How much is a CDTV worth?

[Stephen Coates]

Is it easy to get a CD into the caddy?

I am quite interested to try out one of these caddy loading CDROM drives as I have never used one before.

EDIT: I found this a few minutes ago. Look interesting: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=21596

[Demon Cleaner]

Is it easy to get a CD into the caddy?

You just stick it in like you would insert a toast. That has nothing special and difficult.

[J T]

Yeah except they are a pain in the ass, every time you want to put a different CD in you have to open up the caddy and put the CD away, then get the new one and put it in the caddy. Not a big deal when you read it like that, but after a few times you'll probably see what I mean.

I used a CD-ROM with a caddy at school many years ago, when CD-ROM was very new (and not really actually used for much). Some of the standalone Panasonic DVD burners can take discs in caddies, but most people don't bother and just use the bare disc.

[Harrison]

I used caddies a lot when CD first appeared on computer. The first CD Writers all used caddies and they do get annoying when you want to change discs. Many people used to have a few caddies with their drives to keep a selection of their most used discs ready to just insert.

It's funny to think they used caddies because they didn't think they would be able to cope with the vibration or be able to read or write accurately otherwise. And that was for 1x CD units writing at 1x speed (150Kbps). Those old drives used to take an hour to burn a CD! mad.

Actually, so did the first authoring DVD drive I used to use at work. You definitely had to make sure the project you wanted to burn to disc was correct as you didn't want to be waiting an hour too many times, or wasting discs as they used to cost a lot too. I think the first DVD Authoring discs I used to purchase for work were about £10 each!

[Harrison]

Is it easy to get a CD into the caddy?

I am quite interested to try out one of these caddy loading CDROM drives as I have never used one before.

It is easy to use the caddies. As the others have said, it is just annoying after a couple of uses, having to eject the caddy, then remove the disc from it, put that disc away, get another disc out, insert into caddy, then insert into drive. Only one step extra really involved but it does make the process of inserting a disc a lot slower. And what a nightmare if you lose the caddy!

EDIT: I found this a few minutes ago. Look interesting: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=21596

That guy has done a lot to his CDTV for sure. I expect some of the upgrade parts are harder to find these days though, especially the Mini-Mega chip ram upgrade. I like the case upgrade he has done too, looks very smart, although it does make the CDTV even bigger.

One cool feature of the CDTV is that it does have SCSI built in, as the CD drive uses it and I think I remember (I may be wrong) there is a port on the back for external SCSI devices.

[THB]

Sadly it doesn't use SCSI and adding a SCSI port to it is a costly exercise requiring extra hardware. The default CD-ROM uses a proprietary connector that isn't exactly SCSI. That said I love my CDTV, I like setting up my own CDs they are like small 700meg HDDs.

Just wish it had more ram and proper joystick ports but both of those things are fixable when I have some spare time.

[Harrison]

You used to be able to get many internal upgrades for the CDTV. They are probably quite rare these days but you used to be able to upgrade the kickstart to 2.04, the chip ram to 2MB and some fast ram too. I'm sure there was also an accelerator released as well but am not 100% sure about that.

Are you sure there isn't a SCSI port on the back of the CDTV? I'm sure the first CDTV's had one, but it was a proprietary round port. I remember reading about it in the issue of Amiga World that covered the CDTV launch, and they even mentioned the future ability to add an external HD.

[THB]

Its an optional extra sadly, quite expensive and rare.

[Harrison]

That is annoying to learn. CDTV stuff was rare enough when new, so it must be very hard to find these days.

DO you use your CDTV often?

[THB]

I have it set up under the TV but rarely get a chance to use it. I am working on a compilation CD where I basically take AmigaDOS format games from various floppy compilations and put them on a CD with a not so fancy menu. The thing about the CDTV is that it has one meg chip and part of that is used for the cd-rom driver. So what you end up with is an a500 WITH 950KB chip ram... not the ideal compatibility situation. :/

Still it is a lot of fun when the games work. And the composite output of the cdtv is much nicer than that of the 1200/600/1000. The rest all have B&W composite output iirc.