Back in 1991, Commodore launched the CDXL video format with the launch of Amiga CDTV. In the autumn of 1993, Commodore launched the Amiga CD32 console with AGA support. So, what happened to the Amiga CDXL Video Player support after the demise of Commodore? AGABlaster happened!
AGABlaster is by far one of the best CDXL players for the Amiga. It is not just a CDXL Video Player, but it ads 24-bit colors and Stereo sound. It is the perfect addition to AmiTube that is the YouTube player for Classic Amiga.
AGABlaster runs any CDXL clips on any Amiga
The name of the player says AGABlaster but it does support playing CDXL video clips on 68000, 68020, 68060, and 68080. This CDXL player plays clips on both OCS and AGA. But that’s not all. AGABlaster also plays enhanced 24-bit color 8-bit Stereo CDXL files converted by using AGAconv. That tool is available for MorphOS and other operating systems running on hardware that can handle CDXL creations in these sizes much faster.
Here are the main Features of AGABlaster
- Lores, Hires, Superhires, AGA0 – AGA8, HAM8, HAM6, EHB
- 0-8 bitplanes, 0-256 colors (variable length video chunks)
- 8-bit mono/stereo sound (variable length audio chunks)
- 12 bit and 24-bit colors
- On AGA systems the border is set to black utilizing the AGA Border-blank hardware feature (this ensures that the border is black, even when color 0 is used in the video (since version 0.9.70))
- Tested and working on AmigaOS 3.0, AmigaOS 3.1, AmigaOS 3.1.4 and AmigaOS 3.2
If you run AGABlaster on an OCS/ECS system, it is recommended to use the additional option ‘FMODE=0’. Standard CDXL files should run similar to other CDXL video players on OCS/ECS systems. AGABlaster only supports standard CDXL files or AGABlaster specific extensions.
The FMODE=0 string must be added when playing CDXL clips on OCS and ECS Amigas. You can set it in the Prefs of AmiTube too.
Stereo CDXL clips with AGABlaster
AGABlaster can play the original CDXL format (see Current Limitations), but can also play custom variable-length CDXL frames. For example, frames can have a different number of bitplanes. The custom headers in each chunk contain all information necessary to display each frame (audio frequency, etc.), such that no additional command line parameters need to be provided. However, command-line arguments are available to set all parameters manually to play also original CDXL videos.
AGABlaster is capable of playing videos with 24 FPS, 320×256 Lores resolution, and 8-bit stereo sound at 22050 Hz directly from the disk. AGABlaster is designed to only require chip memory and to display videos in full screen on original Amiga hardware. Graphics cards are not supported at this moment. For that, you can use other CDXL players such as MultiView or CDXL Player.
So, as you can see. AGABlaster makes CDXL format modern. None of Classic Amiga computers are capable of playing MPEG1 videos in fullscreen without additional MPEG hardware. With AGABlaster you can get stunning videos on Amigas with 68030 or higher. Also, the AGABlaster CDXL player works nicely with any standard CDXL OCS and AGA formats. Which makes it the CDXL player for the Amiga at the moment.
You can check all settings and parameters that you can use with the player on the AGABlaster webpage. There you can also download the CDXL player.
Get AGABlaster and impress people. CDXL format might be old, but AGABlaster makes it shine.
