Bang & Olufsen created one of the most beautiful CD-i players that is integrated in the Beocenter AV5, a set that combines stereo speakers with a seperate amplifier to a CRT screen (which is actually a Philips tube) and a powerful media center that also accepts CD-i discs. Let's have a close look.
When you turn on the system, two amplified speakers slide out of the side of the system, very cool. The system can turn around its main pole on the bottom as well.
If you look at the back of the Beocenter, you first see the control buttons up left, the connections below that.
In the picture below, the Beocenter has two input slots for your controllers on the right. The others are for connecting a different video and audio signal to the system. Via the scart connection, it can also output the signal, so you can export the CD-i signal to a seperate screen (and even duplicate it)
The Beocenter has a sleek tray loader that opens automatically when you push the 'load' buton:
According to the website Beoworld these units have been in production between 1997 and 2001. That's of course a peculiar time as CD-i was already declining by that time (Philips stopped support after 1996)
If you look inside at the back of the Beocenter, you can notice the CD-i PCB board below the tube. Remarkable is that the timekeeper battery is replaceable (you did not see that often).
The system has an integrated Digital Video Cartridge on board.
At the back of the tube you can see it is actually Philips technology inside!
As you can see the cd tray even has small lights inside to light up the CD:
When a CD-i is inserted and the tray is closed, the CD will stick out of both sides so you can see it spinning.
When you play an audio CD, the controls are via seperate buttons on the top. The screen shows the track nr and the volume level. The amount of tracks are shown in a light bar on the top in the middle.
[Thanks, RGB Rob]