Originally it was envisaged that some of the relays (e.g. as regards those fed from Selkirk: Berwick, Hawick, Eyemouth and Peebles in the Borders) would carry all 6 muxes...the rest only the PSB three, but it's now been decreed all relays not already equipped will only get the three PSB channels. As for the switchover procedure, all relays of a main transmitter will switch at the same time and the BBC 2 analogue service from the main transmitter will also go at that point. Similaryly when the other three (or four) analogue channels disappear about a month or so later.
I think the major unforeseen shock for most people will be the recording of programmes - as if you have only one standard Freeview box (or even standard Sky/Cable equipment) you will only be able to record the programme you are watching.
I think the major unforeseen shock for most people will be the recording of programmes - as if you have only one standard Freeview box (or even standard Sky/Cable equipment) you will only be able to record the programme you are watching.
Yep - though there are fewer and fewer VCRs being sold these days (though I know of only one Daewoo model that had a Freeview tuner in it) There are a lot more DVD recorders with built in Freeview tuners - in fact some Sony models don't have an analogue tuner at all these days.
I suspect that recording Freeview on VCRs will cause all sorts of issues - as even if you dedicate a cheap 30 quid box to your VHS machine - it is less than simple to set-up, and programme for unattended recording. (Freeview doesn't support PDC in the same ways as analogue VCRs do either)
HDD freeview tuners are very common now even intergrated IDTV's with HDD are available from Humax etc. It's nothing to worry about. I don't personally understand the enormous fuss being made over switch over. By 2012 most if not all new TV's will have built in freeview tuners and hard drives etc if not long before this time.
VCR's are long gone now. We have to move on. I have'nt used one for last the 5 years and never plan to again
It's HD or possible complete lack of HD reception via DTT we should be much more concerned about. This must happen not the spare capacity to be auctioned off to yet more pointless mobile phone services, have'nt we got more than enough spectrum for this now as it is ?
Originally it was envisaged that some of the relays (e.g. as regards those fed from Selkirk: Berwick, Hawick, Eyemouth and Peebles in the Borders) would carry all 6 muxes...the rest only the PSB three, but it's now been decreed all relays not already equipped will only get the three PSB channels. As for the switchover procedure, all relays of a main transmitter will switch at the same time and the BBC 2 analogue service from the main transmitter will also go at that point. Similaryly when the other three (or four) analogue channels disappear about a month or so later.
The Berwick transmitter no longer broadcasts Border - it was changed to Tyne Tees (and therefore became a full relay of Chatton) in December, so will now go digital in 2012 along with the rest of the Tyne Tees region.
Being 'homely' isn't really a good enough reason for stopping progress. Having a brand new TV system with a 1970's text system bolted onto the back of it would be an embarressment
Not sure why making digital text look more inviting should be seen as stopping progress - the reverse IMHO. Look at the Nightscreen model and work towards an interactive version of that. But it's a shame our TV bosses can't be more like the Germans, who seem to love analogue teletext so much most broadcasters offer their text services on the web.
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I find that I use less teletext (analogue or digital) now i've got broadband, I just don't need to use it any more and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I wonder if the days of digital text are numbered too
The 30th anniversary of Ceefax was always going to be major test of how relevant a 30-year old information system remained in the 21st century. There would have been viewers who, like yourself, had moved on to other ways of getting the latest news.
But it was really surprising just how many people still viewed Ceefax as an important part of their everyday life, not just Joe Public but leading public figures and even the Prime Minister. The level of support for Ceefax at the tail end of 2004 (if its commemorative pages were to be believed) was far greater than anything that could have been reasonably anticipated in an era where things had moved on so much.
The BBC might well have spun things a tad or relied on certain fan bases to talk up the virtues of Ceefax. But if that many people really valued an "outdated" service just two and a half years ago, there could be a backlash when it finally bites the dust.
But it was really surprising just how many people still viewed Ceefax as an important part of their everyday life, not just Joe Public but leading public figures and even the Prime Minister. The level of support for Ceefax at the tail end of 2004 (if its commemorative pages were to be believed) was far greater than anything that could have been reasonably anticipated in an era where things had moved on so much.
Just to add to your comments, there was also a spot piece on BBC Breakfast the day Ceefax reached 30.
Well, regarding the text debate as I said I think Teletext have done a pretty good job of reworking their services for the digital world, while Sky Text is also pretty good.
BBCi Text though - well, I think they need to go back to basics as it's far more complicated than neccessary.
Being 'homely' isn't really a good enough reason for stopping progress. Having a brand new TV system with a 1970's text system bolted onto the back of it would be an embarressment
Not sure why making digital text look more inviting should be seen as stopping progress - the reverse IMHO. Look at the Nightscreen model and work towards an interactive version of that. But it's a shame our TV bosses can't be more like the Germans, who seem to love analogue teletext so much most broadcasters offer their text services on the web.
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I find that I use less teletext (analogue or digital) now i've got broadband, I just don't need to use it any more and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I wonder if the days of digital text are numbered too
The 30th anniversary of Ceefax was always going to be major test of how relevant a 30-year old information system remained in the 21st century. There would have been viewers who, like yourself, had moved on to other ways of getting the latest news.
But it was really surprising just how many people still viewed Ceefax as an important part of their everyday life, not just Joe Public but leading public figures and even the Prime Minister. The level of support for Ceefax at the tail end of 2004 (if its commemorative pages were to be believed) was far greater than anything that could have been reasonably anticipated in an era where things had moved on so much.
The BBC might well have spun things a tad or relied on certain fan bases to talk up the virtues of Ceefax. But if that many people really valued an "outdated" service just two and a half years ago, there could be a backlash when it finally bites the dust.
Of course there is no reason why "CEEFAX" can't continue to be broadcast on the new platforms.
DVB supports WST (World Systems Teletext) - and in Germany they use this on their terrestrial platform, just as Sky support it on their DVB-S platform in the UK. The advantage of using WST over DVB is that you can allocate more bandwith to it, making it run faster... It also has advantages over the UK MHEG5 system used on the UK system, in that it allows pages to dynamically update in vision easily (which allows live cricket scores or flight information to be useful pages)
AIUI the MHEG5 implementation doesn't continue to look for new versions of the page it has loaded once it has loaded, so if you want to have a dynamic display, you have to make it a separate application from the main Digital Text service, which means you then have to reload the digital text service when you've finished.
CEEFAX still has its strong points... (And if you have a receiver that caches 1000+ pages it is ridiculously fast to use)
Of course there is no reason why "CEEFAX" can't continue to be broadcast on the new platforms.
DVB supports WST (World Systems Teletext) - and in Germany they use this on their terrestrial platform, just as Sky support it on their DVB-S platform in the UK. The advantage of using WST over DVB is that you can allocate more bandwith to it, making it run faster... It also has advantages over the UK MHEG5 system used on the UK system, in that it allows pages to dynamically update in vision easily (which allows live cricket scores or flight information to be useful pages)
AIUI the MHEG5 implementation doesn't continue to look for new versions of the page it has loaded once it has loaded, so if you want to have a dynamic display, you have to make it a separate application from the main Digital Text service, which means you then have to reload the digital text service when you've finished.
CEEFAX still has its strong points... (And if you have a receiver that caches 1000+ pages it is ridiculously fast to use)
But it would have to be as an MHEG application though, at least on DTT, as the receivers aren't being built that will encode teletext that can be used in the traditional way (Sky's digiboxes, cable do it as could the old ondigital boxes)
Why would TV companies do that rather than just just provide an MHEG service with the same information in a modern interface?... which is what they do now
This has probably been asked before, but I don't remember...
What's going to happen to the old analogue frequencies once we've all gone digital? are channels 1-5 on our TV's just going to have snow on them as we'll all be pressing the button that our digiboxes will be on - or will they be used for something else?