Skip to content
Philips CD-i
EntityQ1023103· pop 28· linked from 544 articles

Philips CD-i

Sign in to save

Also known as Compact Disc Interactive, CD-I, CDI, CD-i, Philips Compact Disc Interactive

The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format as well as a hardware platform, co-developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips and Japanese company Sony. It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the Green Book specifications, co-developed by Philips and Sony, to combine audio, text and graphics. The two companies initially expected to impact the education/training, point of sale, and home entertainment industries, but the CD-i is largely remembered today for its video games.

Key facts

Storage medium.name
Compact Disc-Interactive
Storage medium.logo
class=skin-invert|150px
Storage medium.image
CD-i-910-Console-Set.jpg
Storage medium.caption
Philips CDI 910, the first consumer-oriented CD-i player, pictured with its "Touchpad" game controller
Storage medium.type
Optical disc
Storage medium.encoding
Various
Storage medium.capacity
Up to
Storage medium.standard
Green Book
Storage medium.owner
Philips, Sony
Storage medium.use
Audio, video and data storage
Storage medium.extended from
Compact disc
Information appliance.name
Philips CD-i (200-700 series)
Information appliance.logo
CD-i logo.png
Information appliance.image
Philips-CDi-220-wController-FL.jpg
Information appliance.type
Home video game consoleMedia player
Information appliance.generation
Fourth
Information appliance.discontinued
1998
Information appliance.media
CD-i, Audio CD, CD+G, Karaoke CD, Video CD

via Wikipedia infobox

~27 min read

Encyclopedic overview

14 sections
Contents
  • Specifications
  • Commercial software
  • Player models
  • Philips models
  • Other manufacturers
  • Hardware specifications
  • TeleCD-i and CD-MATICS
  • CD-Online
  • Reception and market performance
  • Sales
  • Legacy
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format as well as a hardware platform, co-developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips and Japanese company Sony. It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the Green Book specifications, co-developed by Philips and Sony, to combine audio, text and graphics. The two companies initially expected to impact the education/training, point of sale, and home entertainment industries, but the CD-i is largely remembered today for its video games.

CD-i media physically have the same dimensions as CD, but with up to of digital data storage, including up to 72 minutes of full motion video. CD-i players were usually standalone boxes that connect to a standard television; some less common setups included integrated CD-i television sets and expansion modules for personal computers. Most players were created by Philips; the format was licensed by Philips and Microware for use by other manufacturers, notably Sony who released professional CD-i players under the "Intelligent Discman" brand. Unlike CD-ROM drives, CD-i players are complete computer systems centered around dedicated Motorola 68000-based microprocessors and its own operating system called CD-RTOS, which is an acronym for "Compact disc – Real Time Operating System".

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Philips CD-i” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (20)