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Does the video cartridge have a STV8438CV?

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 10:28 am
by AmigaFun
Hi all

Does anyone know if any of the CDi video cartridges have an STV8438CV ic inside it? If it will be in any of them I think it will be in the C-Cube chipset ones. Maybe the 22ER9141 ?

Thanks

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:39 pm
by cdifan
New to the forums, I see? The C-Cube suggestion has come before, but my information seems to disprove it.

According to my knowledge, the following DVC models were made by Philips:

22ER9143/00 AH00 - Gate Array 3 MPEG, ROM revision 1.0
22ER9143/00 AH01 - Gate Array 3 MPEG, ROM revision 1.x
22ER9143/00 AH02 - Gate Array 3 MPEG, ROM revision 2.x

22ER9141/00 AH03 - Gate Array 3 MPEG, ROM revision 3.x
22ER9141/20 AH00 - VMPEG, ROM revision 4.x

22ER9956/00 AH00 - VMPEG, ROM revision 5.x
22ER9956/20 AH00 - IMPEG, ROM revision 6.x

I have ROM dumps for all of these except the 9143/00 AH00 and samples or pictures for most of them, so I can categorically state that none of the later cartridges contain C-Cube hardware. Theoretically the 9143/00 AH00 could, since I have seen no ROM dump, sample or picture of it but I think that's unlikely given the ROM version numbering.

There is some confusion about the 22ER number of the earliest cartridges (9141 vs. 9143) but I think the table above has it right. They probably renumbered the pre-AH03 models to avoid market confusion as these models were never on the regular market.

So far all non-Philips players that I have seen use Philips DVC hardware/software, sometimes at different memory addresses.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:41 pm
by cdifan
Note: ICDIA lists the 22ER9143 as having C-Cube chipsets here, but that is not correct; we have opened one up.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:25 pm
by AmigaFun
cdifan wrote:Note: ICDIA lists the 22ER9143 as having C-Cube chipsets here, but that is not correct; we have opened one up.
Hi cdifan, thanks for the replies. What I am trying to do is repair a Commodore FMV card, and I need to replace the STV8438CV ic, but I am not so sure that I will be able to get one 'just like that'. So my theory was that I should look for kit of the same era, and the same kind of chipset (the C-Cube CL450) and hope that it contained the right ic that I could take out and fit into the FMV card I have.
But by the sounds of it then, none of the cards Philips produced then had the C-Cube? The 22ER9143 would have been a potential good chance being as it outputs analogue video to the CDi (according to all the info I found up to now) and thats how the Commodore FMV card works.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:00 pm
by cdifan
AmigaFun wrote:The 22ER9143 would have been a potential good chance being as it outputs analogue video to the CDi (according to all the info I found up to now) and thats how the Commodore FMV card works.
Yes it does, but the one sample we have been able to find doesn't contain anything labeled C-Cube. And it would be pretty hard to find one anyway, because these were never sold on the regular market but were only used for development.

Good luck finding a replacement!

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:43 pm
by AmigaFun
Thanks cdifan.
However, I may have a slight chance of finding the ic on a TV tuner card as well.
On a side note, is there a site similar to http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ but for CDi?

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:57 am
by proxy10
I'm also new to the forum. :lol: