Commodore CDTV

"CDTV" redirects here. For the Chilean TV channel, see CDtv. For the Japanese music television show, see Count Down TV.

Commodore CDTV

Manufacturer	Commodore
Generation	Fourth generation
Release date	March 1991
Media	CD-ROM
Operating system	AmigaOS 1.3
CPU	Motorola 68000 @ 7 MHz
Memory	1 MB

The CDTV (for "Commodore Dynamic Total Vision") was a multimedia platform developed by Commodore International and launched in 1991. On a technological level it was essentially a Commodore Amiga 500 home computer in a Hi-Fi style case with a single-speed CD-ROM drive. Commodore marketed the machine as an all-in-one home multimedia appliance rather than a computer. As such, it targeted the same market as the Philips CD-i. Unfortunately for both Commodore and Philips, the expected market for multimedia appliances did not materialise, and neither machine met with any real commercial success. Though the CDTV was based entirely on Amiga hardware it was marketed strictly as a CDTV, with the Amiga name omitted from product branding.

The CDTV debuted in North America in March 1991 (CES, Las Vegas) and in the UK (World of Commodore 1991 at Earls Court, London).^[1] It was advertised at £499 for the CDTV unit, remote control and two titles.^[2] Commodore chose Amiga enthusiast magazines as its chief advertising channel, but the Amiga community on the whole avoided the CDTV in the expectation of an add-on CD-ROM drive for the Amiga, which eventually came in the form of the A570.

The CDTV was supplied with AmigaOS 1.3, rather than the more advanced and user-friendly 2.0 release that was launched at around the same time. Notably, the CDXL motion video format was primarily developed for the CDTV making it one of the earliest consumer systems to allow video playback from CD-ROM.

Though Commodore later developed an improved and cost-reduced CDTV-II it was never released.^[3] Commodore eventually discontinued the CDTV in 1993 with the launch of the Amiga CD32, which used which again was substantially based on Amiga hardware (in this case the newer Amiga 1200) but explicitly targeted the games market.

Design

Commodore CDTV setup with 1084 monitor displaying the CDTV's audio CD player facility.

The CDTV was intended as a media appliance rather than a personal computer. As such, its housing had dimensions and styling compatible with most stereo components, and it came with an infrared remote control. Similarly, it was initially sold without keyboard and mouse (which could be added separately, and were later bundled with the machine). The CDTV was based on the same technology as earlier Amiga systems, but featured a single-speed CD-ROM drive and no floppy disk drive as standard.

Technical specifications

Close-up detail of the CDTV buttons.

Attribute	Specification
Processor	Motorola 68000 at 7.16 MHz (NTSC) or 7.09 MHz (PAL)
RAM	1 MB Amiga Chip RAM (upgradable) 2 kB non-volatile RAM
ROM	256 kB Kickstart ROM 256 kB CDTV firmware ROM
Chipset	Original Chip Set (OCS) or Enhanced Chip Set (ECS)
Video	12-bit color palette (4096 colors) Graphic modes with up to 32, 64 (EHB mode) or 4096 (HAM mode) on-screen colors: 320×200 to 320×400i (NTSC) 320×256 to 320×512i (PAL) Graphic modes with up with up to 16 on-screen colors: 640×200 to 640×400i (NTSC) 640×256 to 640×512i (PAL)
Audio	4 × 8-bit PCM channels (2 stereo channels) 28 kHz maximum DMA sampling rate
Removable storage	Single-speed CD-ROM drive (proprietary controller)
Input/output ports	Keyboard (5 pin mini-DIN) Mouse (4 pin mini-DIN) RS-232 serial port (DB-25M) Centronics style parallel port (DB-25F) Floppy disk drive port (DB-23F) MIDI (In and Out)
Audio/Video output	Audio out (2 × RCA and 6.35 mm stereo jack) Analog RGB video out (DB-23M) RF audio/video out (RCA[a] or RF loop through[b]) Composite video out (RCA)[a][b] S-Video out (4-pin mini-DIN)[a] SCART audio/video out[c]
Expansion slots	Proprietary card slot by ITT-Cannon and Fujisoku from 8 to 1024 KB non-volatile memory cards (1 MB addressing needs a hardware hack) 80-pin diagnostic slot 30-pin DMA expansion slot Video slot
Operating system	AmigaOS 1.3 (Kickstart 1.3/Workbench 1.3) and CDTV firmware
Physical dimensions	430 × 330 × 95 mm (W × D × H)
Other	Wireless infrared remote control/gamepad Front panel with display and controls for CD player

Notes

1. ^{^} North American model
2. ^{^} UK model
3. ^{^} European model

Official upgrades

The CDTV was compatible with many existing Amiga peripherals. In addition, official CDTV peripherals and upgrades included:

• Wireless infrared mouse
• Wireless trackball
• Black styled keyboard
• SCSI controller providing both an internal and external SCSI connector for hard disk drives and other SCSI devices
• External black styled hard disk drive^[4]
• External black styled floppy disk drive
• Proprietary memory cards with a capacity of 64 or 256 kB (CD1401/CD1405) allowing storage of game scores and progress^[5]
• Genlocks for NTSC or PAL (CD 1300/CD1301) to overlay video signal with a secondary video source^[6]

Versions

• CDTV: CDTV unit and remote control/gamepad
• Pro pack: CDTV unit, remote control/gamepad, keyboard, mouse and floppy disk drive, along with Almathera CDPD Public Domain software compilation on CD-ROM

Market competition

High-end A/V (primary market)

(multi-purpose audio/video systems)

• Philips' CD-i
• Pioneer's LaserActive
• The 3DO Company's 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
• Tandy Video Information System

Video gaming (secondary market)

• NEC PC Engine with Super CD-ROM expansion
• Nintendo's SNES
• Sega Mega Drive with CD-ROM expansion
• The 3DO Company's 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

See also

• Amiga models and variants

References

1. ^ "The Commodore CDTV Information Center - www.cdtv.org.uk". http://www.cdtv.org.uk/1254.html. 
2. ^ "Amiga History Guide". http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/adverts/advert3.jpg. 
3. ^ "The Big Book of Amiga Hardware - Commodore CDTV-II". http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=34. 
4. ^ "The Commodore CDTV Information Center - www.cdtv.org.uk". http://www.cdtv.org.uk/harddrive.html. 
5. ^ "CDTV Technical Information by Darren Ewaniuk". http://l8r.net/technical/cdtv-technical.html#HARDWARE. 
6. ^ "The Big Book of Amiga Hardware - Commodore CD1300". http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=396.