Digital Tv transmission

[slimjim]

They were able to detect if you were using a unlicenced TV, by the radiation emmitted by the cathode ray tube, therefore when plasma and LCD came in, they were no longer able to do this, thats not to say they ever had the equipment in detector vans.

If you buy a new TV, the supplying dealer has to fill in a form with your name and address on, this is what TV licensing rely on, but they do assume that everyone has a TV so bombard you with threats, which are best ignored.

TBH if I was living alone then I would not own a TV or have the need for a licence

 

[Shox Dr]

I don't have to worry about the TV man knocking on my door, our lass won't allow us NOT to pay it.



I don't have a problem with paying for the BBC, just the amount we have to pay. The BBC sell the programs we pay for around the world yet they don't have to pay to watch the same program. That grips my ****.

 

[Luke]

The BBC sell the programs we pay for around the world yet they don't have to pay to watch the same program. That grips my ****.

They also raise plenty of revenue through non-UK advertising as well.......

 

[rtbcomp]

I suppose they'd argue that the licence fee would be even higher if they didn't sell their output.

 

[eil]

I would rather pay the BBC than SKY, but they're bully boy pay up or die tactics are out of order.

 

[Drains]

Worth remembering, while you're all slagging off the BBC for making you pay a license, that
a) without it we'd have little or no public service broadcasting

b) the BBC is one of the worlds' better broadcasters (although let's face it, most tv is still rubbish)

c) many other countries pay a license but get a fraction of the service, quality wise. Scorchio, plinky plinky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

d) you want bully boy tactics? Live somewhere else and don't pay your license. France, Germany - you think these people are pussy cats? (admittedly the Germans have more equitable system for the unemployed etc, unlike our tight-**** lot)

 

[knoba]

It just goes to show what I've been missing out on...

 

[eil]

Worth remembering, while you're all slagging off the BBC for making you pay a license, that
a) without it we'd have little or no public service broadcasting

b) the BBC is one of the worlds' better broadcasters (although let's face it, most tv is still rubbish)

c) many other countries pay a license but get a fraction of the service, quality wise. Scorchio, plinky plinky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

d) you want bully boy tactics? Live somewhere else and don't pay your license. France, Germany - you think these people are pussy cats? (admittedly the Germans have more equitable system for the unemployed etc, unlike our tight-**** lot)

I wasn't slagging the BBC at all on the contrary, I'm sure its the most watched station by myself and others, I practically never watch ITV`s offerings of x fact and `do the funniest things' drivel, I canceled SKY a few years ago now and don't miss they're constant regurgitated stuff whatsoever, paying the license fee is worth it just not to have adverts every few minutes of viewing. Seeing what other countries pay I would say we get a good deal really. Still dont agree with the letters etc they send out when the Mrs misses a payment and she has paid about a year in advance .

 

[Drains]

I wasn't slagging the BBC at all on the contrary, I'm sure its the most watched station by myself and others, I practically never watch ITV`s offerings of x fact and `do the funniest things' drivel, I canceled SKY a few years ago now and don't miss they're constant regurgitated stuff whatsoever, paying the license fee is worth it just not to have adverts every few minutes of viewing. Seeing what other countries pay I would say we get a good deal really. Still dont agree with the letters etc they send out when the Mrs misses a payment and she has paid about a year in advance .

Didn't mean just you Eil - don't take it personally . I have to agree of course - bully boy tactics under any circumstances but particularly when you're in the right, are not acceptable!

 

[Wedg1e]

Are you a sports fan? Been duped into buying a HD setup to watch your team get pummelled in glorious...er, HD...?
You mug

Crony of mine is an outside broadcast cameraman. He goes to all manner of sports events and dutifully points his camera at the action. A nice, new 'state-of-the-art' (whatever THAT means) HD camera.
The signal is sent back to the OB van, then COMPRESSED (i.e. information removed) for the uplink to satellite as, yes you've guessed it, the satellites are still narrow-band only and can't handle the broadband HD signal.
So the satellite downlinks to base and the television company proceeds to fudge the digital signal with an algorithm to approximate what you might see if it really was a HD signal.

I'd wait a few years if I were you

No telly here and no licence either. I get regular toilet-paper from TV licencing, it all goes in the bin unopened.

Every once in a while an inspector calls:
Have you got a telly?
No I haven't.
Sign here.
No, sod off.
If you fill in your details we won't bother you again.
Yes you will; I still won't have a licence so you'll still send me toilet-paper, only now it'll have my name on. We're not doing business so you don't need to know who I am or anything about me, there's the gate, close it on your way out.
Can I come in and check?
No, sod off.
I can come back with a Constable.
Please do, can you make it The Haywain?

And as for the potential to be prosecuted on the off-chance your computer might be 'receiving' television, well if I or you were to search the internet hard enough I bet we could 'receive' some underage porn, should they not be prosecuting us all on the off-chance that we're all perverts?

 

[Can'tWeld]

Bottom line is that it doesn't matter if you have a TV, as long as you don't use it to receive television signals, you don't need a license.

I believe the detector vans do exist and they work, at least on old CRT tellys, but you can't be prosecuted purely on what the van detects - they'd still need to see it with their own eyes.

But yeah, you definitely don't need a license just to own a TV.

 

[StockEngineer]

I think the price is disgusting, I do own a TV. But I dont pay the license. Purely because I use it to watch BBC iPlayer or Channel 4 On Demand on the PS3.
I dont use it to watch freeview as I cant justify paying £50 for a decent antenna just to receive the signal, then pay an extra £75 for the pleasure of having the huge thing in my room.
Its small enough as it is (I share a house with a few room mates) so I dont deem it necessary.

Anyway, Thats what the ps3 is for. Gaming and TV! wooo!

 

[GeorgeB]

Can you buy a flat screen thats not digital?
You need a license to receive a signal not to own a telly. The detector van detects a signal not a telly. Im told that they cant 100% detect a signal unless you have an outdoor aerial (but it might be an old wives tale).

What detector vans? My understanding, from Internet reports and common sense, is that they never existed. It's all one big con. Were you duped?

I believe Chunko is on safe ground - as long as any equipment is not capable of receiving or recording 'live' TV (by design or de-tuned), then you definitely don't need a TV licence.

A modern computer monitor can be used to watch DVDs, direct through the HDMI cable, for example There's no way you need a TV licence to do that.

 

[StockEngineer]

What detector vans? My understanding, from Internet reports and common sense, is that they never existed. It's all one big con. Were you duped?

.

Thats exactly what I said!

 

[pedrobedro]

I remember seeing a detector van in the 70s, it was a Commer. It needed someone to drive it and someone else in the back to monitor the equipment and there was definitely no-one in the back just scare tactics to get people to pay up.

 

[Wedg1e]

From an electronics point of view, it's certainly possible to detect the signals from a TV, either re-radiated from the aerial or direct from RF emissions from the circuitry. Hand-held apparatus can be used to pin-point a TV in a block of flats, for example, as it's just the same principle as any other radio direction-finding.

I've seen those Commer vans, never peered into one but was led to believe they were kosher, and that from a GPO telecoms employee who was a fellow radio ham.
The GPO used to have its radio regulatory department which was then absorbed into the DTI and from that point I've never seen or heard of anything 'detective'. Coincidentally, computers were well on the scene by this time, able to collate lots of lovely name and address data.

Now, given the monstrous salaries that we all demand, and the huge sums of money that the Beeb swallows, what pot of cash is likely to be left from the licencing revenue to pay for all that street-going equipment and manpower? Not a lot. Whereas one or two people armed with a laptop and a CD-ROM of addresses could cover an entire county of properties showing no licence, knocking on doors and saying 'sign this'.

My proposal is that if there ever was a 'live' detection capability, it existed when salaries were lower, fuel was cheaper and road tax pennies; it probably doesn't exist now - if it did, surely at some point in the last 10 years I would have found them sat outside my house as I've never had a licence; if they were going to use it anywhere it'd be against persistent 'offenders'.

There are people who claim that the TV licence revenue is entirely accounted for and paid to the Beeb, but hang on a second... why did (does) an essentially-private company have Government backing (in the shape of the GPO and now TV Licencing) to help them raise their revenue? My company doesn't have a team of thugs banging on doors and demanding money... well if they do, it's kept awfully quiet

 

[brightspark]

a fair few years ago i was talking to a guy that worked for the beeb, he said they used to drive slowly round the streets in detector van hardly anyone knew how to operate the gear but it put the sh .,/.,ts up people and they shot down the post office to renew licences . now its all on computer ,same as electricity bills . they look up and see what your bill is. if it falls for any reason they pick an aeria and do a blitz they have all the adresses and a search warrent and call round .anyone caught fiddling and they get cut off and a court aperance ensues

 

[StockEngineer]

Not paying TV license means you get cut off and taken to court?

Im sorry if im mistaken but where on earth did you hear this? Legally they cant do that unless you have had sufficient warnings.
You have 2 warnings, an inspection, a fixed penalty notice and failure to pay or reply to these then means they can commence legal action against you.

 

[Wedg1e]

Not paying TV license means you get cut off and taken to court?

Im sorry if im mistaken but where on earth did you hear this? Legally they cant do that unless you have had sufficient warnings.
You have 2 warnings, an inspection, a fixed penalty notice and failure to pay or reply to these then means they can commence legal action against you.

I think he's saying they use a similar system (to TV licencing) with electricity usage... target an area if the bills are suspiciously low (like someone has tapped into a street-lamp... )

 

[superls]

my mate has a tv in his flat, but no tv licence, as he doesnt watch tv, he only uses the tv for gaming and dvd's etc, when he had a visit off of tv licence people, just took them in his room showed them it wasn't plugged into to an aerial, there isn't even an aerial in his room, man was happy, so all was good