compression. MPEG-1 is the accepted standard for video compression on CDs... It uses a
variety of techniques to achieve staggering compression ratios while still maintaining good
picture quality. Other parts of the MPEG standard include synchronized digital audio to
make the format useful for movies on CD-ROM. MPEG-2 isn't used on CDs but it looks
even better. (Note: MPEG-2 is the format used on modern day movie DVDs which
CANNOT be played by the CD32, even with the FMV card.)
NTSC
The television standard used in America. NTSC screens cannot be as deep PAL screens.
This can lead to problems when some software written in PAL countries is run on a CD32
using a NTSC screen. The software may use the bottom section of the screen that NTSC
owners cannot see. This is entirely the fault of software companies, there are enough ROM
routines in the CD32 to tell the program what TV standard it is running under and the
program should make allowances.
PAL
The television standard used in most of Europe and Australia.
Parnet/Sernet
Freely distributable networking solutions for Amigas. Uses the parallel ports (Parnet) or
serial ports (Sernet) to allow one to mount drives on multiple machines. In this way the
CD32 can access the keyboard and hard drives of another Amiga, and the Amiga can access
the CD32's CD drive. CDTV was often used as an external CD drive for Amiga computers
via Parnet. A version of Parnet is now available for PC computers, allowing you to link
from CD32 to PC.
ParNFS
An Amiga only update to Parnet. This new version is faster and has some bug fixes.
Paula
Gives you four channel stereo sound. Each channel can have 64 volume levels and can play
either waveforms or sound samples at almost any pitch or octave from RAM. This chip is
used to create sound effects, or play music from memory often when the CD-ROM is tied up
for some reason (a CD-ROM cannot be used to load game code AND play CD music at the
same time).
Photo CD
Transfering pictures taken from a camera onto CD. These can be read by the CD32 if you
can find a CD-ROM with a photo CD reader on it, use it as a slave drive, or expand it to a
computer and download the proper (freely distributable) software. The Communicator is
bundled with a Photo CD reader called Photolite - this is available seperately too. Also
Weird Science's Network CD has a Photo CD reader on it.
RAD
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