast ram, If you add a 68030 CPU then the limit is 128 Meg (A2630). The most popular Chip Ram upgrade is the Mini-Mega Chip which replaces the "Fat Angus" chip with 1 meg of ram and a new "Fatter Angus", This chip is for the A500 & A2000 but will also work in the CDTV. The only new Fast Ram upgrade for the CDTV is Elbox's Memory upgrade & battery backed up clock, It is available from Power Computing and Vesalia. W.A.W. made a memory upgrade that fitted to the CDTV's Diagnostic slot which could add upto 8 Meg of ram using ZIP's (As used in the Amiga 3000). This is the best card but is very hard to get. There are CPU upgrades that also work in the CDTV, These have between 4 and 32 Meg of ram, An A2000 CPU card could also be adapted to fit the CDTV, Letting you have a 68060 with 128 Meg of ram. For more information on memory upgrades visit the upgrades section. . For links to shops with memory upgrades visit the CDTV shops page. Can I upgrade the CDTV's CPU? The CDTV has a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 7.14 Mhz, The 68000 range goes upto the 68060 (And then on to the Coldfire range), There are very few upgrades designed for the CDTV but there are others that do work in the CDTV, Heres more information. After the 68000 is a 68010, This CPU just plugs in place of the 68000 and speeds the CDTV up by approximatly 15% but is also incompatiable with some programs. The next CPU is the 68020 (As used in the Amiga 1200 and CD32), This CPU is not plug compatiable but will work if mounted to an addapter, The only CPU upgrade designed for the CDTV uses this CPU, It is called the Turbo-CD by W.A.W. and plugs in place of the 68000 on the CDTV, It also adds a limited amount of fast memory. A Viper 520 is still in production but may cause problems with the CDTV as it has its own kickstart (OS) mounted on a 32 Bit chip. After the 68020 is the 68030, 68040 & 68060, There are 68030 CPU upgrades (And one 68040) that work in the CDTV adding upto 32 Meg of fast ram as well, The most popular was the Derringer, These cards did work but did not fit in the CDTV case to well. None of these cards are still in production but can be picked up second hand from auction sites like Ebay. I am working on an adapter to let CDTV users use Amiga 2000 CPU cards which go upto the 68060 CPU. Visit the CDTV Projects section for more information. Can I add a ........? The CDTV has a number of "Standard" expansions, They are: A Serial Port (36 Kbs). A Parrallel port (Bog standard, Does not comform to Bi Directional Standards. (But it can)). An Amiga External Disk Drive Port. An Amiga RBG Port (Fully Genlock compatiable). There is also a CDTV Keyboard port, CDTV Mouse port & a Propriatry Memory card slot but the CDTV is the only one to use these ports. The standard ports let you plug in items like Scanners (Parrallel or serial port), Printers (Parrallel or serial ports), Amiga Network (Serial, Parrallel or Amiga Disk Drive ports), Genlocks (Amiga RGB port) and even a graphics card (Amiga RGB port). There is an adapter that adds an Amiga 1200 Clock Port to the CDTV, This port was designed to add a battery backed up clock to the A1200 but sound cards, serial and parrallel ports & more are now available, The adapter is made by Kato Development. The CDTV also has a Diagnostic Connector which has the same signals as found on the Amiga Zorro slots, The A500's Side expansion port and the A2000's CPU port, I am curently working on adapters to let you use cards for these connectors. This would let you use better CPU's, Add more memory, Have 24 Bit colour screens, TV cards, Sound cards, IDE & SCSI interfaces, ISDN cards, Network cards and the list goes on (And on and on). Check the CDTV Projects page for information on the state of the adaptors. Where can I buy a CDTV from? The CDTV has been out of production now for 8 years so finding one is a little hard, Merlancia advertise they still have them in stock but are very expensive. The best place to look is your local papers (Like Loot) or general computer magazines (Like Micromart) or on-line auction sites like Ebay. Also have a look on our Forum. Any other questions? If you havent found the answer to your question E-Mail me and I will try my best to help you out, If you dont want to E-Mail you can always ask questions on the Online Forum.