Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

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


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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

--
My Kindle/Mobile links page | All Kindles | http://goo.gl/ySe0d
Use these for low bandwidth | All Mobiles | http://KindLink.tk/
A really crap coded website | All Devices |
https://sites.google.com/site/themadge/

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On 29/10/2012 22:58, madge wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).



my last crt - a loewe aconda, did that - they probably spent money to
make it that way.

--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:58:40 -0000, madge
wrote:

On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

Good thought. That seems highly likely.

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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On 30/10/2012 00:24, Peter Duncanson wrote:

The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

Good thought. That seems highly likely.

Or they were copying how Oracle said goodbye, almost 20 years ago:-

http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/o...end-gone.shtml



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

www.paras.org.uk

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On 29/10/2012 22:58, madge wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

Indeed.

What was on subscreen 19 (along the bottom of the page)? It gets to 18
then cycles back. Was it just blank?

--

Jeff

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Mark Carver wrote:

Or they were copying how Oracle said goodbye, almost 20 years ago:-

Twenty years? My, how time flies ...

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:28:36 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 29/10/2012 22:58, madge wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

Indeed.

What was on subscreen 19 (along the bottom of the page)? It gets to 18
then cycles back. Was it just blank?

I accidentally omitted that subscreen. The white rectangle in the centre
shrinks to a small square in subscreen 19.

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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

In message , Peter Duncanson
writes
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:28:36 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 29/10/2012 22:58, madge wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:10:15 -0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:


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.


The reducing white rectangle/box was probably a reference, (in my
opinion), to the shrinking white spot that used to appear when switching
off old B&W CRT Tv's, (when I were a lad).

Indeed.

What was on subscreen 19 (along the bottom of the page)? It gets to 18
then cycles back. Was it just blank?

I accidentally omitted that subscreen. The white rectangle in the centre
shrinks to a small square in subscreen 19.

I have to admit that I was hoping for a final small, round dot.
--
Ian

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Ian Jackson wrote:

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

Bill

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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

Ian Jackson wrote:

Half a colon?

My mate Dave's only got a semi-colon. He's doing all right.

Bill

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:11:02 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Anyway, I'm not surprised they turned analogue off if that's how snowy
it was.

Actually, it was a fairly good signal, unless you happened to be using
an indoor aerial 30 miles from the transmitter - like that ****
signal.

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
...


Channel 5 went off some time after midnight

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

Interesting that Channel 5 was the last analogue service to close down in N
Ireland (and the UK)

Same thing happened in mainland GB with Burnhope Channel 5 being last to go.

Last in.... Last out !

--
Regards
Colin

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:24:41 -0000, "cmwb" wrote:

"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
.. .


Channel 5 went off some time after midnight

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

Interesting that Channel 5 was the last analogue service to close down in N
Ireland (and the UK)

A possible reason for that in my part of Northern Ireland is that all
the analogue and digital services were transmitted from the Divis mast
except for Channel 5 which came from the nearby but separate Black
Mountain mast. Having Black Mountain still transmitting would not have
prevented the start of the necessary engineering activities at Divis.

Same thing happened in mainland GB with Burnhope Channel 5 being last to go.

Last in.... Last out !

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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:06:17 +0000, Peter Duncanson
wrote:

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:24:41 -0000, "cmwb" wrote:

"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
. ..


Channel 5 went off some time after midnight

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

Interesting that Channel 5 was the last analogue service to close down in N
Ireland (and the UK)

A possible reason for that in my part of Northern Ireland is that all
the analogue and digital services were transmitted from the Divis mast

I should have mentioned that the Divis transmitting station has two
masts. The second one is new and is for the high power digital
transmissions.

except for Channel 5 which came from the nearby but separate Black
Mountain mast. Having Black Mountain still transmitting would not have
prevented the start of the necessary engineering activities at Divis.

Same thing happened in mainland GB with Burnhope Channel 5 being last to go.

Last in.... Last out !

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

Ceefax final Goodbye messages
 

cmwb wrote:
Interesting that Channel 5 was the last analogue service to close
down in N Ireland (and the UK)

Same thing happened in mainland GB with Burnhope Channel 5 being last
to go.

Last in.... Last out !

It was the same in London, C5 Croydon, went after the other four had
gone at Crystal P. However even where it was co sited with the other
four, it was still the last to go.

Oxford and Hannington for example.

As Peter says it's probably connected to the fact it didn't need to
clear off to make way for the new DTT services. At Oxford and
Hannington, and many other sites, it still operated from its own
dedicated aerial stack, and used frequencies not being re used post DSO.