
How Teletext and Ceefax are coming back from the dead - ingve
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/how-teletext-and-ceefax-are-coming-back-from-the-dead-1326145
======
solidangle
Teletext is still available here in The Netherlands, the public broadcaster
[1] and some of the commercial channels still have teletext pages. If you have
an internet connection (which 96% of the households in the Netherlands [2]
have) there's absolutely no point in using it as the same (and more)
information is available on their websites, but it's still an important source
of information for the elders.

[1] [http://nos.nl/teletekst](http://nos.nl/teletekst)

[2] [https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2015/11/9-in-10-people-
access-...](https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2015/11/9-in-10-people-access-the-
internet-every-day)

~~~
anigbrowl
I'm sick to the back teeth of getting news from web pages, because there's
about 1 kilobyte of text I want to read and megabyte upon megabyte of other
crap from logos to tracking cookies to ads that I don't give a shit about.
IT's not so uncommon to tap on a news story on my phone and find it takes
longer to load than it did to read.

It's ridiculously inefficient from the point of the news consumer, which is
logical since the news consumer is basically the product in a transaction
between content delivery firms and advertisers. New news has always been
supported by advertising, but it's gone past the point of absurdity into being
economically unsustainable. The western social order is clearly on the verge
of a breakdown, not least because public trust of the media is at a nadir and
so large segments of the population have abandoned truth-seeking as a
component of their media experience and drifted more and more towards
validation. This is going to end badly.

~~~
jpt4
I am smiling across my front teeth, so rare is it that I read

> I'm sick to the back teeth

Thank you for keeping this colloquialism in circulation.

------
scoopr
Last weekend at Assembly[0] there was a teletext entry in the wild compo[1][2]

I know people who use one of the various ios apps to watch the local public
broadcasting teletext (teksti-tv), because it is a fast and easy way to look
at the news, with descriptive titles without clickbaits :) Web versions of
course available too[3]

[0] [http://www.assembly.org](http://www.assembly.org) [1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_To2TwIrWqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_To2TwIrWqQ)
[2]
[http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67927](http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67927)
[3]
[http://www.yle.fi/tekstitv/html/P100_01.html](http://www.yle.fi/tekstitv/html/P100_01.html)

~~~
david-given
The BBC Micro, one of the most popular 8-bit micros in the UK, contained a
teletext decoder chip, the Mullard SAA5050. (There was an addon available that
would let you display Ceefax pages displayed over the air with it; for a while
they even broadcast programs using the Ceefax system, which you could
download.)

It was mainly used as a cheap and cheerful display mode, as it consumed a mere
1kB of video memory and got you fast, colourful, chunky graphics, and at the
same time gave an entire generation detailed knowledge of the innards of the
teletext system:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqzkGkIrbd8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqzkGkIrbd8)

It was a pig to program for: it was (mostly) just a simple 40x25 array of
bytes, one for each character. Special effects were done by using command
bytes, which showed up (mostly) as a space. So, to change the foreground
colour to red, you used a 129 byte. But that used up a character. Getting good
effects took skill. Notice the way in that game the colours are separated by
line? That's because there'll be two control bytes at the beginning of each
line, one to set the colour and one to set block graphics mode, and the
visible portion occupies the other 38 characters...

------
the_mitsuhiko
Teletext is still alive in many parts of Europe. The Austrian broadcaster
still has a service and they have an online interface for it:
[http://teletext.orf.at/](http://teletext.orf.at/)

~~~
dpfu
Teletext found its niche.

The Austrian broadcaster ORF even released an TELETEXT app (!) this year [1],
available for Android [2] and iOS [3].

An then there is also art, as with every "old" tech. Check out the
International Teletext Art Festival [4].

[1] [http://futurezone.at/apps/orf-teletext-app-fuer-ios-und-
andr...](http://futurezone.at/apps/orf-teletext-app-fuer-ios-und-android-
gestartet/184.680.818) [2]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.orf.teletex...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.orf.teletext)
[3] [https://itunes.apple.com/at/app/orf-
teletext/id1063231874](https://itunes.apple.com/at/app/orf-
teletext/id1063231874)

[4] [http://www.teletextart.com](http://www.teletextart.com)

~~~
Scarblac
Dutch teletekst has had one for years. Strange, actually, that each country is
releasing its own.

------
davidgerard
This is the epitome of the famous Mark E. Smith quote "the finest of British
attention to the wrong detail." I admire the level of geekiness involved in
recovering Teletext from old VHS tapes.

------
mindcrime
I'm waiting for the announcement that Gopher[1] is coming back from the dead!

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_\(protocol\))

------
patatino
I use the swiss teletext app daily, it's the fastest way for me to consume
informations and sport results.

~~~
jmiserez
Also works without the app: [http://m.txt.ch](http://m.txt.ch)

------
triangleman
I live in the U.S.. Why did I never know about this and why was it not more
popular here? Is it totally gone now that analog signals are gone?

And now reading how it's popular in other countries, it makes me so angry!

~~~
ams6110
I live in the US and I've never heard of any of this either.

------
ed_blackburn
I have just three digits: 302

~~~
gpvos
Which teletext service?

~~~
Graham24
From memory, that's the BBC football page.

It's either the main page or the latest scores 'vide-printer' style service.

[hums MOTD theme to himself].

------
sofaofthedamned
Ha I used to work with Peter from the article at MRG Systems, who were a
primary supplier of teletext equipment to broadcasters:

[http://www.mrgsystems.co.uk/about-
us/historyskills.php](http://www.mrgsystems.co.uk/about-us/historyskills.php)

[https://www.kitplus.com/FORSALE/Audio/Other/MRG_Systems/DTP_...](https://www.kitplus.com/FORSALE/Audio/Other/MRG_Systems/DTP_900/133320.html)

------
jbb555
Interesting article but somewhat misleading

~~~
oinkgrr
Please explain why it is misleading.

~~~
Rexxar
What would you think of an article titled "Steam locomotives are coming back
from the deads" when someone restore an old locomotive in his garage?

~~~
dan1234
Slightly OT, but a group in the UK actually recently built a steam locomotive
and operate it fairly regularly[0], so steam is kinda back from the dead…

[0][https://www.a1steam.com](https://www.a1steam.com)

------
pmontra
Teletext still works in Italy on digital tv. By heart: 103 latest news, 110
news index, 201 football index, 202 serie A results and 203 leaderboard.
295-298 results and leaderboard of major European leagues, 261 other sports
index. If I have the tv switched on it's faster than my tablet.

------
Meltdown
The mother uses it all the time to get the latest Lotto numbers.

------
Fifer82
"poor mans internet" they said.

~~~
emptybits
Perhaps, according to the Europeans in this thread, also the "busy man's
internet"?

It sounds like there's less fluff, trash, and noise to wade through.

------
gwbas1c
Don't do a google image search for "teletext". About 1.5 pages down is a
goatce in teletext. Ick!

