BBC Text service (Ceefax) now gone digital

[Ann]

Hi - is anyone else frustrated with the digital text service on digital TV? It is so poor compared with the old Ceefax service on analogue TV. We only switched over last week and already I hate the text service - not half as much information provided - a lot of the old pages of information have gone and to navigate around the keys I find is very clumsy............. GRRRR does anyone else feel the same? I think the whole switchover business has been a huge unecessary expense for people - I have had to update 3 televisions and now have discovered my video recorder won't work either, I can't afford all this changing to new equipment. There must be others who agree with me?

[Postdog]

Well you can't say you weren't warned - of course your video won't work because it has an analogue tuner.

[Ann]

I know we were warned but that doesn't alter the fact that its happened against a lot of people's wishes (or wallets!)

[AlBags]

I am sure many things will improve once the analogue bandwidth is made available after DSO. That will free up more space for a lot more digital services.

[daisya]

I quite agree with you Ann, I'm dreading the switchover in 2012 for us, I love Ceefax with all the letters and news, weather etc so I am going to hate it going with a vengeance. I personally think it's a con in that "big brother" can keep track of things with digital equipment...so think there's an ulterior motive for them changing it IMO. If you haven't got HD tv then some of the pictures blur (as in grass on football pitches) and as for recording things digitally when it's raining and you have a satellite dish...what a joke, you can't do it as the picture goes. I don't think that's progress so what's the point in going digital when things can be worse than we've already got.

[Postdog]

Gotta disagree. It's way better now.

[Ann]

Thank you daisya - I thought it was only me complaining! Since Switch over last week, the sound is strange on the digital channels, it suddenly disappears when people are speaking, only for a second or two like a hiccup. That never happened on analogue and the tv is only a year old so its not a fault - it MUST be the digital service. An improvement - Ha don't make me laugh!

[boxtops]

I wouldn't notice, I haven't used Ceefax for years, I didn't even know it was still around.

[Ann]

Boxtops - a lot of elderly people still used Ceefax - my Mum is 87 and doesn't want a computer to look information up on the net. Believe me, a lot of people use Ceefax.

[daisya]

Yes Ann the sound can go like that as it does on ours occasionally with Sky also sometimes it's not in synch with the picture, not too often but you notice it when it happens. I just don't like digital full stop but I know I will miss Ceefax like billyo as I did when ITV's teletext went awol for good. Love reading the letters on Ceefax and ITV had theirs as well....but hey ho, what choice do we mere mortals have....accept it or turn it off...sigh.

[Ann]

Yes daisya I don't like change - especially when its not for the better! But perhaps I'm just a grumpy old woman!

[Buenchico]

Your video recorder can't record one programme while you watch another (because it doesn't have its own digital tuner) but you can still use it to record a programme while you're away from your TV. (Feed the output from your Freeview box, switched to the correct channel, to the recorders input. Set the recorder to record form 'AV' or 'Line In' instead of a numbered channel).

Digital TV is actually saving you money. That's because it allows the BBC to make money from commercial activities, thus reducing the cost of the licence fee. The BBC owns 25% of Freeview, which makes money by selling channel space to broadcasters. The BBC also has a 50% stake (which is due to rise to 60% shortly) in the Dave, Really and Yesterday channels on Freeview (as well as in Alibi, Blighty, Eden, Gold, Good Food, Home and Watch on satellite and cable).

The reorganisation of the radio spectrum, to provide space for new broadcasters as well as for mobile phone services, 3G devices and many other users comes about through a Europe-wide agreement (because radio waves don't stop at national borders). That agreement has nothing to do with the EU; it was in existence before the EU even existed. Under that agreement, the UK signed up to a commitment to have completed the digital switchover by 2001 at the very latest. (So, as we're already a decade behind schedule, it's hardly something new!)

ITV closed their Teletext service in December 2009 because (with the increasing use of the internet) hardly anyone ever used it. The BBC has decided to close Ceefax for exactly the same reason.

Chris

[boxtops]

That's interesting, ann - I didn't realise that.

[beckersjay]

I'm really with Ann86 and agree the digital text service is pathetic compared with the old Ceefax - and slower too - progress?? And the argument that no-ne uses it doesn't wash with me either. I remember going to replace a cooker with a similar model to our old one and the salesman saying 'they discontinued it through lack of demand - you're the third person to ask for it today'..... Needless to say we had to make do with a very second best substitute.

[grffindoor2011]

I don't buy this 'old people won't like it, leave it as it is' nonsense. Keeping things going so as not to upset the current old folk, brings more old folk into the equation in the future and you never progress/move on.

[daisya]

grf, it's all well changing things IF they are changed for the better and as regards teletext, the analogue one is MUCH better than the digital one and that's the problem as far as some of us are concerned.