This is the (mostly) complete text of all responses I received for my 1993 CD-ROM survey. When I posted the original survey form, I said that all responses might be made public, so anyone wanting anonymity must tell me so. Nobody requested anonymity. I have deleted mail headers and some of my own words (quoted by the respondents) from the survey; everything else is unchanged. Responses are separated by lines of equals signs (e.g., "=========="). The results of this survey are summarized and analyzed in the article "SURVEY: CD-ROM on the Amiga, 1993 [long]", posted on May 6, 1993, in the USENET newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.reviews. I suggest that you read this survey review first!! It is available by anonymous ftp in the comp.sys.amiga.reviews archives on math.uh.edu, in the file pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/CDROMsurvey1993, or by e-mail from amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu. Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center | | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// From: Brick Eksten >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000/040 OS version: 3.0 SCSI conroller: A3000 internal >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Hitachi Model number: CDR - 3750 Access speed (ms): 300 ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150kb Internal or external: Internal >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Quality, the Hitachi mechanism is probably one of the most well made mechanisms on the market. And price. The Hitachi lists for 750+ but can be found for $450.00 Features include: Chinon compatibility mode. Dual Dust doors, color coded for Cd-inserted/no-Cd Fast 300ms seek times, (actually rated at 280ms by Hitachi) Very sturdy. stereo audio Very clean looking volume control, electronic eject >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? horizontally... Can be installed either way. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) Xetec. I have tried Asim and CD-FS but they both are inferior to Xetec's software. > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Works flawlessly. Also I commend them on supplying a library for programmers to access so that they can write their own software for the CD-ROM, I wrote my own audio player in a day with their library. >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. You don't have enough room in this survey for this answer 8^) Easier to say that I haven't run across a normal ISO-9660 or Mac HFS disk that I couldn't read. >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. The only *computer* disk I have tried that didn't work was the install disk for my NeXT. But that is in NeXT format so I didn't expect it to work. >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? The Ab-20, unix sources, and Fred Fish CDROMs are all great. >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Very, it is faster to look at an ISO 9660 cdrom on my amiga than on any other platform. I own a Quadra 950, a NeXT station, and an A-3000, and the 3000 can browse faster, transfer faster, and read more disks than any of the other machines. The Mac is absolutely horrid, takeing over 20 minutes to get a directory on the Walnut creek Gifs Galore CD-Rom. >(11) Any other comments? Yeah, one big comment.. Someone needs to talk to Chrish H(sp), the guy who is currently doing the Fred Fish on CD-ROM. Fred Fish is ready to go under, because he has less subscribers than ever, and Chris is makeing a mint off of Freds efforts. He claims to have offered Fred money for the rights, but I doubt that because he also claims to have offered the creators of Aquarium and KingFisher money as well, but he hasn't. Udo (author of KingFisher) is a good friend of mine, he heard from Chris once when he called to say that he might put KingFisher on the latest CD. He did without calling UDO to confirm that he was doing so, Udo had to call me to find out if he did or not. It's programs liek KingFisher and Aquarium that make the Fred Fish CD worth owning. As much as I enjoy haveing CD-ROMS, I have to ask myself who is benefitting from the actual production of the ROM's. CD-ROM's cost $1.40 to manufacture that includes, burning the disk, the insert and the jewel case, this is a price I have been quoted by several companies, and a price that I have paid to have disks made. The average $30.00 software package contains around $7.00 worth of materials, includeing disk(s), manual, warranty card packing material, and sleeve or box printing. (thats a cheap price). The average software package goes through distributors meaning that 50% of the price is lost right away to distributors (usually 60%). This brings the net per package down to about $8.00. What have these people that market CD-ROM's done? They have purchased a large HD, packed it full of PD material, backed it up to tape, and had CD-ROMs burned from them. Most CD-ROMS are distributed directly (PD ones anyways), bypassing any distributors. That puts the net for the CD at about $23.00 on a $30.00 CD. Pretty good. I have nothing against someone makeing a buck, but the contributors are getting absolutely nothing for the work they did and placed into the public domain with the hopes of makeing some toy money. That's not right! Most shareware copyrights and distribution notices strictly prevent anyone from charging for distribution of thier program beyond reasonable media fees, and handling charges. I don't consider $23.00 gross profit per CD a reasonable handleing charge. And I don't think it is right or maybe even legal for someone to redistribute the work of others, shareware authors in particular without shareing some of the profit. What Chris has accomplished is taking a 800+ disk collection of great software and packaged it in a manner that does absolutely nothing to endorse the shareware concept, does nothing in the way of supporting the orignal compiler of the library (FFish), and in no way pays back the tens of thousands of hours of work that went into the original programs. Pretty lame if you ask me.. Why am I telling you this? Because you are in a position to pass the word so to speak to people who are intersted in purchasing a CDROM, own one and are curious about others experiences, and to the curious in general, in a manner much more eloquently stated than I could (not to mention spell checked 8^) ). I am going to look into this from a legal standpoint, as I am putting together some CDROM projects in the near future. Good Luck with your survey, Brick Eksten ============================================================================ From: stefanb@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de To: barrett@astro Subject: Re: SURVEY: CD-ROM on the Amiga Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 20:02:42 +0100 >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: > Model: A3000/25 > OS version: 2.04 > SCSI controller: A3000 >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > Brand: Toshiba > Model number: XM3301 > Access speed (ms): ??? > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150KB/s > Internal or external: external >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was offered in a bundle. >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Both. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? YES! I've now figured it out: Put it on the high end of the SCSI ID's (e.g. 6) and power it OFF while you are configuring your SCSI HD's with HDToolBox. The SCSI HD with the highest SCSI ID will get a bit set in the RDB (LastDrive), which tells the SCSI controller on boot up not to look for additional drives after this one. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? Canadian Prototype CDFS AsimWare CDFS 1.0 > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? They work well, but automatic disk change detection seems to be a problem. >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish 1-800, HyperMedia Fred Fish Online 1-750, HyperMedia CATS Developer CD 2.0, C= >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. - >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fred Fish 1-800 >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes, great for mass-data storage. >(11) Any other comments? Eagerly awaiting the AmiNet CD from Walnut Creek :-) Stefan ============================================================================ From: vitas@sunsrvr3.cci.com (Vitas Povilaitis) >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 2000 OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: GVP G-Force Series II >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: 3301 Access speed (ms): ?? Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ?? Internal or external: internal >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was a cheap refurbished drive. >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? horizontally. I didn't get docs. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (c) Xetec > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Yes. Yes; Xetec's software thinks CD-ROM's with long volume names (like the CD-ROM's from Profit Press) is a file and won't let me access them (in the version I use). >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Prime Time Software CD-ROM Fred Fish CD-ROM Hypermedia Fish & More Xetec AB20 archive Walnut Creek MegaDemo Profit Press For Adults Only Profit Press SIMTEL archive Walnut Creek Sun User's Group Walnut Creek >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. See 6. >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fred Fish for quantity of useful software. Fish and More for ready-to-run organization. >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? yes. no. >(11) Any other comments? I wish there were more Amiga CD-ROM's. But looking at some of the trash available on PC's, Mac's and CDTV, I'd rather have quality rather than quantity. By quality, I mean CD-ROM's with archives of tested software, or, better yet, archives of ready-to-run software. Maybe even games that make use of that space, not to store graphics and sound, but actual gameplay data, like maps of a world to explore, or tables that drive AI opponents in strategy games. -- vitas@cci.com | vitas@grace.bah.rochester.ny.us Northern Telecom | Graceful Boot BBS (716) 426-4779 It's December 31, 1999 at 11:59:59.9... Do you know where your data is? ============================================================================ From: dmenns@muug.mb.ca (Darren Enns) >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000/25 mhz OS Version: 2.04 (non-ROM) SCSI Controller: A3000 type >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Chinon Model: CDX-431 Access Speed: 350 ms Data Xfer Speed: 150k bytes/s (hmm...never tested) Int/Ext: External >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? At the time, it was the cheapest external SCSI-based CDROM drive which I knew for sure would work with available drivers. It may still be. It also had PC card in case I ever purchased a PC. >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? The manual says 'horizontal' with '+/- 5 degree' tolerance >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Hmmm...I think it did not once, but now that I changed the SCSI address to a lower number (?) I think it does not matter. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? CDROM-FS > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Quite happy, though there was NO opportunity to register for upgrades, so if/when Mac and CDTV ability occurs, how will I know about it and/or not have to pay for it? > >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish Collection v1.4 by Hypermedia Concepts AB20 Amiga CDROM by Walnut Creek CDROM GIFS Galore by Walnut Creek CDROM Desktop Library by Walnut Creek CDROM MS-DOS/MacIntosh Collection by SelectWare System v3 #3 (came with drive) OS/2 Archive CDROM by Walnut Creek CDROM (by mistake) >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. All seem to be at least readable, though PC software, of course, does not work. >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fred Fish Collection >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes, now I even have the audio hooked up to a garage-sale desktop sound system. Wish the CDROM was faster, and could support PhotoCD, Windows Multi media standards, etc.. >(11) Any other comments? Hope to get my first NASA disk soon. Would LOVE to know about text-based PC CDROM's which could be useful -- e.g. encyclopedias, etc.. There are tonnes of PC-world CDROMs which I would love to have, and this might eventually force me to break down and purchase a PC (sad!). ============================================================================ From: kentcomm!jperkski@uhura.neoucom.edu (Jim Perkowski) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: A2000 > OS version: 2.1 > SCSI controller: GVP 33mhz Combo > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Chinon > Model number: 435 > Access speed (ms): 380 > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 125K > Internal or external: Internal > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? I had a Toshiba 3201B that did not support reselection so I opted for a different brand. The Chinon was the best deal. > > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontally. Yes > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. > > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) x CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) x Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? I am happiest with the Xetec software because they have periodic updates that I can download from their bbs. I am least happy with CDROM-FS. I came with no manual and no warrenty/registration card. Where do you get updates? > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish Collection on CDROM - HyperMedia Desktop Library - Walnut Creek Grolier Encyclopidia - CDTV Publishing AB20 Amiga - Walnut Creek Fish & More I - Xetec Fish & More II - Xetec NASA Space Sampler V1 - Reference Technoloy Inc. NASA Space Sampler V2 - Reference Technoloy Inc. GIFs Galore - Walnut Creek Heroic Age of Space flight - CDTV Publishing > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Heroic Age of Space flight - CDTV Publishing Will not play CDXL animations properly. They crash after a few minutes. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Desktop Library - Walnut Creek > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I am very satisfied with my CDROM system. The only complaint I have is that there are not enough Amiga specific CDROM's. > (11) Any other comments? I want you to know that I have (4) freinds who have CDROM drives for their Amiga systems who are not on UseNet. You might want to include this as a question in your next survey to get a more accurate picture of the Amiga CDROM community. > Thanks in advance! > > Dan > Jim Perkowski -- _______________________________________________________________________________ kentcomm!jperkski@aldhfn.akron.oh.us (and) kentcomm!jperkski@legend.akron.oh.us ============================================================================ From: akiy@cs.titech.ac.jp > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: [says Dan, as he leans back in his leather arm chair, pipe in his left hand, his right hand silently patting his A3000T. I believe this session is costing about $100/hr, so I start talking away...] Well doc, it all started one day when I was using the Commodore PET at my junior high school. I wanted to get a computer at home. My parents went out and bought me a VIC-20. But that wasn't enough. I soon graduated to the C-64 level where I was overwhelmed by its BASIC capabilities, its wonderful SID chip, and 16 colors (wow!). ["So what did you think about its BASIC capabilities, its wonderful SID chip, and 16 colors (wow!)?" asks Herr. Doktor Barrett] But doctor, then I realized. Faster. Bigger. Better. I soon outgrew my C-64 stage (which follows the oral and anal stages, documented in much of Freud's works) and entered my Amiga stage. I bought the A2000 through the educational deal (since they considered UCLA an educational institution. Ha. No wonder why IBM makes more money than CBM.) I was happy, content, just plain ducky. ["So you were happy, content, just plain ducky?" asks Doktor Barrett as he lightly taps his pipe on his mouse.] Until the fateful day: the Amiga 3000 appeared out of the ground, shaking the world with its immensity, its power, its... Oh, let's skip it. It popped into the computer world and that was about it. But of course, I NEEDED IT. Was I addicted? Was I entrenched in the lethal grasp of Commodore? (I don't know. You tell me, Dan.) ["Why would you say you were entrenched in the lethal grasp of Commodore?" asks Doktor Barrett. I notice he has been typing everything I have said into his A3000T. I notice, on his overscan Workbench, a window entitled "ELIZA." What that is, I didn't know, so I continued.] I thought I was so content with my A3000 running workbench 2.04, doctor. I mean, I had just bought my first SCSI peripheral, a CD-ROM drive, which I hooked up to the SCSI port on the A3000. I was so happy, day in and day out, just browsing through the Fred Fish disks, when it was announced. The Amiga 4000! ["The Amiga 4000? Tell me more."] I knew I had to have it, doctor. Maybe it's an inferiority complex. Maybe it's just a Commodore complex. I don't know. I don't know. ["You don't know? Tell me more."] I think that's enough for me today, doctor. I've got to get going. I've got to, uh... spell check. That's it. Spell check. Gotta go now. Bye. (Enough is enough, isn't it?) > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: (No more tangents. I mean it.) Brand: NEC Model number: 102 Access speed (ms): 500 ms (ave.) Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 KB/sec (ave) Internal or external: External > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? 'Twas cheap. > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Yes. (Sorry. Horizontally.) > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Don't think so. > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes, but it won't if it's turned off. (The CD-ROM drive, that is.) (How do you turn on a CD-ROM drive? I don't know. I'm not *THAT* desperate.) > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? It seems a bit limited in its capabilities, only being able to use ISO 9660 and High Sierra. I'd like to be able to use Mac CD-ROM's (HFS?), as well as use more CDTV titles (see (8)). > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish Disk (1-700) - HyperMedia, I think. Gifs Galore - Walnut Creek AB20 site - Walnut Creek Case of the Cautious Condor - CDTV (Hey, it was only 1000 yen ($8)). American Heritage Encyclopedie - Xiphias Illustrated Shakespeare - Animated Pixels, I think > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. American Heritage Encyclopedia and Complete Works of Shakespeare. They ask for the CDTV bookmark thingie, which I don't think the CDROM-FS implements. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? The Fred Fish disk, of course. > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? The drive sometimes locks up when reading large files. I don't know if it's the drive or the software. (I'm selling the system shortly, so I'll pass the problem onto someone else...) > (11) Any other comments? Yes: When's Blazemonger going to be available in CD-ROM? What's the next number in the sequence: 1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, ? Seriously: I think Commodore needs to take CD-ROM technology more seriously, and work on using CD-ROM as a platform for the personal computer, instead of focusing everything on CDTV (which seems lagging, if not already dead. in the water, as this point). Taking a peek into other computer fields reveals much: the PC world has their MPC (another buzzword); the Macs their Performas; even in Japan, the FM-Towns (by Fujitsu) centers their computer around CD-ROMs. My god, even Sega is starting to use CD-ROMs! I think with the nearly unlimited amount of storage available in CD-ROMs, Commodore (and its third-party software vendors) needs to take a look and start producing more quality software taking advantage of the Amiga's inherently advanced graphics. (I would have liked to added "sound," but unless they start using 12-bit/16-bit sound technology as a base, they're going to be left behind...) I think I've complained long enough. Back to Prolog... > Thanks in advance! You're welcome in postscript! (Un-technologically speaking, of course. Jun Akiyama --- akiy@cs.titech.ac.jp|"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral UCLA undergrad (abroad)| book. Books are well written, or badly written. Tokyo Inst. of Technology| That is all." Nat'l Lang. Processing| --Oscar Wilde, _The Portrait of Dorian Gray_ ============================================================================ From: dreamer@diku.dk >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: > Model: 500+ > OS version:2.0 > SCSI controller:? >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > Brand:A690 > Model number:? > Access speed (ms):? > Data transfer rate (KB/sec):? > Internal or external:external >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was the only one available at the time. >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontally. The documentaton doesn't mention anything about vertical installaton. I guess not. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) d (?). Builtin. Normal device like any other disc. > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Works just fine under OS2.0 >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Defender Of the Crown, Cinemaware CDPD, Amalthea >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None (except for a PC disk) >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? CDPD >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Almost. When booting on the CD-ROM drive, computer resets when CD is removed. Sad, since CDPD contains workbench and all dos commands. >(11) Any other comments? When playing CD+G music CD's, can't get my machine to STOP, REW, FF or even return to main menu. The manual doesn't say very much about CD+G's. Anyone kno how this works? >Thanks in advance! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: How many Voodoo Instructors does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Depends on what you want it changed into! -- Thomas Magle Brodersen / dreamer@diku.dk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ============================================================================ From: HR@brewhr.swb.de (Heiko Rath) (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000/25Mhz OS version: 2.1 SCSI controller: onboard (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Apple Model number: CD300 Access speed (ms): 295ms (double speed) 360ms (normal speed) Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 300 KB/s Internal or external: external (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Because it was very cheap, supports full SCSI-II command set, is able to read multisession CDs (-> Photo CD), supports CD-XA and can read digital audio of audio CDs. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? It is installed horizontally. It doesn't mention anything about installing it horizontally or vertically in the documentation., (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? No. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. (c) Xetec (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of capabilities) (d) AmigaDOS CD-ROM file system v1.1, Copyright ) 1991 Ralph Babel, Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Works like a charm. The only little problem is with the diskchange, as it is not always detected. This is a problem of Commodores scsi.device. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. A570 Fish Disk Collection, Commodore AB20 FTP Server, Walnut Creek C Users Group Library, The C Users Group, Walnut Creek CICA Microsoft Windows FTP Server, Walnut Creek DEC Freeware, DEC Garbo MSDOS/Mac FTP Server, Walnut Creek GIFs Galore, Walnut Creek Hobbes OS/2 FTP Server, Walnut Creek INFO-MAC, Pacific HiTech, Walnut Creek Libris Britannia, PDSL, Walnut Creek Psygnosis DEMO CD 1992, Psygnosis Simtel 20 FTP Server, Walnut Creek Source Code CDROM, Walnut Creek X11R5 / GNU, Walnut Creek (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Psygnosis Demo CD requires a CDTV. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Usenet Sources, it contains all the comp.sources.* and alt.sources.* stuff. It's great if you're looking for some source to solve a problem. I also like the GIFs Galore very much, because there's such a great variety of pictures on it. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I'm very pleased with my setup. The CDROM drive was very cheap (about $470 for an external SCSI drive). It is very reliable and I like it a lot. Even though it is from Apple :-) (11) Any other comments? I ported hpcdtoppm, a Photo CD to PPM converter. With this I'm able to use Photo CDs on my Amiga! No current CD-Play software allows for control of the audio features of this drive, even though this is one of the few devices that seems to support the standard SCSI-II audio commands. I'm currently talking to Franz-Josef Reichert about an update to his nice Jukebox program. If I can find the time, I'll write a little tool to start/stop/play audio CDs this week. To read some digital audio of Audio CDs I'll need some documentation, that Apple hasn't supplied me with so far. Dan P.S.: Dan, if you want me to write a review of the drive, let me know. Cheers, Heiko -- //
aka Heiko Rath, Raiffeisenstr.10a, D-6108 Weiterstadt, Germany \X/ The Software Brewery |PGP-key on request| HR@brewhr.swb.{de|sub.org} ============================================================================ From: eric@remus.rutgers.edu (Eric Lavitsky) Hi Dan, Ok, here's my info for the CD-ROM survey: 1 Amiga: A3000UX, running Developer Beta 3.0, A3000 SCSI 2 CD-ROM: Pioneer DRM-604x, < 300 ms access, 612Kbytes/sec (sustained), external 6 disc changer. 3 I chose this drive for several reasons: 1. It's a six-disc changer 2. It's the only four-times speed drive on the market! 4 The drive is installed horizontally - it cannot be installed in a vertical position according to the documentation. 5 My Amiga does boot correctly if there is no disc in the drive. I set the "last drive" on my hard disc to make sure that the CD wasn't searched, especially since each SCSI LUN would be searched (I enabled LUN's in the battmem). 6 I use CD-ROM FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas exclusively, and am very pleased with it's performance. 7 I own a variety of discs, including most CDTV titles currently available (I won't list them for brevity's sake): Fred Fish Collection 1-800 from Hypermedia Concepts CATS CD 1.0 Too Many Typefonts ClipArt Goliath Various demo discs from PC/Unix markets 8 I have tried a variety of discs pressed for SunOS which are not recognized by CD-ROM FS 9 My favorite disc is currently the Fred Fish collection, which I refer to often. 10/11 I am satisfied with my setup. I have played CDXL animations from my drive, with full "CDTV" frame rates. I am looking forward to new Amiga compatible CD titles to use on it. -- Eric Lavitsky BIX: eric Lavitsky Computer Laboratories, Inc. Internet: eric@remus.rutgers.edu PO Box 7446, Somerset, NJ 08875 Phone: 908-560-0114 ============================================================================ From: dyson@sunfish.physics.uiowa.edu (Richard L. Dyson) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: We have two Amiga setups that we have used the CD-ROM with: Model: A2000 (rev. 6.4) CSA-MegaMidgetRacer (68030/68882 @ 25 MHz) w/2 Mb 32-bit RAM Model: A2000 (rev. 6.4) also with vanilla 68000 OS version: 2.05 SCSI controller: A2091 w/ v 6.6 ROMs RAM: 6 Mb FastRAM, 1 Mb Chip RAM Model: A500 (rev. 6A) w/ AdSpeed @ 14 MHz OS version: 2.05 SCSI controller: Expansion Systems DataFlyer 500 RAM: 8 Mb FastRAM, 1 Mb Chip RAM > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: TXM-3201A1 Access speed (ms): typical ~ 350 ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): average ~ 153.2 kb/s burst ~ 1.5 Mb/s Internal or external: External > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was purchased used and was very affordable. :) > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontally. Docs say it can be mounted verticaly (+/- 5% of vertical). > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes, but is very slow in starting to boot when the CD-ROM drive is turned on. Having a CD in drive does not seem to impact either way. > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (v 1.1b) > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Yes, but it does not seem to work completely correct with the DataFlyer. Access to the files is allowed via any CLI actions (or via a program like SID), but the workbench only puts up the "default" RAMdisk-like icon for any CD and when you open the icon, it is empty. The same drive, disk, and software on the A2091 has custom icons and you can launch programs from the workbench, etc. > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. "The Fred Fish Collection, v1.3" - Hypermedia Concepts, Inc. "Fish Market v1.0" - AsimWare Innovations "Defender of the Crown" - Commodore CDTV "Case of the Cautious Condor" - Commodore CDTV "The Future is Now" - EOA Sampler of IBM/Mac Software "NASA Space Science Sampler, Vol 2" - NASA PDS (High Sierra, level 1) "Solar Variability Affecting Earth, NGDC-05/1" National Geophysical Data Center > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. 1991 version of "Grolier's Encyclopedia" from Commodore CDTV. The sound from "Defender of the Crown" (above) does not work when you play the game. However, if you treat it as an audio disk and use AsimTunes, you can play the 2 audio tracks. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? The Fred Fish disks. > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes. For the cost of the software and the drive, it is great. ============================================================================ From: George Harvey >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A500 OS version: 1.3 and 2.1 (dual ROMs) SCSI controller: GVP Impact II A500-HD+ >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Hitachi Model number: CDR-1750S Access speed (ms): 340ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): not measured Internal or external: external >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? The drive was bought about one year ago by my employer for use on PCs and Unix systems in the office. The Hitachi was chosen because it had a good access time, a SCSI interface and came bundled with a PC SCSI card and driver software. (I take it home in the evenings when I need to use it on my Amiga) >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontal, the manual does not say anything about vertical mounting. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? CDROM-FS version 1015 from CPR, no complaints. >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish Volume 1.5 from HyperMedia. AB20 from Walnut Creek Source Code CDROM from Walnut Creek >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None. >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fed Fish >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? The GVP controller seems to be VERY sensitive about connecting to external devices (I have a SCSI tape as well). I can only get the CD drive to work after both have been powered on for about half an hour before connecting the CD to the GVP. It will then usually take several re-boots and sometimes a power-cycle before the Amiga will boot from the GVP hard disk. Once I have got past the start-up phase then everything is OK, I can use the drive for hours with no further problems. I have seen similar symptoms with two SCSI tape drives and a second hard disk so the problem would seem to be with my GVP controller rather than the external devices. (I have also tried different cables and terminators and while I can easily find combinations that do not work at all, I have not yet found a combination that will work reliably from a cold start) >(11) Any other comments? The Hitachi is not XA or Photo-CD compatible, this does not matter for present purposes but I can see that it will become important in the not-to-distant future. >Thanks in advance! > > Dan Your welcome. George Harvey email: george@logitek.co.uk ============================================================================ From: milo@mvuts.att.com Just got a CD-ROM (the Parnet connection to a CDTV just wasn't cutting it). (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000 OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: internal (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: NEC Model number: CDR-25 Access speed (ms): 600 ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 KB/sec Internal or external: external (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was part of a relatively inexpensive NEC package called "CD Express"...which comes with Mac driver software, ten Mac CD-ROMs, a SCSI cable, and a pair of powered speakers. There is a similar DOS package that comes with four CD-ROMs and a sound board. Cost runs $400 to $450 (check Costco, or J&R Music World in NYC). I also have an AMAX II+, so I'm hoping to be able to use the CD-ROM by AMAX, and be able to run the CD-ROMs that I got with the package. The early report is that the Mac driver software hangs AMAX on startup. I've tried a new driver from NEC tech support, but so far no luck. In comp.sys.amiga.emulations, reports are that other people have been able to use certain CD-ROM drives shared with their Amiga and AMax. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Yes. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? So far, yes, although I haven't been able to get the audio part with AsimTunes to work. I have no idea if it's my fault or the fault of the CD-ROM drive. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fish Market (which came with the Asim CDFS), Walnut Creek's ab20 CD-ROM, and the HyperMedia Concept's Fish CD-ROM (v.1.6 has disks 1 to 800). I also have Lemmings and SimCity on order. Since they are CDTV versions, they may not work. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Everything has been fine so far, except for the AMax II+ trouble. -- Guy Klose milo@mvuts.att.com ============================================================================ From: dylan@cs.washington.edu >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: 2500/30, 7Meg RAM > OS version: WB 2.1 > SCSI controller: 2091 > >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Toshiba > Model number: 3201B > Access speed (ms): 330 > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ? > Internal or external: internal > >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Price ($250, refurbished) > >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Vertically. > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Yes. > >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? No. > >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) I use (b) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Works fine, though I can't seem to reach CPR for any info on updates. Hypermedia (the Fish folks) say that the latest version handles PhotoCD. I can't verify this, because I haven't heard about how to upgrade. I might buy the Xetec or Asim versions, since I hear they offer decent support. > >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Desktop Library Walnut Creek. AB-20 Walnut Creek Fish V. 1.5 Hypermedia CATS CDv2 CBM (developers only) Lemmings Psygnosis Supercomputing 93 Proceedings various authors > >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. > >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fish, followed by CATS > >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes. None, other than CPR's poor support. The boot thing is annoying, but not "terrible". One related problem is that if I just leave a disk in the drive (so I can boot without worrying about it) the disk eventually gets too dusty to read properly. > >(11) Any other comments? I'm looking forward to the two CDROM titles (the raytraced adventure and the game from Psygnosis) to "liven" up my list of games. I heard that, but haven't seen, that Sherlock Holmes is out on Amiga CDROM... I'd like to use the CDROM with my A-Max setup, but I hear that I have to buy driver software from Toshiba. I guess I can wait until I need it, if ever. ============================================================================ From: rayz@koko.csustan.edu (Ray Zarling) >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: 4000 > OS version: 3.0 > SCSI controller: GVP series II > >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Toshiba > Model number: 3401E > Access speed (ms): 200 > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 300+ > Internal or external: External > >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It's *fast*, and has all the forward-looking features like Photo-CD ready. > >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? The docs say it can be mounted any way except upside down. > >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. Icons appear and disappear on workbench when cds are inserted or removed, just as one would wish. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Yes. > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec Yes. I like this one better. > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Yes. But most CDTV disks do not run with either OS 3 or an -040 or both. This is the fault of the makers of the disks, not the hardware or driver software. > >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Nothing by Xiphas can handle OS 2+. Grollier's encyclopedia does not work. Connoisseur of Fine Art works fine. All Walnut Creek CDs work fine. Hypermedia Fish CDs work fine. CATS developer disk works fine. > >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. See above. Also: Encyclopedic Dictionary Groliers Encyclopedia NASA 25th year Barney Bear series World Vista Atlas US Atlas (almost works--keyboard/mouse work strangely) All of the above except US Atlas fail to boot. The drive reads the disk just fine, however, so you can scan directories and look for interesting data files. The problem appears to be the 3.0 operating system and the 68040 processor; none of these titles were written with any idea that they would need to run on other than a 1.3 68000 :-(. Xetec claims that their software runs most of these under 2.0 on a 3000. > >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Walnut Creek Literature Collection CD. > >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes, very. > >(11) Any other comments? Please send me a summary of your results? The following titles work, including sound: Connosieur of Fine Art Cinderella Scary Poems for Rotten Kids Audio cds work, with Xetec's included player software. ============================================================================ From: headrick@atlantis.ssd.harris.com (Joe Headrick) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: A3000 > OS version: 2.1 > SCSI controller: A3000 > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Chinon > Model number: 435 > Access speed (ms): 350 > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 > Internal or external: External > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Drivers came with it > > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horiz. > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? ??? > > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Slow but sure > > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? yes/no does not read some disks correctly > > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. OS2, 2.1 Windows NT Fish & more 1 & 2 all below are from Walnut creek - titles ??? Simtel-20 GNU/X11 Source code CDROM Amiga CDROM MSDOS CDROM ??? > > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Windows NT postscript files get data stripped from the fromt (had to pullthen across the network - ethernet) > > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? GNU/X11 > > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes/none > > (11) Any other comments? > > Thanks in advance! > > Dan > > //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ > | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center | > | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | > \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// > > > ============================================================================ From: Dave K. Martin (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A-2000 with CSA Mega-Midget Racer (25MHZ 68030) OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: Commodore 2091 (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: XM-3201 Access speed (ms): 350 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 Internal or external: Internal (installed in an external box) (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Price, $215 (Factory refurbished unit) (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? Yes (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? No, there is a 30 second delay before the boot if the CD drive is powered up. With the CD poweered off, the boot is normal. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) Xetec Version 1.61 Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Quite happy, no complaints. The installation and ease of setup were amazing. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Amiga titles Publisher ------------ ------------------- Fish & More, volumes 1 and 2 Xetec Fred Fish Collection on CD-ROM volume 1.4 Hypermedia Concepts Fred Fish Collection On-Line volume 1.4 Hypermedia Concepts AB20 Amiga CDROM Walnut Creek CDTV titles Publisher ------------ ------------------- Advanced Military Systems Dominion Heroic Age Of Spaceflight (Nasa the 25th year) Troika MS-DOS titles Publisher ------------- ------------------- Simtel 20 MSDOS Archive CDROM Walnut Creek Hall of Fame CDROM Vol 1 (MS-DOS shareware) Ellis Enterprises Shareware Overload Chestnut Software Shareware Gold II Sherbourne Knowledge Systems Jets & Props (PC and Mac format on disc) Aris Entertainment Worldview (PC and Mac format on disc) Aris Entertainment Our Solar System Chestnut Software Gifs Galore Walnut Creek The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia Grolier Incorporated (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia - CD has one *HUGE* file on it, without the retrieval software no data can be read. I have MS-DOS software but none exists for the Amiga. Kodak Photo-CD Image Sampler - Amiga does not recognize disc at all, it does not show up in INFO command. Guinness World Records CD (for MS-DOS - Unable to read the data files, the GIF files would not display properly. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? For best value for money it has to be the Fred Fish collection from Hypermedia. For entertainment it is the Advanced Military Systems. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I am very satisfied with my CD-ROM, it gives me access to incredible amounts of data in a relatively inexpensive format. Complaints: ----------- The CD-ROM drive cannot be accessed by my Vortex 486SLC board. I'll probably have to get a SCSI controller and switch the CD-ROM between systems. Until then I'll continue copying files to a shared Amiga/MS-DOS partition using CrossDos. CD-XL animations from CDTV discs cannot be played on a non-CDTV system. (11) Any other comments? An image processing package such as ADPRO by ASDG is invaluable for exploring MS-DOS CD's. Hope this is helpful... Dave Martin - dkm@col.hp.com ============================================================================ From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A2500 OS version: 2.0 SCSI controller: IVS Trumpcard Pro. >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: XM3301 Access speed (ms): 200 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 300 Internal or external: Internal >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? I had one already in my PC and I'm very happy with it. It's never given me any trouble. In retrospect, one of the big reasons I bought the XM series was the CD XA capability, but to my knowledge I've yet to actually it! No titles (for the PC) appear to take advantage of it yet. >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally, in the 5.25 floppy slot. I had to displace my tape drive to do this and I'm still considering the wisdom of doing so. > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Yes. >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes. >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations I *would* use this if they'd &%$^$%# ship it to me already. It's about a month late, with them claiming they shipped it and I should be patient because "canadian mail is slow". I have my suspicions. > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? See above. It's supposed to work fine, based on what I've heard on the net. I will send you an update on this if it fails to work as advertised. >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Walnut Creek: GNU + X11 collection. AB20 Amiga CDROM. Hypermedia: Fred fish collection, volume 1.5 Fred fish "Fish Online" version 1.5 Misc: HP Laserpro collection. Acorn replay disk (video clips). 30 or so CDTV titles - too many to list. Many CD-I titles (not relevant). >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Well, using my CDTV as a PARNET reader the only title I had trouble with was the AB20 collection (couldn't read it). I suppose I should keep my mouth shut until the software arrives and I can say whether or not this fixes anything. If this review is premature, simply file it and I'll send you updated information for anything that's changed about my situation in light of actual possesion of the drivers. >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? GNU + X11R5 is my most used, though it generally stays mounted on the PC. My CDTV "Advanced Weapons Systems" CD has some good clips, which I've pulled off and done a little artwork with. I have to admit that all the CD's I *really* enjoy are on my CD-I. I've not bothered trying to read any CD-I titles on the CDTV since I don't see the point. >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Other than above, no. >(11) Any other comments? I think the only real advantage to having a CD drive in the amiga is to access software collections, like the GNU, Fish or AB20 archive CD's. CDTV titles, frankly speaking, do not live up to the promise of "multimedia" at all and one is much better off using things like "Microsoft Bookshelf" for Windows if one wants reference material, or just about any of the CD-I titles for games, reference or recreation. The very very best of the current CDTV titles are no better than the very worst of the CD-I titles I have! (Bitter? Oh, a little - I have two CDTVs). >Thanks in advance! No sweat. Jordan ============================================================================ From: sah@calmasd.Prime.COM (Sebastian Hill) (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 2000 Rev 4.1 OS version: Workbench 2.1 SCSI controller: G-FORCE 030/25 SCSI II. (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: XM-3401 Access speed (ms): 200ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 330KB/sec Internal or external: External (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Price and Magazine reviews. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? The drive is mounted horizontally. The documentation says that it can be used horizontally or vertically. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? YES (6) What software driver(s) do you use? AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Happy with the current software, but hoping for more CDTV support in the future. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. FRED FISH CD, ASIMWARE. GIFS GALORE, Walnut Creek. AB20 Archives, Walnut Creek. The Case of the Cautious(sp?) Condor (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? FRED FISH CD. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I love the CD unit. Nice design. I wish that more software was CDTV and CDROM compatible. (11) Any other comments? I'm hoping that more developers produce CDTV and CD-ROM amiga software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Amiga 2000/30/100hd/9megs // Sebastian Hill email:sah@calmasd.prime.com \X/ Amiga 1200/20/80hd/6Megs \X/ Computervision San Diego, CA Toshiba XM3401 + Parnet <--- Still waiting for Workbench for Workgroups ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================ From: baeder@cadence.com (D. Scott Baeder) [NOTE: This is an update from a response to 1992's survey.] > >|> (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > >|> > >|> Model: a2500 (68030 w/ 4 Meg Ram) > >|> OS version: 2.0 > >|> SCSI controller: HardFrame and 2091 > >|> same... > >|> (2) Tell us about your CDROM drive: > >|> > >|> Brand: Chinon (I think) still a chinon...There was some info posted on the xetec bbs about getting them (ie chinon) to do a free upgrade to a photo-cd compat, but havent called about that yet... > >|> Model number: ?? > >|> Access speed (ms): ?? > >|> Data transfer rate (kb/sec): ?? > >|> Internal or external: Internal > >|> > >|> (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? > >Bought it from Xetec as part of a package > >|> > >|> (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > >|> Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > >|> documentation? > >Internal, so its Hz...don't know about vertical > >|> > >|> (5) What software driver do you use? > >|> > >|> (a) CDROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > >|> (b) California Access > >|> (c) Xetec > >Xetec...I try to stay current on the revision by DL'ing from their > >BBS...I think I'm on 1.54 just DL'd a new version last week...I think its 1.62 or 1.63...they have been great about improving it such that it now can read mac disks too... > > > >|> (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > >|> capabilities) > >|> > >|> (6) What CDROM discs do you own? List title and author. > >Got 2 Fish&More from Xetec with the drive, also case of the condor, > >and world vista (cdtv) disks as part of bonus package for buying at a > >World of Amiga... > > > >Have also bought the HyperMedia Fish disk, and the recently offered > >AB20 archive disk. > > no new disks...just been too damn busy to even play much...have kept up with the hypermedia stuff thru subscription... > >|> > >|> (7) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK, in your CDROM drive? > >|> List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. > >None... > >|> > >|> (8) What is your favorite CDROM disc? > >Hard to say...Having all the Fish stuff on-line is great...I think the > >Xetec stuff is easier to "browse", because they organized it...the > >Hypermedia disk is organized by Fish Disk, and you need to use > >Aquarium or other tool to really browse around... > > > >|> > >|> (9) Are you satisfied? Any complaints? > >Satisfied...Minor complaint...the HardFrame (at least mine, even with > >the 1.9 firmware upgrade) seemed to have some problems in dealing with > >AUDIO cd's...None with the 2091...NOTE: this is really a minor NIT, > >and it wouldn't stop me from getting a drive if I had the HF > >controller. according to xetec, they fixed some of the problems in audio disks with the HF controller, but I haven't bothered re-cabling it to verify. > > > >|> > >|> (10) Any other comments? > >I think Xetec is trying to do a lot to improve the compatibility of > >their software to the cdtv, and include drivers to emulate the > >bookmark, etc. > > > >I have seen an add for driver software that can also read MAC HFS > >disks, in addition to the ISO9660 standard...I may get it just to give > >it a try... > > Well as mentioned above, xetec added it in, and they also now sell just the driver software, and the two fish disks for $50... I think thats it...I'm going to WOC in NY this weekend, and if I get anything fancy/new in the CD area I'll drop you a note....Keep up the good work...I enjoyed last years CD summary, and the other things you've posted. Scott ============================================================================ From: paulh@wavefrm.dialix.oz.au (Paul Huxham) (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Amiga 4000 / 040 KS 3.0 version 39.106 Workbench version 39.29 GVP Series II V4.4 driver (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Chinon Model CDS-431 Access speed 350ms Data transfer rate 150 K/B sec Internal drive (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? 1) Electronic soft eject. 2) Supports audio CDs. 3) Priced right. AUS$550 4) Supported by AsimCDFS software. At the time, the CPR software didnt support CHINON. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally (4a) Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? No, it must be mounted horizontally. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Yes (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. (c) Xetec (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of capabilities) I use AsimCDFS. (6a) Are you happy with the software? I would like developers documentation for their filesystem, but I believe this is available on request (I',m not sure :-). Its a problem just talking to companies overseas when you live in Australia as they have no local support companies, only distributors that don't want to know you after you've purchased the product. (6b) Any complaints? No. The software functions flawlessly. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. GIFs Galore CDROM - Walnut Creek CDROM Destop Library CDROM - Walnut Creek CDROM AB20 Amiga CDROM - Walnut Creek CDROM Extreme XXX - Extreme Software Storm II Giflited GIFs - Unknown (Just a CDROM in a jewel case) Too Many TypeFonts - Chestnut CDROM Fred Fish CDROM - HyperMedia Concepts New Basics Electronic CookBook - Xiphias (CDTV) Time Table of Science and Innovation - Xiphias (CDTV) Time Table Business, Politics & Media - Xiphias (CDTV) Knowledege Media Graphics 1 - Knowledge Media Knowledege Media Audio 1 - Knowledge Media Nautlius (1 Year subscription) - Nautilus (MultiMedia CDROM) (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. The CDTV disks (The Xiphias ones) need to have assignments made so they appear as the SYS: drive and then execute their starup-sequence. Otherwise no probs there. The only CDs that don't "work" are the PC ones, like Too Many TypeFonts, that I only want the fonts off of anyway. The PC programs don't matter to me. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? AB20 Amiga CDROM (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Yes (10a) Any complaints? I wish that the program JukeBox would support the Chinon CDROM drive and/or I could register with someone in Australia. Sending bank cheques is a major hassle (Despite what everyone says). Even if I could use my VISA card there would be no problems. (11) Any other comments? Yes, some useful info on making the GVP Series II controller work properly wihtout having a hard disk connected as well as the CDROM drive. I found that when I removed my harddisk from the GVP Series II controller card (I bought a 4000, so had no use for the harddisk and sold it), with only the CDROM connected, the Amiga took about 30-40 seconds to boot up (with or without a CD in the drive). What was happening was that the controller was looking for each and every possible SCSI device. Normally when you have a hard disk connected, you set the Last Unit flag in the RDB and the controller virtually boots up straight away. With the CDROM however, there is no RDB. The solution was to disable autobooting on the controller. However this means that the ROM based driver is never loaded. And trying to force a ROM to configure after boot up is beyond me. What I did was copy the device driver from the GVP install disk to the expansion drawer and used 'binddrivers' to load the driver. The is actually better than using the ROM based verion because: 1) You can always user the latest version of the driver software. 2) You don't have to boot the driver if you need the memory, You just drag it out of the Expansion drawer. 3) The driver is always loaded into 32bit RAM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Paul Huxham // Long has been the road behind me | | PO BOX 875 // and many a change have I seen. | | Morley, Perth // Its been so long I often wonder | | Western Australia 6062 \\ // if this is just a dream. | | paulh@wavefrm.DIALix.oz.au \\/ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================ From: thomey@redeye.gold.sub.org (Thorsten Meyer) >(1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: A2000 > OS version: Kick: 37.175 WB: 38.28 > SCSI controller: GVP II SCSI > >(2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Toshiba > Model number: 3301 > Access speed (ms): > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): > Internal or external: external > >(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Best Testresults in the past! > >(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? hori. > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? > >(5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes no Problem > >(6) What software driver(s) do you use? b Version:.702 > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Yes! good Software > >(7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. 1. Danger Hot Stuff from Screen Artists 2. COMMODORE AMIGA CDTV "Hoeren und Sehen" from Commodore 3. AB20 Amiga CDROM from Walnut Creek 4. Fred Fish Collection Version 1.6 from Hypermedia Concepts 5. Sim City from Infogrames 6. World Vista from Rand McNally 7. Software Store Volume 1 for Ultrix from Highland Software 8. MS WINDOWS CDROM April 1992 from Walnut Creek 9. Simtel20 MSDOS ARCHIVE January 1992 from Walnut Creek 10. Desktop Library CDROM 1ST Edition from Walnut Creek 11. Source CDROM Mar 92 from Walnut Creek 12. Voyagers to the Outer Planets Volume 1-12 from NASA > >(8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. No 2., not compatible > >(9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? No 4. Fred Fish > >(10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes > >(11) Any other comments? Seeya, Thorsten Thorsten Meyer +49-89-569051 thomey@redeye.gold.sub.org -- Bundyland: the happiest place on Earth -- -- -- ============================================================================ From: "Mark J. Lednor" (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000T OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: A3000 builtin (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: TOSHIBA Model number: XM3301 Access speed (ms): ? Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ? Internal or external: INTERNAL (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Came as a package including CD Access software, quite cheap. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? HORIZONTALLY Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the YES documentation? (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? YES (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. (c) Xetec XETEC (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of capabilities) Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Happy with the software, BUT it only installs as SYS:XetecCDROM and nowhere else. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Almathera Systems' "CDPD" Almathera Systems' "CDPD2" Chestnut CD-ROM's "The Complete Bookshop" Walnut Creek's "CICA MicroSoft Windows CDROM" Walnut Creek's "The C Users' Group Library CDROM" Walnut Creek's "GIFs Galore CDROM" Walnut Creek's "Source Code CDROM" Walnut Creek's "X11R5 GNU CDROM" Xetec's "Fish and More: Vol. I" Xetec's "Fish and More: Vol. II" (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. NONE (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Almathera's CDPD2 (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? YES, NO COMPLAINTS (11) Any other comments? NO -- WhoAmI : Mark Lednor, Senior Programmer, Eurotherm plc Disclaimer: InterNet : mlednor@tower.demon.co.uk (also mlednor@cix) My Money, My Views FidoNet : Mark Lednor @ 2:253/500 (01 for Amiga) ... My Fault! ============================================================================ From: Mark Davis (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A2000 with GVP A3001 (8Mb 32-bit mem) OS version: V2.1 SCSI controller: A2091(controls CDROM) & GVP Series II (Drives) (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: DEC (Sony) Model number: RRD42 (CDU-541) Access speed (ms): 300 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 Internal or external: external (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? DEC employee - got a good deal. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? Either way. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? With the A2091 there is a 30-40 second pause when booting if no disc is present. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) Xetec Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? The Xetec CDFS works great whether using Audio or Data CDs. Directory Opus sometimes will not list all directories on the disc so I usually have to get a directory listing from the Shell to verify DirOpus' output. I've only used one CDTV disc and it works fine. ImageMaster v9.50 from Black Belt Systems seems to have a problem loading GIFS from the cdrom drive. It crashes or hangs my system and generates numerous enforcer hits when attempting to load from the cd. Imagemaster loads from the hard drive(s) fine (most times). (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. GIFS-GALORE Walnut Creek Lemmings DCTV psygnosis Fish & more volumes I-II Panoramix (Mac cd) - forgot author (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. All discs work fine. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes. Too bad there are not more Amiga specific cd titles (11) Any other comments? mark davis davis@soomee.enet.dec.com mwd@cup.portal.com ============================================================================ From: eeb@pro-freedom.cts.com (Ed Brown) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: > OS version: > SCSI controller: A3000 25-300 Wb_2.1 on-board SCSI interface > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: > Model number: > Access speed (ms): > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): > Internal or external: Chinon CDS-431; 350 msec; 150 kb/sec; external > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was recommended by the CDROM driver software developer and also because of familiarity with other Chinon products that have worked well. > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Drive installed horizontally. Manual does not mention vertical installation. > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? No. If there is no disk in the drive, there is about a 2 minute delay in the bootup sequence. Eventually, something times out and a normal boot ensues. I have the CDROM drive set to SCSI ID #0. Perhaps raising this to #6 and placing it above the address of by bootable HD will eliminate this requirement. This also happens on some computers with removable media drives, such as the Syquest and Ricoh drives. > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? The software is pretty decent. I would like better compatibility with the CDTV via software and I'd also like to be able to run the CDXL disks, such as the NASA 25th Year disk. Also, the CD music player program could use some tweaking. I'd like to be able to program in which tracks are played on a given CD, as well as be able to loop certain tracks and skip others. > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fish Market (Disks #1-637) Asimware AB20 Walnut Creek CDROM GIFs Galore Walnut Creek CDROM XXX Extreme Extreme Software (purchased from ERM) Too Many Type Fonts Chestnut CD-ROM Clipart Goliath " " Volcano (purchased from ERM - manufacturer unknown) Also have several music CDs ranging from sound effects, relaxation/ mood music, 60's rock, and some classical. > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. So far I have only used relatively generic disks and have had no compatibility probs. Once Asimware's CDROM software v2.0 comes out, I may get a bit braver with buying disks to see if they work. For now, no dealer I've asked will guarantee compatibility of CDTV disks in an Amiga/CDROM drive system... not even on an exchange basis. They normally do not know which CDs will work on my system and are not interested in finding out. :-( This is the #1 reason for reduced CDROM drive/disk sales, IMHO. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? It's a tie between the Fish Market and the GIFs Galore disks, with the XXX Extreme running 3rd. > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Very satisfied so far. Eventually, I will be sharing the CDROM drive between an A3000 and a 386-40 clone. Chinon *should* have included a *standard* SCSI interface with the drive instead of their proprietary interface that "may or may not work with SCSI devices other than the Chinon CDS-431". Their interface also has a D-37F plug on the end for "external" installations. How about a D-25F plug? That would certainly make connecting to standard SCSI devices a LOT simpler/easier/faster/cheaper. :-( > (11) Any other comments? CBM needs to be MUCH more interested in Amiga+CDROM and LESS interested in their idiotic CDTV, IMHO. CDTV has not sold very well and probably never will. There are already 4MM Amigas out there and every one of them *could* be a CDROM drive customer. Few who already have an Amiga will buy a CDTV and fewer still who don't own an Amiga will buy a CDTV. CDTV will not survive without a thriving software base... which will not be developed for the small number of CDTVs that are being sold. If a lot of Amigas had CDROM drives on them that could run CDTV disks, developers would be MUCH more interested in developing for *BOTH* types of machine. Regards, * Edward E. Brown II * Internet: eeb@pro-freedom.cts.com * * Chemist On A Mission From GOD! * FidoNet: 1:105/135 * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* Annoy the media...Think for yourself! ============================================================================ From: boinger@myamy.hacktic.nl (Paul Kolenbrander) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: A4000/040 2MB chip / 8MB fast > OS version: 3.0 (Kick 39.106 / WB 39.29) > SCSI controller: A2091 rev. 4 modified 7.0b ROM's > second identical CD-ROM drive is on the below configuration (Friend with no UseNet access) > Model: A2000 1MB chip / 4MB fast > OS version: 2.04 > SCSI controller: GVP Series-II with 4.5 ROM > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: Matshusita > Model number: CR-501 1.0c ROM > Access speed (ms): ? > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ? > Internal or external: External > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Pricing. It's a drive OEMmed to Unisys and comes in a nice external case with all the fittings. At US$ 260,- it is by far cheaper than other SCSI CD-ROM's available here in the Netherlands. And Unisys generally uses quality equipment. > > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontallty. Documantation doesn't say... > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes and no. It waits a while. but this is not due to the CD-ROM but the A2091. On a GVP series-II there is no delay... > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec (v 1.63) > > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Very. Works like a charm. And xetec nicely answered my fax asking if their package supported the above two systems. No major flaws apart from some minor display problems in the install program and a tendency to not fully play a track on audio CD's... > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. GIF Galore Walnut Creek. Simtel20 Walnut Creek. AB20 Walnut Creek. Danger! Hot Stuff 1 Screen Artists. Fish & More vol. I Xetec Fish & More vol. II Xetec > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None sofar. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? GIF Galore. It's a treasure chest of useful pictures. Especially on an AGA machine. Danger! Hot Stuff 1. Full of really good animations. Unfortunately in MS-DOS fli format mostly. (Runs on my 386-40 tho) > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? No complaints... > > (11) Any other comments? I heartily recommend the Xetec CD-ROM Filesystem. It works like a charm and v1.63 is rewritten to be 2.1/3.0 aware... > Thanks in advance! You're welcome... Any chance of e-mailing me a copy of the list when it comes out? My feed does not supply c.s.a.announce unfortunately... CYa, Paul -- Paul Kolenbrander \ InterNet: boinger@myamy.hacktic.nl Turfveldenstraat 37 \ Fido: 2:284/112.1 Paul Kolenbrander NL-5632 XH EINDHOVEN | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Voice: +31-40-415752 | Timezone:GMT+1 | Fax: +31-40-426446 ============================================================================ From: bojsen@moria.home.id.dth.dk (Per Bojsen) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: A3000 > OS version: 2.04 > SCSI controller: > > (2) Tell us about your CDROM drive: > > Brand: Toshiba > Model number: XM-3301BC > Access speed (ms): 325 > Data transfer rate (kb/sec): 150 (1.5MB/s max async burst) > Internal or external: external > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Special developer offer from CATS. > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? The drive is installed horizontally. The internal version of the drive can be installed vertically in both orientations. > (5) What software driver do you use? > > (a) CDROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (b) California Access > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) a > (6) What CDROM discs do you own? List title and author. CATS Developer CD V1.0 HyperMedia Concepts, Inc.: The Fred Fish Collection on CD ROM Vol 1.4 > (7) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK, in your CDROM drive? > List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Sun's Catalyst CDware Europe (a disk with demo software for Sun computers) Probably doesn't work due to UNIX filesystem. The disk is marked as bad by the CD-ROM FS. > (8) What is your favorite CDROM disc? The FF disc. > (9) Are you satisfied? Any complaints? I'm satisfied. The CDDA control utility that comes with the CD-ROM FS is a little buggy. > (10) Any other comments? > > (11) Do you know of any recent magazine article that reviews and compares > lots of different CDROM drives (for any computer)? -- "There had been something loose about the // Greetings from Per Bojsen station dock all morning, skulking in // cbmehq!lenler!bojsen amongst the gantries and the lines and the \\ // bojsen@moria.home.id.dth.dk canisters which were waiting to be moved ..." \X/ bojsen@id.dth.dk ============================================================================ From: korczyns@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Joseph Korczynski) >>(1) Tell us about your Amiga: >> >> Model: Amiga 2000 (v6.2 motherboard) 1 internal floppy, >> 1 external floppy, 1 MEG CHIP RAM >> 2320 Display Enhancer >> OS Version: 2.04 ROM >> SCSI controller: GVP 22Mhz Combo (9MB 32bit) >> 105MB Quantum, 44MB SyQuest Model: Amiga 4000-040, 1 internal floppy, 120MB IDE 2MB 32-bit Chip, 12MB 32-bit Fast RAM OS Version: 3.0 ROM SCSI controller: Commodore 2091 V6.6ROM, 2MB RAM 44MB SyQuest >>(2) Tell us about your CDROM drive: >> >> Brand: Chinon >> Model number: CDX-431 >> Access speed (ms): 350 >> Data transfer rate (kb/sec): ???? >> Internal or external: External >> >>(3) Why did you choose this particular drive? >> >> Xetec provided this drive as a complete package (plug-n-play). >> >>(4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? >> Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the >> documentation? >> >> The drive is mounted horizontally in an external case. >> >>(5) What software driver do you use? >> >(c) Xetec V1.76 This adds support for reading MAC formatted roms (HFS). I have not tested this feature. >> >>(6) What CDROM discs do you own? List title and author. >> Fred Fish Online - Hypermedia Concepts >> Fred Fish Collection - Hypermedia Concepts >> NASA 25th Year - Troika Multimedia >> Space Wars - Odyssey Software >> AB20 Archive - Walnut Creek CD-ROM GIFS Galore - Walnut Creek CD-ROM Garbo May 1992 - Walnut Creek CD-ROM Simtel 20 June 1992 - Walnut Creek CD-ROM DeskTop Library August 1992 - Walnut Creek CD-ROM VGA Spectrum - S&S Enterprises Ham Radio - ChestNut CD-ROM ClipArt Goliath - ChestNut CD-ROM Our Solar System - ChestNut CD-ROM Ultimod (MODS) - Sunset Productions MediaClips Business Backgrounds - Aris Entertainment >> >>(7) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK, in your CDROM drive? >> List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. >> >> Groliers Encyclopedia - CDTV Publishing? , Locks up when you >> try to start it using the XETEC CDTV emulation software. >> >> Women in Motion - CDTV Publishing? , Works 90% of the time with >> the XETEC CDTV emulation software but screens sometimes get >> garbled. >> >>(9) Are you satisfied? Any complaints? >> >> The main purpose for purchasing the CD-ROM was to have access >> to the complete Fred Fish library and MS-DOS clip-art and font >> CD-ROMs. I am satisfied in this respect. I am discouraged that >> I cannot run some of the more advanced CDTV titles (Those which >> support CDXL). The quality and quantity of the Walnut Creek CD-ROMs is much better than the Chestnut CD-ROMs. I have been very satisfied with my CD-ROM over the past year. >> >>(10) Improvements? >> >> I would like to see XETEC or some other CDFileSystem developer >> provide better CDTV support, especially CDXL capability. >> >> >>(11) Do you know of any recent magazine article that reviews and compares >> lots of different CDROM drives (for any computer)? >> >> Not that I am aware of. >> AmigaWorld had a review a couple months ago, but you may have been the author. If not you then I think John Faust (sp?) ============================================================================ From: "Ryan K. Brooks" <2575BROOKSR@VMS.CSD.MU.EDU> (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: 2000 OS version: 3.0 (I'm a cert dev.) SCSI controller: GVP Gforce (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: 3201 Access speed (ms): ~340 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ~150 Internal or external: Internal (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Cheap... only $240. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? I've used it in both configurations, the documentation says this is ok. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? It doesn't boot correctly at all now that the CD-ROM is installed. Disc or no. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Seems okay. Awaiting newest upgrade before I pass judgement. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. FishMarket - AsimWare AB20 - Walnut Creek (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None, but the incompatibility with CDTV apps bothers me. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? FishMarket (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? C= should add the FS to the OS. Need more apps! (11) Any other comments? I would recommend the cd-rom drive to others... Corporate Systems Center in CA. (no affiliation; I just think its a good price) Thanks in advance! Thank you! Ryan Brooks ============================================================================ From: stevem@osiris.css.GOV 1. Amiga 2500/030 OS: 2.0 SCSI Controller: A2091 2. CD-ROM Drive: Xetec CDx-650 (Chinon CDS-431) Access speed: 350 ms Transfer rate: ?? External version 3. Why this drive?: Xetec gave the best (and really, the only legitimate) response to my queries about a CD-ROM drive. One company strung me along for 3 months waiting for their drives to appear...my local dealer wondered why I even wanted a CD-ROM drive when I should be buying a Toaster and a 68040 card with 20M of RAM...just like his demo machine. Xetec had a drive I could plug in to my system without knowing anything about hardware (a necessity for me). They were friendly and prompt with the shipping. [Sorry about the long flame...getting this drive was way more of an effort than it should have been.] 4. The drive is external and sits horizontally...haven't tried it any other way. 5. The Amiga will NOT boot if not disc is in the drive. 6. Driver software: Xetec The software was very easy to install and seems to work well. 7. Some of the CDRoms I own: * All 12 Voyager image CD-ROMs * Galileo CD-ROMs 2-6. * Seven Magellan CD-Roms * Selected Astronomical Catalogs From the ADC * Two "Fish & More" from Xetec * AB20 archive * GIFs Galore * Knowledge Media Graphics Library * Gridded NMC Data (Weather data 1946-1989) 8. I tried out a CDTV disc (I am not sure which one) from a dealer. Although the Xetec software claims to run CDTV discs, I could not get the CDTV programs on the CD-Rom to all start up correctly. Since I'm not interested in CDTV discs, I did not pursure the matter further. 9. My favorites...the Voyager and Galileo discs...its neat to explore these discs and view the images taken by the our spacecraft. 10. My only complaint is that the SCSI system sometimes hangs if I have very heavy disk activity, especially when I am accessing the CD-ROM. I have not yet resolved the problem. Otherwise, I am very pleased with having this drive. 11. CD-ROMs for the Amiga seem to be following the same path as hard drives did a few years ago...they are hard to get and over-priced (all my PC friends can get CD-ROMs for under $200 with all driver software). Since CD-ROMs really haven't penetrated into the Amiga world, none of the hundreds of CD-ROMs with large databases ---requiring specialized access software--- are going to be available for the Amiga...only PCs and Macs. The CD-ROM should be standard equipment on new Amigas...and Commodore should work to get Amiga access software put onto the many new titles coming out. I don't care about games and lo-res geography quizzes...I do care about the mountains of new data (such as world-wide weather archives...dictionaries...phone/zip code directories... and many others) that my friends can buy for their machines but are not usable from the Amiga. Steve Masters stevem@osiris.CSS.GOV ENSCO, Inc. Melbourne, FL 32940 (407) 254 4122 (day) ============================================================================ From: billg@wlgami.cmhnet.org (William L. Gorder) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000/25 OS version: KS 37.175, WB 38.25 (KS from disk) SCSI controller: Internal A3000 > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: NEC Model number: CDR-80 Access speed (ms): 500 ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 (avg), 500 (max) Internal or external: External > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was inexpensive (and SCSI). > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? The drive is mounted horizontally. The manual shows it being mounted both horizontally and vertically. > > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Not sure, I normally have a CD-Rom in the drive. However, a cold boot up with the CDR-80 *turned on* results in a grey screen with a yellow message which reads "Unable to get memory". I have 14Mb! > > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. CDROM-FS 0.702 (Yep, I know it's an old version, I just haven't upgraded yet.) > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Well, I have had some problems, but since it's an old version it's hard to complain. I plan to upgrade soon. (Of course I've planned to upgrade to Amiga UUCP 1.16D since about September :-) > > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. GIFs Galore Walnut Creek Desktop Library Walnut Creek Source Code CD-Rom Walnut Creek AB20 Amiga CD-Rom Walnut Creek Fred Fish Collection HyperMedia Concepts Audio 1 Resource Library Knowledge Media Microsoft Bookshelf Microsoft (MS-DOS specific, do not use, came with the drive) > > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None. > > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Desktop Library Walnut Creek > > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes. Waiting for the disk to spin-up when it is accessed is a bit of a pain sometimes. And I wish I could find a source for NEC CDR-80 caddies. :-( > > (11) Any other comments? CD-Rom is a great addition to your system! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- William Gorder | "The two most common elements in the universe are billg@wlgami.cmhnet.org | hydrogen and stupidity" 73547.734@compuserve.com| --- Harlan Ellison ============================================================================ From: Dave Beckett (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: 1500 (a variant of the 2000) OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: GVP MkII (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: NEC Model number: CDR 74 Access speed (ms): 280ms (claimed) Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 300 (claimed - peak 1.5M claimed) 270-275 (measured with sysinfo 3.11) Internal or external: External Also: Eject button, power button, headphone socket and volume on FRONT (an advantage!), audio out on back, international power supply plus is supplied with SCSI D25-D50 cable and terminating resistor pack (D50). (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was one of only two `professional' choices (SCSI, external, robust, brand name) drives available at the time - Toshiba 3301 or NEC 74. The NEC had a small price advantage and had the improved access speed due to the MultiSpin dual speed technology which the Toshiba didn't. The Toshiba's advantages are (and still are) SCSI-II and MultiSession (Photo CD) support plus 512K block size reading both of which the CDR74 does not have (but this may change with the new model). If I was buying again, I might consider the Toshiba 3401 instead. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? It's horizontal but can be either and comes with stands to install vertically. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Yes. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. (c) Xetec (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of capabilities) (a) - AsimCDFS v1.0b Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? I'm happy but had slight problems setting up - it requires gvpscsi.library v4.4 or later and I had v3.x so had to update. Just call any GVP dealer. I've got v4.5 now and it works fine. Complaints? Well, sort of suggestions. It would be nice to have the option to display files in lower case (soothing to the eyes) plus show/hide version numbers and have better support for unnamed volumes. Currently if you CD to an unnamed disk, the returned path does not work properly. Although the MAC support works fine, it's messy switching Data/Resource forks. Support for High Sierra/Rockridge would be great. Last but not least, CDTV support so I can try out the software if it finally appears and is worth it. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. By Walnut Creek CDROM: X11R5/GNU CDROM Sources (March 1992) CDROM AB20 Amiga CDROM GIFS Galore CDROM By AsimWare (comes with driver software): FishMarket Tried but not owned: Apple 'QuickClips' - QuickTime demo disc One of the Mac 'CDROM of the Month' discs. (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. None. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? WC Sources. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes - it works great. (11) Any other comments? I've got 150 buffers on the CDROM (more than my hard drives), and the drive itself has 64K of cache too plus being semi-fast so bear in mind that there is a speed/memory trade-off. If I can get CDTV support, I'd like a decent Multimedia(ish) Encyclopedia/dictionary/... plus maybe a few games that really use the CDROM's storage/audio facilities.. ============================================================================ From: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: A3000T OS version: 2.1 SCSI controller: internal (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: XM-3301B Access speed (ms): Data transfer rate (KB/sec): Internal or external: (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Fast (at the time), and no reported problems with any of the CDROM filesystems. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? vertically, yes. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? no. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Early versions were buggy, and I worked with the author to find the bugs. Now it's fine. I'm told it's the slowest of the 3 filesystems. The author promises great things in the future though. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. AB20, Walnut Creek Fred Fish Collection 1.5 (1-700) & 1.6 (1-800), Hypermedia USENET Source Code, Walnut Creek FishMarket, Asimware (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. FF Collection 1.5 had bug. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fred Fish Collection (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Satisfied. (11) Any other comments? ============================================================================ From: rrogers@cs.washington.edu (Richard Rogers) (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: 4000 OS version: 3.0 SCSI controller: 2091 (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: chinon Model number:cds-435 Access speed (ms): 350 ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 K/s Internal or external: internal (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Low cost and known compatibility with 2091 and Xetec file system (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? horizontally Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? no (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? It boots properly, but slowly. This is due to the 2091, and happens with other removable media when used with this controller. At boot time, the 2091 sees a SCSI device (the removable media drive, cd rom in this case), and asks it if it's alive. When there is no disk in the drive, the drive won't respond to the controller's inquiry. After a few tries, the 2091 gives up and allows the boot to continue. When there is a disk in the drive, the drive answers, and the computer boots at normal speed. I don't find this annoying, as I usually leave my Amiga on. If I really want to boot fast, I just stick a disk in. Other controllers handle removable media differently, some are faster for the no disk case, but I believe C='s method is the most reliable. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) Xetec Are you happy with the software? Yes Any complaints? Nope, works flawlessly so far. I haven't tried CDTV emulation or reading Mac disks, but Amiga and IBM cds I've tried so far have worked well. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fish & More (came with Xetec software) Walnut Creek's AB20 archive SelectWare system and Nautilus Intro (came with Chinon drive) (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. none (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? AB20 (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? (11) Any other comments? I'm happy with the drive and software set-up. The 2091 doesn't work in the Amiga 4000. I'd like a ZorroIII SCSI controller, but I don't need SCSI2. The projected prices of the Z3 SCSI2 controllers are about $100 higher than the current Z2 SCSI controllers. I don't know if this is because of Zorro3 or SCSI 2. If a Zorro 3 SCSI 1 card could be produced at a price close to the current Zorro 2 SCSI 1 controllers, there should be a good market for it. Thanks in advance! you're welcome ============================================================================ From: srp@travis.csd.harris.com ( Stephen Pietrowicz) > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 2000 OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: GVP (Series I with FAAASTROMs installed) > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: 3401 Access speed (ms): 200ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 330KB Internal or external: External > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It's the fastest thing out there right now, and supports just about every standard for CD-ROMs that I've even heard of. > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Horizontally > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? Yes > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) Xetec > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Yup. I have no complaints. In fact, I'm stunned what you get for $50 from Xetec: 2 discs, a bunch of programs, AREXX scripts, and even code to roll your own programs to control the disc. Pretty nice. > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish & More (Vols. I & II) - Xetec AB20 Archive - Walnut Creek Siggraph 1992 CD ROM - Cast of hundreds (ok, tens... maybe) > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. All of these work. There is no Amiga driver software for the Siggraph disc, but I can still get at the data. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Right now, the Fred Fish & More discs. Walnut Creek is coming out with the amiga.physik.unizh.ch site on disc in the next few weeks (or so), and I suspect that will be me new favorite. > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes, I'm quite satisfied. No complaints. > (11) Any other comments? The external Toshiba has stereo jacks in the back (and a headphone jack in the front), which makes it easy to hook up to the stereo (or headphones). This is one FAST drive. Much faster than other CD ROM drives I've used. ============================================================================ From: tomlin@elec.canterbury.ac.nz : (1) Tell us about your Amiga: : Model: A2500 : OS version: WB 2.1, KS 2.04 : SCSI controller: A2091 : (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: : Brand: Panasonic (AKA Matsushita) : Model number: CD501-B ROM 1.0c : Access speed (ms): - : Data transfer rate (KB/sec): - : Internal or external: Internal : (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was cheap, SCSI, and available here in New Zealand. It was intended for a PC as an internal kit and came with a cheap PC SCSI card. : (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? : Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the : documentation? Is installed horizontally. Can be either, but I haven't tried. : (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM : drive? Yes, but only after ~3 minutes. Hangs completely if there is an audio CD in the drive at boot. Apparently, if I had a HD at a lower unit number, I'd be OK - I can't verify this. : (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations : Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? It does have problems. Occassionly it doesn't scan directories properly. e.g. WShell's file completion doesn't work in some directories on some disks. Also on the FF disk, Fish Express refuses to start. [This does work with Babels CDROMFS on the same drive & disk.] The drive does correctly register diskchanges on my machine. According to the Asim manual there is a problem with the Panasonic drive with the 1.0b ROM. The audio player is very basic, but does function OK. I have never tried the AsimFork for MAC disks. : (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fred Fish 1.6 (1-800) - Hypermedia CATS developer CD - CATS FishMarket (comes bundled with AsimCDFS) Source Code CDROM - Walnut Creek AB20 - Walnut Creek : (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM : drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. See above with FF and Wshell (all disks, random directories). Also Asim couldn't read the files which used accents in their names. (This appears on the CATS CD). : (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Source Code CDROM. : (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes. No. : (11) Any other comments? I can get around the hanging with the audio CD in the drive by simply pressing the eject button when it appears to hang. The machine then boots quickly. - Mark Tomlinson ============================================================================ From: Ari Yrj\vl\d > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > Model: Amiga 2000 OS version: 2.04 SCSI controller: GVP G-Force 030 > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > Brand: Apple Model number: CD-150 Access speed (ms): 380 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150 Internal or external: external > > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? With edu discount here in Finland (C= has never offered any discounts here, BTW) it was quite cheap: 1650,- FIM which translates to about $275 (that includes 22% VAT). Cables and the necessary external SCSI terminator aren't included though. Also, as it's internally a Sony (model CDU-8002) I was quite sure it would work with some CD-ROM filesystem software available for Amiga. > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? Well, it is external drive...don't know if it could be used sideaways. > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? First time after I switch power on my Amiga it won't boot but everything works fine after TFS. This happens in any case, was there a CD inside or not. I also have to use GVPScsiCtrl command to turn off disconnect/reconnect for the CD-ROM drive on startup before mounting it. > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) Xetec > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? It has a nice install program (not C='s install but their own) with online help, but it could tell more about what it does when you tell it to install the software. It has some simple software protection too, which was a bit of nuisance when I was trying with a copy from a friend :) to find out if it works at all with my drive and if I should order it. Getting my own copy was not so easy, as it seems that only way to get Xetec's software is to order it straight from them. It costs $50 + shipping and comes with software disk, a shrink-wrapped manual and 2 Fish&More CDs (upto #470 and other stuff like Eric Schwartz anims) in jewel boxes. Lately I've been noticing some problems with audio CDs and Workbench. Xetec's software puts up an icon on WB when audio disc is inserted and it starts a player program when clicked. The problem is that sometimes after ejecting the audio CD it's icon will still hang around on WB. This migh be (just my guess) due to some differences with my drive and Sony CDU-8001 audio command set which I'm using as Xetec software doesn't have direct support for Apple drives. > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. I have only 3 CD-ROM discs: 'AppleCD Sampler' which came with the drive and those 2 Fish&More CDs which were bundled with Xetec software. > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. All 3 discs I own have worked perfectly, although some scripts to start up animations on Fish CDs don't work right; trying to do stupid assigns like WalkerII script, or some just won't start. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Fish&More #2, as it has some nice animations :-) > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I'm satisfied, although PhotoCD support and CD-DA read ability would be nice, but that costs too... > (11) Any other comments? > Thanks in advance! Thanks for you keeping up the good work with c.s.a.reviews! ============================================================================ From: Jay Rymal -> (1)Tell us about your Amiga: -> -> Model: Amiga3000T and Amiga 4000/030 (among others at work 8^) -> OS version: 2.1 and 3.0 -> SCSI controller: a3000 and Waiting for a4091 -> -> (2)Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: -> -> Brand: Apple (SONY) -> Model number: CD-300i (Sony 561) -> Access speed (ms): ~280 -> Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 300 -> Internal or external: tried both, use Internal -> -> (3)Why did you choose this particular drive? -> Cheap, yet the fastest, most features..good name... -> (4)Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally. -> Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the -> documentation? Yes (?) -> -> (5)Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM -> drive? Nope! -> -> (6)What software driver(s) do you use? -> AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations !!! -> -> Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? YUP! NOPE! -> -> (7)What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. -> two fred fish disks, (Hypermedia and Asim's) photoCD's Lemmings CDTV Working on getting more...8^) -> (8)What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your -> CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem -> briefly. Several CDTV titles wont work, I tried them at work, but I don't remember the names...sorry. -> (9)What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? -> FredFish from Hypermedia -> (10)Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? -> Yup... Nope -> (11)Any other comments? I'm really happy to finally get PhotoCD on the system with the aid of a program called OpalPCD... using the Opal.library from Centaur, any amiga can extract and convert PhotoCD images to the Amiga's IFF! They look great... What I want to get next is that MOD cd rom... I never bothered keeping them around on the HD since they're so big...but a CD rom...well GREAT! I'd like to promote this technology on the Amiga... I think many people think that CDTV is the only way Amiga computers can get access to CD's NOT...8^) What I want to get is disks full of FONTS. I tried the Type-ON-Call disk, MAC version, from ADOBE, but alas they have an encrypted format on the disk, that requires their software to extract the fonts. -> Thanks in advance! You welcome, and thanks for all the great work you're doing for the Amiga community! Jay.Rymal@Canrem.com University of Toronto Computer Shop -- Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 ============================================================================ From: Mike Stark (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 3000 OS version: 2.1 SCSI controller: Amiga 3000 (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: XM-3201B Access speed (ms): 350 Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 1500 (Max) Internal or external: Internal in an external box. (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was given to me by those wonderful people at Walnut Creek CDROM. They chose it 'cause it was cheap. It is refurbished. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Horizontally Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? yes (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Of course not. (It boots OK if I have the drive off.) (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations Are you happy with the software? (yes) Any complaints? FComp doesn't seem to work all the time with it though it seems to work some of the time. (FComp is a file name completer distributed with WSHell.) (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. All of the WC CDROMS including their upcoming aminet CD. (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. none. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Don't have a favorite. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? (yes) Any complaints? Not enough titles for Amiga. (11) Any other comments? ============================================================================ From: Jacek Artymiak (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 3000T OS version: 2.1 SCSI controller: on-board (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba Model number: 3401 Access speed (ms): ?? Data transfer rate (KB/sec): ?? Internal or external: internal (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was recommended to me by my trusted dealer. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Vertically Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? Yes, no problems. It has to be installed in the left vertical slot because of the bracket in the right slot. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Yes, without problems. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (c) Xetec Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Totally happy, no complaints. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Fish & More Volume I - Xetec Fish & More Volume II - Xetec Demo CD - Almathera Systems Ltd GIFs Galore CDROM - Walnut Creek Heroic Age of Spaceflight, NASA... The 25h Year - Troika Multimedia, Inc. (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Heroic Age of Spaceflight, NASA... The 25h Year - Troika Multimedia, Inc. The program hangs up in the middle of playing the movie. I guess its due to the fact that I'm using Mercury 040 accelerator. Switching back to 030 didn't help though. (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? GIFs Galore CDROM - Walnut Creek (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yes, no problems so far. (11) Any other comments? Can't wait for a good PhotoCD reader... Regards, Jacek ============================================================================ From: yngmnds!youngber@uunet.UU.NET (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 500, Amiga 3000UX OS version: 1.3,2.04, 2.1 SCSI controller: IVS GrandSlam 500, CBM (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Toshiba 3401B Model number: 3401B Access speed (ms): 200ms Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 330 Internal or external: external (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? Good driver support (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? horizontally Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? YES (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? YES (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. (c) Xetec (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of capabilities) BOTH a and b Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? I am not happy with CDROM-FS by Canadian Prototype If I try to back up a CD onto 8mm Exabyte tape, the device driver crashes after about 4-5 hours of use. This also happens if I use it for 4-5 hours without using the backup program. (using both Amiback or TAR) (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Lemmings CDTV welcome DISK. X11R5 and GNU by Young Minds, Inc. X11R4 and GNU by Young Minds, Inc. Young Minds, Demo. Siggraph 92 Proceedings Super Computing 92 proceedings Fuzzy Logic 93 proceedings Neural Networks conf proceedings I have used others too..(belong to the company I work for) (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. Some self-made CD's don't work correctly cause they were made non ISO-9660. (but all the ones I own work fine) (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? X11R5 and GNU source code. (I am a X-Programmer). (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? I wish more amiga software was published on CD-ROM specifically, good indexing/retrieval software. (11) Any other comments? I LOVE the double speed Toshiba 3401B !!! ( I have also used the Toshiba 3201 without any problems.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jerry Youngberg INTERNET: youngber@ymi.com Software Engineer, Young Minds, Inc. CD-ROM Solutions for UNIX! Ph (909)335-1350 FAX (909)798-0488 ============================================================================ From: David-L@cup.portal.com (1) Tell us about your Amiga: Model: Amiga 2500/30 (C-A A2630 Board) DKB 2632 32-bit memory expansion board with 12 megs installed (total mem=19 megs) OS version: WB 2.1 SCSI controller: Both a 2091 & a CMI Multiport Board w/ SCSI option. The Matshita CD rom drive requires that Re-Selection be turned off or else frequently locks the SCSI bus. The A2091 makes turning off reselection difficult w/o rewriting the RDB which you can't do with a CD Rom. Bottom line is I have the CD ROM on the CMI Multiport SCSI port (no reselection, non DMA) as the only SCSI device and it's working fine. (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: Brand: Panasonic/Matshita CD Rom Model number: CR-501-T Access speed (ms): .5 sec (from spec) Data transfer rate (KB/sec): 150k/sec (from spec) Internal or external: External (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? It was cheap!!! - Pickup it up for $150 (w/ external box) at local swap meet. (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? Horizontally - Not sure if it can go the other way. This drive seems to be sold as an external unit only (case has feet on the bottom only). (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Yes - The CMI SCSI make no attempt to auto-mount the drive so it doesn't matter if there's a disk there or not. (6) What software driver(s) do you use? (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations (c) Xetec I have both AsimCDFS and Xetec - purchased the Xetec first but found out later that AsimCDFS supported Audio on this drive so I purchased that one too. Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? Both packages seemed to work about the same. I use the AsimCDFS for the Audio capability. I'm a little disappointed that neither supports CD-XL but I'm not sure if that's even possible. (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. Disk Title Author Comments ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Amrican Hrtge Illust Ency Dict* Xiphas Fish N More 1 & 2 Xetec The pics, animations, and sounds are neat & the fis h stuff is sorted by type FishMarket Asimware Works fine though most of fish collection is outdated GIFs Galore Walnut Creek CDROM Nice Disk - 6000 GIFs sorted by TYPE Grolier Electronc Encyclopedia* CDTV Publishing Heroic Age of Spaceflight* Troika Multimedia Inc Major portion of disk is a CD XL movie - doesn't work Time Table of Hist-Scince & Innovtn* Xiphias World Vista* Applied Optical Media Corp *Had to use SETCPU to boot 1.3 OS to get CDTV software to run (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. The following disks seem to require OS 1.3 to boot: Amrican Hrtge Illust Ency Dict Grolier Electronc Encyclopedia Heroic Age of Spaceflight Time Table of Hist-Scince & Innovtn World Vista Heroic Age of Spaceflight - Can't view CDXL movie World Vista - Sometimes runs out of chip memory when viewing city map (this is mentioned in the Xetec documentation) (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Yea, I'm satisfied - But I wasn't expecting much. I'd be alot happier if I could run CDTV stuff without going through a special boot process (OS 1.3) P.S. Any chance you could E-Mail me a copy of the survey results? Thanks David-L@cup.portal.com ============================================================================ From: Tom Brunetti > (1) Tell us about your Amiga: > > Model: > OS version: > SCSI controller: A2000/2630/25Mhz 2.05 2091 > > (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive: > > Brand: > Model number: > Access speed (ms): > Data transfer rate (KB/sec): > Internal or external: > NEC CDR-25 800ms 150kb?? External > (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? > Inexpensive,SCSI compatible, External, Portable > (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? > Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the > documentation? > External, Horizontal, Cannot be installed vertically. > (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM > drive? > Must have a disk in the drive to boot properly. > (6) What software driver(s) do you use? > > (a) AsimCDFS by Asimware Innovations > (b) CD-ROM-FS by Canadian Prototype Replicas. > (c) Xetec > (d) Other (give name, vendor, and a brief description of > capabilities) > Xetec CDX > Are you happy with the software? Any complaints? > Very happy, no complaints. Installation was a breeze. Documentation very clear and concise. Active BBS support which I appreciate. Asim software locked up the scsi bus during large xfers to hd which Xetec has no problem with. > (7) What CD-ROM discs do you own? List title and author. > 3 discs, Fish + More Vols I&II (Xetec), Dinosaurs for Hire[CDTV](Wright Works III). Bought cdtv title for testing purposes which by the way works flawlessly,although using Xetecs generic startups will lose multitasking ability. > (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD- > ROM > drive? List title and author, and describe the problem briefly. > Haven't encountered problems yet. CD-Rom collection limited to titles above. > (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? > My limited exposure to available titles discounts my opinion here. > (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? > Pretty much satisfied. I only swap data from the drive so speed hasn't been a problem as of yet. Would like to get a cdtv game to see how the drive keeps up. > (11) Any other comments? > Again the software, ordered the package over the phone. Received it in two days. Interface has interactive help on every input necessary. Very professionally done in my opinion. > Thanks in advance! > > Dan > My pleasure Dan. TB * Q-Blue v0.7 [NR] * ============================================================================ END OF SURVEY RESPONSES Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center | | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////