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TV detector van

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Re: TV detector van

#101

Post by amaccuish »

mrec wrote: post #79
goldcd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I'd agree that there's been some "backlash" - on any discussion, both sides will quite happily criticize the BBC for bias, which I take to be a good thing. The funding model behind the BBC is a bit suspect - I'd prefer a direct grant from the government. Alternatives are not particularly palatable - it becomes a department of the government, or has to self fund and becomes just another commercial provide…

You might be replying to the wrong comment; I never mentioned "backlash". Less popular, less relevant, less trusted, yes.

I think they were shortening your words "It used to be the case that anyone criticizing the BBC was downvoted to oblivion" to "backlash".

Also I haven't heard about the BBC becoming less popular, do you have any evidence for this? As far as I recall, BBC 1 is still the nation's favourite channel.

It would be interesting to know how you voted in the EU referendum, as I tend to find this sort of anti-BBC-ness the greatest amongst Leave voters for no apparent logical reason.

Re: TV detector van

#102

Post by badreader »

filoleg wrote: post #44
arprocter wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe when you buy a TV retailers are required to take down your address I bought one once and evidently they managed to typo the house number, so our neighbour down the street who didn't have a TV kept getting the 'we know you have a TV but no license threatening letters

>I believe when you buy a TV retailers are required to take down your address Is this for real? I remember thinking "dystopian as hell" when I heard about all the CCTVs in England, but this one takes the cake. I can at least see the points made by the other side of the CCTV argument, even though I very much disagree with them. Why cannot one just buy a TV in England without giving out their personal info?

In Israel you were used to be required to provide your equivalent of ssn upon purchase of a tv setm, so the gov would be able to charge you public tv fee. the fee was finally abolished couple years ago.

Re: TV detector van

#103

Post by dsr_ »

FireBeyond wrote: post #80
henryfjordan wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's using a telescope and a camera to see what's going on in your house (albeit hopefully in a very limited way)... In the US that'd be an illegal search without a warrant.

To look in your open window, even with a telescope? I don't think that is considered illegal.

In California, Penal Code 647(j):

(1) A person who looks through a hole or opening, into, or otherwise views, by means of any instrumentality, including, but not limited to, a periscope, telescope, binoculars, camera, motion picture camera, camcorder, or mobile phone, the interior of a bedroom, bathroom, changing room, fitting room, dressing room, or tanning booth, or the interior of any other area in which the occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, with the intent to invade the privacy of a person or persons inside. This subdivision does not apply to those areas of a private business used to count currency or other negotiable instruments.

Re: TV detector van

#104

Post by petercooper »

rootusrootus wrote: post #91
petercooper wrote: post #74

Have to laugh at all the Americans saying this is crazy or nonsensical when it's legal to carry guns in much of your country :-D That aside, lest anyone think TV detector vans are all over the place, in my almost 40 years of living in the UK I've never seen or had interactions with one. They may as well be the Loch Ness monster for how mythical they are.

Citizens from a country that has freedom as such a fundamental value that we permit everyone to own a gun find it nonsensical that citizens from the UK put up with the gov't pointing detectors at their house to see if they haven't paid their TV tax? That seems entirely consistent.

And this is why we are famously "two nations divided by a common language" :-) Although it goes deeper than language and right down to social norms.

Re: TV detector van

#105

Post by Bluecobra »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #18
agurk wrote: post #7

I 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…

As a child in the 80s I remember my family being scared of this van even though it probably never existed. Because of this my mum got a pay TV instead which we had to put 50p coins in periodically that paid for both the TV rental and the license fee.

Wow, I never heard of this before. I found the following article and it was an interesting read:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/oct/30/pay-as-you-vie...

Re: TV detector van

#106

Post by djsumdog »

notvplez wrote: post #100
groundlogic wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swedish public service transitioned from a per-household fee (for households that held devices capable of showing RF broadcast TV) to a per citizen tax January 1st this year. Of course, they go to great lengths to avoid calling it a tax, but... well, it is a tax. I don't really like it. There's no opt-out any longer. And the content is predictably all-consuming leftist.

Norway is doing the same thing starting next year, and I really like it, even though the content is increasingly getting predictably all-consuming right wing as each year goes by. ;) I actually bought my very first TV (since I discovered I was able to download South Park and The Simpsons and watch it on my computer in the early 2000s) a few months ago hoping to make the cut off so I would be able to say I'd paid the…

A Norwegian friend told me this a few years back; how the licensing people can just go into your homes when they show up and check for the presence of TVs. Crazy.

Re: TV detector van

#107

Post by djsumdog »

This kinda makes me thing back to scrambled channels and how companies detected the use of illegal decoder boxes. A lot of them used equipment could detect the demodulation used by a decode and checked to see if you were paying the fee.

An easy way around it was just using two VCRs, one before the decode and one after, to stabilize the RF signal.

Re: TV detector van

#108

Post by aidenn0 »

djsumdog wrote: post #107

This kinda makes me thing back to scrambled channels and how companies detected the use of illegal decoder boxes. A lot of them used equipment could detect the demodulation used by a decode and checked to see if you were paying the fee. An easy way around it was just using two VCRs, one before the decode and one after, to stabilize the RF signal.

I remember a satelite TV company put a message to call a particular number, and then filtered out the message in their official smart cards. Everyone who called the number was pirating their signal.

Re: TV detector van

#109

Post by scandox »

exhilaration wrote: post #87
sofaofthedamned wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a child in the 80s I remember my family being scared of this van even though it probably never existed. Because of this my mum got a pay TV instead which we had to put 50p coins in periodically that paid for both the TV rental and the license fee.

You had a coin-operated TV...? At home...? Did someone come regularly to collect the coins? I'm genuinely fascinated by this.

I still know people in Dublin that have coin operated electricity, though I think nearly all of them have been moved to card based systems.

Re: TV detector van

#110

Post by joezydeco »

tantalor wrote: post #88
joezydeco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think the stray light from a CRT strobing at 50Hz could be picked up by a photodiode and some amplification. The point of the 'detection' was to just see if a TV was in operation and not to see what was being watched.

Too many false positives: recorded videos, video games, computers

There's a bit too much confusion as to what era the BBC vans might have been using optical means instead of RF means.

In the 1950s there wasn't much else on British television sets other than the BBC, right?

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