I remember when my auntie and uncle moved into a house that had on old analogue sky dish, and when they had got Sky Digital installed, the engineer somehow managed to get Digital through the Analogue dish so they never had a Minidish installed.
Any idea on how the engineer would have managed that?
I assume it would just have been a case of moving the dish round to 28.8 degrees? Unless there was a significant difference in frequencies the LNB would have been usable for both I'd have thought
RS
Rob_Schneider
Nickelodeon and Paramount were definitely the same TX suite - often the DOG would be late to switch.
The teletext services for both were edited by the same people, although soon after launch NickText came off-air during the handover - not sure if there was a valid technical reason for this as PText stayed on-air during Nickelodeon hours. Originally the handover was at 8pm (with cable viewers leaving at 7pm) but this moved forward a few months after launch.
Paramount went through a phase of having "themed" IVC during the late evening I remember, which had the knock-on effect of programmes running up to 35-40 minutes late on occasions.
Originally Nickelodeon timeshared with VH1 Germany, which was encrypted. This then timeshared with Nickelodeon Germany, which broadcast "in the clear" to the UK.
I remember around 1996-98 there was an increase of the multi-channels, so the original Amstrad receivers couldn't cope with them. Around this time, receivers and LNB's had a wider range of frequencies, so they received the new channels.
I can remember me and my dad buying atleast 3 of these expander units.
The teletext services for both were edited by the same people, although soon after launch NickText came off-air during the handover - not sure if there was a valid technical reason for this as PText stayed on-air during Nickelodeon hours.
It may have been mentioned on PText's Mailbox pages (great feature, slightly surreal and totally random - it was all also archived online @ newmailbox.co.uk) but I think it came down to demand basically, as with Nickelodeon off the air there would have been no demand for it, whereas Paramount Text, aimed at an older audience, justified hiding in the 700s (where it stayed after 7pm IIRC, just linked from the default page 100) albeit slower.
Quote:
Paramount went through a phase of having "themed" IVC during the late evening I remember, which had the knock-on effect of programmes running up to 35-40 minutes late on occasions.
Mentioned on Mailbox regularly regardless of what continuity was used IIRC. Apparently ran early as well
I remember around 1996-98 there was an increase of the multi-channels, so the original Amstrad receivers couldn't cope with them. Around this time, receivers and LNB's had a wider range of frequencies, so they received the new channels.
I can remember me and my dad buying atleast 3 of these expander units.
I forgot about those expander units. I think Sky sold them as well. I didn't get Sky until 1996, so already had a wideband LNB and Pace Apollo receiver.
This was a budget receiver which performed really well.
The teletext services for both were edited by the same people, although soon after launch NickText came off-air during the handover - not sure if there was a valid technical reason for this as PText stayed on-air during Nickelodeon hours.
It may have been mentioned on PText's Mailbox pages (great feature, slightly surreal and totally random - it was all also archived online @ newmailbox.co.uk) but I think it came down to demand basically, as with Nickelodeon off the air there would have been no demand for it, whereas Paramount Text, aimed at an older audience, justified hiding in the 700s (where it stayed after 7pm IIRC, just linked from the default page 100) albeit slower.
Quote:
Paramount went through a phase of having "themed" IVC during the late evening I remember, which had the knock-on effect of programmes running up to 35-40 minutes late on occasions.
Mentioned on Mailbox regularly regardless of what continuity was used IIRC. Apparently ran early as well
Ah I remember Mailbox. An early version of social media in many ways!
RS
Rob_Schneider
We had a Ferguson unit c.1991 but like the Amstrad units it couldn't pick up 1D. So I missed out on loads of content until we went Digital in 1999.
If I recall correctly a lot of the kit that Nick/Paramount used for the teletext was formally ORACLE's. Hence they were able to repeat their soap opera, Park Avenue
The person who used to run the Nick and Paramount teletext services used to post on forums such as this one years ago, I've not seen him online for ages though.
If I recall correctly a lot of the kit that Nick/Paramount used for the teletext was formally ORACLE's. Hence they were able to repeat their soap opera, Park Avenue
It was (confirmed in PText Mailbox I seem to remember, should be in the archive somewhere), but with regard to Park Avenue, they had to rebuild all the content:
In 1995, PText repeated Park Avenue. A courier arrived, bearing a large box of dot matrix printouts, in no particular order. It seems that no electronic copies existed, apparently. It became pretty clear that not all episodes had survived the passage of time, but those that had at least seemed to come in pretty large blocks, so the story could still be followed and enjoyed.
Over the following few years, these were laboriously re-typed for their repeat transmissions.
If I recall correctly a lot of the kit that Nick/Paramount used for the teletext was formally ORACLE's. Hence they were able to repeat their soap opera, Park Avenue
The person who used to run the Nick and Paramount teletext services used to post on forums such as this one years ago, I've not seen him online for ages though.
