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TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

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Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#331

Post by M2Ys4U »

nailer wrote: post #296
bergstromm466 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some quite interesting shows like "Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole" The show that demonizes, humiliates and dehumanizes working class people by filming them being evicted?

You seem to be implying that the BBC is discriminating against working class people by showing people on benefits / being evicted. There are many working class people who are not on benefits or being evicted. You may wish to look for evidence of bias closer to home.

That show isn't even a BBC production, it's from Channel 5

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#332

Post by mongol »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #271
jonathanstrange wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBC is awesome, their news is very good and they produce some of the best series in the world. It's a shame that they have split up BBC UK and BBC International so strictly and do everything they can to lock all BBC UK offerings to citizens of the UK. It infuriates me that I'm redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com and are being displayed something else than people in the UK. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I do that to find out…

Re BBC nature documentaries That's interesting what you have to say about international vs domestic documentaries. Could you give an example of either group? I mean, I appreciate the BBC documentaries that I've seen for their high production quality and photography, innovative CGI and all, and I think they inspired and pushed the limits and budgets for TV documentaries worldwide. But personally, I prefer old-school q…

Those old-school documentaries do not seem to be made much any more. I also prefer them but they are rare to find nowadays. Instead I go looking for lectures on the topic on Youtube instead. Or search for podcasts.

The production cost ratio is probably 1-100 or 1-1000, at least, between the old school, interview-an-expert type, and the dramatized CGI-heavy ones, so it is strange that so much money is put into production of documentaries with so little factual content value.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#333

Post by TonyTrapp »

realityking wrote: post #320
TonyTrapp wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that you pay for much more than just the TV networks; international / English offers such as dw.com are also funded by this.

There are so many misconceptions about public broadcasters. Deutsche Welle (which operates dw.com) is 100% funded by federal taxes as it is aimed at foreign markets. https://www.dw.com/de/wer-finanziert-die-dw/a-279073

Thanks for the clarification. Still, the fee covers much more than many people believe, and I think many of those services are quite valuable to have.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#334

Post by account42 »

mattlutze wrote: post #273
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the government is the one who gave them the authority to levy the fees from you and the people running the public broadcasters are all directly or indirectly politically connected to the major parties. Which other independent private business can just straight up charge you without you signing up for their service beforehand? In Germany and I guess, in most countries, the public broadcasters are basically low…

The public broadcasters in Germany aren't propaganda arms of the government and are generally respected across political affiliation, except perhaps by the sort of folks that think AfD has the right approach. They may exhibit some editorial lean ( https://www.dw.com/en/a-dual-broadcasting-system/a-435426 ), but from everything I've seen not even to the level that folks in the US complain about CNBC or Fox News. Germa…

> except perhaps by the sort of folks that think AfD has the right approach

Ah right, everyone that disagrees must be one of those people so their opinion doesn't matter.

> They may exhibit some editorial lean

More than "some".

> CNBC or Fox News

Those are corporations that noone is not forced to fund if you disagree with them.

> Just generally, independent journalism is important

Except you can't give certain organizations a unique monopoly to collect fees from everyone and then call it independent with a straight face.

Also, journalism is only a tiny part of german public TV channels. They also throw tons of money on sports broadcasting and game shows while promoting gambling. Add to that the insanity of having a local channel for every state. Even if you agree that public funded news is a good thing, the current setup is hardly an efficient way to accomplish that.

> Seems a not-awful approach to trying to ensure a more-educated population, which is also good for a democracy.

You can call it "education" if you want.

Finally, unlike taxes, the TV fee is not means tested in Germany meaning that if you have a low income and don't fall into the few groups that are excempt then it is a very real burden.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#335

Post by xorcist »

jansan wrote: post #244
camkego wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the technology used to detect the signals as described in the article was also used during World War II to detect radio transmitters of spies and other operatives. It’s very real technology.

But transmitting is different from receiving. How do you detect a receiver?

There is a lot of HF leakage from an analogue TV set up close. Not many users put their TV in a Faraday cage.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#336

Post by vanilla-almond »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #271
jonathanstrange wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBC is awesome, their news is very good and they produce some of the best series in the world. It's a shame that they have split up BBC UK and BBC International so strictly and do everything they can to lock all BBC UK offerings to citizens of the UK. It infuriates me that I'm redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com and are being displayed something else than people in the UK. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I do that to find out…

Re BBC nature documentaries That's interesting what you have to say about international vs domestic documentaries. Could you give an example of either group? I mean, I appreciate the BBC documentaries that I've seen for their high production quality and photography, innovative CGI and all, and I think they inspired and pushed the limits and budgets for TV documentaries worldwide. But personally, I prefer old-school q…

"I prefer old-school quiet and scientific documentaries"

I do as well. The BBC actually produces a lot of these types of documentaries but they are probably not sold to broadcasters outside of the UK. I presume it's because they lack the big-budget, glossy look that is attractive to bigger audiences (and to international broadcasters). Or sometimes documentaries are trimmed or edited for international audiences. (I don't know if this is the BBC editing the programme or the broadcaster who bought the programme.)

A lot of the "old-school quiet" documentaries can be found on BBC4 - a specialised channel that shows programmes on specialised or niche topics.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#337

Post by Symbiote »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #140
Symbiote wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No idea what any of those shows you listed are. My interests are ..., politics _Today_ and _PM_ are amongst the most influential media in the UK. Not knowing about them is almost wilfully ignorant -- other media will report that "on the _Today_ programme this morning, Minister for Vaccines, Nadhim Zahawi, said…"

Like I said elsewhere, I don't watch much broadcast TV, honestly have better things to do with my time. I've been successful in life so I don't see why you are insisting I need to watch this show. I get my news and current affairs elsewhere. Edit: I'd also like to add that no one in my circle has ever asked me "hey did you see that thing on the Today Programme last night?". In fact very little conversation about TV p…

I am not insisting you listen to it. I don't listen to it; I prefer to read news rather than listen or watch it.

I do expect anyone who lives in the UK to be aware it exists, including people 10 years older than me.

> An almost comedic interview on the Today Programme this morning had Home Secretary Priti Patel attempting to defend the Government’s new rules on ‘mingling’ ...

https://order-order.com/2020/09/15/mingling-banned-under-dra...

> Nigel tells the Today programme “it's been an appalling few weeks” for UKIP...

> Radio 4 sources are loudly and widely sharing concerns that Sarah Sands is planning big changes at the Today programme.

> For the first time Guido can remember, this morning's Today programme included "major websites" in its paper review

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aorder-order.com+%22to...

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#338

Post by vanilla-almond »

vonzepp wrote: post #138

BBC also does fantastic children's content including mobile games app's. Cbeebies is miles better then anything else. Also, you can trust young kids with the BBC. You know there is no targeted advertising, or in game purchases. Most shows are also educational (often secretly). Licence fee worth that alone for me.

Sometimes the kid's shows become hits with the adults too. I'm thinking of Horrible Histories - a brilliant, comedic look at history equally loved by kids and adults.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#339

Post by numlock86 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #219
simonh wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were a real thing. When an old style TV amplifies the TV signal and feeds it to the CRT tube, it leaks a lot of the boosted signal. I think the rumour that the vans were a fake was probably because they only ever had a few and it was mostly a propaganda show, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist. Intelligence agencies used receivers to snoop in on CRT computer monitor signals and could re-generate the display…

They were fake. It would be extremely difficult on most streets and impossible in virtually all tower blocks to triangulate an exact location to a single house/flat. And the design was ridiculous. A working detector doesn't need to look anything like an aerial stuck on top of a minivan. And the only record of them being used in a prosecution is for optical detection of combined RGB. Plus some handwaving. Not RF. So t…

> They were fake.

Thank you. Just last year or so there was an article linked on HN that investigated on this. And it turned out to be all fake. There was some sort of prototype that actually worked, but the range was so limited and localization was not possible at all ... it simply wasn't practical for any use. As the funding was somewhat public and news picked up on that, the myth was spreading and they made these fake vans with scary antennas and went on their scare-/psy-ops. News picked up on that again and word quickly spread all around. IIRC there was even some exhibit linked in the article that had various builds of these fake-vans. Of course everything was only props. The real deal simply only existed in people's heads. Plus there isn't any working hardware from that era to be found nowadays anywhere anyway. As the conspiracy theory goes on, that's apparently because it was all destroyed by BBC after the act. If you ask those people about all the other countries that had this apparently going on about where the remains of the equipment are nowadays you get a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at best.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#340

Post by comprev »

Osiris wrote: post #10
comprev wrote: post #2

Ireland also requires a TV license for each home. If you have any device _capable_ of receiving a signal you're required to pay.... even if you only use the TV for games consoles or Netflix.

Maybe that's one reason some TV manufactures have started removing OTA tuners. My Visio is not actually labeled as a Television, I believe it's a home theater display, because it has no TV tuner.

Which model do you have?
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