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7th Jan 2022, 12:30 pm | #1 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Virginia Water, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 25
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Ceefax Simulator
Forum members may enjoy trying out this remarkably authentic online Ceefax simulator which actually displays up-to-date news, weather, etc. Alongside the Ceefax display is an image of a remote control and you simply click on the appropriate buttons then everything responds exactly as it used to, including the delays.
https://www.nathanmediaservices.co.uk/teletext-viewer/ For further information here is a link to a recent Guardian article with an interesting profile of the person who developed the simulator and what inspired him to do it. https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...hern-irish-man Apologies in advance if the Mods consider this to be recreation not restoration. Enjoy. Len
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Member of BVWS and VMARS. MCR21 Volunteer. |
7th Jan 2022, 1:47 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
Very nice. I have, however, found an error. From the index page (100) I went to the weather map on 401, then returned to 100 with the result below. It appears that the index doesn't clear the blank lines between the ones with text.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
7th Jan 2022, 4:08 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 3,957
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
Natham was on BBC1 "Breakfast" yesterday morning explaining about it.
John.
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My favourite text message "I'll be there in five minutes, if not read again" |
7th Jan 2022, 6:23 pm | #4 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,529
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
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7th Jan 2022, 8:16 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
It worked for me as well last time I tried it, but I did get the same problem with a different page, so it's obviously intermittent - the most difficult type of error to debug.
edit: I thought it was now sorted, but I have managed to get the same error again.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) Last edited by Dave Moll; 7th Jan 2022 at 8:26 pm. Reason: addendum |
8th Jan 2022, 1:42 am | #6 |
Octode
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Oban, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 1,118
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
Correct me if I'm wrong but ISTR installing a CEEFAX device as part of a marine electronics package (so the crew could be informed by TV of vessel status etc) and the equipment came with the appropriate PC software that only worked with the supplied (parallel port) dongle.
I can't recall much more than that about it but maybe someone else knows if this was a genuine device/package? |
8th Jan 2022, 9:08 am | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
I would be interested to know more about this PC-based Teletext device, as my only experience is one with the BBC Micro. Although Acorn (who produced the Micro) made a matching Teletext adaptor, mine was from Watford Electronics.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
9th Jan 2022, 11:36 pm | #8 |
Heptode
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: High Wycombe, Bucks. UK.
Posts: 811
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Re: Ceefax Simulator
Some PC TV tuner cards could decode teletext. Many years ago I had one called Lifeview FlyVideo II. This was a PCI card containing a Brooktree Bt8x8 video processor chip. The card was installed inside a desktop PC running Windows 98. The supplied software included CEBRA Teletext Application. This could view and save teletext pages present in the TV signal that the card was receiving. Cebra also made a teletext encoder card, enabling you to add your own teletext to a video signal. I suppose this was intended for cable TV operators or large hotels etc. wishing to distribute information via normal TV sets.
Anyway I tried Nathan's Ceefax simulator - it looks great! Not long after Ceefax closed (around 2013 I think) there was another tribute site called pagesfromceefax.com but it seems to have gone now. That site wasn't interactive. It showed the Ceefax demo page (198) which the BBC often aired overnight after closedown. P198 showed a changing selection of ceefax pages. The pagesfromceefax.com website simulated this, but automatically 'scraped' the BBC News website for the latest headlines and turned them into Ceefax pages, so the pages had fresh content. Very clever. Some people must have too much time on their hands. There are other teletext tribute sites like https://www.digitextsim.com/ Teletext is not actually dead. It's still used in some countries despite the coming of digital TV Last time I checked, RTE in Ireland and Eurosport still carried old-style teletext, and you can receive it on a Sky Digibox in the UK. Unless you have an Irish-registered Sky viewing card and subscription, you cannot watch RTE TV, but you can still view their teletext for free, even without a viewing card. Same goes for Eurosport. Connect the Sky box to your TV via RF or SCART, tune your Sky box in to RTE or Eurosport and press the Text button on your TV. The RTE channels may have to be added manually to the "Other Channels" section as they don't appear in the Sky Guide without the correct viewing card. I've also tried generating teletext using a Raspberry Pi microcomputer. It worked remarkably well. Again, several years ago, there was a 'homebrew' teletext service called Teefax. The Raspberry Pi could download the pages from the internet then encode them as real teletext on the Raspberry Pi's composite video output. By connecting the Raspberry Pi to a teletext-equipped TV, you could press Text on the TV's remote control, then browse the pages using the TV remote, just like the old days. I notice Nathan's Ceefax simulator can be used in the same way. There are installation instructions for the Raspberry Pi on his website. I'll have to try it soon and report the results. I have other means of generating teletext signals, such as a Philips PM5518TX and PM5518TN TV signal generator which provides a few test pages. I also have an unusual device called a Multiview box. This is a digital to analogue TV converter. It receives five DVB-T digital terrestrial (Freeview) TV channels and converts them into analogue PAL RF. It's a bit like having 5 Freeview boxes with RF modulators combined into one. The result is that you have 5 analogue TV channels on separate frequencies in the UHF band. (Typically BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4 and CH5 in the UK, but you can change this to any 5 channels available from up to 3 different DVB-T multiplexes.) You can hook it up to your old black and white portable TV with rotary tuner and tune in the 5 analogue stations by turning the dial, just like before the digital switchover happened. Most interesting of all, the Multiview box turns the Freeview EPG into a series of teletext pages which can be seen on a TV with teletext. The teletext EPG pages are updated automatically from the digital TV signal; no internet connection is required. |