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1994-01-23
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48KB
Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: SURVEY: CD-ROM on the Amiga, 1993 [long]
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 6 May 1993 13:28:31 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 1218
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1sb3pv$332@menudo.uh.edu>
Reply-To: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: CD-ROM, hardware, commercial
[MODERATOR'S NOTE: This review was updated on Jan 23, 1994.
Search for the text "[UPDATE:" to find updated information.
-Dan]
INTRODUCTION
Here are the results of a USENET survey of Amiga CD-ROM that I
conducted during Spring, 1993. This article contains information about
hardware setups, CD-ROM filesystem software, popular CD-ROM discs, and
reported solutions to common problems. I am very pleased about how many
people responded to the survey, and this article has turned out much longer
than I had expected!
I conducted a similar survey in early 1992; however, the new one
received 4 times as many responses (44 versus 11), and the results are over
3 times as long (1200 versus 370 lines). The 1992 survey is available by
ftp from math.uh.edu in the comp.sys.amiga.reviews archives, or by
electronic mail from amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu.
Below, you will find many tables of data as well as quotes from
individual users about their setups. As you read this survey, PLEASE keep
in mind that there are many variables in a CD-ROM setup:
o Amiga model
o AmigaDOS version
o SCSI controller
o CD-ROM drive
o CD-ROM filesystem software ("driver")
o Particular CD-ROM discs
As a result, when someone reports a problem, it is not easy to know the true
cause. So read all complaints with this in mind: what failed on one
person's setup may work on yours, or vice-versa.
Any opinions that appear inside quotes belong to the respondent who
said them, not me. (Any opinions not enclosed in quotes are mine.) I have
kept the quotes anonymous; however, I will make the full text of all
responses available if people are interested. (On the survey form, I
explained that the finished product would contain quotes, and anybody who
wanted to remain anonymous should say so in advance. None of the
respondents requested anonymity.)
If you notice any errors in this survey, please report them to me
at e-mail address barrett@cs.umass.edu. I will fix them and post an update.
COMMON PROBLEMS REPORTED AND SOLVED
Several common CD-ROM problems were reported and solved by the survey
respondents, and the solutions are in this article. They include:
o Amiga won't boot when no disc is in the drive.
(See the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (5).)
o WShell/FComp and AsimCDFS problem with filename completion.
(See "About AsimCDFS" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND
RESULTS, question (6).)
o Accents/foreign characters in filenames are mishandled.
(See "About AsimCDFS" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND
RESULTS, question (6).)
o How to read/display PhotoCD's.
(See "PhotoCD" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS,
question (11).)
o Making the GVP Series II controller work properly with
a CD-ROM drive but no hard disk.
(See "Hardware Compatibility and Tips" in the section SURVEY
QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (11).)
THE STATE OF AMIGA CD-ROM
Despite the words of some "doom-sayers" on the Net, CD-ROM is easy
to add to any Amiga with a SCSI interface and getting cheaper all the time.
All three of the major CD-ROM filesystems (AsimCDFS, CDROM-FS, and Xetec)
work properly, and many different drives are supported by them. In general,
users are very happy with their CD-ROM setups.
To connect a CD-ROM to your Amiga, you need a SCSI controller and
CD-ROM filesystem software. Assuming you already have a SCSI controller,
you should next read the "compatibility lists" supplied by the filesystem
software vendors to see which SCSI controllers and CD-ROM drives are
supported. (A limited compatibility table is given below, in the section
SURVEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, question (6), but THIS TABLE IS NOT
COMPLETE.) Next, you should compare CD-ROM drive specifications to find
which of the compatible drives is best for you and within your price range.
Finally, buy the drive and the filesystem software, hook things up, and
you're done!
As you will see below, there are many CD-ROM discs available for the
Amiga; not as many as for the Macintosh and IBM PC, but still quite a few.
Approximately 100 different titles were listed by the survey respondents,
though some of them were not Amiga-specific. A number of respondents
complained about Commodore's lack of commitment to CD-ROM, as it is more
widespread on the Mac and PC.
An important issue for Amiga CD-ROM owners is CDTV compatibility.
The CDTV has some features (notably CDXL) that may not work on a SCSI CD-ROM
equipped Amiga. In addition, CDTV currently runs AmigaDOS 1.3, so some
incorrectly-written software appearing on CD-ROM may not run properly under
AmigaDOS 2.0 or higher.
SURVEY ISSUES
This year, I remembered to pay attention to which SCSI controller
was used on each Amiga. (In 1992, I ignored this issue.) However, I forgot
to ask people for the version number of the CD-ROM filesystem software they
are running. As a result, some people's complaints about the software
possibly have already been solved in later versions.
THE ELEVEN SURVEY QUESTIONS, AND RESULTS
This section contains all of the survey questions and their answers.
Rather than show all the text of all the responses, I have tried to present
the information in a readable and helpful format. However, this approach
loses a little information. If there is interest, as I said above, I can
make the full text of all responses available. Let me know.
(1) Tell us about your Amiga
The following table summarizes how many respondents use each Amiga model,
SCSI controller, and AmigaDOS version.
AMIGA SCSI USERS WITH AMIGADOS VERSION | USER
MODEL CONTROLLER 1.3 2.04 2.1 3.0 | TOTAL
=============================================================================
A500 GVP Series II 1 1 | 2
A500 & AdSpeed Dataflyer 500 1 | 1
A500 IVS GrandSlam 500 1 1 1 | 3
A500+ ? 1 | 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-------
A2000 ? 1 | 1
A2000 GVP Series I 1 | 1
A2000 GVP Combo 1 1 | 2
A2000 GVP Series II 1 1 | 2
A2000 GVP G-Force 2 1 1 | 4
A2000 & A30001 A2091 1 | 1
A2000 & Mega-MR A2091 2 | 2
A2000 & A2630 A2091 1 | 1
A2500 A2091 1 1 1 | 3
A2500 IVS Trumpcard Pro 1 | 1
A2500/030 A2091 1 | 1
A2500/030 Microbotics Hardframe 1 | 1
A2500/030 CMI Multiport Board 1 | 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-------
A3000 internal 4 5 1 | 10
A3000 & 68040 internal 1 | 1
A3000T internal 1 3 | 4
A3000UX internal 1 2 | 3
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-------
A4000/040 GVP Series II 2 | 2
A4000/040 A2091 2 | 2
=============================================================================
TOTAL - 2 21 17 10 | 50
Summarizing by Amiga model:
A500 series: 7
A2000 series: 21
A3000 series: 18
A4000 series: 4
============================================
TOTAL 50
Summarizing by SCSI controller:
CMI Multiport Board: 1
Commodore A2091: 10
Commodore A3000/A3000T internal: 18
Dataflyer 500: 1
GVP Combo: 2
GVP G-Force: 4
GVP Series I: 1
GVP Series II: 6
IVS GrandSlam 500: 3
IVS Trumpcard Pro: 1
Microbotics Hardframe: 1
unknown: 2
============================================
TOTAL 50
NOTES: There were only 44 respondents. Some users had several Amigas,
several AmigaDOS versions, or several SCSI controllers. Some respondents
were developers, which is why you see AmigaDOS 3.0 on non-AGA Amigas.
(2) Tell us ab