At The Races Text

Dec4

An enquiry.. by someone who has never been ( nor will ever be a Chorus subscriber - the customer feedback on these boards is enough to set anyone's mind at rest on that score ).
A friend has Chorus in Clare, gets At The Races channel OK but no text service. Their customer services says they "cannot do". Can anyone here explain why / how this could be so?
I have text service of ATR via Sky ( it's even available with a FTV card i.e. no sub ) and it's quite limited in number of pages it contains. Mainly betting shows. So why can't Chorus provide this? Or do they do so in other areas of country.
Any info greatly appreciated...

PK - the king

Chorus text seems to be very weird indeed. They seem to only provide text on about ten analogue channels (all irish ones, BBC, ITV, Ch4 and sky). (basically channels that I have heard the source from analogue) They don't seem to provide any other text services. The reason for this, I do not know!

For example, ntl do not provide any text services on any of their E-map music channels, even though analogue teletext is available on them with sky. I suppose it's just another case of the two Irish cable companies just not being able to upgrade their equipment...

Dec4

So is it just an equipment issue with them? i.e. how much extra space does text require??

icdg

This might better explained elsewhere (do a search on DigitalSpy perhaps), but from what I gather, teletext has to be sent seperately and re-combined with the video stream by the digibox. Watty might be able to explain further...)

Oh, and UK DTT has no teletext, so any channels sourced off that shouldn't have teletext. (I say shouldn't, because on NTL Digital, the UK terrestrials do have full analogue teletext. Even UTV and Channel 4, whom I don't believe provide analogue Teletext Limited services on DSat. NTL Technical, cableguy or might explain...)

Now here's a bigger question. At The Races is FTA on Sky, but is a Premium channel on NTL Digital???!!!

Dec4

At The Races is not FTA on Sky - it's available as part of a subscription ( minimum being family sub ). From what I understand it's free on Chorus. How much does it cost per month as premium channel via NTL digital ?

celticfc

Originally posted by Dec4
At The Races is not FTA on Sky - it's available as part of a subscription ( minimum being family sub ). From what I understand it's free on Chorus. How much does it cost per month as premium channel via NTL digital ?

It's €12 per month, but up until a few months ago it was free.

Dec4

€12/month. What a rip-off!

celticfc

/me nods


I try not to loose too much sleep over it tho.

mnolan

Firstly the set top box needs to be able to handle teletext (i.e. extract the teletext data and encode it with the output TV signal). Most boxes have the capability to do this but the required software may not have been written or paid for by Chorus.

Secondly the data takes up bandwidth. Not such an issue with one channel but if they provide teletext data for all channels it adds up.