|
CD-i Related Technologies: Photo-CD players On this page, you will find a complete overview of all Photo-CD players that have ever been sold. Only devices which only TV-based function was to display Photo-CD images are listed here, not any other game- or multimedia devices capable of playing Photo-CDs. Kodak PCD 250 / PCD 260 Kodak PCD 850 / PCD 860 Kodak PCD 5850 / PCD 5860 Kodak PCD 880 Kodak PCD 960 / PCD N2000 Philips CDF 100 Philips CDF 200 Apple PowerCD |
|
Next to these stand-alone Photo-CD players from Kodak, Philips and Apple, several other devices are able to play Photo-CDs on TV. Of course there's CD-i, whose Photo-CD features are covered in full detail in the FAQ. Another device that was capable to display Photo-CDs by default was the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, sold by Panasonic among others. It had very cool screen animations when zooming in at a picture (see MPEG video, 3262 KB) or flipping it from side to side, but it lacked all of CD-i's programming features and the ability to show a thumbnail index of all pictures on a disc. The Sega Saturn could be expanded with an MPEG1 video cartridge which also enabled it to play Photo-CDs. Photo-CD links |
|
|
The PCD 250 (US) or PCD 260 (Europe) was the Kodak basic model. They were not capable to pan the picture around the screen, nor could they zoom in on a picture. The player only had 2 KB of storage space for favourite picture selections. It was build by Philips.
The PCD 850 (US) or PCD 860 (Europe) was the Kodak standard player. In addition to the PCD 250/260 it provided 0.5x full picture view, 1x view with panning and 2x zoom mode. The player had 8 KB of storage space for favourite picture selections. It was build by Philips.
The PCD 5850 (US) or PCD 5860 (Europe) was identical to the PCD 850/860, except for the 5 disc carousel changer. The player could display pictures in a random or programmed order from any of up to five discs that could be loaded at once. Furthermore it was the only player with an advanced on-screen display. Build by Philips.
The PCD 880 was a transportable Photo-CD / CD-Audio player. It could be connected to the mains using an AC/DC adapter, alternatively it could be loaded with 6 AA-batteries. It's features were comparable to those of the PCD 850/860, including a remote control. The player's design was almost identical to Philips' 
The PCD 960 (Europe) or PCD N2000 (US) is a truly portable Photo-CD player. The player, which was not build by Philips, was based on an entirely different PCB than the other players. One of the major differences was the player's ability to play ADPCM encoded audio, which could be interleaved trough the picture data, so that it was able to deliver uninterrupted sound while displaying new pictures. Unfortunately, almost no pre-pressed Photo-CD Portfolio disc uses ADPCM technology. The PCD N2000 is still being 
The CDF 100 was a transportable Photo-CD / CD-Audio player. It could be connected to the mains using an AC/DC adapter, alternatively it could be loaded with 6 AA-batteries. It was packed with all of the standard Photo-CD features, like tele zoom and 8 KB storage space. Philips also used the design of the CDF 100 for Kodak's 
The CDF 200 was Philips' top-class Photo-CD player. It contained all of the standard Photo-CD features, similar to the ones found in Kodak's PCD 850/860. The player was designed to be in accordance with the 900-series, Philips top-line audio series at that time.
The design of Apple's PowerCD was almost identical to Philips'