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The end of Pages from Ceefax

1980-2012 (October 2012)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
BU
buster
Asa posted:
A lovely effort from those wanting to give it a good send off this morning. RIP Ceefax, spent many years watching of p302/3 and 606 in the days before the EPG. I guess that was the first time Ceefax 1 has been seen on Network since what, 1997?

I wonder how long the BBC Two barker will last? It seems a bit of a waste of time - I can understand it on BBC HD for HD promotion but surely a caption would just suffice? Does BBC Four still have a closing announcement each night, I wonder if we've lost that on BBC Two too?

Baffling reference of the day has to be from Newsround - a nice history lesson but talk about mentioning something almost the entire audience will never have heard of. One for the mums and dads watching I suppose. Laughing


There were a couple of brief bursts of Ceefax on BBC1 at Christmas 2001 - something about there being no other convenient point to leave The World Today in order to show a kids' film, I remember it being commented on at the time. But unless it was seen in the annual RBS tests subsequently that was probably the last time.

It's a shame that something similar to BBC Alba's filler can't be used. But BBC HD has its barker and BBC One HD has highlights during the regional news 1830 slot so I guess it follows the pattern. BBC4 does indeed still do a closedown ident, BBC3 just goes to a caption though. BBC HD normally say goodnight over the credits of the last programme.

Agree about Newsround, very odd.
IS
Inspector Sands
Richard posted:
Of course, it doesn't have to show anything. I'm sure they could knock up something which presented Red Button or website content in a nice way along with music.

There's not much point them bothering at all, it's only a couple of hours a couple of times a week

I think if they ever wanted to replace the BBC News simulcast, then they'd be more inclined to find a simple and cheap replacement.

I always thought that some sort of radio simulcast would be a good idea if there's dead air to fill, maybe with studio 'webcam' style vision
MI
Michael
Long before the current BBC1 HD regional news ident loop thingy, Mark Grindon did a fantastic couple of overnight BBC One Dancer ident-themed looped barkers a few years back, complete with musak and enthusiastic weather forecast. Sadly I can't find them on my hard drive inamongst all the crap... perhaps BBC2 could do something like that.
JO
Jonny
Michael posted:
...perhaps BBC2 could do something like that.

Cunningly reversed 7 minute wave looping, you say?

How many times can they open/unopen a tent in similarly slick fashion do we think? And more importantly what exact combination of green and fuchsia will they opt for?
WP
WillPS
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
In the 80s didn't BBC1 and BBC2 have their own CEEFAX decoders? I'm sure that on occasion they were both showing CEEFAX (different pages) at the same time.


Yes, I'm sure I remember PFC on 1 and 2 at the same time showing different pages in the 1980s.

Of course C4 also did the same in that decade for Oracle. (And S4C for Sbectel ?)
There might well have been teletext in vision on three out of four channels at times.

Didn't the ITV Jobfinder service that ran overnight in some regions, use 'Oracle in vision' techniques too ?


It did indeed - I believe the pages were all in the ancillary regional service, but the montage on screen was buried on an alphanumeric page (like when you'd play Bamboozle, it'd take you through pages like 12D so you couldn't just key-in the winning page).
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Off-topic I know, but if statmuxing really can't cope with too much simulcasting, what happens next time there's a significant obit and "BBC Television from London" mode.


Was reading through the obit document the other day (don't worry, not for any particular reason) and this is mentioned. It's just accepted that there'll be a loss of quality on fast moving shots, no other choice, really.
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:

I always thought that some sort of radio simulcast would be a good idea if there's dead air to fill, maybe with studio 'webcam' style vision


Yes, one of the Belgian TV channels does just that,
JA
JAS84
tesandco posted:
Bottom left image on there, isn't that from ITV/C4 Teletext instead of Ceefax? It actually has their logo on it!
SC
Si-Co
JAS84 posted:
tesandco posted:
Bottom left image on there, isn't that from ITV/C4 Teletext instead of Ceefax? It actually has their logo on it!


I really don't think so. Remember ITV/C4 was Oracle until 1993. This looks like a caption from the 80s promoting Teletext in general, which was the generic name for all services of this kind.
MA
Markymark
JAS84 posted:
Bottom left image on there, isn't that from ITV/C4 Teletext instead of Ceefax? It actually has their logo on it!


No, it was from a joint Ceefax/Oracle marketing campaign in the 1980s.

It's not a logo, that's how the word looks, and can only look, when you render it that size.

It was a very poor decision by the then ITC in 1992 to allow Teletext Ltd, to use the brand name of the system itself !

It's a bit like having a TV station called 'TV' !!
ET
ETP1 Forever
Jonny posted:
Michael posted:
...perhaps BBC2 could do something like that.

Cunningly reversed 7 minute wave looping, you say?

How many times can they open/unopen a tent in similarly slick fashion do we think? And more importantly what exact combination of green and fuchsia will they opt for?


Funnily enough Jonny, I was looking at this

Just needs music, and something like that would be perfect for closedown.
BE
benriggers
I've heard that some of the BBC Weather forecasts today are using the Ceefax weather graphics. Very Happy

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