Teletext adaptor

[Stephen Coates]

Has anyone here used a teletext adaptor?

I was thinking of getting one for the BBC but thought that it might be a bit difficult to set up as I think it requires software on ROMs that is hard to get (and I don;t have the facility for making the ROMs myself).

Although I did read in an advert in Amiga Format about the Microtext adaptor for the amiga and thought it looked good.

I looked for them on ebay, and the other day, won one for £6.50. Comes with manual, power adaptor, and software on disk. I quite look forward to trying it out now and see how much it differs from using teletext on the TV.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330150564634&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=014

[J T]

I've never seen one of those, and was only dimly aware of their existance.

Having the Amiga read the teletext pages aloud is quite a neat idea though! Let us know how you get on with this.

I used to use teletext quite a lot for checking news, sport scores, the letters page but now don't really bother so much - because all out TV viewing now is through digital tuners and I just can't be bothered getting up to get the TV remote and switching the input mode to analogue. My teletext use was a quite casual and spur of the moment thing. If I have to prepare to use it I just won't bother. And I don't really like digital text services too much - it's very slow and looks like a vrey poor web page, I'd rather just switch on the PC if that's what I'm after.

[Harrison]

The same for me. I used to use Teletext quite a lot, reading news and the Game Central pages, as well as checking the cinema listings. But I hardly use it now. The only thing I do read most days is the latest Formula One news, but I've been reading that on digital teletext more recently as it contains more information and is easier to read.

I've also found digital teletext can be very slow and often harder to find information compared to analogue teletext.

As for teletext adaptors, I did use a BBC Micro one many years ago at school and it worked fine for browsing the pages. I've not used one on the Amiga though.

Is the one you have purchases able to download and store the complete set of pages for a day? I remember reading a review some years ago for a teletext unit on the Amiga with this ability. You could set it to fetch and download all pages currently available that would take about 10 minutes, and then you could browse them all much faster locally from the HD, instead of needing to wait for each page to be fetched from the actual TV signal.

Sadly analogue teletext days are numbered. The first analogue signals are being switched off this autumn so those areas won't be able to pick it up soon. My area isn't being switched off until 2012 though so I have a bit of time left yet. :)

[Stephen Coates]

I definately look forward to having it speak the teletext page.

I never really have used teletext that much. I just usually use it for checking todays and tommorows weather forcasts. Although i do use it for checking te news sometimes though. I will definately miss analogue teletext. I have used digital text but not as much as I have used Analogue. I really hate watching the BBC news on Freeview as it has that 'Press red' thing in the corner which i don't seem to be able to get rid of. I don't know why it is there. I put BBC1 on to watch the news, not to Press Red and read teletext instead.

I think our analogue signals are being switched off in 2011. I am certainly not looking forward to that, because while I do like digital TV, it does mean that anything with an analogue tuner, which i do use from time to time, will be unusable.

I am not sure if the Microtext can save all the teletext pages but I'm sure I will be able to find out.

[Harrison]

It will be interesting to hear about the unit once you get it.

[Stephen Coates]

I recieved the adaptor today, and started to set it up.

The manual is clearly out of date regarding teletext (mentions of Oracle, FastText being a new thing etc).

It seems to work, although due to my A500's keyboard not working correctly, I have not been able to set it up proeprly.

[AlexJ]

The manual is clearly out of date regarding teletext (mentions of Oracle, FastText being a new thing etc).

Oracle! I'd forgotten all about that. I remember flicking Text on during the kids programmes one morning and being met with a blue & yellow Teletext screen instead of the familiar red & green Oracle screen. I thought I'd found some foreign text service. Reminds me actually how much I used to use Text before the internet (and even during the days of dial-up, text was still quicker than using the web).

Having said that, the digital text on my Freeview PVR is actually super quick and will display pages near instantly (I think it might buffer pages). Plus there's no waiting for sub-pages to go round which used to be (well I guess it still is) really annoying on teletext.

[Harrison]

Really? I find with digital teletext that often I have to sit and wait with the message "Loading..." on screen.

[TiredOfLife]

Must admit, hardly ever use teletext now since we went digital.
It's just too slow.
Used to use it quite a bit in the days of analogue.
News,Sports news and financial news.

[Stephen Coates]

I find digital text slow, but I think it depends on the speed of the reciever.

I still use analogue text for weather forcasts.

I put a different keyboard in the A500+ and it now works well. The adaptor tuned itself in and tried to put all the channels on the relavant programme number, with the exception of Channel Five, and ITV - it found Tyne Tees first when I wanted Yorkshire, so I just put Tyne Tees on channel 6 and waited for it to find yorkshire. My Tyne Tees signal must be quite good though, because on my old TV, we actually programmed Tyne Tees into channel 3 (probably unknowingly) and that is what I spent most of my time watching.

I did manage to get it to speak the pages. It was good, but I hope that speach is just a little adition, and isn't a feature for the visually impaired users.

You can also save teletext pages as IFF files, and you can print them, either as plain text, or the entire page with graphics. I did this, but a dried up ink ribbon prevented it from looking good.

It also comes with a BBC Emulator disk to use the BBC telesoftware which can be downloaded from the adaptor.

[Harrison]

Does the BBC telesoftware still exist? I remember using that on a BBC Master many years ago.


a dried up ink ribbon prevented it from looking good

Retro as always! ;)

[Stephen Coates]

It is certainly not avaliable on Ceefax any more (obviously).

I did aquire an HP DeskJet recently (for free, along with a Pentium system (133MHz I think)) which seems to work with the amiga, only the colour cartridge in that seems to be dried up.

And I knew for sure that the Amstrad works with the Amiga. I will definately be trying to get the deskjet set up properly though.