Date   : Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:44:49 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Morley Teletext Adapter

Anders Carlsson wrote:

> While I don't have a clue how digital broadcasts work in the UK, I am fairly 
> positive the DVB aerial broadcasts here in Sweden still carry a teletext 
> signal.

If it helps, the DBS (satellite) specification has a special channel for
teletext data (you can't MPEG compress it, y'see!). Most of the
mainstream channels now only support teletext insofar as p888
subtitling. The exception is "five" which holds a today/tomorrow TV
guide and some other stuff.

The main replacements for teletext are BBCi (on any BBC channel - a big
detailed service on SkyDigital, a smaller service on FreeSat); and the
so-called ITV Teletext (it's more a videotext like, though it does
retain three-digit page numbers; SkyDigital big, Freesat little).

If you have a Sky box, there's also interactive services on Sky News and
ITV. SkyActive will probably never be made to work with FreeSat (it's
not MHEG5 and it's a direct 'competitor').

There are assorted teletext services on other channels, but these are
mostly not overly useful. Nicely teletext information is passed even
when the signal is blocked due to encryption, hence you can get news and
info from the Irish RT?.


It's a better picture on Astra 19.2E due to a lack of European
standards. RAI Uno, TV5, EuroSport, Viva, arte, all have teletext.
There's loads more but I'm currently watching/recording "Insomnia" off
BBC One so I'll leave it to others to discover for themselves...


> I would be still be able to watch the teletext on my BBC Micro.

For British, yes. For European - too many age-related problems (no black
-as-a-colour, no support for alternative character sets).


-- 
Rick Murray, irregular internet access at local library.
BBC B: ANFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...