Specifications
CD-i FAQ 2000 Edition Revised February 21, 2001
Latest version and more CD-i info: http://www.icdia.org
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turned of or unplugged from the mains. NV-RAM can be used by an application to store high
scores from games, personal presets, Favourite Track selections for Audio-CDs, Favourite
Picture Selections for Photo-CDs, prefered language settings, etc. NV-RAM is also used by the
system to store the CSD (see: 3.10 What is the CSD?)
Although 8 KB is the minimum storage space, some CD-i players have 4 times that capacity,
resulting is 32 KB. Refer to the Comparison table of all Philips CD-i players at www.icdia.org
to see how much NV-RAM space a particular player has. Files are stored using standard OS-9
filenames of up to 28 characters in lenght with upper and lower case letters. When player
memory is full, the application may provide a way to erase certain items. Maintenace of items in
NV-RAM can always be taken care of by selecting Memory or Storage from the player's startup
shell.
4.8.1 I cannot delete items from my CD-i player's memory, why?
You are probably suffering from the CD-i broken NV-RAM issue. Please refer to the article in the
CD-i Articles section at www.icdia.org for more information on how to solve this problem.
4.9 What pointing devices can be connected to a CD-i player?
The Green Book defines that every CD-i system should be able to control the cursor on screen
using an X/Y control device, including two action buttons. It is not specified in what way this
should be taken care of, or how pointing device should be connected or interfaced to a player.
However, Philips defined a connector type and interface format for pointing devices that is used
on all Philips CD-i players, even the ones with a bundled Infra Red remote control (except the
early CDI 180), and most CD-i players from other manufacturers (LG, Grundig, Memorex, DVS,
etc.). This connection type is not part of the Green Book, but just a recommendation from Philips.
Note that the Infra Red remote control does not use this pointing device connector or interface, it
is completely player dependend (see: 4.9.2 What is the difference between RC5 and RC6?)
All kinds of pointing devices were available. Among them were mice, trackerballs, kids Roller
Controllers, game pads, touch pads, touchscreens, wired joypads and even a game laser gun.
For a complete overview of all available pointing devices inlcuding a picture, please refer to the
Philips CD-i Pointing Devices overview at www.icdia.org.
4.9.1 How many ports for pointing devices does a player have?
All Philips CD-i players provide at least one input port for pointing devices. Some players have an
RS-232 port at the back that can also be used to connect a pointing device (CDI 910, CDI 205,
early versions of CDI 210, early versions of CDI 220, among others). A few players provide two
ports for input devices alongside this RS-232 port (CDI 740, CDI 615, CDI 660, CDI 670). All
other players have either only one input port, or one input port and an RS-232 connector that can
not be used for pointing devices. In this case, a port splitter should be used to connect two
pointing devices to use for example in multi-player games (except the portable players CDI 310,
CDI 350 and CDI 360). To make things even more complicated: this port splitter can not be used
on players that already have to input ports for pointing devices. Refer to the colum I/O in the
Comparison table of all Philips CD-i players at www.icdia.org to see how pointing devices can
be connected to a particular player.
4.9.2 What's the difference between RC5 and RC6?
Most Philips CD-i playes (except the CDI 450, CDI 550 and the CD-i/Hifi combination FW380i)
provided an IR receiver for the usage of a wireless controller to point the on screen cursor and
select options. The first batch of players used the Enhanced RC5 system and were bundled with
the Thumbstick, a remote control with a small thumb-controlled joystick on it. Later models used
RC6 and were bundled with the CD-i Commander, a stylish remote that allowed for pressure