CDTV Repairs - Commodore Amiga CDTV Trash to Treasure (pt2)

[@coreykirkpatrick4392]

@RMC - The Cave - Neil, the sharpest dressed retro channel host in the scene.

[@eadweard.]

Yeah but techmoan can be quite steezy now and again.

[@Mattfromthepast]

He looks like a shady guy who would get nicked on The Sweeney.

[@coreykirkpatrick4392]

Wow, taking a compliment and spinning it into another direction.

[@Mattfromthepast]

@@coreykirkpatrick4392 hey, that is one of my favorite shows and he looks like he could be in it.

[@P5ychoFox]

Mark needs to rename his channel to Mark Fixes Neil’s Stuff.

[@RMCRetro]

I'm ok with this 😁

[@thepumpkingking8339]

@@RMCRetro But who was the Hairy Gorilla ;-) we saw.

[@prairiegnome4618]

@@RMCRetro You guys just discovered a new feature that KZbin needs... the ability for two creators to embed each other's content. Would have been great if there was a "Mark fixes stuff" episode embedded in this video, and that Mark gets recognition for the views.

[@narkeddiver7325]

Maybe just Mark Fixes Neil ;)

[@leelangley3705]

I have this situation....I buy something, capacitors need replacing, realise I have hands like a boiled ham, phone my friend that works for Qualcomm ....pay him in beer...done

[@bozimmerman]

My favorite part is where his frustration is expressed in the amount of Tea he had to drink. Maximum British Achieved! :)

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks to everyone for watching this CDTV series I hope it helped some of you with your own repairs! I've received concerns about the credentials of a person who appeared in this video for an interview. On balance I've also been advised of an ongoing police investigation into a campaign of abuse against them. This now presents two possible outcomes, misinformation, or amplification of abuse. As a result I've snipped the interview out and we can enjoy the rest of the video. Thanks everyone! Neil (Thanks viewer NibblePibbly for reminding me of this vid today!)

[@richardbertouche]

"little hotel in Buxton" !!!! My home town. I was probably at home on my C64 as they were brainstorming CDTV ideas down the road! :-)

[@Johnnyafc]

Great series looking forward to the 3rd Mark looking like an open university teacher from the 70's on BBC 2 - great guy too

[@MrDuncl]

Grollier Encyclopaedia brings back memories. In the 1990s every retail PC CDROM drive seemed to come with a copy of that.

[@retrorunner79]

The closest I got to a CDTV was the free t-shirt I got with my Amiga 500 back in 91. Wore it to a rag. Absolutely top quality content as always.

[@saintuk70]

Coffee and a RMC video between meetings, quality downtime :)

[@RMCRetro]

All meetings are cancelled

[@Xorius]

Went straight from the end of our department meeting at the end of the day and into RMC. Life is good.

[@valley_robot]

my CDTV was stolen in a burglary in the 90s, still, miss it, I used its midi and a cheap sampler to create music, all my disks were found scattered across a field near my house, i lost all my music in the English rain

[@salvatorevetro1743]

As an amateur musician, I'm very sorry for this. I see why you remember such a bad thing still 30 years later.

[@valley_robot]

@@salvatorevetro1743 thank you my friend, kind words

[@martinh4982]

No re-capping montage? I feel cheated! *shakes fist*

[@RMCRetro]

Sorry Martin!

[@anotheruser9876]

Here's the recap: desoldering gun heated up, old cap removed, holes cleaned, new cap inserted and soldered, leads trimmed.

[@kildogery]

That's what we're all here for. All that building the museum, research and high production values, business is all very well, but I'm really here for the re-capping.

[@ChocoHearts]

@@anotheruser9876 that's a good recap recap, thank you 👍

[@milk-it]

Thanks for the great video, Neil. Your amalgamation of interview with repair is great. I know repair is an arduous task, but your attention to detail and patience pay off to produce great advice and content. Please do more of these videos!

[@glenlambert452]

Love the in depth multi-episode CDTV restoration series. Never tire of the CDTV.

[@bobbobson4069]

What another fascinating video!!! I enjoyed every second of it. RMC should have a million subscribers by now, judging on the production and narrative quality of the videos. Keep up the good work! Marius (from Warsaw)

[@RichRap3D]

Nice work Neil and Mark. Adding these interview segments makes the trash to treasure so much more of a journey into the product, market and story behind the company and machine design. Very much enjoyed the capacitor diagnosis and repairs, that section could have easily been longer and explained even more about how to spot and track down components that have failed due to time and/or operational conditions. CDTV2? - I'm really looking forward to part 3.

[@MorganJustGames]

Great to see its working now. Well done Neil and Mark for your work. Brilliant work

[@bloxyman22]

Had the same exact issue with mine when I tested it. Noticed like you that it would only spin when hitting eject button. So hit the eject button partly a few times to trigger the spin and then eventually it just worked and seems so far now to be perfectly reliable with both audio cds and the games I have tried so far. I am happy I did not have to open the whole thing up as this looks like a pain. I think in mine case something was gummed up in there or that disc did not correctly go in.

[@JestersDeadUK]

Great vid - I remember getting a naff black CDTV shirt (either in the mail or in the Screen Gems box, can’t remember!) and thinking ohhhhhhhhhh when I saw the machine in (then) Dixon’s... so goddam expensive though!!! - ahhh, those where the days!

[@MacMelmac]

Ooohh! Microprose was always creating my favourite games!

[@brufnus]

My CDTV CD-ROM drive started doing the exact same thing not so long ago; I find it highly likely that the capacitors are the reason in my case, too. Luckily, I've just added a SCSI controller and I'm finally able to boot off a hard drive after nearly 30 years of ownership (!) - but I'd appreciate getting the CD-ROM drive functioning again, of course. There's a project for the upcoming winter! :-D

[@reggiebenes2916]

CDTV's aesthetics please me greatly

[@IntrinsicPalomides]

Aesthetically it still looks great imo and wouldn't look out of place in todays home.

[@vic20kid8]

Fantastic I have a chance to fix my Commodore CDTV with the same fault, Thankyou Neil

[@technickuk]

Really like your screw trays where you can write in them what screws are being stored. I just create ransom piles of them around my desk and then just rely on memory as to which pile is which, which is not so fail-safe.

[@RMCRetro]

There are the caps of poster tubes! Very handy

[@mspeter97]

Another fun fact about CD Caddies, the most recent use of caddies to protect cds was for one of Vtech's kid friendly consoles. It was the V-Smile Pro iirc. Imagine something that ran games that look like PS1 games but with proper Z-buffering and perspective correct texture (or a less powerful dreamcast then) that used disc for games. They were in caddies because kids can break discs apparently

[@patrickmoore1492]

Really love this t2t for some reason. It might be due to all the issues you came across. Whenever I disassemble anything there are plenty of “just walk away before you damage it” moments! 🤣

[@ArcadeEurope]

I remember seeing this in a chips games store and being amazed by the demos that was playing.

[@TheBasementChannel]

I remember seeing one of these in the local computer store. The remote blew my mind.

[@gregmoxham2120]

Absolutely first class job on fixing that CD ROM drive guys! I can remember seeing the sleek beastie on display at the time, but never knew anyone that had one

[@UpLateGeek]

I'm enjoying seeing the interviews mixed in with the repairs. Gives an extra dimension to the systems, and it's interesting to hear stories from people who were involved in the development of the systems and software at the time. Hope to see more interviews in these series in the future!

[@paulb4uk]

Top work Neil and mark this is the first real teardown and drive fix i have seen scary part at some point it would make sense to do my own cdtv using genuine panasonic caps from cpc or a trusted retailer .these older lasers are often far better quality as they have glass lenses .Ibout a 1987 hitachi boombox with a faulty cd player i went on aliexpress bought a laser one of the more expensive chinese replacements went to fit it and found the fault instantly for some reason connector was part out of the socket pushing it back in was all that was required to get it working i learnt a lesson about buying parts that day without opening an item up it never spuna disc so just assumed laser had died .

[@A3rgan]

If it kickstarts like an Amiga, leaks like an Amiga and PLCC-84 crumbles like an Amiga; it's an Amiga :D Great work to both of you and great to hear more from the history of the unit! Just did mine the other evening to find the 0.47uF's primarily had failed on the drive but mine was August 91 rather than January and a later BOM than your unit. I did degrease and apply new pure lithium grease too. Luckily only one screw had jammed on the mainboard itself (centre one) rather than the optical drive but I had been in there previously to resolve the mechanical loading & PSU issue a few years back. I did find my Agnus socket (PLCC-84) had warped and bowed in on itself which is why I had to take mine apart as it would start booting to a black screen; something to look out for and I would highly recommend replacing it for a modern socket as all of mine have gone on three boards now. The plastic becomes brittle, flexes and warps. Something else to note is that RGBS is not output if the video output board is not present or inserted correctly.

[@iangough3062]

My CdTv was modded to include a switch that turned it into an amiga a500 with the external drive being the bootable Df0: , Lovely lil machine & the 17 Bit Compendiums' as well as Fred Fish & Lsd series of cd`s were a public domains lovers dream.

[@RMCRetro]

This is a popular mod as disabling the extended ROMs releases about 100kb of RAM, that made some software unusable if it wasn't available

[@Phoenix_1982_MD]

Great video as ever guys. You got me hooked... Normally i tend to skip some videos on KZbin, even on subscribed channels when i lack of interest on a specific topic or ona hardware I never had or payed attention to, but RMC isn't getting skipped! Such a great host and show. Really love it. Wish you all the best, Neil and Mark!

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you!

[@Hairy_Lee]

Always been a fan of 90's VCR aesthetic, especially anything with a VFD :)

[@MechWizzard]

The CD-ROM interface is probably a modified Shugart bus interface, not quite IDE not quite SCSI either.

[@paulb4uk]

looks like ide but is not i did wonder if the drive in the a570 cd rom was a similar drive or laser unit i see it is a panasonic drive now its dismantled .

[@kek23k]

I've got one with this exact same problem, I was pretty sure it needed a drive recap. Good to see it fixed the issue here :)

[@nickwallette6201]

It’s _always_ the caps.

[@neophytealpha]

Caddies help keeps discs from getting scratched.

[@ewhac]

5:18: My memory of things: Commodore had negotiated with Matsushita to develop CDTV's CD-ROM drive. This is pre-MPC so, while CD music players were pretty common, CD-ROM drives weren't commodified yet; this was a one-off. I should dig my CDTV out of the basement and see if it's still working...

[@Gadgetman1989]

I had the game for the CD-I chaos control but played it on a classic pc I think was a micron millennia m series, really love the video guy to highlight the tech of my childhood :) ty

[@tfksworldoflinux]

Do I have space for it? No. Do I have a use for it? No. Would I want one? YES!

[@RMCRetro]

You're in the right place😁

[@FatNorthernBigot]

This does stretch the word "treasure" in the phrase "trash to treasure" to its absolute limit 😂

[@RMCRetro]

Ah be nice to the poor CDTV Andrew :D

[@daftbugger2011]

Back when I was a wee boy I desperately wanted one of these, then a CD32. Still haven't managed...

[@FatNorthernBigot]

@@slightlyevolved Ultimately, a console is only as good as it's games.

[@MrDuncl]

I think the car equivalent to machines like this would be something like an MG GT. Fairly common back in the day but now something to be treasured.

[@kev7345]

i remember working in my local computer shop as an apprentice when the boss brought one of these things in and i was thinking about how aesthetically awesome it looked kind of like the 'Amstrad' effect.. like some sort of high end piece of HiFi kit that would look great amongst my separates that i had at the time .. all i wanted to do was mess around with it whenever i got the opportunity ... however, it only took about 2 lunch breaks worth of gameplay to realise its crippling limitations ... to my knowledge we sold a grand total of 2 in 6 months, one of which we practically gave away as we were sick of the sight of the thing

[@zdebel]

Thanks mate for another great production!

[@JakeBirkett]

Lol, my firsts were clenched in tension when Neil was trying to get those screws out.

[@chrispybee]

That’s splash screen takes me back when I had the CDTV add-on for the Amiga A500

[@Nianfur]

I actually have one of the original CDTV display shelves. Nice unit, good for a console gaming setup.

[@DominicClifton]

Great diagnosis on the CD drive. Handy to know about when mine starts suffering.

[@mattcole6230]

Brilliant episode and looking forward to part 3.

[@weehappypixie]

Great teardown Neil. I worked for a service center for a large electrical retailer in Scotland called Clydesdale when the CDTV was released. Commodore really did not want the CDTV to be sold as a computer or have any link to the Amiga. They went as far as mandating that the CDTV was never located at the same area as the Amiga or other computers/game systems. It was way ahead of its time but way too expensive for what it was. Reliability wise, the first batch had issues with the drives and the display. Good Times.

[@Spillerrec]

These Trash to Treasure videos continue to be excellent, easily some of my favorite retro content on KZbin. You even have some short interviews now, is that perhaps a side effect of the Retro Tea Break videos giving you experience in getting into contact and setting up interviews with relevant people?

[@ItsCrapContent]

It feels like I've waited for ages for this .....so interested in all this

[@ZenEmu01]

The fist time I saw a CDTV was at one of our regular copy parties. Picture thirty or so Amiga's (mostly 500's) set up in a church hall and probably 60 or 70 acne ridden teenagers (and the accompanying smell) furiously running xcopy with boxes of disks everywhere. One day someone brought in what I suspect was their dads CDTV and we were mesmerised by it for about an hour or two. I don't think I ever saw one again. I did manage to get a box of CDTV software for my CD32 later on at a car boot sale though for a couple of pounds. Sim City was great.

[@AcornElectron]

Sweet! Classic underrated machine.

[@CrazyTechReviews]

Nice video Neal! That is one really interesting system and I'm glad you got it working! This is actually my first time hearing of this machine so it was pretty interesting to see one here.

[@g.h.c855]

"just walk away Neil, before you damage it" ah ; I suspect the actual version of that had less words with only one or two having more than four letters.

[@nickwallette6201]

Ah, see, my reaction is more like: “CHHAARRRGGE!” Followed by a good reason to learn where to have flat flex ribbon cables made.

[@gordoncreAtive]

The studio & lighting looks really nice now :)

[@IDPhotoMan]

There's no way you put it all back together before testing that motor assembly.... ;-) Great video

[@digiowl9599]

First of all, lovely labeling on the segments there (joystick time indeed). Second, the ATAPI protocol that runs IDE CD-ROMs are supposedly SCSI over IDE. So yeah, kitbashing was the order of the day.

[@xistic1]

For those scary hard to remove screws you might consider getting an impact driver. It's designed for exactly that kind of problem.

[@a_walk_down_memory_lane]

great episode as always. i especially like the triphop sound background used during the repair parts. :-)

[@Pracedru]

Thumbed it up as soon as it started. What a great way to spend 21 minutes this evening.

[@TheAzasel]

I have to test this solution for my cd-tv drive, literaly the same symptoms.

[@10MARC]

I remember being interested in the CDTV back in the day, but in no way could I justify the price. I ended up getting the A570 CD-ROM on a closeout sale for around $100 or so. Hardly ever used it, as I had already moved on to the A3000

[@Monkey_SK]

Three capacitors were giving out a reading of 40 'Oh you cheeky little buggers'

[@wetheindividual11]

Love it a Top secret meeting in Buxton. 😄

[@loganjorgensen]

Right, a classroom would definitely be a CD caddy environment. ;) I like that ribbon cable lock even though it's not perfect, good try. 3:39 That is nice the whole smaller AV board module, not just space but also possible upgrades as the usefulness of each video standard wains Ie. RF and Composite forever, no. Sound expansion was definitely a great idea, Karaoke and beyond. Yeah CD tech was new so weird work arounds to connect. Fair enough on not making it a game machine because Commodore had that already, but in contrast Philips didn't have game machines so the whole smart TV angle was largely all they had for the CD-i. It was hard making the idea real back then since you essentially had a niche product next to a bunch of other expensive but sexier home electronics playing music and movies in high fidelity. Regardless they did a great job on the software side of things, not easy doing a book on a SDTV. And yeah Amiga CDTV, much shorter and modern sounding at that time. ;) Looks hard to repair that tag-teaming the work might be the best strategy heh.

[@a1exh]

It is interesting that games like Guitar Hero were not invented for this platform (or later CD based platforms). Even the Sunfly CD&G Karaoke angle wasn't pushed. You'd be amazed how many CDTVs were bought by DJs for Karaoke parties as they were cheaper than other CD&G systems.

[@Colin_Ames]

Very enjoyable, as always.

[@AntonyTCurtis]

About the only game I played on the CDTV back in the day was the Sherlock Holmes Hound of the Baskervilles.

[@XMaximvsPayneX]

thank you so much for your great amiga-videos - the pandemic is less boring with your entertaining stuff :-)

[@Tedd755]

5:45 I learnt a trick from working in the aircraft industry to help with seized screws, especially phillips: valve grinding paste. It's a greasy/oily substance with grit in it (can get a few different grades of grit, but for this application I don't think it matters). I got a jar that looks like this free from work: www.josco.com.au/product/coarse-oil-mix-valve-grinding-paste/ Dab the tip of the screwdriver in it (Only need a minute amount to cover the contacting surfaces), then hose off with contact cleaner after. I've had my jar for 13 years and used what looks like none of it (mine's smaller than the linked picture, maybe only 100g). Being oil-based it has never gone off, too. It's perfect for making sure the screwdriver/bit doesn't round out the screw head. Still need a good solution for more torque though!

[@danielson9579]

A cdtv with aga chip set would be cool 😊

[@Vanders456]

The CD32?

[@jameslewis2635]

Customers sitting 20 feet away from the screen? How big did Commodore think the average living room is?

[@CrimsonSanX]

I have no idea what Commodore were considering their main market but if they were trying to get the US with this I can sorta understand. There was definitely a movement in the early to mid 90s to design more country style open living rooms with high ceilings. Couches about fifteen feet away from these giant big screen 40" CRT TVs. Most of those houses these days were remodeled to split those rooms up into more reasonable spaces but I definitely remember that being the rage on home improvement shows at the time.

[@mikewillis1592]

20ft is only 6m or so so quite reasonable I would have thought. Especially in places other than the UK where living rooms are more reasonably sized.

[@jameslewis2635]

@@mikewillis1592 My living room is about 3m across and not considerably smaller than any other houses I have been in with the exception of the very wealthy.

[@gmirwin]

Maybe if the tv was in a corner going to the opposite corner. *Shrugs*

[@backacheache]

It could play karaoke discs, it's a format called cd+g that plays like as a normal CD but on a compatable player will show graphics and text

[@londongaz2]

It really is a smart looking device!

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

In before 15th comment! So that's how those catty CD drives worked very cool [I've never actually seen the insides of one]

[@RMCRetro]

Nicely done

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

@@RMCRetro Thx 👍

[@gearsofgames]

Really interesting series, good work! Looking forward to the next episode!

[@ralfr.5974]

Great Video👍

[@tbthegr81]

@5:55 You might wanna get yourself a manual impact driver, its like a thick screwdriver with bits that ya hit with a hammer while holding. Hitting it will force it into the screwhead and also use a internal cam to turn the bit. It usually stops ya from stripping the screwhead by putting as much force down as it does turning. Compared to something electrical ya have a bit more control over how much power is being used and ya can step up your hammering bit by bit.

[@fasih_rehman]

I have the same t-shirt as Mark!

[@Jimfowler82]

Hmm might make a ir controller for cdtv wonder if that’s worth a go? Slightly more updated style pad

[@KevinJones-bt7ib]

Looking at all them parts layed out, I'm just thinking omg I gotta put all this stuff back together ha ha

[@simonj48]

Interesting. I was wondering why I never had a remote with mine. I had the black keyboard, mouse and floppy drive though. The cd caddy was beige as well, not black.

Great series, as always! Btw, missing link at 0:14, hehe.

[@RMCRetro]

Oops thank you

[@MacMelmac]

6.55 starting to move cups. Hey, let's do it again at 7.13! 😄

[@jim7205]

Brilliant great video

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Jim

[@cbmsysmobile]

Have you tried cold freeze on stubborn screws? Pipe freezer/Super Crack Ultra/Freeze and Release etc

[@savagemadman2054]

The computers in my elementary school (68k Macintoshes) all used caddies - every CD had its own caddy and was never removed. My own first CD ROM also used caddies - it was a 2x speed NEC external SCSI part with an LCD on the front - but I only had a single caddy and swapped out the disc, it was really annoying.

[@barbarosbozkurt758]

AVGN video was cool

[@SumeaBizarro]

Give me a drink Smiga Dweller

[@beetooex]

Oh lovely!

[@MrDDawson]

Dude has to change his channel name to Mark always fixes... he always wins. Nice save guys.

[@preferredimage]

3:10 Arrgh! like QL microdrive cables!

[@dreamvisionary]

Mark fixed stuff!

[@SullySadface]

You should chat up GameHut! He's a former Traveller's Tales dev, did work on a few games I've played.

[@NibblePibbly]

Neil, Is there any reason why the Whittaker parts of your interview haven't been discredited as containing lies?

[@RMCRetro]

Hi Nibble, happy to look into this and update if that’s the case. I looked into this a year or so ago when someone else raised it and I left it then as on the one hand I was advised of a sustained campaign of abuse and a police investigation, and on the other was a claim of misinformation but no specific claim as to what part was untrue. I heard nothing more but if more info has come to light then please let me know. I'll give some thought to the best course of action. Thank you!

[@GeVeBeGaming]

Always entertaining for us old 'gaming' farts,keep it up :-)

[@TerribleFire]

That CDTV looks "filthy" :) Great video. Not a fan of those machines. Like an old VCR

[@ukSMP74]

Neil, Mark.... any chance you can help with my CDTV? CD spins a very little, but no reading.. I`ve recapped the CD board - still the same. Also my IR rx does not work - even with a new one and new mobo-front panel cable kit