TV card advice needed

[fondie]

sorry Austin, when i first read i thought you were implying that you didn't need a tv license for unencrypted digital channels, but i re-read and realised that's not what you were saying at all.

[Austin]

The problem is if the BBC/Government did say you only had to pay the TV License if you watched BBC channels ... suddenly 98% of the population would claim they didn't watch them and it is likely it would have a negative impact on BBC viewers.

It is a little dumb to a degree but it wouldn't work any other way and altough they have their critics the BBC does provide a LOT of very good programmes. As usual for us in the UK, a lot of law and processes are simply derived from decades ago (if not centuries) and nobody thinks about adressing them ... just about popularity and votes ...

[Lexeus]

I for one like the fact that i can rely on there not being adverts on the BBc when im being bombarded with life insurance and debt adverts on sky

[fondie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/key...cencefee.shtml

i like the BBC, and their lack of adverts, and am quite happy to pay the license fee, they can't compete financially with Sky at the moment for broadcasting rights, i remember one of the head guys at the BBC said that they were struggling now, and he was uncertain of their future, i'd think it were a great shame if we lost them.

I also pay a lot of money for Sky, complete with their debt buster loan ads (if people are so much in debt why are they paying £40 a month for more tv channels?), which interrupt my programming every 10 minutes! There are so many things i dislike about Sky, but the truth is they have the money and therefore they can provide the most, and most expensive content, so i play (and pay) along. Fortunately though, even thier high cost programmes the Sky can provide can't compete with the BBCs moments of inspired TV!

[Dr. X]

Off the initial topic I know, but I've heard (hardly reliable info, I know) that there is not detection, they simply call at addresses which haven't registered a TV lisence...

Internal oscillator?

Digital TV cards... while they are great picture or none at all, you do have the ability to save the mpeg2 stream directly to hard disk, great for time shifting et al ;-)

fondie - great post mate. While not going to get into the pros and cons of the lisence fee, I've got to agree with you there

[PriestJPN]

A few random things...

-AFAIK, so called TV detector vans work on picking up TEMPEST radiation from TV's with CRTs... I'd be will to bet that a PC equipped with a TV card and an LCD screen would be safe. I guess then an LCD / PLASMA tv would also be undetectable. You might want to do a search on Willem van Eck who was the first guy to document the effect of, erm, "van Eck freaking".

-If you have a family member who is 75 or older, you can register it in their name, and it'll be be free (tho not strictly legal).

-TV Licencing are notorious for getting things wrong; I've personally known a situation where a friend of mine was paying his on direct debit for 2 years (and still is) and after repeated calls they still insisted that he should get a TV licence.

-If the rooms in a house or building have locks and are rented out individually, the law says you gotta buy one per room. However, if those locks were to disappear and the house was rented as a whole, its only one licence per household and cheaper per occupant.

-As someone pointed out previously, they do just call on places that don't have one... When was the last time you saw a TV detector van?

-Take down that old outside TV aerial if you live in a strong signal area and remount it inside the roof (but don't do a Rod Hull).

-TV Licencing can only enter your place with a warrent (such as with the police); as for how often that happens, I don't know.

-Japan has TV Licencing too for the NHK series of channels, but hardly anyone pays it: it also handy to be a foreigner as you can pretend you don't understand...

[prehensile]

i thought i remembered reading that pc's did not require them...
anyway you need one licence for any tv with a lockable door certainly, so things are shared if your whole flat has open rooms on it.
maplins were good for digi avertv dvb cards before, these cards are really excellent. nova t is a the intel of tv cards, i dont like them because they gave me an unstable card and their technicians were piloks.
digi tv cards are crisp but it can be a gamble in case the arial of your house is old or crummy. arial almost essential, i live on top of a hill next to a transmitter so almost all channels are ok with a coathanger. i'd get that one from cpu city if you are happy with normal channels, especially if it is the best analogue around.phone ur accomodation place and see what they say