Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Want to save Teletext? Don't press the red button
Yesterday the BBC axed another swathe of Ceefax pages as it continued the switch to digital text in anticipation of the end of analogue TV.
Of course Teletext has been dying a slow, largely unreported death since its heyday. Despite most channels dabbling in the technology, it's the BBC that held this medium together since first introducing it in 1976 and continuing to keep faith while others dithered. Ironically, ITV at last seems to be investing but still can't figure out quite where the service belongs. Channel 4 still shares the one-sided alliance with ITV that allows it racing and financial information, but no news pages - especially ridiculous given the schedules are anchored by Channel 4 (and more recently More 4) News while ITV can't even agree whether its News still belongs at 10.
The BBC, meanwhile, threw license money and newsroom staff until, by the mid 80s, Ceefax provided our most reliable source of breaking news before the internet and rolling news channels took over. In fact, with so many digital channels now around, Teletext still provides something worthwhile for your remote that doesn't involve hopping between the same loan commercial on different channels while missing the restart of the show you were watching in the first place.
Ceefax has been clinging onto life since 2001, repeatedly flatlining and then sitting up in bed shouting "No, I'm feeling better!" However, this time the decline does seem terminal, as indicated by the decreasing frequency of page updates. During last week's Wimbledon, for instance, score updates were lagging nearly a set behind the live action - so no more watching Tellytubbies with the kids whilst keeping the cricket scores onscreen.
And it's all the more painful because of what is now meant to replace all this. Was there ever a TV advance more pathetic than Digital Text? Now, I am a Virgin Cable customer, so I'm used to being at least two years behind the times, but my digital text seems to involve a 30 to 60-second delay while the screen goes blank, then the complete loss of the programme I'm watching - while single paragraphs of text have to be cued by hand at 15-second intervals. Compared to this, Teletext still looks state of the art to me.
And don't get me started on those omnipresent red button services, that clutter up the screen while allowing ITV to promote This Morning on every peak time show, incurring further 60 second delays should you be stupid enough to press it. Once again, BBC Interactive does it best, but it's not nearly good or fast enough and after nearly five years in development and nobody has ever explained why.
All in all, I feel a Save Teletext campaign coming on but I simply can't be arsed to launch it. And if that doesn't say something about the red button generation, I don't know what does.
Mike Anderiesz, Guardian Unlimited, July 12 2007
Of course Teletext has been dying a slow, largely unreported death since its heyday. Despite most channels dabbling in the technology, it's the BBC that held this medium together since first introducing it in 1976 and continuing to keep faith while others dithered. Ironically, ITV at last seems to be investing but still can't figure out quite where the service belongs. Channel 4 still shares the one-sided alliance with ITV that allows it racing and financial information, but no news pages - especially ridiculous given the schedules are anchored by Channel 4 (and more recently More 4) News while ITV can't even agree whether its News still belongs at 10. The BBC, meanwhile, threw license money and newsroom staff until, by the mid 80s, Ceefax provided our most reliable source of breaking news before the internet and rolling news channels took over. In fact, with so many digital channels now around, Teletext still provides something worthwhile for your remote that doesn't involve hopping between the same loan commercial on different channels while missing the restart of the show you were watching in the first place.
Ceefax has been clinging onto life since 2001, repeatedly flatlining and then sitting up in bed shouting "No, I'm feeling better!" However, this time the decline does seem terminal, as indicated by the decreasing frequency of page updates. During last week's Wimbledon, for instance, score updates were lagging nearly a set behind the live action - so no more watching Tellytubbies with the kids whilst keeping the cricket scores onscreen.
And it's all the more painful because of what is now meant to replace all this. Was there ever a TV advance more pathetic than Digital Text? Now, I am a Virgin Cable customer, so I'm used to being at least two years behind the times, but my digital text seems to involve a 30 to 60-second delay while the screen goes blank, then the complete loss of the programme I'm watching - while single paragraphs of text have to be cued by hand at 15-second intervals. Compared to this, Teletext still looks state of the art to me.
And don't get me started on those omnipresent red button services, that clutter up the screen while allowing ITV to promote This Morning on every peak time show, incurring further 60 second delays should you be stupid enough to press it. Once again, BBC Interactive does it best, but it's not nearly good or fast enough and after nearly five years in development and nobody has ever explained why.
All in all, I feel a Save Teletext campaign coming on but I simply can't be arsed to launch it. And if that doesn't say something about the red button generation, I don't know what does.
Mike Anderiesz, Guardian Unlimited, July 12 2007
Teletext on the web
Talking Teletext
A piece of equipment that employs text-to-speech software and plugs into televisions, reading the text on-screen via a 'voice synthesiser' for the visually impaired. Looks quite old, though. It will be interesting to see whether this is still used by anyone - there are certainly similar pieces of software that do the same thing on PCs.
Teletext Media Site
The bridge between the Internet and traditional Teletext formats? Online info on how to advertise on Teletext.
A disgruntled Teletext fan laments the demise of teletext
On the Digitalspy forums. Plus a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of the Digital Switchover.
A piece of equipment that employs text-to-speech software and plugs into televisions, reading the text on-screen via a 'voice synthesiser' for the visually impaired. Looks quite old, though. It will be interesting to see whether this is still used by anyone - there are certainly similar pieces of software that do the same thing on PCs.
Teletext Media Site
The bridge between the Internet and traditional Teletext formats? Online info on how to advertise on Teletext.
A disgruntled Teletext fan laments the demise of teletext
On the Digitalspy forums. Plus a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of the Digital Switchover.
Teletext in the news
Vanguard: Teletext hooks more Nigerians, expands horizon
(15 July 2007)
... today, going by the analysis of the providers, Teletext may have not only caught the interest of many Nigerians but has also brought a lot of education to teeming Nigerian TV viewers, about the inherent valuable technological manipulations of the TV, that their counterparts in the developed world have been enjoying ever since.Teletext is a well established user friendly medium provided by several major European and Asian television channels and accessed by millions of viewers on daily basis. Today it is in Nigeria, courtesy of Tgmedia and Silverbird alliance and accessed by Nigerian viewers on STV and NTA television stations.
Vietnam news: Projects to increase IT use in remote areas
(20 June 07)
HA NOI — Several projects to boost the use of information and communication technologies in rural areas were announced at a symposium held in Ha Noi on Tuesday in association with the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT).
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) floated several projects at the symposium. One such initiative, Teletext, will use television to help farmers stay informed about the weather, disease outbreaks and the price of agricultural products on domestic and world markets.
And finally...
(16 July 2007)
Sven-Göran Eriksson’s reputation for gnomic utterances (“Talking is silver,” he has said, “but being quiet is golden”) grows apace, thanks to teletext subtitles. After the former England head coach’s new team, Manchester City, beat Doncaster Rovers 3-1 at the weekend, anyone watching Sky Sports with the sound turned down would have seen the suave Swede declare: “It is better to win than Toulouse.”
Whether he meant the inland city in southwest France or a certain hard-drinking, short-living painter, he is almost certainly quite right. (Late result: André Breton League, Division One – Real Madrid, 4, Surreal Madrid, a fish.)
(15 July 2007)
... today, going by the analysis of the providers, Teletext may have not only caught the interest of many Nigerians but has also brought a lot of education to teeming Nigerian TV viewers, about the inherent valuable technological manipulations of the TV, that their counterparts in the developed world have been enjoying ever since.Teletext is a well established user friendly medium provided by several major European and Asian television channels and accessed by millions of viewers on daily basis. Today it is in Nigeria, courtesy of Tgmedia and Silverbird alliance and accessed by Nigerian viewers on STV and NTA television stations.
Vietnam news: Projects to increase IT use in remote areas
(20 June 07)
HA NOI — Several projects to boost the use of information and communication technologies in rural areas were announced at a symposium held in Ha Noi on Tuesday in association with the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT).
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) floated several projects at the symposium. One such initiative, Teletext, will use television to help farmers stay informed about the weather, disease outbreaks and the price of agricultural products on domestic and world markets.
And finally...
(16 July 2007)
Sven-Göran Eriksson’s reputation for gnomic utterances (“Talking is silver,” he has said, “but being quiet is golden”) grows apace, thanks to teletext subtitles. After the former England head coach’s new team, Manchester City, beat Doncaster Rovers 3-1 at the weekend, anyone watching Sky Sports with the sound turned down would have seen the suave Swede declare: “It is better to win than Toulouse.”
Whether he meant the inland city in southwest France or a certain hard-drinking, short-living painter, he is almost certainly quite right. (Late result: André Breton League, Division One – Real Madrid, 4, Surreal Madrid, a fish.)
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Book Review - Video Game Art, Nic Kelman
http://www.assoulineusa.com/video_game_art.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/Video-Game-Art-Nic-Kelman/dp/2843237297
A couple of months ago I found this book was in the local library catalogue. So, I decided to loan it and see if there is anything worth taking into consideration for this project. Following is a brief overview of the book.
On the whole the book is quite disappointing, especially with regards to my project, devoting a whole four of its 350 pages to the development of video games pre-1993, the very era I would be looking to for inspiration and information regarding my project.
Nevertheless, it was a satisfactory lengthy essay on why video games could be considered 'art', concentrating on the development of characters, storylines and advanced CG graphics in modern video games. Some eye-catching images and demonstrations of the capabilities of video game graphics, in fact the book is very image-heavy. All very well and good for its target audience but not massively relevant to what I am looking into.
At the end of the book is a brief timeline of video game landmarks, with some references to three button controllers and simple dial interfaces maybe worth looking into and making parallels with remote control handsets. Also included is a two page spread explaining in simple terms the video game design process.
Further reading on this subject:
Monday, 11 June 2007
Digital Teletext on ITV
The above screens are taken from the current Teletext service on ITV, page 104.
Some relevant links:
Saturday, 9 June 2007
Teletext lives on
Comparison of Internet based teletext viewers
Thanks to some hard core fans, elements of Teletext and Viewdata survive on the Internet today.
http://www.heaven.affection.net/
http://www.ccl4.org/viewdata/
This service brings together the Internet-only feature of bulletin boards and merges it with Teletext elements:
http://www.mtv3tekstikanava.fi/
The above links to an Internet version of MTV3, a Finnish teletext service. Staying (relatively) faithful to the original format, this method retains the regular coloured text on black background within the Internet browser. To add to the overall aesthetic there is also a skin of a Television, in which the data service can be viewed, and a remote control that takes the form of a text-based (rather than number based) links menu more akin to the modern Internet site. There are still clickable links on the 'screen' itself but I have yet to find the'reveal' function.
Links here taken from http://www.iol.ie/~rclapham/teletext.html. Unfortunately most of the links are now dead. Indeed, the last update was 1997.
Thanks to some hard core fans, elements of Teletext and Viewdata survive on the Internet today.http://www.heaven.affection.net/
http://www.ccl4.org/viewdata/
This service brings together the Internet-only feature of bulletin boards and merges it with Teletext elements:
The Great Internet Viewdata Revival is an attempt to bring the days of Viewdata back; not for commercial purposes, just for fun. All the features are still there, multi user chat, user to user messaging, discussion groups - and fast colourful graphics. Try it! Heaven is just the first... we hope many other old bulletin boards will come back and start a new life on the net.
http://www.heaven.affection.net/what.html
http://www.heaven.affection.net/what.html
This site, meanwhile, broadcasts live teletext much like the one at Ceefax.com. However, this one seems to convert the data in a slightly different way. Instead of sticking rigidly to the 80x80 pixel grid format, this method is looser and more computer-orientated in that it concentrates on ease of viewing on an Internet browser rather than TV/Minitel system.
http://www.mtv3tekstikanava.fi/
The above links to an Internet version of MTV3, a Finnish teletext service. Staying (relatively) faithful to the original format, this method retains the regular coloured text on black background within the Internet browser. To add to the overall aesthetic there is also a skin of a Television, in which the data service can be viewed, and a remote control that takes the form of a text-based (rather than number based) links menu more akin to the modern Internet site. There are still clickable links on the 'screen' itself but I have yet to find the'reveal' function.
Links here taken from http://www.iol.ie/~rclapham/teletext.html. Unfortunately most of the links are now dead. Indeed, the last update was 1997.
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