Date   : Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:53:45 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Teletext receiver revisited

Tim Matthews wrote:

>> 1AB etc .. (had a tv that allowed you to go "up" and "down" 
>> page numbers that included the alphabetic pages!)
> Can you remember what was on them...?

For a while after service closure, CNNi and MTV(DE) held a partial 
snapshot of their service. The Silvercrest SL65 receiver is kinda nifty 
in that it collects the pages as they are transmitted, so (rotating 
pages aside) it only needs a pass to grab a copy of everything. I can 
then up-and-down to look at all the pages available. :-)

There was a service not so long ago that had some amusing test pages in 
odd numbers. Sorry, I don't recall who or where, but if I had to find it 
again the first place I'd look is RT?'s Aertel on satellite.

It's a shame nobody ever made a RISC OS teletext receiver capable of 
snapshotting the entire system in one go! I keep meaning to upgrade my 
Ground Control receiver to 4K or 8K for 2 or 4 synchronous fetches, but 
I think getting hold of small SRAMs will be less than easy. Oh, and 
rewriting my software to do it. Kinda amusing, actually, that a RISC OS 
computer, or a PC, running a real or faked IIC to an integrated teletext 
receiver chip STILL, in terms of responsiveness, gets it's ass soundly 
kicked by a Beeb with the cheesewedge receiver. Dunno what magic Acorn 
worked (never tracked down the EPROM code nor a schematic) but that 
receiver seems to be quite capable of multiple synchronous page fetches. 
And if not, it responds so damn fast it can convincingly fake it.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...
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