Teletext (Red Button) Problem on 2007 Vintage Bravia

[Brian32P]

I have a Bravia KDL-32P3020 manufactured in October 2007.  When using Teletext on the BBC 1 Red Button we can drill down through the menus (e.g. up to date news items) but no pages will actually load - instead of loading the page it will switch back to full screen picture.  We have auto software download set to "on" and the software version is 2.12.105 which I have to assume is the latest.  Anyone have any ideas please?

TV works perfectly apart from this.

[ALANONSERENADE]

Its probably a little late now but I think that I have got to the bottom of the problem re red button (loss of teletext). My Sony Bravia was set to automatically update anything that came along. When the BBC decided in their wisdom to change teletext for Red Button it did so without my knowledge. SO, don't set your updates to AUTO. Set it to MANUAL. As I said, ........its too late now . I have to go into my bedroom to watch teletext. Blame the BBC.

[mikejo01]

Thanks Beamishboy

Teletext is getting better for some reason on my Kdl32V2000 and it currently only hiccups on the NewsPapers part of the news menu.

I had assumed that the situation would be the same via the DVD Recorder and had not bothered to check it. You are right, it works (so far) faultlessly.
I was aware that various elements and system software/hardware are bought in from different manufacturers for some products but it did not register with me that it might make the difference in this case as I had convinced myself that the cause was in the transmitted coding.

I will miss my morning catchup on teletext when its no longer available.

[BeamishBoy]

Thank you, Alanonserenade.  You are quite right: I do have updates set to AUTO, but did not realise that such a setting existed until you enlightened me.  As you said, it's probably a bit late to do anything about it.

Incidentally, I do not understand how BBC is using the so-called "Red Button Service".  Sometimes the actual red button on the remote offers a choice of events (which I hardly ever use), but they also seem to refer to the Text button as "Red button".  Interestingly, they do say to press "Text to exit".  They seem to me to be two quite different things. I do not know about the history of this changing from Text to Red Button, but is seems to me that the BBC has sown much confusion.  I much appreciate the little bit of light that you have shone on the obscurity.  I also wish that the BBC would keep, and improve, its text service, as I find it the most efficient way of getting hold of small pieces of news.

[mikejo01]

Update

Teletext on my old ? Sony KDL-32V2000 TV

After over 12 months of frustration, without any changes being made by me, Teletext is now fully working as it originally did.

There can be slight delays of a few seconds when changing from deep in the News pages to say Sport, but then it may have been like that, I can't remember.

Like previous problems, transmission coding changes not liked by some common Sony / Pioneer products?

[BeamishBoy]

Hello mikejo01,

Yes, I had noticed too the impovement that you mention.  The interpretation which I (tentatively) put on this is that the programmers are attempting to respond to feedback/complaints.  It fits in with may original suggestion - which I amplify a little here.

I am assuming that all digital TVs have some memory available for programmed applications, and that newer sets have a greater amount of memory.  Within the increased memory, newer (and probably bigger) application programs have sufficient space to work as intended.  When run on older sets, these programs attempt to reference areas of memory which just do not exist, and therefore crash. I think that the programmers are feverishly doing workarounds.  This is my take on the situation, but I may well be wrong, and would happily hear from anyone who has more expert knowledge of the area.

Incidentally, I did recently complain to the BBC that the football pages did not include some important matches that were being played in Scotland.   The BBC reply?   They told me is that the service is outsourced and that the BBC has no control over the content.

[mikejo01]

Hi Beamishboy

Your thoughts re the memory available would be very relevant.
I had overlooked that possibility which on reflection seems to be highly likely.

It's reminiscent of the days when memory become cheap and programmers got lazy.
Before that they had to be very tight and creative with their code to run commercial software in equipment with little memory and floppy disks.

Re Teletext outsourced
If the BBC outsource much more they will become just a management company.