TV detector van
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TV detector van
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Re: TV detector van
#2Such an archaic thing to have when the masses have largely adopted smartphone and tablets and are subscribers of things like NowTV, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or even paid YouTube subscriptions (among other less popular services which I am leaving out).
Re: TV detector van
#3How do these work? Is a TV somehow different than a large monitor?
Re: TV detector van
#4Such an archaic thing to have when the masses have largely adopted smartphone and tablets and are subscribers of things like NowTV, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or even paid YouTube subscriptions (among other less popular services which I am leaving out).
I doubt cable companies would invest in such things if they weren't finding consumers abusing their services. We are not in a point where cable subscriptions are a minority so I think depending on demographic your argument is valid but for total population there are lots still paying for and watching cable.
Re: TV detector van
#5"...it was thought that they operated by detecting electromagnetic radiation given off by a TV. The most common suggested method was the detection of a signal from the TV's local oscillator."
This seems extremely tricky to do, and it wouldn't be very directional. Why not just look for the flickering light pattern from a TV coming out people's windows? You could correlate the brightness changes with the broadcast signals on each channel to know what people are watching.
Re: TV detector van
#6“Ministry of oooowsinge?”
“it was spelt like that on ‘t van!”
“what van?”
“the cat detector van.”
“you are a loony. “
Re: TV detector van
#7I lived in a flat in England in the early 2000s which kept getting letters from the BBC saying we didn't have a TV licence. The letters were sometimes more threatening for a period, then sometimes more reconciliatory.
They were also running TV adverts at the time claiming they had detector vans about, and if you didn't have a licence you'd be caught. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that evidence from a detector van had never been submitted as evidence in court cases for those without a licence.
It didn't take long to realise in the age of databases, it's easier just to send out scary letters to all address without a registered licence and hope there will be some 'conversion rate'. The effort required to actually chase on this seemed disproportional to the benefits.
And for those wondering, I did have a licence, it's just the address the BBC had for the flat was subtly different to the one on the bit of paper. I had hoped that they would follow up with a more detailed investigation, so I could see how it worked and ask about the vans, but they never did.
Re: TV detector van
#8While reading I thought, "for sure we will get to the part of the article where the British realized their folly and discontinued the licensing." But that part never came. Brits: is this for real, does this still exist? Do you pay a license to use your TV? Is it only for OTA programming or using the device in general?
Re: TV detector van
#9Watching television without a licence in the UK is actually a criminal (rather than civil) offence, and hundreds of thousands of purple are convicted each year of the offence.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/24/in-court-non...
Re: TV detector van
#10 In response a BBC spokeswoman rejected claims that the vans are a hoax: "Detector vans are an important part of our enforcement of the licence fee. We don't go into detail about how many there are or how they work as this information might be useful to people trying to evade the fee." AKA they do nothing other than scare people who wouldn't otherwise pay the license fee into paying it.