Knew someone close to it's design at Philips in Eindhoven. Then one day around 1995 it was all over and the world switched to DVDs. There was nothing wrong with CDi but it's so difficult to market one system when others are promoting theirs. Also the case with Video2000 & Philips DCC.
Used to gaze at it in Comet, and read about it in magazines. The interactive “choose your own ending” movies seemed other-worldly at a time when gaming was at a 16bit peak.
Or change the camera angle on The Cure's live concert CDi. The Cure were signed to Philips own record label Polydor then. Philips had a good record in innovation but currently most household products are made by licensees, leaving the field to the likes of Sony etc.
That’s fantastic, I never knew that. I can’t imagine Robert Smith being much of a tech early-adopter even then. I was an Amiga 600 user at the time and the CD32 was the other device I had my eye on - but it never had the movie playing appeal.
Don't think The Cure had much input in it then. Within 5 years Philips had the first DVD recorder in the shops at an eyewatering £1200, soon tumbling down. Again that didn't really take off either. Not all is lost however, the first air fryer was a Philips one, around 2010
I was an HD-DVD user too. Have never owned a Blu-ray player. Spent £50 on an HD-DVD box set, Attenborough’s Planet Earth as my first and last ever HD-DVD!
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