4 ms·

Teletext time travel

105 points by dsr12 11y ago

patatino 11y ago
Snapshot from 1980 and I don't feel like I'm looking at something old, fascinating! I still use teletext daily as an app on my phone. One of the fastest way to check sport results and read some news.
kalleboo 11y ago
More technical info on how this works (specifically dealing with VHS bandwidth being lower than TV bandwidth and "de-blurring" the data): https://github.com/ali1234/vhs-teletext/blob/master/README#L86 https://github.com/ali1234/vhs-teletext/blob/master/README#L...
jarcane 11y ago
I was fascinated to learn that there are still teletext services here in Finland. There's even mobile apps now to access them without a TV.
- mruckstuhl 11y ago
  Yes, in Switzerland as well. It's so odd seeing so many people using these apps to check hockey and soccer results – on a smartphone!
  - mvanvoorden 11y ago
    Same in Netherlands. Little text, so it's straight to the point, and no ads,
- gpvos 11y ago
  It differs a lot by country. Flemish Belgium is about to stop with it because of low usage, while in the Netherlands it is still going strong (although I guess most people access it over the Internet now).
- tuacker 11y ago
  Same in Austria, even accessible through web at http://teletext.orf.at/ http://teletext.orf.at/
alisonc 11y ago
Apparently run time of the decoding is still a problem. I wonder if it lends itself to massively parallel execution like with CUDA or something.
pkaye 11y ago
We never had much teletext in the US but I remember back in the 80s there would be these touch screen teletext like systems in BART stations in the bay area.
Someone 11y ago
Apart from the limited (aka 'hideois') color palette, limited character set, and limited resolution, the original format had an extra feature that made it challenging to design pages: spacing attributes. What that meant was that, whenever you wanted to change color (text and/or background), you _had_ to insert a space in the page. So, for example, showing text on a background Dutch or German flag was easy, doing so on a Belgian, French or Italian one could not be done nicely.

105 points by dsr12 11y ago

Snapshot from 1980 and I don't feel like I'm looking at something old, fascinating! I still use teletext daily as an app on my phone. One of the fastest way to check sport results and read some news.

kalleboo 11y ago

More technical info on how this works (specifically dealing with VHS bandwidth being lower than TV bandwidth and "de-blurring" the data): https://github.com/ali1234/vhs-teletext/blob/master/README#L86 https://github.com/ali1234/vhs-teletext/blob/master/README#L...

jarcane 11y ago

I was fascinated to learn that there are still teletext services here in Finland. There's even mobile apps now to access them without a TV.

mruckstuhl 11y ago
Yes, in Switzerland as well. It's so odd seeing so many people using these apps to check hockey and soccer results – on a smartphone!
- mvanvoorden 11y ago
  Same in Netherlands. Little text, so it's straight to the point, and no ads,
gpvos 11y ago
It differs a lot by country. Flemish Belgium is about to stop with it because of low usage, while in the Netherlands it is still going strong (although I guess most people access it over the Internet now).
tuacker 11y ago
Same in Austria, even accessible through web at http://teletext.orf.at/ http://teletext.orf.at/

alisonc 11y ago

Apparently run time of the decoding is still a problem. I wonder if it lends itself to massively parallel execution like with CUDA or something.

pkaye 11y ago

We never had much teletext in the US but I remember back in the 80s there would be these touch screen teletext like systems in BART stations in the bay area.

Someone 11y ago

Apart from the limited (aka 'hideois') color palette, limited character set, and limited resolution, the original format had an extra feature that made it challenging to design pages: spacing attributes. What that meant was that, whenever you wanted to change color (text and/or background), you _had_ to insert a space in the page. So, for example, showing text on a background Dutch or German flag was easy, doing so on a Belgian, French or Italian one could not be done nicely.