Quote:
|
Originally Posted by andy
That's just the closed caption teletext mode which is completely different from the Digital system 3 teletext. The teletext we're talking about is interactive and capable of crude graphics.
|
What is the difference between the closed-caption teletext in my set and the system in the Digital System 3 receivers? I read your reply and understand what you're saying, but I'm baffled
as to what the teletext decoder in my set was even there for if there was never anything to watch in either mode, even, as I said, on TBS in the '90s. There are two closed-caption modes on my set as well, the second mode (Caption 2, exactly equivalent to CC2 on my RCA set) probably being used for carrying alternate language captioning as is being done extensively by ABC for their news and prime-time shows; but the teletext decoder still is as useless as ever these days. Was there
ever anything really useful being carried via teletext in this country when TBS was conducting its experiments, and did any other network or local station do anything along these lines?
The teletext service must have been close to a dud in this country, as I think Zenith stopped including the teletext decoders in their TVs before the end of the decade of the 1990s, say about 1997 or '98 if not earlier. If these TVs had been built to European TV standards the teletext decoder would have been very useful in those countries (since Europe made much more extensive use of teletext than was evident here), but it was a miserable flop in the US. Zenith should have, IMHO, left the decoders out from the beginning.