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The end of ITV regional Teletext

December 2004 (August 2017)

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JV
James Vertigan Founding member

A few test pages which someone better technically minded than me will understand:
*


From this page on DigitalSpy Forums - https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/581268/teletext-signal-strength-test

Quote:
The clock-cracker was a test that the 'clocking-frequency' didn't drift for the duration of the (otherwise unused) vertical interval line carrying the telext data.
The decoding clock was locked at the beginning of the line (much like the 'colour burst' locked the PAL crystal frequency and phase) and then ran 'free' for the duration of the line.


Does anybody remember the network ID that appeared on some TVs at the bottom of the screen when you switched channels in the analogue days? I think it was something to do with data in the teletext header although it didn't exactly match it. For example it would say "BBC ONE" on BBC1, it would give the regional name on ITV and on Channel 4 it would come up with "Channel 4 Television".

I also remember an old TV my grandparents had which had a "Clock" button which displayed the time and was taken from the teletext data - once when Ceefax was off air displaying this page:
http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/ceefax/cx_off-air.gif
pressing the Clock button on the remote brought up the message "SEE P100"!
Last edited by James Vertigan on 17 August 2017 7:41am - 2 times in total
MA
Markymark

Does anybody remember the network ID that appeared on some TVs at the bottom of the screen when you switched channels in the analogue days? I think it was something to do with data in the teletext header although it didn't exactly match it. For example it would say "BBC ONE" on BBC1, it would give the regional name on ITV and on Channel 4 it would come up with "Channel 4 Television".
!


Packet 30

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TLI_jrjI3mIC&pg=PT572&lpg=PT572&dq=teletext+network+id&source=bl&ots=1CuVI2kTXI&sig=bzARfq67_PTfybZrUZ9gNDvIWKo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1qpyw2t3VAhUC1RoKHcgeBzoQ6AEIUjAJ#v=onepage&q=teletext%20network%20id&f=false
bilky asko and James Vertigan gave kudos
IS
Inspector Sands
Though I seem to remember the network ID saying 'BBC1 Ceefax' for a long while.


The clock button did bring up the time when watching TV but it was also intended to be used for timed pages - you entered a time into the set and a page would be displayed at that time. This was only used for the Ceefax alarm clock, which alerted you at a certain time by putting a newsflash page-style window over the channel.

It as also used in ITV on page 700 by a service called Televox. There you phoned a premium rate number and they gave you a 4 digit number to put into the timed page bit. That would display a page on your set and you navigated their content using the touch tone keys on your phone. If you didn't have the 4 digit code all you saw was the pages flashing up briefly
BL
bluecortina
a
From what I recall, Carlton and LWT's text services had different content.

Yes, although a lot of it was similar especially the page numbers. Only to be expected as they were both produced by Intelfax

In London there were 3 teletext services on 600 as it became GMTV Text in the mornings


Yes, the 'info' was modemed across to the TLS Lines area where the generators and inserters were installed (Softel). I cant remember how the three services were switched as appropriate - there was talk of a timer but no one ever found it, don't recall any kind of link to LNN's transmission system either. Curious now looking back.

Pre 1993 when all the teletext insertion was performed by the local ITV companies, the 'backbone' service started at ITN (although it was originally at LWT). ITN had permanent circuits to LWT/THS who then simply bridged the national teletext service onto all their outgoing circuits for the other ITV companies to link up to. The ITN feed had the London regional teletext service on it so all the local ITV companies simply replaced/inserted their own local service onto those lines. Simple and clever at the same time.
SW
Steve Williams
New Years Day 2005 and the regional pages are finally removed, showing this on page 600 instead. From memory this page could still be accessed for a good while, although by the end of the entire service in 2009 it was no longer available.


I remember that Granada showed a similar page on 600 to say it has been discontinued, but they left up I think all the other pages for at least a year, probably even longer. Whenever I used to go to my parents' house in Granadaland I always used to have a check and it always still had the TV guide from 28th December 2004 on there.

I used to quite like on those pages how they would have to devote a whole page to their TV picks even if they didn't have enough material to fill up the page so would have to stretch what they had to breaking point. There was one occasion where they referred to Ally McCoist as "Ally McHaddock". I have no idea why, seemingly some kind of in-joke, but my friend and I faithfully referred to him as that for many years after.
MA
Markymark


Pre 1993 when all the teletext insertion was performed by the local ITV companies, the 'backbone' service started at ITN (although it was originally at LWT). ITN had permanent circuits to LWT/THS who then simply bridged the national teletext service onto all their outgoing circuits for the other ITV companies to link up to. The ITN feed had the London regional teletext service on it so all the local ITV companies simply replaced/inserted their own local service onto those lines. Simple and clever at the same time.


Almost exactly 7 years ago to the day, I posted this helpful link in here:-

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/100181997342891987565/album/AF1QipNQ2rx8ppMya069HvwDX62gLkmvHXdNFNwGGlw?source=pwa&authKey=CP6gv9O5rNT8Wg

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