Thanks for sending me down a little mini rabbit hole, this triggered some memories on old teletext decoders for Amiga back in the 90s.
Anyway, I distinctly remember my father getting a new TV with teletext around 1987, and I could play endlessly with that. Also amazing that up until way in the 2000s I knew people who relied on it as the primary source for basic headlines, weather, but also traffic information on trains as well as expected landing times for airplanes. Of course the football standings in the Dutch Eredivisie was possibly the most viewed page of all. Completely wiped out by the internet, but all in all a surprisingly long run for any tech.
Nice article! I had rediscovered teletext for myself a few years ago, only vaguely remembering it existed (or something similar) in select cities in the US when I was a kid, but it was not something I paid much attention to. Getting interested, I began to wonder if you can set up your own teletext service.
For those like me who weren't familiar with the service or lived in a country that really didn't have it, there's this informative site: https://teletextarchaeologist.org/
Edit: Sorry all, it looks like teletextarcheologist.org went dormant, so the archive no longer seems to be working.
In case you’re unfamiliar, three-digit numbers on Teletext pages serve as hyperlinks. On a TV you would enter them on the remote control, in the browser you can just click or tap on them.
There are also mobile apps for accessing Teletext.
Probably mentioned on every teletext related submission, but the Finland's public broadcaster YLE still has an avid teletext userbase, if not through a proper TV, then through the website [0] (and there are mobile apps for that too).
Some of the news listings are perfect, given confined space, but no need to be click-baity. See, f.ex. the news-in-english page [1]
I’d like to add that Dutch state news broadcaster NOS now offers Teletext though SSH. Just type `ssh teletekst.nl` and you can browse through all their pages.
They fully revamped their Teletext backend a couple of years ago to their own solution. They had archaic hardware still, and had to fly in some one from the UK (fully pensioned and well) to service it
This stuff is cool as hell. I'd break out a CRT TV and try to get it working, but it feels not worth it without official NTSC or PAL broadcasts. Straight from the analog VBI on air or bust.
I think teletext is what triggered my interest in computers etc. It was one of my first experiences with anything computer like. When I was around 9 years old I was visiting my grandmother just the day she was having her new TV delivered. This must have been in the late 80s and we didn't have a computer or anything. I didn't care that much for the TV itself but then he the TV installation guy wanted to show this cool new thing "Tekst TV" (Text TV) as it was called here. It was like a completely new world opening. I sat the whole weekend playing with it. They had satellite TV in the complex she lived, so there were 20-30 channels and lots of cool graphics to explore. Back at home: No teletext, just 1-2 channels.
Very similar story from my end here. Spent more time 'watching' TV exploring the different Teletext channels than watching commercial TV. In Australia we had channels which had the weather for different rural places and channels with different jokes that cycled throughout the day. Great memories.
That was a nice read. I didn't know there were vector graphics in these systems. Found Canadian description of the Telidon "Picture Description Instructions (PDI)"
In Portugal circa early 2000s before mass internet adoption we'd use teletext apps for chat. There would be pages as "rooms" and you would send an SMS to a specific number that would then show on the teletext for everyone.
The most popular page was the dating page. It was the equivalent of tinder on those days, worked surprisingly well.
It was somewhat unique in that (at least originally) it only transmitted bitmap graphics, rather than having a hybrid system with some characters in ROM and others dynamically loaded.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 46.7 ms ] threadAnyway, I distinctly remember my father getting a new TV with teletext around 1987, and I could play endlessly with that. Also amazing that up until way in the 2000s I knew people who relied on it as the primary source for basic headlines, weather, but also traffic information on trains as well as expected landing times for airplanes. Of course the football standings in the Dutch Eredivisie was possibly the most viewed page of all. Completely wiped out by the internet, but all in all a surprisingly long run for any tech.
p.s. online still available (Dutch)
https://teletekst-data.nos.nl/webplus?p=100-01
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT%C3%89_Aertel
I don't have terrestrial TV (saorview) anymore to test, but apparently its still broadcast according to the wiki.
Teletext was very handy pre-internet, weather, news, TV listings, flight times etc, all on a feed.
It's a small detail but Poland was never a part of the USSR. Could be changed to "exited the Eastern Bloc".
I'd use it to look up Movie times at the local cinema and the weather forecast. We've came a long way since then !!
Naturally, you can: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/create-your-own-teletext-se...
For those like me who weren't familiar with the service or lived in a country that really didn't have it, there's this informative site: https://teletextarchaeologist.org/
Edit: Sorry all, it looks like teletextarcheologist.org went dormant, so the archive no longer seems to be working.
In case you’re unfamiliar, three-digit numbers on Teletext pages serve as hyperlinks. On a TV you would enter them on the remote control, in the browser you can just click or tap on them.
There are also mobile apps for accessing Teletext.
Some of the news listings are perfect, given confined space, but no need to be click-baity. See, f.ex. the news-in-english page [1]
[0] https://yle.fi/aihe/tekstitv
[1] https://yle.fi/aihe/tekstitv?P=191
They fully revamped their Teletext backend a couple of years ago to their own solution. They had archaic hardware still, and had to fly in some one from the UK (fully pensioned and well) to service it
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2020/isde-...
The most popular page was the dating page. It was the equivalent of tinder on those days, worked surprisingly well.
It was somewhat unique in that (at least originally) it only transmitted bitmap graphics, rather than having a hybrid system with some characters in ROM and others dynamically loaded.
1981 publication with specs of the pilot system (PDF): https://hcs64.com/files/Harashima,%20Kumamoto,%20Kitamura%20...