@ScrapKing73
I briefly had an A500, before upgrading to the CDTV. One thing I only recently learned, was the CDTV lost about 100 KB of RAM to the fancy front end that ran the clock, played the audio CDs, etc. Which was OK, as I used the audio CD function a lot. I’d be doing homework or modemming into a BBS, and could pop in a CD and hit the play button on the front of the unit. Loved it. But apparently some Amiga software designed for 1 MB systems could fail on the CDTV because of that missing 100 KB. Fascinating stuff for me to learn 30 years later about a computer I used almost every day for many years!
@CRG
Nice overview of the CDTV. I think people call it an A500 with a CD drive since essentially its the 500s chipset, ok maybe more the 500+ chipset where its using ECS but that's the heart of the Amiga and the heart of this CDTV. If you're looking for CDXL stuff there is the CDXL Anime project which has converted several films over to the CDXL format. The limit of 150kbps on the drive really hurts the quality though, its very pixelated compared to what can be done with AGAblaster and a hdd. Its always been a system I've been interested in after seeing one in our schools library. I can remember asking my parents for a CDTV back in 1993/4 and the Dixons (electronics retailer) sales rep telling them its crap they couldn't sell them for £20. I ended up getting the CD32 instead that year (another great system) but looking back with hindsight I wish I'd have bought a pallet of CDTVs at £20 each 😂 One last thing, I just realised I wasn't subbed to your channel... I could have swore I was but subbed now. One closer to 6K 👍
@SteveGuidi
I've never seen a CDTV in action -- thank you for showing this to us! I've also heard the "just another Amiga 500" statement, but perhaps those comments are generalized to state compatibility? Regarding software, I think I may have seen "Dragon's Lair" play on one of these devices at WoC (Toronto), but now that I think about it, that was probably the CD32. I'm curious to the design decisions of using DIN ports that look like PS/2 ports, accepts devices that PS/2 ports normally accept (mouse, keyboard), but NOT use the PS/2 protocol. Imagine finding a computer with a USB port that doesn't accept ANY USB device, unless you have an adapter that converts to another USB port -- weird and rediculous!
@RacerX-
Nice review and I am glad you did't call it "just an Amiga 500 with a CD-ROM drive". lol. Thanks for clearing that up. You summed up the failure exactly how I remember it too. I remember seeing this at the Video Concepts store in our local mall and the guy that I usually went to when I was buying my audio/video gear tried to sell it to me. I remember saying no way at that price. At the time they were still selling those A500 bundles with a few software titles like Tetris, Carmen San Diego, Amiga TextCraft and an RF Modulator/Composite adapter for less than $200 just a few stores away at Babbage's. But looking at it these days it is a great machine that I never personally owned. Looking forward to more videos on the CDTV and those upgrades.
@dsawyer8
My Amiga setup is AMAZING now. I can run anything perfectly. I have ALL the Amigas
@ChrisEdwardsRestoration
wow lucky that i was off ebay that day! and a 06:20 it actually has Three roms, a 1.3 and Two cdtv roms, one cd control one cd boot and cd player prog inside.
@a1exh
CDTV has the OCS Denise
@geekwithsocialskills
Awesome score! The CDTV is really cool! I love my CDTV so much. My journey with the CDTV started back in March 2011 and now in 2022 I have 99% of everything that goes with it. At this point I'm only missing the black 1084s monitor and the 256K memory card (I do have the 64K one). I've done a few videos on my channel about the CDTV and really should do a follow up since I've got some new things related to it.
@LeftoverBeefcake
Thanks for the shout-out, and I'm glad to see this wonderful machine in its new home, with its new Amiga family. :) Back in the day I got my original machine for $99 from the local Amiga dealer who was blowing them out since they flopped in the market. I didn't have a CD player at the time, so it was perfect for me for listening to audio CDs. More importantly, I had learned about ParNET and I hooked this beauty into my A500 through a special parallel cable and could then read stuff like the Aminet set over on the 500 as if I had an A570 drive. It was glorious... until I sold that machine on eBay years later, thinking I would never use retro machines again. :P Picked up my 2nd CDTV a few years back, and recently I got a bunch of upgrades to throw in (and also another ParNet cable) like a GottaGoFast RAM 8 meg expansion, and the ZuluSCSI board. Can't wait to see what's next for your new friend!
@leeg4116
Not too many CDTV videos around. I bought a broken one on eBay a little while ago. The CD Drive was siezed. I made the mistake ok removing the stack of gears by the motor not realising there are springs between them. That's gonna be a fun trial and error project once I finish getting the board to boot properly lol. Great video, thank you.
@raymondmookhram5127
The smd cap in the remote is a well known problem. It is also one of the easiest repairs and projects for a venture into soldering. Another problem is it’s responsiveness; with schmups this can complicate matters. Diagonals are also sometimes troublesome. You can also use the remote on regular Amiga’s by ordereing a dongle.
@nethoncho
I had a CDTV back in the day. Thanks for posting your videos 💿📺😎
@darrensmith4606
What a fresh perspective. Loved your review. I owned two CDTV's through the years. Had a built in Genlock as standard which was really useful!
@carm3d
Excellent video. :)
@raymondmookhram5127
Something I forgot about the standard remote: you can only have one remote. It does not recognize two remotes as separate devices.
@coryengel
Apparently the CD32’s audio sounds exactly like the “baked beans” scene from Blazing Saddles.
@raymondmookhram5127
One could add the 1411 external drive / FDD or any other Amiga drive or Gotek, the original black 1084s monitor, original black keyboard, original black wired mouse, the original wireless trackball with Amiga mouse and joystick ports, the Genlock module, the very rare wireless infrared mouse. These are rare and costly. You could also add a 68010, extra fastram, but also IDE harddisk. There are new extended roms. The catch is that you want to preserve the CD-tv functionality; that is a high-end cd-player in there with great sound quality. It is by all means a multimedia device with for the time mind-blowing potential. That Defender of the Crown original CDTV sample is worth about USD250, and more if you have the original casing. Defender of thd Crown and Xenon 2 become more submersive and complete experiences when you play them. But when you add the Genlock module and a handycam; this is the stuff Apple did in the 2000’s, but Commodore doing it in 1991-92. Way ahead of it’s time. Commodore had brilliant engineering but a lack of marketing people with sufficient understanding of developing new markets and how to penetrate those markets. As Commodore you were selling to consumers (home-computers), prosumers ( A2000, A3000), professionals ( Studio’s with A2000 / A3000 and toasters), but with the CDTV you would have indeed wanted to go after the Audiophiles and Dad’s got a new tech to with his camcorder folks ( or the hobby-ist market).
@stephenbruce8320
Commodore could not sell water in a desert back in the day. Thier marketing department just didn't have a clue. Now I remember all the talk and hype the CDTV was generating before it came out but once it did come out it's like the hype went out the door it just lost steam. I chose to add a CD-ROM to my A2000 which was the first CD Anything I had ever owned, I paid $250 for that puppy, and it was used, I bought it from a person in Washington State that much I can remember. I just remember they hype then it came and went and did not appear on my radar until I got bit by the Retro Bug. The only Amiga's I do not have in my collection are the Towers, CDTV and CD32. Maybe one day I might add a CDTV and CD32 to my collection.
@apollo12002
Very interesting video. I actually wrote an educational title for the cdtv on an amiga 500 (in Amos), commodore were going to buy it and it even got published in their official cdtv catalogue, but I never got to see it play on a cdtv as commodore international went bust.
@10MARC