CDTV as a CD player?

[Stephen Coates]

Can a CDTV be used as a standalone audio CD player? And if so, can the CDROM drive be replace with a normal tray loading one? And is the sound quality good?

I just thought I better check as I want to get a new HiFi system next year and will need a CD player, and I quite fancy having a CDTV so it would be good if I could use it for audio CDs as well.

[J T]

I'm pretty sure it can, in fact I seem to recall seeing pictures in a magazine of the screen display when playing an audio CD, with big easy to use buttons that can be clicked on to skip tracks, pause etc etc.

I don't know if the remote or actual unit has these buttons, or if you have to have the monitor/TV display on as well and you use the joysticky thing/mouse.cursor to highlight the onscreen controls (would be a massive oversight if this were the case).

But then, a fairly decent CD deck can be obtained really cheaply nowadays and would probably be better than the CDTV for audio - look in a Richer Sounds or something like that. If you do get a CDTV though, post your opinions on it - I've never seen one myself, it's something I've always wondered about but never cared enough to go and find out myself.

[Demon Cleaner]

I don't know if the remote or actual unit has these buttons, or if you have to have the monitor/TV display on as well and you use the joysticky thing/mouse.cursor to highlight the onscreen controls (would be a massive oversight if this were the case).You can use the remote of the CDTV itself.

Any CD player will be better than the CDTV, but then again, you don't have a CDTV. And I don't know what audio output the CDTV has, have to give it a look at home, or just look on the net. Just buy both.

[Harrison]

Yes, you can play Audio CDs on the CDTV Steve. It has left and right RCA connectors on the back (the same as most Amigas) so you can connect it directly to a hi-fi amplifier.

As for the CD unit, I'm not sure how standard it is. It is a 2x speed drive that uses caddies to load the discs. The downside is that I think the drive uses a SCSI interface so replacing the drive could be expensive.

The CDTV also supports Audio CDs with +text just as karaoke discs.

For decent audio quality you would be much better off buying a standalone CD player, or a DVD player as they are very cheap now and have the advantage of normally having optical out as standard which gives the best output connection to a supporting amplifier/receiver.

Also consider that the CDTV is very rare and prices start from £50 for one in average condition without any packaging or extras.