• RIP Ceefax 1974-2012 as UK completes digital TV switchover
    55 replies, posted
[img]http://imgkk.com/i/q2mj.gif[/img] [img]http://imgkk.com/i/wvh3.gif[/img] [img]http://imgkk.com/i/6vrl.gif[/img] [url]http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/22/rip-ceefax[/url] [quote=Wired]After 38 years the BBC is retiring Ceefax, ending the first era of digital content delivery to the home. Launched in 1974, Ceefax was the world's first teletext service -- a proto-internet delivering text and graphics to British tellies. When normal programmes finished at the end of every day pages from Ceefax would carry on scrolling, keeping insomniacs and night workers company through the wee hours. Its cheesy synthesised music is arguably as iconic a sound of its time as the squeal of a dial-up modem was to the 1990s. Ceefax was first developed by the BBC as a way to transmit subtitles using unused parts of the broadcast spectrum, but researchers at the broadcaster realised that the same technology could just as easily handle full pages of text. That led to the first test transmissions in 1974, with a formal rollout in 1976. Early television sets needed a special chip to be able to receive and store the information as it was broadcast -- many of those reading this will remember waiting for a page to refresh, watching the ticker at the top right which slowly crept upwards as each page was rebroadcast with new information. The new system was fast and flexible enough to be used for breaking news, along with other information (like stocks or the weather) where there was a need for regular updates. It was only a one-way system, though, which limited its uses, and as computers with internet access became more common Ceefax went from a necessity to a curiosity -- something you'd use to check the football scores when round your nan's. The beginning of the switchover to entirely digital television broadcasts in the UK signalled the final call for teletext services, which lived on parts of the analogue spectrum marked for use for digital services. ITV and Channel 4 closed down their teletexts in December 2009, leaving Ceefax as the lone survivor -- but as each region of the country turned from analogue to digital, pages from Ceefax continued to live on in the dead time between each days' programming, usually on BBC Two. The final broadcast of those pages went out yesterday, and when Northern Ireland finishes its digital switchover on 24 October Ceefax will be gone. You can still get continually updated information from the BBC on the red button, but it really isn't the same. Wired's July issue reported on the world's first teletext art competition, held by Finnish art collective FixC -- the winning entries were displayed on German teletext services in August. The UK's move away from teletext services is a bit faster than what's happening in continental Europe, where teletext remains more common.[/quote] [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19996372]BBC's tribute to Ceefax[/url] The last ever Ceefax page shown on Pages from Ceefax: [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/63644000/jpg/_63644556_63644555.jpg[/img] Edit: [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20048154]It's gone[/url]. Here's the last thing ever shown on Ceefax [img]http://puu.sh/1i1Jb[/img]
Wow. I haven't seen that thing for a long time, it all came back when I saw those pictures.
BBC Two still showed "Pages from Ceefax" in the late late hours of the night, but the last broadcast went out last night
My family used to book holidays on Teletext, except our remote didn't have a 'freeze' button so we had to wait for it to come back around every time to write the details down
I remember using this this for news before the internet :rolleyes:
I remember when I was young, my mum was always checking the stocks on teletext and my dad always checking the football. Good times, sad to see it go.
501 for entertainment news, 518 for gaming reviews. R.I.P. [sp]Even though GameCentral on teletext was 10 times better. That team now covers gaming and technology for The Metro so that's good[/sp]
Can't find the last broadcast of Pages from Ceefax but here's the penultimate one [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=devD8HzjZc8[/media] The music was apparently a collection of "classic" Ceefax music from over the decades I wonder what Ceefax will look like right before they turn it off. This is a spoof that's going around but I hope it's something like this [img]http://imgkk.com/i/j91d.jpg[/img]
I remember when I was a kid living in the middle of no where in scotland, i'd use Ceefax to get all my gaming news. My family used it up until last year when we replaced the dining room tv. RIP.
Wow, that's really cool, we never had anything that i know of like this in the US.
Looking at this ceefax, reminds me of ancient games in the past that looks almost similar to the graphics on this. Ceefax reminds me of ancient games from the NES and older titles when I once saw them though the internet and G4.
Aw man :[ I knew I was up too late when this badboy came on the tv, My Mum always used to use ceefax to check loads of stuff as well Goodnight sweet price.
For a minute I thought Andy Jenkinson had died
Oh man, I remember using this when I was younger to read gaming news, news and on occasion, the shit awful jokes pages. For some reason I always waited until around 9/10PM to start reading them, after everyone had gone to bed. Goodnight, sweet digital prince. You served us well in your 38 years.
Ontario had something like Teletext. It had the best canned music.
God I remember this. Even though I knew it towards the end of its life from early 90s to now it will still be a iconic piece of television.
As an American, that music is sweet.
When I was a kid I fapped to the pixel girls in the phonesex ads.
Finland moved to digital TV long ago, and we still have teletext. It's pretty much useless now, my dad is the only person I know who checks it, and even he does so only rarely.
That spoof message is a real tear-jerker. Never heard of Ceefax, but god speed nonetheless.
Man, I'm surprised something like this still exists. A true relic of the past, and a really neat one at that.
bye Ceefax, thank you for the memories
"You've been... BAMBOOZLED!" Me and my sisters used to play that all the time. But seriously, Ceefax was such a mindfuck to my twelve-year-old self, I had no idea how to get my way around it. I'd just smack in the Bamboozled channel to play the game and that was pretty much all I knew.
Holy shit blast from the past. I remember using that when Middlesbrough where still in the premier league.
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oVtYyhLOtpw/T47HcOeaIOI/AAAAAAAAAHg/SFjSKphW4ec/s1600/teletext-bamboozle.jpg[/img] :(
Most channels where I live still have TextTV, which is pretty cool.
Some Australian TV channels still offer a similar service, mainly for gambling and betting.
Aww. I found it better than teletext on my Bravia. Which is just as horrible as flash advertising everywhere on a website.
i used to watch it before the programs started on a saturday so i could pretend i had a tv with ceefax capability
Irelands switching to digital in the next few days too
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.