Teletext to end

There are solutions for this though - if you separate your content from your presentation system - then a common content preparation system can be used and send the content to different (MHEG5, World Systems Teletext, OpenTV, Liberate, web etc.) presentation systems. I think that is how the BBC run their systems - so that the same content is published to CEEFAX, Red Button on Freeview/Freesat, Red Button on Sky, Red Button on Virgin, bbc.co.uk/news etc.

True, but there is still a lot of setting up to do. I think most the text service is now up, but the only BBC interactive service really offered on Freesat is Sport Multiscreen. Over a year after launch they still haven't even managed to somehow integrate the services which are basically switching to another video stream for things like Glastonbury and Comedy Extra, even though that's all Sport Multiscreen basically is.

Yep - the text application content is pretty much the same on all platforms - and this is the Teletext UK equivalent service isn't it?



They are separate applications that need to be re-written for each platform. They aren't equivalents to Teletext UK's service - they are a very different kettle of fish.

My comments about a common publishing system were purely related to digital text services , such as Teletext UK provided, not the wider interactive TV field, where applications are coded (from a library of pre-written stuff) for each platform, and which Teletext UK didn't offer.

I suspect they are working on expanding the library of code to include Freesat stuff. Whilst Freeview and Freesat both use MHEG5 - they currently use different profiles (Freesat has to cope with HD and SD video) and have different numbers of video streams tuned differently so you can't just re-use the Freeview apps on Freesat.

Is Teletext still going to be on the internet?

Not the news service - just teletextholidays.co.uk

The message from the front page of S4C's Sbectel service (complete with advert for Clic), in case anyone's interested. Sorry for the rubbish quality - it's a digital photo of my TV.

Is it? Looks like a screengrab.

Is Sbectel closing purely due to capacity limitations when it moves to Mux 2, or is that just the convenient excuse? Yet another casualty of the ill-thought out Freeview HD plans by the looks of it.

What are the numbers underneath the Fastext coloured options?

My Samsung TV saves all the sub-pages in its memory as they come round and lets you flick through them.


That's good then - I tried to correct some of the "glare", but otherwise it's just resized and uploaded.

I would have thought it was closing because there is no traditional teletext on Freeview at all, and so come DSO the only way of broadcasting it would be on DSat, which probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

Yep - it's interesting that other DVB-T regions (Sweden, Germany etc.) have retained analogue-style World Systems Teletext on their terrestrial platform, as well as satellite. When I was on holiday in Sweden, my laptop happily got SVT Text using my DVB-T USB stick (as well as SVT HD!).

Whilst Sky receivers can cope with WST packets (and the BBC have a skeleton service on DSat for analogue cable viewers in Beneluxe I believe) - standard ONDigital/ITVDigital receivers couldn't as MHEG5 was adopted instead in the UK.