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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differences to speed up or slow down the movement of the cursor. A few players accepted both
RC-formats. Refer to the Comparison table of all Philips CD-i players at www.icdia.org to see
which remote can be used. Please note that both Enhanced RC5 and RC6 are Philips-specific
developments, they are not part of the Green Book.
4.10 Can a keyboard be connected to a CD-i player?
Yes. Philips sold a keyboard for CD-i players called CD-i KeyControl. The keyboard could be
used to enter Favourite Track Selection names for CD-Audio discs in the player's startup shell, for
entering text in CD-i Internet applications and for searching in the Dutch encyclopedia and the
Dutch medical encyclopedia titles. I know of no other titles that supported the CD-i KeyControl.
CD-i developers please note: the CD-i KeyControl is not a terminal-style RS-232 keyboard, it
cannot be used for text input using for example MediaMogul!
4.11 Can a CD-i player be used for accessing the Internet?
Yes. A CD-i Internet connection kit was sold by Philips in the UK, The Netherlands and Belgium
as CD-Online, and in the US as Web-i. It consisted of a 14.4 Kbps modem with appropriate
connection cables, a CD-i disc and the subscription data for the service which was provided by
selected partners. The package allowed users to view web pages, browse trough newsgroups
and send and receive e-mails. On the CD-i discs were all required software, several video clips
that could be triggered from the CD-Online or Web-i homepages and some images from the most
popular web sites. In that way, the CD-i disc functioned as a cache for this information. But due to
the relatively slow CPU used in a CD-i player (an 68000 equivalent at 15 MHz), the decoding of
simple JPEG and GIF images took a very long time and when done they looked rather jerky on
the TV screen. Therefore, the CD-i Internet kit did not became popular among CD-i users. It was
impossible to speed up the decoding process due to CD-i internal bottlenecks, nor was it possible
to include a faster modem because it had to work with all excisting players, of which the first
models were equiped with a UART that could not handle speeds above 14.4 Kbps. All in all, the
CD-i Internet connection kit was a fun but not very usefull addition to the already extensive list of
possible usage opportunities of a CD-i player.
4.11.1 What was Tele-CD-i?
Tele-CD-i had nothing to do with the CD-i Internet connection kit. Tele-CD-i was aimed solely at
professional applications where the producer needed to access external data through a network
connection. For this, the Tele-CD-i assistant, a 2400 bps modem, was introduced. Tele-CD-i
could for example be used to send statistical information about the usage of a CD-i information
kiosk to the head offices, or to gather the latest price information from a central location. One of
the companies that used Tele-CD-i was Bose in its kiosk application about its Dolby Surround
products. The kiosk in a store could be controlled from a central location using the network
connection. Tele-CD-i was never sold as a consumer accesory.
4.12 Can a CD-i player read CD-Recordable (CD-R) or CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) discs?
Unlike some DVD-Video players, every CD-i player can read CD-Recordable discs with
compatible content (eg. CD-Audio, CD-i, Video-CD, Photo-CD, etc.). The player makes no
difference between regular pressed discs and CD-Recordable discs, there is no need for any
adaptation like on the PlayStation. Because CD-ReWritable was not yet available at the time
most CD-i players were introduced, they cannot read CD-RW discs. However, we found that the
CD-i players based on the CDM-9 optical drive unit (CDI 910, CDI 205, early versions of CDI 210,
early versions of CDI 220) were able to read CD-RW discs of good quality (we tested Philips-
branded discs to be succesfull, but other cheaper discs which failed). Please note that there is no
quarantee on this, just try some brands of discs if you want for some reason to play CD-RW discs
on a CD-i player.