Date   : Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:32:47 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Morley teletext adapter anyone?

On 01/08/2011 14:26, Rick Murray wrote:

>> This is exactly what I will miss, Ceefax and the chance ever to use a
>> teletext adapter with my BBC.
> Try some international channels?

Following up my original posting to say - it is a shame the BBC uses the 
SAA5050 for the teletext character generator. The dot resolution is 
fairly low, it doesn't support alternative character sets, and - as I 
said before - it doesn't understand "black as a colour" which is used a 
fair bit (Viva and CNBC come to mind).
If you've got a dish at 19.2E, the last time I looked (last summer), BBC 
World had a cut-down version of Ceefax. It concentrated more on news and 
such (obviously), but is (was?) a quick way to grab the headlines.

It's a shame Acorn didn't fit the more complete SAA5243 - but I guess a 
single chargen chip was less expensive than an entire receiver module.

That said - a Beeb with the full chip and some clever software plus a 
UHF *de*modulator could provide teletext (plus viewdata) right out of 
the box. Could have gone well with the BBC's telesoftware and literacy 
programmes?


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...