Period TV License?

[Penners]

The TV Licencing website states that "You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast."

Ah, that answers my (somewhat flippant) question above, on the subject of time-shifting.

 

[MdB]

I wonder how the law would interpret the delay of several seconds between the transmission source and a digital television receiver? Anyone who has a mixture of analogue and digital radios in the house will have experienced the delay inherent in digital transmission and will know that the digital 'pips' are no longer an accurate way to set one's watch, so a legal definition of "live" might be an interesting argument depending on the letter of the law. :wink:

I believe somebody used that argument and lost. Don't quote me though.

 

[Flyfisher]

I wouldn't be at all surprised. It would certainly be against the spirit of the law.

 

[biffvernon]

I remember buying those - 37.5p if I remember rightly

Nah, it was 7/6d.

 

[JohnB]

When I got rid of my telly, I wrote a nice letter to TV Licensing, and obviously convinced them I was genuine, because they just sent me one letter a year that said firmly that I needed if license if I got a telly, but wasn't threatening. They said they may send an inspector, but I never had a visit. I don't remember getting a letter at my new place yet, so maybe people in Wales are more honest than in England!

I've got a VHS recorder, but I suppose there's no analogue signal any more, so couldn't record live, and the only way I can get recordings off it is through a video capture card in my computer, that writes it to disk for video editing.

 

[Penners]

I remember buying those - 37.5p if I remember rightly

Nah, it was 7/6d.

Ah, but that was when 7/6d WAS 7/6d. Three great big silver half-crowns - you could have a hell of a Saturday night on that!

God, I'm old...

 

[Feltwell]

I remember buying those - 37.5p if I remember rightly

Nah, it was 7/6d.

Well, it ended up being 37.5p in the end. 7/6d is (just, barely) before my time!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Crikey - we have 14 TV receiving apparatuses dotted aorund the place capable of independent viewing - TVs, laptops, desktops, iPods, iPads, Blackberries, consoles, etc. If I included the settop boxes/recorders connected to some of these devices, it would be over 20.

I think I'll go and put them all on simultaneously and get 14x the value from my licence.

 

[Penners]

If my lights suddenly dim, FW, at least I shall know why.

FOURTEEN...??

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Yes, 14. I was somewhat surprised. The key thing is that they are all internet connected so able to look at rolling BBC News channel:

5 television sets;
3 laptops;
2 iPods/iPads
2 desktop PCs
1 games console
and a Black-ber-ry!

There's a song in the somewhere. I'm going to go and have a look at the microwave and the hoover.... I reckon there's a chanc they might be internet TV enabled too.

 

[Penners]

Don't joke! Apparently your future fridge will be internet-connected. It will read the barcodes of everything that you remove from it, and add them to your next supermarket order.

I imagine the following generation of appliances will even eat the food for you.

 

[Feltwell]

I think I've said on here before - I saw a manufacturer's working prototype about 4 years ago for an oven/fridge that was internet connected. You put a ready meal in it in the morning when it was in "fridge" mode, call it from your phone or access via a web link to say you're on your way home and it turns to "oven" mode and starts cooking it.

I can't see it being made into a production model anytime soon though.

I seem to remember Grand Designs had one house where the bath was internet connected, you could set it to run the bath for you before you arrived home. That really is a gadget for the sake of it!

Penners - RFID (Radio Frequency ID) is getting quite well established and cheap in distribution centres now, expanding that technology so your fridge knows what is in it seems perfectly possible. It wouldn't even need to read barcodes :roll:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Except that according to Biff we won't have fridges in future. We'll all be living in caves and fishing for our tea from what is left in the oceans lapping at the cave mouth. 8)

I certainly wouldn't risk eating many things from a supermarket. :shock:

 

[JohnB]

Penners - RFID (Radio Frequency ID) is getting quite well established and cheap in distribution centres now, expanding that technology so your fridge knows what is in it seems perfectly possible. It wouldn't even need to read barcodes :roll:

How do you barcode home grown and home made food?

 

[Flyfisher]

'The Web Of Things' is the buzz word (buzz-phrase?) for such things - the idea that all applicances and 'things' will be connected to the internet. Possible? Certainly. Useful or even desirable? Who knows? But the web iself has developed from essentially nowhere to practically indispensible in just 20 years, so I won't be at all surprised at the sorts of things that might be web-connected in the future.

 

[Flyfisher]

How do you barcode home grown and home made food?

Inevitably, the answer is on the web: :wink: http://barcode1.co.uk/

 

[Feltwell]

I used to work for a retailer that had it's own barcode manager, who had been instrumental in their original setup years ago and who had helped set many of the standards used today. Hugely knowledgable, now retired and let's just say you wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with him. It is a monumentally dull topic.

 

[Keithj]

What offends me is how AGGRESSIVE the TV licensing folks are. If they were polite, I'd be polite.
(I wonder if we could prosecute them for "demanding money with menaces").

Years ago, we had the TV licence on direct debit. One year, they took the DD six weeks early at an unfortunate time and pushed us into overdraft. That cost me a lot of money in bank charges and interest etc, and I complained. The answer was, effectively, "tough luck". We cancelled the DD mandate and took to buying at the Post Office on the last possible date, despite their regular junkmail trying to persuade us to go back to DD.

When we moved here, we brought with us the licence from the previous house (as one can). We also changed the name of the house back to its historic (Listed Building) name. We informed TVLRO that we were here. They wrote to confirm that they had actioned our change of address.

The folks we bought from moved their licence to their new address.

We then got a letter to the "old" house name, with a bright red addressee label, telling us it's a criminal offence to use a TV without a licence, and asking us to call a premium rate number. That combination annoyed me enough that we ignored it.

Every month, another one arrived, each more aggressive than the last. Eventually, they promised a visit from their inspectors. No inspectors came.

When the game got boring, I e-mailed them. They e-mailed back asking for all kinds of information, numbers off the rude letters, etc. I told them to send their inspector, and promised to give him a cup of tea. We've not heard a peep from them since.

I understand from usually reliable sources that they no longer have any vans with spinning roof racks.
I think the inspectors have a little gizmo that can detect a conventional TV, but I don't know how they detect live TV being streamed over the Internet.

 

[robgil]

Ive seen first hand how the BBC spend their 'budget', it would boil your pee, really.

 

[LadyArowana]

What offends me is how AGGRESSIVE the TV licensing folks are. If they were polite, I'd be polite.
(I wonder if we could prosecute them for "demanding money with menaces").

I totally agree, the letters are written to the effect that "we know you are guilty, we just havn't caught you yet" , and they expect you to reply and justify why you aren't guilty. I take the view that since we have nothing that can receive live TV I'm doing nothing wrong and ignore them. Same as I would ignore Swansea if they started writing to me asking me why I didn't have a driving license. Come to think of it there must be all sorts of licenses I don't have :lol: