Teletext Recovery Work

In 2022 I began my journey with recovering the wonders of teletext from home-recorded VHS tapes.

This page isn't here to serve as a "what is teletext" (see "Further Reading" heading) or "how to recover teletext" (see Guides below), but is here to serve as a public view of my progress of recoveries; and importantly as a way that people can download my recoveries if they so wish.

Table Structure

Batch - Batch number, internal use. Should be 1:1 with a physical cassette marked with the same number.
Date - confirmed date of the capture, in the format of dd/mm/yyyy. Confirmed by the BDSP, or if not present by the content within. If this field is in GOLD then this is the FIRST Teletext recovery for that day in the archive.
Time - confirmed time range of the capture.
Service - name of the service captured (e.g. CEEFAX, TELETEXT). Plus the region of the service if applicable.
Channel - the name of the channel the capture comes from (e.g. BBC1, BBC2, ITV).
Broadcast Programme - the identified programme(s) that were being broadcast during the capture. If a BBC broadcast then the relevant Genome entry will be linked.
Tape ID - any identifying markers on the cassette shell/packaging, more for internal use only.
Notes - a rating (see Ratings System below) plus any notes about the recovery quality.
VCR - the model number of the VCR used for the capture.
Deconvolved - a Teletext file which contains all recovered pages in timed sequence.
Squashed - a process unique to vhs-teletext wherein duplicate subpages are removed and reduced. This would give you the most accurate representation of the original service being broadcast.
Final - [optional] what I consider to be a final representation of the service, often edited by hand to correct errors unless the recovery is of such quality that it can be presented without adjustment.
Preview - [optional] working from the Final file, an interactive HTML rendering of the service that you can view in your web browser!

Further Notes

All files provided here are of the .T42 file type, which is generally agreed to be the teletext file format. Most teletext adjacent programs will work with these files.
All "automated" processing of these files is completed via ali1234's vhs-teletext tool.
The reason for providing different versions of the same file, is that there may be hidden (or yet undiscovered) data in earlier revisions.
It is natural that the files usually get smaller with each revision.
Capture times are approximated. Total captured pages is calculated via Meddler SE.
Any capture should only contain pages for the service and date specified. However sometimes due to issues with the recovery or a mistake on my part, a few rogue pages from another service may appear.
Capture length used to be capped at around 15 minutes, however this behaviour has now been discarded with the attempt to capture all data from the broadcast (e.g. a capture from a film broadcast might be 2 hours long). However when performing a capture I will often stop it at around the 3 hour mark, as any further capture after this is usually redundant.

Guides

As teletext recovery can be considered a bit of a dark art still, I have created a series of guides that explain various procedures you might go through when performing teletext recovery operations.

Teletext Recovery Environment Setup Guide - a guide that explains how to prepare an environment for the capture and initial processing of teletext data.
Teletext Capture and Recovery Guide - a guide that explains how to capture and process teletext data
Guide to Speeding Up Teletext Data Procesing with NVIDIA CUDA - a guide that explains how to greatly improve the speed at which you can process raw teletext data (sometimes referred to as the VBI data).

Tools

If you're new to all this and unsure what to do with these T42 files, or if you want to play with teletext then see these links to various useful tools:

Teletext Meddler SE My primary tool used for viewing my T42's, editing them, adjusting stuff etc. Download Page
Teletext Recovery Editor Another tool for viewing and editing, but has a limit and won't work with large captures. Download Page
Teletext Player A great tool for viewing teletext files in the most "natural" way on a computer. Download Page

Recoveries

These are all my recoveries, some of them are extremely poor and some are nearly perfect. Download the .t42 files from the right-hand side of the table or click on the Eye icon to view in your browser.

If you want the nicest, cleanest captures you'll want the Final column, if you want the most "untouched" data you'll want the Deconvolved column and if you want a stream that has the duplicates removed you'll want Squahsed.

"Junk" recoveries (where the recovered data is so screwed up that there is little to no readable information) are rarely published as they just take up valuable hosting space.

Some files have the extension of .tidy at the end. Fear not, they're T42 files as you'd hope, just trimmed down to remove some excess off the end.

Ratings System: I have now developed a simple 5 point rating system for the recoveries, this is to help identify the best of whats available.

5 Star a near perfect or perfect recovery, usually hand corrected with no spelling mistakes or graphical corruptions. Very rare.
4 Star a very high quality recovery, usually with occassional graphical corruptions or simple spelling mistakes (e.g. Telitext vs Teletext).
3 Star an average recovery, readable and structure present but spelling mistakes and graphical glitches present.
2 Star a below average recovery, structure present but lots of spelling mistakes.
1 Star a poor or "junk" recovery, scrambled text, little to no structure, no complete graphics.

NEW FEATURE! (Q4 2024) I've just added a final column to the table below called Preview this will allow you to view the squashed (or final if available) .t42 file in your web browser without having to download anything. It's not perfect, all sub-pages will appear on one page, but the page numbers and fasttext buttons can be clicked on!

NEW CHANGE! (Q2 2025) to keep hosting costs down, many of the .t42's below are now in a standard .zip archive as this reduces the amount of space they consume by a considerable amount!

NEW CHANGE! (Q4 2025) The table below is now being dynamically generated from a database file (oooh, aaah!), at a later date I'll add some sort/filter functionality.

Batch	Date	Time approx.	Service	Channel	Programme Playing Genome URL [if BBC]	Tape Type	Rating	VCR	Deconvolved	Squashed	Final	Preview

Additional Notes and Remarks

ITV services are marked with whichever service was running at the time, if unsure it will default to ITV. This includes services such as Anglia, Carlton, Granada and Thames.
Channel 4 services are always marked as C4
Channel 5 services are marked as "Five"
Some Satellite channels simply present "SKYTEXT" (i.e. Discovery Channel, History Channel) so they are marked as such in the Service column.

Audio from Teletext (sort-of)

This section is dedicated to recoveries of the audible nature from the above recoveries. These include mystery audio streams or identifiable Audetel/Auditel streams; an early attempt at audio description.

Recovery Name	Description	Download/Listen
BBC1-19940921	A rogue recording of BBC Radio 4 covering News, The Archers, Face the Facts, All in the Mind. Roughly 53 mins long, cut short from recovery as this is just an example. Very poor quality, male voices are easier to hear than female voices.
ANGLIA-19940914	Audetel described programmes schedule 19th September through 2nd October. Roughly 5m30s long.

Teletext Gallery

A page dedicated to celebrating some screenshots of things I find interesting with Teletext.

Check out the gallery

VCR/VTR Thoughts

Maybe for my own notes, but might as well share, my opinions and thoughts about the different VCR's (or VTR's) that I have used throughout this project.

Samsung SV-651B

One of my personal favourite VCR's, mainly because it was an honorable workhorse of a deck for about a decade. Picked up for free, this deck has seen hundreds of tapes in its life and never really kicked up much fuss. Sadly in April 2025 it developed a fault with playing tapes, where the take-up reel doesn't seem to spin and so the tape goes slack and then ejects the cassette, just after I purchased a remote for it! It's sitting waiting a repair, and possibly a replacement drive assembly from a working unit. All points have been cleaned, belt checked and poked - but no joy.

Status: Retired/Awaiting Repair

Sony SLV-ED925PS

Picked up in 2022, this Sony deck seems on the surface to be a nice capable deck. About the same age as the Samsung SV-651B, it turns out its "guts" are much the same and this supposed Sony deck is actually a Samsung after all. Although it support seemingly every video format available in Europe (going by the front panel) it only has composite connections on the back, no SCART. It has a buttery smooth operation and rewinds very fast! Although it plays most tapes without much fuss, it is very fussy with hi-fi audio which on a less than perfect tape can drop in and out rapidly and for that reason I can't really enjoy it as much as I'd like.

Status: Retired/recycled

Sharp VC-M303

This is the only suriving VCR from my childhood, and have a sentimental attachment to it. Won in a raffle this Sharp unit replaced a wonky Matsui, and made the rounds as being my own personal VCR to the general family VCR, to the "just in case we need it" wardrobe VCR. Amazingly all these years later it still functions fine, with the only real downside being how utterly basic it is. It also seems to lack Hi-Fi audio which is a bit of a shame, as otherwise it would be my go-to all in one deck for all recovery purposes. However with how basic it is, it can often play tapes that other decks are fussy with and so it often takes place as a the primary teletext recovery deck of choice!

Status: Benchwarmer

Thomson VTH6400E

This was a neat little pick up from a local car boot, from a seller who I believe is simply retrieving items from skips/bins. Probably tossed out due to it featuring a European two pin plug, £10 later and it was mine. Got it home and checked it over and confirmed that it was a LG derived/manufactured unit of considerably little use. The plug was swapped for a UK one and it works fine, a few weeks later I managed to source a remote as someone had helpfully also enabled the childlock on it (may also have contributed to it being put in the bin). It's a very typical mid-range consumer unit, with not a grand lot of features. But does Hi-Fi stereo and seems to play even the most awkward tapes without much fuss. The only issue I have with it is how noisy the head is when it spins, I assume Thomson/LG were expecting it to be in an entertainment unit 3-5ft away from you not open in a modified Kallax. Either way it's hard to hate a cheap and nice VCR, and so far it hasn't let me down. Also this probably has my favourite remote of all VCRs, it's so compact and nice in the hand!

Status: Used for video capture, sometimes Teletext recovery

Sony SLV-E720

This is new latest acquisition and I really do not need anymore VCR's right now. Picked up locally via Facebook Marketplace for a reasonable £30 this unit is hefty. I am a sucker for Sony kit, but after my experience with the SLV-ED925PS above and stories about broken plastic cogs I was wary. Confirmed the unit was fully working a purchase was made and the unit safely brought into the workshop area and put straight to use. The first tape put through the unit gave me a 1:1 perfect teletext recovery, which even amazed some of those in the Discord server. A good omen? Sadly within the week I noticed that the video output (SCART) was randomly dropping out, a bit of investigating later and it would seem that dry solder joints were to blame. Fair enough, it is quite an old unit and probably the oldest VCR I currently own. Servicing this was an absolute dream, and after re-flowing the joints around the SCART connector, along with a general clean up inside and yeeting the headcleaning "sponge" into the bin - we are back in service and seemingly ok!

If the Thomson has the smallest remote, then this Sony has the largest - bigger than my hand and features a full mechanical jog wheel for video transport. Oh and the buttons glow in the dark! How cool!

Status: Primarily used for Teletext recovery

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