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Goodbye Ceefax

zx1zx1
edited June 2011 in Chit chat
Well, that's central Scotland now fully digital (and i can't get any BBC channels now!).
I didn't mind the analogue signal, it was fine but as usual because it wasn't digital it had to go.
Now Ceefax has gone, i'll miss it sniff!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13866284
Post edited by zx1 on
The trouble with tribbles is.......

Comments

  • guesserguesser
    edited June 2011
    the death of ceefax is a real shame :(

    However I'd never go back from digital to analogue, the analogue picture here is TERRIBLE. Also the sound quality is pants.


    I need to get around to building that teletext inserter I was planning :)
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • fogfog
    edited June 2011
    zx get yaself a better ariel.. I had to get about 7 before I got a decent one
    look at argos.. both take a wall socket

    534/4204 -- wasn't amazing but the 2nd best aerial I tried
    534/7380 -- not cheap , tesco sells em as well maybe cheaper.

    the second one I hide behind a curtain beside a window .. but great picture and found everything. depends on how your room is laid out though..
    try them from argos.. don't work.. return em.. I went back / forth 7 times in one day.. same woman kept giving me refunds hehe

    ceefax was great pre internet.. but it's something to tell ya grand kids about hehe
  • thx1138thx1138
    edited June 2011
    digital text on telly is a motherless whore of a tribadists left nostrils snot rag*


    though CEEFAX has never been the same since the early 90's revamp

    and it really was at its best when the free BBC computer programmes were available in the 900's. Still I do really miss it.
  • MaccMacc
    edited June 2011
    I remember Oracle on ITV, had a TV given me once that had been left on all night with the same Oracle page, burnt itself into the screen, you could read what it was about with the thing turned off!
  • milemile
    edited June 2011
    Macc wrote: »
    I remember Oracle on ITV, had a TV given me once that had been left on all night with the same Oracle page, burnt itself into the screen, you could read what it was about with the thing turned off!

    they used to have that in betting shops. a few tvs having the same screen on with the scores refreshing.

    i assume the clock was all 8's though. ;)
  • zx1zx1
    edited June 2011
    fog wrote: »
    zx get yaself a better ariel.. I had to get about 7 before I got a decent one
    look at argos.. both take a wall socket

    534/4204 -- wasn't amazing but the 2nd best aerial I tried
    534/7380 -- not cheap , tesco sells em as well maybe cheaper.

    the second one I hide behind a curtain beside a window .. but great picture and found everything. depends on how your room is laid out though..
    try them from argos.. don't work.. return em.. I went back / forth 7 times in one day.. same woman kept giving me refunds hehe

    ceefax was great pre internet.. but it's something to tell ya grand kids about hehe


    I've got aerial with a built in amplifair to boost the signal but maybe i will go to Argos at the weekend and have a look. It doesn't help when you live in a downstairs flat, upstairs is better for picking up the signal.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited June 2011
    In the North West we were the first ones to have the analogue signal stopped. Must admit i dont miss Ceefax, only really use the new 'text' service on BBC1 and it works very well, much quicker than Ceefax as sometimes it seemed to skip past the number and you had to wait another minute for it to come back again

    Digitals far better, great picture, more channels (not tons more i must admit, we do have a few odd channels up north, eg we dont get ITV3 or 4 but we get 'gay rabbit chat' ?)

    Bought a dirt cheap ?20 freeview box from Tescos and works a treat. Much better than the old 4 channels we used to get (Couldnt get Ch5) and Channel 4 often looked like it was snowing on every program.
  • RNDRND
    edited June 2011
    I remember recording the tunes from ceefax in the 80s onto cassette, how sad is that!
    Facebook @nick.swarfega Twitter: @sw4rfega
  • freddyhardfreddyhard
    edited June 2011
  • NickHNickH
    edited June 2011
    Ceefax was good, but Oracle-era 4-Tel was better!



    I'm always a sucker for people who get the best out of primitive gfx specs.

    Believe or not, there's a huge fan club surrounding in-vision Teletext and test card music - search YouTube and be afraid, very afraid.
  • freddyhardfreddyhard
    edited June 2011
    just a bunch of nutters holding on to the olden days.
  • milemile
    edited June 2011
    freddyhard wrote: »
    just a bunch of nutters holding on to the olden days.

    sounds like the royal family.
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited June 2011
    freddyhard wrote: »
    just a bunch of nutters holding on to the olden days.

    I agree ! Saddos clinging onto the past who wont embrace the future. Whittering on about how things were when they were young. Hanging about in forums going on about 'remember xxx in the year 1983'. Hope i never turn into one of them

    Sad sad people


    ;)
  • WinstonWinston
    edited June 2011
    Teletext has had a hell of a good run. The colourful "videotex" format (also used by Prestel, an online service in the days before ISPs) used the format, as did many travel agents internal services. IIRC it was invented in the 1970s, it's amazing it's gone on as long as it has done as a mainstream digital text broadcast. (Interestingly, in the USA and I suppose the rest of NTSC-land, they never had this kind of thing).

    I think I can still see Ceefax on my TV using a Sky dish (I just have the freeview stuff), although I haven't turned on my TV in a long time (my Sky dish is used for listening to the radio! If I watch tv it's only using video on demand services like iPlayer, if I want to watch a programme, I want to watch it when I feel like it not when the tv schedules dictate).
  • NickHNickH
    edited June 2011
    Obligatory Teletext Then And Now link, containing histories, backgrounds, and loads of screenshots, including a couple of apps called "An Evening With..." which is a full snapshot of teletext at one moment in time.
  • beanzbeanz
    edited June 2011
    zx1 wrote: »
    I've got aerial with a built in amplifair to boost the signal /snip

    Over the years I've tried multiple 'boosters' and have never seen a real improvement over a non-amplified aerial.

    When we went digital last year I got a non-amplified antenna and now you can see the 'scale' on screen of the signal via the digital converter box, so lets say it showed a signal strength of 40 out of 100. I then went to the electronics store and bought an amplifier for $15, came home, plugged the antenna into the amplifier, looked at the scale..

    .....40 out of 100.
  • ToxieDoggToxieDogg
    edited June 2011
    psj3809 wrote: »
    In the North West we were the first ones to have the analogue signal stopped. Must admit i dont miss Ceefax, only really use the new 'text' service on BBC1 and it works very well, much quicker than Ceefax as sometimes it seemed to skip past the number and you had to wait another minute for it to come back again

    Digitals far better, great picture, more channels (not tons more i must admit, we do have a few odd channels up north, eg we dont get ITV3 or 4 but we get 'gay rabbit chat' ?)

    Bought a dirt cheap ?20 freeview box from Tescos and works a treat. Much better than the old 4 channels we used to get (Couldnt get Ch5) and Channel 4 often looked like it was snowing on every program.

    Don't you? I'd buy a better digibox or join Sky/Virgin whatever then. I've been getting ITV 3 and 4 for ages.
  • guesserguesser
    edited June 2011
    ToxieDogg wrote: »
    Don't you? I'd buy a better digibox or join Sky/Virgin whatever then. I've been getting ITV 3 and 4 for ages.

    I suspect either his antenna is rubbish or it's not pointing in the right direction :)

    once the switchover is complete and the power is racked up everyone should get a good signal on all the multiplexes
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • zx1zx1
    edited June 2011
    I called the digital helpline and they suggested i do a manual retune which i did - nothing! I can get ITV, C4 and C5 etc but nothing from the BBC, not even the radio stations. I only live about 6km from the Black Hill transmitter which is a main transmitter for West Scotland.
    I tried a non amplified aerial and got zero.
    I just can't understand it.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited June 2011
    zx1 wrote: »
    I called the digital helpline and they suggested i do a manual retune which i did - nothing! I can get ITV, C4 and C5 etc but nothing from the BBC, not even the radio stations. I only live about 6km from the Black Hill transmitter which is a main transmitter for West Scotland.
    I tried a non amplified aerial and got zero.
    I just can't understand it.

    Call them up and tell them if you can't receive the BBC channels you're not going to pay your TV license :D
    Every night is curry night!
  • zx1zx1
    edited June 2011
    The way i feel right now i want to slit my wrists and i'm not kidding (see problem neighbours thread)
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • MarkoMarko
    edited June 2011
    zx1 wrote: »
    I called the digital helpline and they suggested i do a manual retune which i did - nothing! I can get ITV, C4 and C5 etc but nothing from the BBC, not even the radio stations. I only live about 6km from the Black Hill transmitter which is a main transmitter for West Scotland.
    I tried a non amplified aerial and got zero.
    I just can't understand it.

    Have you tried deleting all the existing channels before doing the retune? Some set-top boxes - mine included - have a tendency to leave the existing channels in place and plonk all the retuned ones at weird channel numbers in the 800s. You've got absolutely nothing to lose by deleting the old channels because they'll no longer work anyway.

    If it's not that, try and check the wiring to the aerial if you can. I'm about the same distance from Black Hill, and I can get all channels fine using a small ancient set top aerial. Indeed, some of them I'm now getting perfectly for the first time, as before DSO, some channels were out of band for my aerial(s).
    FB
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