Amiga CDTV
An Amiga dressed up as a hi-fi component, for the living room, with CD and remote control.
The 1991 CDTV (Commodore Dynamic Total Vision) was an Amiga 500 with a CD-ROM drive, in a black hi-fi-style case and with an infrared remote, sold as a multimedia appliance rather than a computer.
Multimedia ahead of its time
In the early 1990s, "multimedia" was the buzzword and CD-ROM was still rare in the home. Commodore bet on a device to plug into the television, with encyclopaedias, games and interactive books on CD, and made it look like a hi-fi player so as not to scare off people who did not want "a computer".
The CDTV arrived in 1991, at around a thousand dollars. Sales fell well short of expectations: the price was high, there was little serious software and the message was confusing, because it hid exactly what it was.
Inside
Under the veneer it is an Amiga 500: 68000 at 7.09 MHz, OCS/ECS chipset, 1 MB of Chip RAM and Kickstart 1.3, with an extra ROM that handles the CD drive and its own interface. The CD-ROM drive is single-speed.
It has a slot for memory cards (for saving games), an infrared remote that also works as a mouse and joystick, and connections for a keyboard, mouse and external floppy drive. With those extras it becomes a complete Amiga.
Trivia
- 10 REM
The infrared remote has a directional pad and fire buttons: you could play without a joystick.
- 20 REM
Today it is one of the Amiga machines most sought after by collectors, precisely because it sold so few.
- 30 REM
The CD drive mechanism and the internal power supply are the parts that fail most often with age.
Try it
An Amiga running right here in your browser: press Switch on, wait for it to boot and explore the desktop with the mouse. It's the same kind of machine we have on the bench, only emulated.
It runs AROS, a free operating system compatible with AmigaOS: Commodore's original Kickstart ROMs are still under copyright and can't be distributed.
Emulation by vAmigaWeb (GPL-3.0).
AROS · vAmigaWeb
The family: Commodore Amiga
- 1985 Amiga 1000
- 1987 Amiga 500
- 1987 Amiga 2000
- 1990 Amiga 3000
- 1991 Amiga CDTV
- 1991 Amiga 500 Plus
- 1992 Amiga 600
- 1992 Amiga 1200
- 1992 Amiga 4000
- 1993 Amiga CD32
Compared with the other models
| Model | Year | Processor | Memory | Video | Sound | System |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amiga 1000 | 1985 | 68000 · 7,16 MHz | 256 KB | OCS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.0–1.3 (disco) |
| Amiga 500 | 1987 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 512 KB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.2 / 1.3 |
| Amiga 2000 | 1987 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.2 / 1.3 |
| Amiga 3000 | 1990 | 68030 · 16 / 25 MHz | 2 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.0 |
| ▶ Amiga CDTV | 1991 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.3 + CDTV |
| Amiga 500 Plus | 1991 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.04 |
| Amiga 600 | 1992 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.05 |
| Amiga 1200 | 1992 | 68EC020 · 14 MHz | 2 MB | AGA | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 3.0 / 3.1 |
| Amiga 4000 | 1992 | 68040 · 25 MHz | 6 MB | AGA | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 3.0 / 3.1 |
| Amiga CD32 | 1993 | 68EC020 · 14 MHz | 2 MB | AGA + Akiko | Paula · 4 × 8 bit + CD | Kickstart 3.1 + CD32 |
Let me know when one arrives: Amiga CDTV
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