Why have virgin media never heard of teletext???

[X96abBA]

I cannot believe that in the year 2008, that Virgin Media have never heard of teletext. I have had a V+ box since May 2008 and cannot receive teletext on it. I complained to Virgin (at premium telephone rates) and was told that the V+ HD box did not support teletext. A friend has had a VM standard box via Telewest for years and has never been able to receive teletext. Why is Virgin Media so deficient in this area?

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by X96abBA

I cannot believe that in the year 2008, that Virgin Media have never heard of teletext. I have had a V+ box since May 2008 and cannot receive teletext on it. I complained to Virgin (at premium telephone rates) and was told that the V+ HD box did not support teletext. A friend has had a VM standard box via Telewest for years and has never been able to receive teletext. Why is Virgin Media so deficient in this area?

Sorry but i was under the impression that the dated teletext system has all but been removed on digital tv ?

BTW which number did you ring at premium rate as again i was under the impression that VM no longer used a premium rate number for technical support for quite a few months now.

[X96abBA]

Hello Sirius, I had Sky+ prior and that had digital teletext, unless you call it something else? I don't mean analogue teletext. The telephone number I would have find, but it was back in May and things might have changed for the better since then.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by X96abBA

Hello Sirius, I had Sky+ prior and that had digital teletext, unless you call it something else? I don't mean analogue teletext. The telephone number I would have find, but it was back in May and things might have changed for the better since then.

That makes sense then, I was thinking of the dated analogue system.

digital teletext something that has been missing from the start, it might have something to do with the software that is used on the set top boxes.

And yes it was premium rate back in May.

btw to Cable forum.

[SteveU]

Erm, Virgin does have it of sorts. If you go to BBC 1 then press the red button then there's a lot of good content there.

Also, go to the interactive page on the Virgin Menu and you'll find all sorts of info there too (under news, entertainment, etc...)

Hope this helps,
Steve

It sort of funny that the word 'teletext' reminds me of the 80's & my old BBC-B Computer with it's 'teletext' display mode

and on the other hand, teletext is still supported by most (all even?) new TV sets

[higgsfield]

I have always loved Teletext (ceefax) since the old days.

When I first got a Freeview TV I was really impressed with the digital version of teletext.

Since getting a V+ however, I have been underwhelmed with the implementation of teletext available on this platform.

[moroboshi]

If you have a device capable of connecting to the internet, then teletext seems utterly pointless and limited. Just fire up your PS3, iPhone, Wii, PC, Mac, PSP, etc and use that.

[Craig.]

Hey, I contacted teletext a few months back asking them if there were any plans to bring their digital service to virginmedia and they simply replied with no. I think that this is a shame as digital teletext is a good service which provides quick and easy access to useful information.

[sammyjayuk]

Originally Posted by Craig.

Hey, I contacted teletext a few months back asking them if there were any plans to bring their digital service to virginmedia and they simply replied with no. I think that this is a shame as digital teletext is a good service which provides quick and easy access to useful information.

Indeed. It's actually relatively easy - once you've got your head around the ancient cocktail of HTML 3.2, JavaScript 1.1 and the Liberate extensions - to create "applications" for the platform, which makes the lack of Teletext all the more disappointing. They have much more content, in certain areas, than BBC Red Button does (although I prefer the BBC's service for news and weather).

The lack of page numbers, on any of the interactive services on VM, interests me because it took me only about an hour of struggling (in part with case sensitivity and the API documentation) to come up with a way of doing 3 digit page numbers. Starting basically from scratch in terms of my knowledge of developing for the platform, it's taken me about two days to build a front page for a Teletext-type service.

I'd like to tackle a news headlines menu and a basic multi-screen text page next, then I'll probably move onto seeing what I can do for a Radio Times-style service. Hopefully the RT concept will let me be more creative in what gets put on the screen, as I'd like to use more graphics.

Sam

PS. I don't work in this area or anything, I just have an interest in it and like to consider myself as rather handy with Google. It keeps me occupied, I suppose...

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by moroboshi

If you have a device capable of connecting to the internet, then teletext seems utterly pointless and limited. Just fire up your PS3, iPhone, Wii, PC, Mac, PSP, etc and use that.

Yep I think that just about sums it up imo

[ShadowTD]

Sammyjay: I did exactly the same about 9 years ago - downloaded the SDK and had a play. It's really rather simple to write pages for but VM don't seem to push it to their content providers, possibly because there's no chargeable return path to make a few pence from for every button press...

[X96abBA]

Originally Posted by SteveU

Erm, Virgin does have it of sorts. If you go to BBC 1 then press the red button then there's a lot of good content there.

Also, go to the interactive page on the Virgin Menu and you'll find all sorts of info there too (under news, entertainment, etc...)

Hope this helps,
Steve

Thanks, SteveU, and yes your advice was helpful. It is a shame that the VM adviser either didn't know or couldn't be bothered to say. I would prefer the conveniece of digital teletext, Sky fashion, though. Still, only 6 months remains of the contract with VM, then, "byeeeeeeee".

[Turkey Machine]

I am amazed at the audacity of putting a "text" button on the remote, then not offering the service. Seems a crazy idea to me.