I used to work as a sub-editor for Teletext. Writing 35-character headlines for the analogue service was some of the best journalism training anybody could have. I still remember some of the best:
Spurs move right, said Fred's agent
Sizzling Gasquet batters sorry Fish
Fish Mardy from Del Potro battering
(we liked Mardy Fish losing badly at tennis, particularly if he also had a strop after)
For anybody with knowledge about British tennis out there, the following became a running joke which we rehashed at every opportunity.
Bogdanovic suffers first-round exit
That must have been used a mind-boggling number of times.
We also did subbing for Ceefax, with its extra paragraph - but I'll always have a bigger place in my heart for Teletext and its 40 x 24 character grids (for text, 35 for headlines).
Probably the most interesting thing about Ceefax and the other teletext services was that it was a wonderful hack using the Vertical Blanking Interval between TV frames.
The VBI itself is a hang over to slow technology used in CRTs: The VBI was originally needed because of the inductive inertia of the magnetic coils which deflect the electron beam vertically in a CRT; the magnetic field, and hence the position being drawn, cannot change instantly. Additionally, the speed of older circuits was limited.
And PRESTEL was another hack (and one produced by a PTT) they worked out they could produce an asymetric modem standard 75/1200 to work with the slow speed lines of the day.
This post is going to baffle a lot of US readers. I moved to Ireland in 2006 and had never seen anything like ceefax (it's Aertel in Ireland). I love how old school it is--feels like a early 80's video game.
I admit I have found myself sitting at the pub "watching" scores refresh on a soccer/gaa match when it wasn't on TV and I didn't have my iphone.
In Chicago, they tried a non-interactive version of Ceefax (renamed "Keyfax"). It ran on an independent UHF station (WFLD-32, now Fox) late at night after normal programming had ended. Wow, remember that? Stations actually signed off for the night.
The longer story is that the Sun-Times and Honeywell tried to launch Ceefax here, but the british-designed decoders would need a few years to get approved by Underwriters Labs, so the static service ran ahead of the launch. When Keyfax actually launched, it flopped. It was also shitcanned by Rupert Murdoch, who had bought the Sun-Times in the 80s and was quoted as saying "I do not believe that tomorrow's newspaper will be delivered on a TV screen".
Anyway, here's some nostalgia and a capture of the Keyfax system. It was kind of boring after a while:
tvs with teletext cost about £20-30 more last time i bought a tv but you got the money back in savings on buying tv guides as you could use teletext for the listings.
I was a bit young to make the most of Ceefax/Teletext but the one thing I truly loved and read many times a week for years was Digitiser on Channel 4's Teletext service.
It was a magazine about computer games, written in a fantastically stupid manner, full of daft jokes and innuendos and presented by a set of rather offensive characters (Fat Sow and Insincere Dave being my favourites).
The 'limited' graphics added to it, in my opinion. It was also, probably the only set of pages to make good use of the reveal button.
I remember Digitiser, it was wonderful. I get the feeling that Ceefax / Teletext was perhaps a redoubt for those who wanted to avoid too much editorial.
And, another use for the reveal button: Bamboozle!
...if you had a fancy TV that cached the carousel index pages. If not you type in the page number you want and wait for it to cycle around in the carousel. Which could be pretty slow on Oracle, as all those holiday ads played out.
If you were amending a page, it went through instantly, when you change something on the web, it may go through instantly. Or it may not.
But if you're authoring for the MHEG interactive service on Freeview then it can get pushed straight away. Apples/oranges comparison, really.
Secondly, it provided an instant and BBC-certified timecheck, accurate to the second
As does Freeview, and all other DVB platforms. Most TVs have a button to tell you what time it is.
There was another way of getting programs from the TV used at the same time. A lightpen was attached to the TV screen and a flashing white square in the bottom right corner of the screen was used to transmit a program (a binary stream) through the lightpen and onto the micro.
Does anyone else remember this and on which program it was done? It may well have been Channel 4's Me and My Micro in about 1985.
I was so looking forward to a more 'web like' replacement for Ceefax/Teletext, to augment broadcasts. I never use the digital TV red button as it feels even slower than the 70s technology.
Add to that that I can't even read what is on the screen. At least I can read Ceefax. Perhaps it is because I don't have a TV display larger than 22".
The company that can add useful overlays to existing broadcasts - could clean up: think Twitter/Wikipedia on the telly. A use for something like raspberry pi?
Menus for set top boxes feel painfully slow to me. Maybe I'm just impatient.
But I'd love something that can overlay stuff - "now and next"; subtitles; tv schedules; 'your favourite programme is on in 5 minutes on the other side"; "Ann (who you trust) recommends this programme. Do you agree? [YES][NO]" (and it builds up a score of trust in some reviewers, enabling discovery of good programmes.
With a bit of human intervention you get some exciting possibilities. Links to (as you mention) Wikipedia would be awesome for instant checking. Some people would enjoy having tweets running on the tv.
Tie the news into a web search for other stories, or better analysis.
I know a lot of the older generation will miss it. Especially those that don't use traditional computers, yet regularly check the value of their shares etc.
I haven't used it in years so I don't have a problem of not being able to get that information, but I will still miss it nostalgically - I'm 22, so not exactly the older generation, but still grew up with ceefax being the best source for TV listings, news/sport, weather, and indeed stock prices (which without really understanding why I cared about because my dad cared about them).
Any afficionados of Ceefax might enjoy the spoof from the DVD of "Look Around You" - itself a wonderful pastiche on the BBC's 1970s "programmes for schools" public service broadcasts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfsBT8fQ7_I
[+] [-] EdwardQ|14 years ago|reply
Spurs move right, said Fred's agent
Sizzling Gasquet batters sorry Fish
Fish Mardy from Del Potro battering
(we liked Mardy Fish losing badly at tennis, particularly if he also had a strop after)
For anybody with knowledge about British tennis out there, the following became a running joke which we rehashed at every opportunity.
Bogdanovic suffers first-round exit
That must have been used a mind-boggling number of times.
We also did subbing for Ceefax, with its extra paragraph - but I'll always have a bigger place in my heart for Teletext and its 40 x 24 character grids (for text, 35 for headlines).
Romantics ire after death of Ceefax
[+] [-] jgrahamc|14 years ago|reply
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_Blanking_Interval and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext#Data_transmission
The VBI itself is a hang over to slow technology used in CRTs: The VBI was originally needed because of the inductive inertia of the magnetic coils which deflect the electron beam vertically in a CRT; the magnetic field, and hence the position being drawn, cannot change instantly. Additionally, the speed of older circuits was limited.
The idea for Ceefax came from the BBC who were researching ways to send subtitles for the hard of hearing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext#Development
[+] [-] mjwalshe|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dclaysmith|14 years ago|reply
I admit I have found myself sitting at the pub "watching" scores refresh on a soccer/gaa match when it wasn't on TV and I didn't have my iphone.
Teletext: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext Ceefax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceefax
[+] [-] Jamiecon|14 years ago|reply
I must confess, this may have partially motivated my submission ;-)
I also loved the style the article was presented in.
Does anyone remember 'Bamboozle'?
[+] [-] joezydeco|14 years ago|reply
The longer story is that the Sun-Times and Honeywell tried to launch Ceefax here, but the british-designed decoders would need a few years to get approved by Underwriters Labs, so the static service ran ahead of the launch. When Keyfax actually launched, it flopped. It was also shitcanned by Rupert Murdoch, who had bought the Sun-Times in the 80s and was quoted as saying "I do not believe that tomorrow's newspaper will be delivered on a TV screen".
Anyway, here's some nostalgia and a capture of the Keyfax system. It was kind of boring after a while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fvC6mdAK8
[+] [-] moylan|14 years ago|reply
http://www.aertel.ie/aertel/
tvs with teletext cost about £20-30 more last time i bought a tv but you got the money back in savings on buying tv guides as you could use teletext for the listings.
[+] [-] petepete|14 years ago|reply
It was a magazine about computer games, written in a fantastically stupid manner, full of daft jokes and innuendos and presented by a set of rather offensive characters (Fat Sow and Insincere Dave being my favourites).
The 'limited' graphics added to it, in my opinion. It was also, probably the only set of pages to make good use of the reveal button.
[+] [-] Jamiecon|14 years ago|reply
And, another use for the reveal button: Bamboozle!
[+] [-] ldite|14 years ago|reply
Firstly, it could do the basics very fast.
...if you had a fancy TV that cached the carousel index pages. If not you type in the page number you want and wait for it to cycle around in the carousel. Which could be pretty slow on Oracle, as all those holiday ads played out.
If you were amending a page, it went through instantly, when you change something on the web, it may go through instantly. Or it may not.
But if you're authoring for the MHEG interactive service on Freeview then it can get pushed straight away. Apples/oranges comparison, really.
Secondly, it provided an instant and BBC-certified timecheck, accurate to the second
As does Freeview, and all other DVB platforms. Most TVs have a button to tell you what time it is.
[+] [-] ticks|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sern|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jgrahamc|14 years ago|reply
Does anyone else remember this and on which program it was done? It may well have been Channel 4's Me and My Micro in about 1985.
Ah. This person says it was '4 Computer Buffs': http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=2347 Found it. Here's a video of how you had to make the 'receiver' for this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=89458723914479030 and here's an interview where there's the software being transmitted at the same time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULGDTtGZcN0
[+] [-] downx3|14 years ago|reply
Add to that that I can't even read what is on the screen. At least I can read Ceefax. Perhaps it is because I don't have a TV display larger than 22".
The company that can add useful overlays to existing broadcasts - could clean up: think Twitter/Wikipedia on the telly. A use for something like raspberry pi?
[+] [-] DanBC|14 years ago|reply
But I'd love something that can overlay stuff - "now and next"; subtitles; tv schedules; 'your favourite programme is on in 5 minutes on the other side"; "Ann (who you trust) recommends this programme. Do you agree? [YES][NO]" (and it builds up a score of trust in some reviewers, enabling discovery of good programmes.
With a bit of human intervention you get some exciting possibilities. Links to (as you mention) Wikipedia would be awesome for instant checking. Some people would enjoy having tweets running on the tv.
Tie the news into a web search for other stories, or better analysis.
[+] [-] robin_reala|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joezydeco|14 years ago|reply
Try Chumby NeTV:
http://www.theverge.com/2011/9/8/2412828/chumby-netv-smart-t...
And you can buy a developer kit today from Adafruit, unlike the RPi.
http://www.adafruit.com/products/609
[+] [-] downx3|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ticks|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corin_|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dcminter|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sparknlaunch12|14 years ago|reply
For many, this type of TV technology was their first exposure to "technology".
[+] [-] ajack|14 years ago|reply