ok... this TV licence thing... how do they know if you are RECIVING anything?!?! Its not like the TV broadcasts a message that it's getting forbidden TV stations. Do these mysterious van drivers just knock on random doors and ask to see your licence?

they have scanner vans, much like tracing a mobile phone call. they just sit about, and if they detect a signal, and you havent signed up, they'll come knocking on your door and have a word with you. its all a bit mean, especially for all those people who get world service and our tv shows outside the UK get a paid serivce for free, so enjoy it

-arcon
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"Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance." --Sam Brown

did you know that the £1000 fine that you get if you're caught doesn't go to the BBC anyway? the Lord Chancellor's office keeps it; pays for the Magistrates free junkets.


..you think you're done with the past, but the past isn't done with you..

holy crap a TV license

that is the stupidest thing ive ever heard of
and i thought the government of the US was money hungry

there are three ways we can describe the Starlancer forums if TLR was a town.....
they are either the ghettos, the old folk homes, or the graveyard

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they just sit about, and if they detect a signal, and you havent signed up, they'll come knocking on your door and have a word with you.

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I'm sory, but I don't get this. The only signal involved in the whole exchange comes from some BBC (I guesss) broadcast station. It doesn't come in a tight beam to your house, so how do these van folk know if your recieving anything! I gues I'm asking, in reference to your quote, what signal is there to detect?

all electronic equipment, even if its only receiving, gives off a distinctive electromagnetic signature, albeit at short range, and this is what the detector vans are looking for. they can triangulate the source to within a few feet and then check the co-ordinates against the Ordnance Survey maps of that location, then check the address against the TV Licence database to see if there is a current and valid licence registered there.

its an archaic system that was introduced by the government/bbc decades ago. people have been campaigning to get it scrapped for years, but the bbc insist that if its scrapped they will go out of business.

for those that don't know...the bbc channels are the only UK channels that are NOT funded by advertising. ie. there are no commercial breaks. which to be honest, I don't mind paying for, there is nothing more annoying that watching a good film and being interrupted every 20 minutes by Loreal and Renault adverts. But saying that, the BBC has gone downhill over the last couple of years so its rare that I watch it nowadays - every time I turn on its either "casualty", "holby city" or "silent witness"....which to be frank bore the living s*** out of me. the only good thing on the beeb nowadays is 24.

Edited by - gromit on 23-10-2003 12:40:25

Ah ha! Thanks Taw!

And now that you mention it gromit, I don't ever see comercials on BBC. Or KLRN for that matter

You do get alot more (and better) free channels in Britian than America.

Bananas don't float on water.

we seem to have gone off topic here. the topic being ME!
my tv card doesnt work....why not?

Until this thread I was un-aware that TV cards even existed so I'm afraid I can't be of much help to you

i told you. did u do wot i said?

yes i did, its still not working. i'm just gonna have to get a new one i think, one with xp compatablility



Edited by - Arcon on 24-10-2003 22:01:38

maybe yr cards f*kt? do u want me to test mine on XP for u? if it works u can have it if u want, at my usual low low prices.