Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:32:57 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Ian Jackson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

It could have been done with a piece of white-on-black text consisting
of just a full-stop.

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:32:57 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Ian Jackson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

The analogue service in the Irish Republic was switched off at 10 am on
24th October. One of the RTE senior presenters was in the network
monitoring centre to do the switchoff using a computer mouse. She was in
front of a wall of displays showing the various channels being
transmitted. Four of them showed the analogue tranmissions.

Persons of a technical disposition will recognise the artistic licence
in the broadcasting of this event.

Animated GIF of screen grabs from the analogue transmission (948.3Kb):
http://www.peterduncanson.net/temp/R...0Switchoff.gif

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On 30/10/2012 14:46, Peter Duncanson wrote:

The analogue service in the Irish Republic was switched off at 10 am on
24th October. One of the RTE senior presenters was in the network
monitoring centre to do the switchoff using a computer mouse. She was in
front of a wall of displays showing the various channels being
transmitted. Four of them showed the analogue tranmissions.

Persons of a technical disposition will recognise the artistic licence
in the broadcasting of this event.

Animated GIF of screen grabs from the analogue transmission (948.3Kb):
http://www.peterduncanson.net/temp/R...0Switchoff.gif

Here's an off air recording, showing the build up to the switch off, and
Cairn Hill's carrier dropping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35b63...yer_detailpage

I like the way they bugger up counting backwards from ten.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
...

Before the final switchoff of the Ceefax service the Ceefax home page
(P100) cycled through 20 screens. The first was the usual index screen.
The others had "goodbye" messages shrinking in size.

I took photos of them (with a camera on a solid tripod) and have put
them together as an animated GIF file.

Warning! The file is 1.5MB in size. I'm still experimenting with ways of
reducing the size without further damaging the quality:

http://www.peterduncanson.net/temp/Ceefax%20goodbye.gif


I accidentally pressed the teletext button whilst channel surfing last night
and chanced upon a page of old fashioned text on BBC three, interestingly
and for whatever reason, there was the option of four different languages,
however the only one which appeared to be working was in the Serbian
language, excuse poor quality pictures due to crappie camera.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11815200/CFX1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11815200/CFX2.jpg

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Peter Duncanson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

It could have been done with a piece of white-on-black text consisting
of just a full-stop.

You can see here, the actual shut down, didn't quite make it to the smallest
white bock before the U Links were pulled :-(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtZv...feature=relmfu


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:58:51 +0000, Mark Carver
wrote:

Peter Duncanson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

It could have been done with a piece of white-on-black text consisting
of just a full-stop.

You can see here, the actual shut down, didn't quite make it to the smallest
white bock before the U Links were pulled :-(

That's a slight pity. However, the analogue switchoffs of BBC1 NI and
UTV were more orderly than that of Channel 4. BBC1 NI switchoff was as
seen in the video. UTV switchoff happened a few minutes later at the end
of the adverts following The Magic Box programme.

Channel 4 just went dead in the middle of a programme (when Mary Peters
pushed the off button).

Channel 5 went off some time after midnight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtZv...feature=relmfu

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:32:57 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Ian Jackson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

It could have been done with a piece of white-on-black text consisting
of just a full-stop.

What shape would the full stop be?

Bill

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Mark Carver wrote:

I like the way they bugger up counting backwards from ten.


Come on Mark! It isn't easy, counting backwards! I've never got the hang
of it.
Anyway, I'm not surprised they turned analogue off if that's how snowy
it was.

Bill

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

In message , Bill Wright
writes
Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:32:57 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Ian Jackson wrote:

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
It would have to be square.

It could have been done with a piece of white-on-black text consisting
of just a full-stop.

What shape would the full stop be?

Half a colon?
--
Ian

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Bill Wright wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:

I like the way they bugger up counting backwards from ten.


Come on Mark! It isn't easy, counting backwards! I've never got the hang
of it.
Anyway, I'm not surprised they turned analogue off if that's how snowy
it was.

Ha !

I must say, I watched the whole 30 minute programme on RTE's web player, full
credit to them for a decent programme presented in a non patronising manner.
Technical enough not to annoy the technically minded, but equally nothing to
scare off or alienate the uninitiated. There was an excellent 10 minute
feature at the end looking at the transmitter installations of the original
RTE network in 1961, talking to some of the individuals involved.

Such a programme on UK TV, would no doubt include some **** making a joke out
of the whole event, calling the technical staff 'boffins', and any relevant
information dumbed down to nonsense.

Nice work RTE.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk