I know this is primarily a video only forum but are there any data services available on FTA (not internet data) I remeber in the early days Dish used to carry AgCast.
Is there any teletext services or anything like that?
Thanks
Bob
The only one I can think of that is aimed at consumers is the NOAA-PORT signal that has all sorts of weather data.
I think I've only run across one transponder that indicated that it had teletext data, but the data stream didn't seem to actually be running. Teletext doesn't really make sense in this digital world where there are easier ways of doing similar things. I know that several receivers have a teletext capability, but I've never run across a signal that would light up the capability. I still have a teletext receiver somewhere that I used to use back in the analog days. I think it was up on a couple sats up near where AMC11 and G14 are today, but I can't remember exactly which transponders.... Also, a few years after all the teletext went away, there was an Intel based similar service that ran on a few VCII channels, like the weather channel and CNN, and one or two other channels. I had a computer video card that took the video feed from these sat channels, and popped the teletext like info up on the computer screen. It was MUCH more stable that the teletext system, and it was pretty neat for a while, but once the internet took off, that wasn't profitable anymore, so it dissappeared. Actually, the original VCII cages had a data port that was supposed to bring data services to consumers, but while I think I read about a stock market service being available once, that option never really materialized.
Of course, there are data streams all over the place, on both C and Ku, but for the most part they aren't aimed at consumers. Only thing I've ever made any sense out of were some data streams that accompanied some of those music channels, ie a data stream that had the names of songs, artists, albums, etc. I guess there are also the data streams that are part of the DVB standard, that have channel name lists, network data, EPG info.
But the bottom line is that 99.9% of the FTA signals up there aren't aimed at us, so and data being transmitted often uses proprietary equipment to receive, and that which is receivable is flying by so fast, that it's hard to make any sense of it. It's so much easier for people to get similar content via the internet, that it just doesn't make any sense to send this stuff to consumers over satellite.
