Archaic Philips equipment birthday gift halp?

July 23, 2009 8:52 AM

Can you help me figure out exactly what these potential gifts are for an audiophile/electronophile friend? "Philips CDI player, preferably with a mpeg video cartridge" and/or "Philips DCC unit or deck, whichever it is called."

I have to ask anonymously because birthday boy is a MeFite!

Friend's birthday is coming up, and his girlfriend is trying to figure out what to get him. He mentioned to her that he was interested in these two pieces of equipment. She has no idea what they actually are, and neither do I. Googling shows that both the DCC and CDI machines were discontinued 10 years ago...I'm not sure why he'd want something like that, but he's a strange dude. Can the hive mind help?

Looking for exact models, pros/cons if there are multiple models, best places to buy...also insight as to why these would be interesting to someone in 2009!

posted by anonymous to technology (6 comments total)

Never owned or played with one myself, but the CD-i was a video game system from the early 90s. If he's a retro gamer or collector, that would be why he might want one.
posted by BiffSlamkovich at 8:59 AM on July 23

Wow, he is looking for museum pieces!

The CD-i player was basically a game system made by Philips. It was one of the first non-PC applications of the CD-ROM. With the digital video card, it could also play VCD movies. Here is one on eBay for $149. The CD-i Wikipedia article makes it sound like the 200-series players are the ones designed for home use, and the DVC option is the mpeg video decodr.

DCC was a digital replacement for analog compact cassettes. The players can play older analog cassettes and digital cassettes, and they can record in digital. I found two players for sale on eBay.
posted by mkb at 9:13 AM on July 23

Maybe he wants to play the worst Zelda games ever made?
posted by box at 9:16 AM on July 23

I have one of those CDi players. I bought it as a CD player from a discounter as they were being discontinued. I think one or two of my CDs actually came with some video content that could be played on it and one day when my wife was in the Phillips company store she picked up a couple of games for this thing. As I remember it was not a good gaming system, but I didn't have all the accessories. You do see them on eBay occasionally. I think they were fairly well built. I keep having CD players die on me and when they do I pull out this thing until I can get a new one with better fidelity.
posted by caddis at 9:41 AM on July 23

There's well over a dozen different CDi units, and the low-end ones shouldn't run to much more than $50 on eBay (second hand and unboxed). The portable 350/360/370 models with a built-in screen are much cooler though.
www.philipscdi.com offers a good introduction.
posted by anagrama at 11:23 AM on July 23

Okay well I just wanted to say thanks for everyone's help! This was my post, and the present was for darainwa. His girlfriend got him a CD-i player on eBay and he loves it! He was tickled that I asked MeFi and that y'all helped me out. Thanks MeFi!
posted by radioamy at 6:53 PM on August 4