TF01 3,CD Video and Star Trek 4,by Sven Harvey Not many of us can have escaped Commodore's brilliant marketing for the Amiga CD32 console or the Philips CDi television adverts promoting the Philips Digital Video cartridge. Not many however fully understand the revolution which is now getting fully underway. Since the invention of the compact disc by the Philips/Sony consortium many visionaries realised that the CD would become the premiere storage format for virtually everything. Commodore's own CDTV as well as Philips CDi started the information revolution in earnest but now come the turning point onto the digital roller-coaster ride. Several formats now exist which use CD. Firstly there is CD Audio and a CD player is now owned by virtually every family. Then there are the little known CD+G and CD+MIDI formats which not only hold audio but also pictures or MIDI data to control MIDI instruments such as keyboards. Now come a plethora of new formats. First of the new formats was Sega's Mega-CD which arrived in the UK early last year. Unfortunately Mega CD is pretty crap and is really a step back to before CDTV (and the new Sega Saturn is not much better as it has less graphical capability than the CDTV). However the following new formats promise to expand the usage of CDs to their fullest. Firstly there is 3DO supported by many big companies but has a couple of major flaws. Firstly it cannot scroll. Okay, this may not sound too terrible but without scrolling games such as Zool and R-Type will be incredibly slow. Secondly is its price. One of the major reasons why CDTV failed is because it was launched at £600. 3DO's price is very similar and let's face it - the specs are really not that impressive. Secondly there is the "64-Bit" Atari Jaguar. There are several problems with this machine. Firstly it isn't 64-Bit at all. It has a Motorola 68000 for its main processor (the same as in the original Amigas) and 16 Bit architecture (meaning slow data transfer between custom chips). The reason Atari are getting away with the 64-Bit label is that one of the custom chips (which is RISC which doesn't help) is of the double buffered 32-Bit variety. So in reality it is a 16-Bit machine with 32-Bit custom chips and does not compare with the fully 32-Bit 3DO. Another major problem with the Jaguar is that it has Atari written on it. Scoff if you like, but after the failure of the ST and the Lynx many people are going to stay away from anything made by Atari. Then again the machine is only marketed by Atari. The units are actually manufactured by another company. This is the final nail in the Jaguar's coffin as IBM makes them. Oh dear. Finally is the cream of the crop, Commodore's Amiga CD32. Firstly it has full 32 Bit architecture - better than CDTV, CDi, Mega CD and the Jaguar already. Then there is the price - only £300 - half the price of the 3DO (bye, bye 3DO) and can be upgraded to a full computer (which just kills of the new Sega Saturn, which had crap graphics anyway, and the new Nintendo which won't be out for another three years). Then there is the price of the software. CD32 games start at £14.99 compared with £40 on Mega CD and £20 on CDi and silly money on all the others. But don't take my word for it. Two American mags have already put the CD32 at the top of the pile. Now comes the bit we are interested in ... FMV. What the hell is FMV? I hear you ask. Well FMV is Full Motion Video also referred to as MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) but will come to be known as CDV or CDVideo (Compact Disc Video). Currently only three machines can do this properly and these are the Philips CDi (with optional Digital Video Cartridge), the 3DO (with optional FMV cartridge) and the CD32 (with the optional FMV module). By FMV I mean full screen full motion video (i.e. same speed as television/films) not half screen dithered in 16 colours and in slow motion as on the Mega CD but full screen full colour (as in 16.7 million colours) full motion video. So what is Full Motion Video really then? Well using the MPEG compression system it means that approximately 74 minutes of full video can be stored and played back at full rate in a digital form from a single 5 inch CD just like audio ones. But WHY? The reason is clear when you watch a CDVideo. It is a lot (and I mean A LOT) better quality than VHS and though not better than analogue laserdisk it is a lot cheaper at only £15 for each movie (compared with up to £50 on laserdisk). Also all the FMV capable machines are stereo so the movie soundtrack, speech and effects are in stereo and if you hook up a Dolby Surround Sound or Pro Logic A/V decoder amplifier you get full surround sound on CDVideos recorded using it (i.e. most movies made in the 1990's). The only real drawback is that each CD can ONLY hold 74 minutes of video which means most movies will appear on two CDs (but it's a good excuse to get a drink anyway). So why do I want it? you ask. Well the one major film company that is already producing CDVideos is Paramount and you know what that means... LOTS OF STAR TREK CDVIDEOS! Star Trek VI is already available and is alot better quality than its VHS counterpart. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the first Deep Space Nine episodes are due out soon. Sounds good to me as Paramount is just the beginning with Warner, 20th Century Fox and loads of other film companies are jumping on the FMV bandwagon. So in summary lets look at this again from the Amiga enthusiasts point of view. So for a total of £500 (CD32-£300 and FMV module-£200) you can listen to audio CDs (the CD player is excellent quality) listen to CD+MIDI discs if you have a MIDI interface listen to/watch CD+G discs play CDTV games such as Lemmings play the brilliant CD32 titles such as Zool and Liberation AND WATCH MOVIES IN EXCELLENT QUALITY WITH FULLY DIGITAL SOUND which means to us... STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER AND THE LATER STAR TREK MOVIES IN PERFECT CLARITY IN FULL DOLBY SURROUND SOUND STEREO. Compared with CD players of equal quality at around £250 and stereo VHS VCRS at over £400 the CD32 CDVideo deal is VERY GOOD VALUE FOR MONEY! What a bargain! My message to all you Trekkers out there is; START SAVING NOW!!!!!!!!!!! Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country CDVideo Review ------------------------------------------------------- Right to start off with a quick story synopsis for the miniscule minority of you who actually have not seen the movie... One of the moons of the Klingon Homeworld, Qo'nos (Kronos to those who cannot speak Klingon), has exploded polluting the atmosphere of the planet. The Klingons need help from the Federation so Chancellor Gorkon of the Klingon High Council opens talks with the UFP through Spock. Captain Kirk's crew are given one last assignment before retirement... to escort the Klingon Cruiser carrying Gorkon to Earth for the peace summit. Unfortunately the Klingon Cruiser is photon torpedoed seemingly by Enterprise and Gorkon is assassinated. Kirk and McCoy are arrested for the murder by the Klingons and put on trial and sent to the penal colony of Rura Penthe. Meanwhile Spock uncovers the truth - a cloaked Bird Of Prey (Klingon) torpedoed the Chancellors ship while still cloaked. Kirk and McCoy escape Rura Penthe with help from a shape shifter and a viridium patch and charge off to the new peace conference. Unfortunately the prototype Bird of Prey attacks them but Excelsior under the command of Captain Sulu appears and with the help of a plasma-seeking torpedo the two starships destroy the Klingon vessel. Kirk and co. beam down to save the UFP presidents life and the peace conference (as well as the day and civilisation as we know it - no prosecutions either). Personally I like this movie even though many don't. Most people that don't like it say that it is not really Star Trek and that the crew are all out of character. I agree with this to a point but I feel that the ideas for the emotions of the crew are good but they were taken too far such as the scene where Jim says "Let them die!" and Scotty says "I bet that Klingon Bitch killed her own father!". It is the best of the movies but falls behind ST IV and V as Star Trek episodes. A couple of things bugged me when I bought the CDVideo of ST6. Firstly was that the case and inlay had Philips CDi written all over it. This I have learned to ignore. Also the movie is not in widescreen which is surprising considering Philips make the only widescreen television on the market. However, the playback picture quality is excellent compared with VHS with only the odd glitch or pixelisation of the screen (mostly due to exterior vibrations than anything else). Of course this is due to the digital nature of the storage. Also due to this the sound is brilliant and I cannot fault it as it is in full stereo (and I would very much like the chance to test it out with a Dolby Pro Logic decoder!). With perfect freeze frame and slow motion and instant access to parts of the movie the experience is further enhanced. At the price of £14.99 or £15.99, depending on where you buy it, this movie is really good value and I cannot recommend it enough especially over standard VHS. Test view it today! Also soon out on CDVideo are Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the question is which cut, as well as the Deep Space Nine pilot "Emissary". Rumblings from Paramount/CIC/Philips suggest that all of the Star Trek movies to date will be available on CDVideo by Christmas and rumours about boxed sets of whole seasons of Star Trek on CDVideo are growing. I'm putting my order for TNG season 5 in NOW! (Update - I have spoken to Terry Shuttleworth from CIC Video who is responsible for all their Star Trek releases and he informed me, Simon, that they currently have no plans for any CDVideo releases. However, if the format settles down, they may do so in the future. Remember though, that Trek VI wasn't released by CIC, so things still look hopeful - Ed)