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[Stinkles]

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/breaking-news/Teletext-to-end-in-January.5465069.jp

TeleText, the UK's bizarre mini-Internet is going away in January. It existed in the spare lines afforded by PAL TV standards, a bit like closed caption in the US, but was capacious enough to carry pages and pages of primitive graphics and text. This was where you read about games on the Internets long before that series of tubes existed.

So long TeleText.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

 

[Kosma]

Teletext still exists in the Netherlands and in continental Europe.

I still use it.

 

[ClosingADoor]

I still use it.

What for? Really became useless for me when digital tv came around and you could just see what's on tv and when with a press on the button.

 

[rex64]

PAL rocks

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Teletext is going?
Wow. That's... un-expected.

I personally haven't used it in years, but I'm sure my parents do.

 

[gofreak]

For real? They're getting rid of it on all channels?

Digitiser was my 'gaf' before the internet, really. I'd read it every morning before school.

edit - teletext should still be here on irish channels..the used to have a games page on one of the channels here too that i'd read, but not sure if they do now..

 

[_sgray]

I used to fap to the sex ads when I was like 12.

 

[MadFuzzy]

For real? They're getting rid of it on all channels?

On ITV, Channel 4 and Five, yes. BBC Teletext will continue until the whole of the UK goes fully digital in 2012.

 

[infiniteloop]

no more Bamboozle?

 

[WrikaWrek]

Still have it here. Useful to see the weather predictions.

 

[Borgnine]

I used to fap to the sex ads when I was like 12.

I used to fap to your avatar right now.

 

[Wollan]

Been around as long as I can remember. Haven't used it for years. R.I.P.

 

[Gary Whitta]

I grew up on Ceefax and Oracle. Great stuff.

 

[scarybore]

Man thats a shame. I used to read Digitiser on Teletext before I went to school, but I pretty much stopped using the service except for TV listings once Paul Rose left and Digitiser morphed into GameCentral.

It gave me Turner the Worm, and that is something I will never forget.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

WTF so there's gonna be no TEXT service on Freeview for ITV, C4 anymore after January?

 

[Darkflight]

no more Bamboozle?

I used to love that

 

[mobnauseum]

meh - EPG's have made the tv guide redundant, and the internet's rendered the other features it offered obsolete.

Don't think this will affect subtitles at all.

Guess now it'll all be ''PRESS THE RED BUTTON NOW for painfully slow, distracting ads and pointless filler content that will most likely brick your digibox!' - yay..

 

[Mash]

Bamboozle 4eva.

 

[Alphahawk]

As an American Teletext has always been a big mystery to me.

What was it like it's own channel. or was it just overnight programming? Did you navigate using the remote? If so how did you change channels? The questions just stack up.

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

This news makes me genuinely sad.

Mr. Biffo was an inspiration.

 

[Darkflight]

You selected a channel, then pressed Text, then entered the number of the page you wanted, 100 was normally the index, 888 was subtitles. Some pages were multiple pages and would cycle unless you pressed hold to pause them, the cheap holiday pages did this.

 

[Fakto]

What for? Really became useless for me when digital tv came around and you could just see what's on tv and when with a press on the button.

Old people still uses it to check the lottery winner numbers, football classifications, etc

 

[Steppenwolf]

As an American Teletext has always been a big mystery to me.

What was it like it's own channel. or was it just overnight programming? Did you navigate using the remote? If so how did you change channels? The questions just stack up.

It's just some pages of c64 quality text that gets transmissioned parallel to the TV channel you are on. You navigate it with the remote. But all you can do is select the number of the page you want to read. 100 is the start page, 101 the index, 200-220 news (or some others, always different for each TV station), 700 weather etc.. Something like that.

 

[Funky Papa]

What for? Really became useless for me when digital tv came around and you could just see what's on tv and when with a press on the button.

Easier and faster than firing up the computer and looking for whatever you need ATM. It is pretty useful for checking the lotto, weather forecasts and market values.

 

[Great Poster]

As an American Teletext has always been a big mystery to me.

What was it like it's own channel. or was it just overnight programming? Did you navigate using the remote? If so how did you change channels? The questions just stack up.

As Americans, we were not intended to gr0k things of European origins...mysterious things such as their electrical plugs, warm beer and vegemite...these things are best shepherded by our cross-oceanic bretheren...

 

[Pikmindictator]

I only use it for checking the time which was displayed in the top right corner. Most people I know use it to check sports results. There's even a dutch iPhone app that lets you check teletext pages of a certain news broadcasting station.

 

[Freestyler]

Damnit! I still use Teletext to check TV listings when my iPhone isn't handy.

 

[Xun]

Oh Teletext, how I'll miss thee.

Also something I found quite interesting, but Teletext on a HDTV (on analog) is in the screens native resolution...

HD TELETEXT FOREVER!

 

[Cindres]

no more Bamboozle?

This! I used to play this at my grandparents (because they showed it me so i made it a weely thing when i was there, not because we didn't have it at home).

Can't say i've used it in age but i reckon i'll check it out again soon, for the memories.

 

[bengraven]

Someone explain to me:

1) what is Teletext?

2) who is that in _sgray's avatar that everyone is fapping to?

 

[Ad Infinitum]

Same comments as the two other posts regarding Digitiser. Used to read it round my Nan's house cos our TV was too old :lol

 

[GhostSeed]

Someone explain to me:

2) who is that in _sgray's avatar that everyone is fapping to?

Sasha Gray?

 

[gofreak]

Someone explain to me:

1) what is Teletext?

It's a dataservice that piggybacks on the usual TV signal. So when watching a channel you can hit a button, and a screen with text pops up. You input page numbers to change to another page (the first page is usually an index with the odd news headline). The page doesn't change automatically, you kind of have to wait for the numbers to cycle through to the page you want (would take varying amounts of time depending on your tv).

There's all sorts of info on these kinds of services..news, weather, horoscopes, movie reviews, games, dating ads, competitions etc.

 

[bengraven]

It's a dataservice that piggybacks on the usual TV signal. So when watching a channel you can hit a button, and a screen with text pops up. You input page numbers to change to another page (the first page is usually an index with the odd news headline). The page doesn't change automatically, you kind of have to wait for the numbers to cycle through to the page you want (would take varying amounts of time depending on your tv).

There's all sorts of info on these kinds of services..news, weather, horoscopes, movie reviews, games, dating ads, competitions etc.

Okay, that would have been rad back in the day on my old wood-frame TV with 3 channels.

Sasha Gray?

Hm, that's who I assumed it was, her tits looked smaller than usual.

 

[Talladega Knight]

I've never even heard of Teletext.

 

[gofreak]

Oh, and just to be clear also, it's a one-way service. You read the text, you don't type stuff in or anything.. in case there's any confusion from my reference to it as a data service.

I'm sure wikipedia has a good page about it

 

[Tranced Shadow]

A spokesman for DMGT said all Teletext's news and information services – both on analogue and digital – would cease in January 2010.

Wait, no more GameCentral then?

 

[Cyan]

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

That meme really was impressive work by the Republicans.

 

[GhostSeed]

Hm, that's who I assumed it was, her tits looked smaller than usual.

I just googled 'Sasha Gray bikini', it's definitely her.

 

[SecretBonusPoint]

Oh man! Digitiser! Have there been any threads on GAF about Digi in the past? God I miss it

 

[mightynine]

Americans, have fun poking around with one form of Teletext, BBC's Ceefax:
http://www.ceefax.tv/

So, when it eventually all goes away, what will they show way late at night on BBC2 to fill odd late-night hours without Pages from Ceefax?

 

[Wes]

no more Bamboozle?

Holy shit! Me and my sister would do those every day we got back from school. Soooooo good.

Turner The Worm :lol

Wow super trippy flashbacks galore.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

I used to fap to the sex ads when I was like 12.

 

[Tonay]

Digitiser was really something, wasn't it? The Man's Daddy and the film scripts really elevated it into greatness.

Check this out if you don't know what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitiser

Played a big part in british games journalism in the 90's, much of that was due to it's medium, being so easily accessible whilst having breakfast in the morning. Paul Rose went on to write a column for Edge, which I'm not sure if he still does now? And he writes for various tv shows.

 

[Wes]

 

[kottila]

Teletext is perfect to read news, check tv-channels and check the sports results. By the time the EPG has ....loading...loading.... started up, I'd have all my information already.

Reading sports news on half the screen and watching tv on the other half is pure bliss...

 

[NZNova]

I hit the teletext button by accident when I bought a new TV last year. I'm sure it will be sticking around in New Zealand for years to come.

 

[MrPing1000]

Americans, have fun poking around with one form of Teletext, BBC's Ceefax:
http://www.ceefax.tv/

So, when it eventually all goes away, what will they show way late at night on BBC2 to fill odd late-night hours without Pages from Ceefax?

Thats a good question lol.

Digitiser was awesome when I was a kid, The Man and the Man's Daddy

 

[Powerslave]

I used to fap to the sex ads when I was like 12.

lol