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Getting some major ANSI / Prodigy vibes

by raldi 4y ago

zinekeller 4y ago
You Americans have definitely missed on teletext, it's funny that you're comparing it to Prodigy (to be fair you have two-way systems, but teletext are much more accessible, being built on TV). It actually influenced how CC/subtitles looked: since US captions don't have colour, you rely on moving it closer to the speaker and on writing names in-stream while British subtitles (especially of BBC specification) also used colours. Edit: but I think that the true winner of this era is the French, they have both (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel, IEEE has a nice, although a bit opinionated, summary: https://web.archive.org/web/20171004160220/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web https://web.archive.org/web/20171004160220/https://spectrum....)
- xattt 4y ago
  I had a toast-rack ZX Spectrum as my childhood computer but grew up in North America, and just made the connection how much the TT graphics look like Spectrum graphics. Unrelatedly, Canada had a late launch of Minitel-like services in the mid-1990s: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/bell_canada_launches_interactive_screen_phone_services https://techmonitor.ai/technology/bell_canada_launches_inter...
  - cf100clunk 4y ago
    Canada also experimented with the Telidon system in the 1970s, which had some similarities to Teletext: https://wikiless.org/wiki/Telidon https://wikiless.org/wiki/Telidon
  - zinekeller 4y ago
    > INTERACTIVE SCREEN PHONE Unrelated, but imagine if smartphones today were instead called screenphones. Fun! I think that the reason teletext never went live in NA (although to be fair CBC had some serious trials) is because of different broadcast standards. Not in "NTSC versus PAL" mind you, but in "nationally-run versus autonomous affiliates of networks" sense. Convincing many independent stations to install equipment and to update the information for a nebulous service that you aren't sure that the viewers who bought their sets would appreciate, while across the pond the cost of switching to televisions with teletext is (for most people) call your renter if they have one available for you to swap to while we BBC/IBA (the Independent Broadcasting Authority) will take care of our side, even if you're in the Channel Islands.
    - xattt 4y ago
      This is lost to history, that there was a point when many CBC stations were affiliates and not actually run by CBC themselves.

Getting some major ANSI / Prodigy vibes

by raldi 4y ago

Getting some major ANSI / Prodigy vibes

You Americans have definitely missed on teletext, it's funny that you're comparing it to Prodigy (to be fair you have two-way systems, but teletext are much more accessible, being built on TV). It actually influenced how CC/subtitles looked: since US captions don't have colour, you rely on moving it closer to the speaker and on writing names in-stream while British subtitles (especially of BBC specification) also used colours. Edit: but I think that the true winner of this era is the French, they have both (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel, IEEE has a nice, although a bit opinionated, summary: https://web.archive.org/web/20171004160220/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web https://web.archive.org/web/20171004160220/https://spectrum....)

xattt 4y ago
I had a toast-rack ZX Spectrum as my childhood computer but grew up in North America, and just made the connection how much the TT graphics look like Spectrum graphics. Unrelatedly, Canada had a late launch of Minitel-like services in the mid-1990s: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/bell_canada_launches_interactive_screen_phone_services https://techmonitor.ai/technology/bell_canada_launches_inter...
- cf100clunk 4y ago
  Canada also experimented with the Telidon system in the 1970s, which had some similarities to Teletext: https://wikiless.org/wiki/Telidon https://wikiless.org/wiki/Telidon
- zinekeller 4y ago
  > INTERACTIVE SCREEN PHONE Unrelated, but imagine if smartphones today were instead called screenphones. Fun! I think that the reason teletext never went live in NA (although to be fair CBC had some serious trials) is because of different broadcast standards. Not in "NTSC versus PAL" mind you, but in "nationally-run versus autonomous affiliates of networks" sense. Convincing many independent stations to install equipment and to update the information for a nebulous service that you aren't sure that the viewers who bought their sets would appreciate, while across the pond the cost of switching to televisions with teletext is (for most people) call your renter if they have one available for you to swap to while we BBC/IBA (the Independent Broadcasting Authority) will take care of our side, even if you're in the Channel Islands.
  - xattt 4y ago
    This is lost to history, that there was a point when many CBC stations were affiliates and not actually run by CBC themselves.