TV detector vans..myth?

flanum

So i got a letter the other day (i recently bought a house) saying the new owner hasnr registered a tv licence to this address!! now i watch tv feck all anyway and apart from that i dont have an rte aerial, so i cannot recieve any irish stations... is there anyway they can force me to get a laicence? i have thusfar escaped from buying one (im now 41)! i was hoping to never have to get one.. if it comes to it, ill just get rid of the telly!

Crasp

Your laptop and internet can receive RTÉ player --> you need a TV licence.


sorry, misinformation. The laptop would need to receive TV signal to need a licence.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/media/tv_licences.html

Oranage2

tell them you're an asylum seeker, I may be wrong but apparently they don't have to pay for a licence in addition to a grant of €3000 for a satalite, Tv and sound system.

Badgermonkey

Once you've a tv on the premises, regardless of whether it's plugged out or not attached to aerial etc. I've a feeling it's mandatory.

Mr. CooL ICE

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Once you've a tv on the premises, regardless of whether it's plugged out or not attached to aerial etc. I've a feeling it's mandatory.

Exactly. Even if your TV is broken, it is considered repairable.

If theres anything in the house capable of receiving a TV signal, you need a license for it. This is retarded as a wire coathanger is probably capable of receiving a signal too

HornyDevil

5 euros for your telly, if your adamant

phasers

dump the tv and watch online!

orourkeda

They've heard all the excuses and none of them work

Vego

Never bought a tv licence never got any letters to tell me to get one never got a knock on the door from an inspector ....oh I do have a big driveway and big gates

strobe

flanum wrote: »

So i got a letter the other day (i recently bought a house) saying the new owner hasnr registered a tv licence to this address!! now i watch tv feck all anyway and apart from that i dont have an rte aerial, so i cannot recieve any irish stations... is there anyway they can force me to get a laicence? i have thusfar escaped from buying one (im now 41)! i was hoping to never have to get one.. if it comes to it, ill just get rid of the telly!

Yes the high tech NASA vans driving round with a satellite dish looking thing on the roof triangulating televisions is obviously a fukking myth man.

Don't pay it. If an inspector comes to your door and says "we sent you a warning. How come you haven't payed up?" tell them you do not have a TV. If they say they don't believe you, say "so fukking what". If they ask to come in and check say "no", then LOL. LOL a lot.

x in the city

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Once you've a tv on the premises, regardless of whether it's plugged out or not attached to aerial etc. I've a feeling it's mandatory.

I plug my laptop into my ass and recieve all the tv I want without paying a licence to watch Irelands got talent and celebrity banesteoir bollocks, not to mention jedf*ckinward

mikom

flanum wrote: »

is there anyway they can force me to get a laicence?

Tell them you are the policeman from Allo Allo and you do not inderstund.

Capt'n Midnight

LordChessington wrote: »

Exactly. Even if your TV is broken, it is considered repairable.

If theres anything in the house capable of receiving a TV signal, you need a license for it. This is retarded as a wire coathanger is probably capable of receiving a signal too

people have picked up radio on their fillings

starbelgrade

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

people have picked up radio on their fillings

True. You have to be careful what you put in your sandwiches these days.

Little Mickey

I have heard that if you remove the RF reciever from the TV and from all devices that are connected to it then you don't have to pay a license.
By doing this you would not be able to receive RTE using an aeriel and could only do so by using sky, chorus etc. who are companies that you are already paying for your TV service.

I stand to be corrected but heard that some time ago.

Bruthal

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Once you've a tv on the premises, regardless of whether it's plugged out or not attached to aerial etc. I've a feeling it's mandatory.

Yea once its a tv with a tuner, or any items capabable of receiving and tuning a broadcast transmission signal, you need a tv licence. Its simply a tax called a tv licence so as to get just about every household and business in the tv licence net. Even though there are plenty of uses for a tv these days which dont include watching any tv broadcasts.

If a businness premises wants to show safety videos etc from a DVD player for example, they would have to use a monitor or projector which has no tv tuner in it to be exempt from the licence.

Bruthal

Little Mickey wrote: »

I have heard that if you remove the RF reciever from the TV and from all devices that are connected to it then you don't have to pay a liscense.
By doing this you would not be able to receive RTE using an aeriel and could only do so by using sky, chorus etc. who are private companies that you are already paying for your TV service.

I stand to be corrected but heard that some time ago.

If you have the tv with no tuner(monitor), you will still have to pay for the tv licence if you have sky. You still have a device capabable of tuning in the live RTE broadcast. The money you pay sky for their service is nothing to do with the licence fee.

You can now watch RTE on a computer with broadband, so it will be interesting to see what they try with that. To tell people they need a tv licence for having a pc with broadband would be ridiculous. Bad enough the way the licence thing is now.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Do what I did, get a projector :P

Tail Wagger

flanum wrote: »

So i got a letter the other day (i recently bought a house) saying the new owner hasnr registered a tv licence to this address!! now i watch tv feck all anyway and apart from that i dont have an rte aerial, so i cannot recieve any irish stations... is there anyway they can force me to get a laicence? i have thusfar escaped from buying one (im now 41)! i was hoping to never have to get one.. if it comes to it, ill just get rid of the telly!

Just get rid of the telly, you have no choice but to pay!

Little Mickey

robbie7730 wrote: »

You can now watch RTE on a computer with broadband, so it will be interesting to see what they try with that. To tell people they need a tv licence for having a pc with broadband would be ridiculous. Bad enough the way the licence thing is now.

If they could reduce / get rid of the eircom line rental it wouldn't be so bad to pay the tv license fee then, we finally might begin to get a better broadband service for everyone to watch it on as a result

My old PC had a tv tuner card (s-video and RF i/p) and that allowed me to watch the terrestial channels with an ariel, did that make me eligible to pay a tv license?

Yawns

Lived in a house and neighbour reported that some1 walked into back garden via open side gate (no lock ) and peered thru window. Turns out to be tv inspector. We got a letter few days later stating that a tv was viewed on premises. GF just went and got a licence. I was fuming tho.

Moved to an apartment and first thing was cancel that damn thing. Like to see him scaling a building to have a look thru my windows now.

Wolfe Tone

Get drunk and throw the tv out the window onto the patio, its more fun than it sounds

Pdfile

i had them at the door in my old house... 2 times and told them both to **** off... not cause i dont own a licence but it was roughly 3 pm and his overly loud 15 banging woke me up in the worst mood imaginable.


a whole bunch of cuss words and ive yet to get another.

F*** RTE, even if they had good progammes on... i still wouldn't watch it.

Bruthal

Little Mickey wrote: »

If they could reduce / get rid of the eircom line rental it wouldn't be so bad to pay the tv license fee then, we finally might begin to get a better broadband service for everyone to watch it on as a result

Yes but having to pay a tv licence just because you own a pc would be ridiculous, the pc owner might have no tv(probably unlikely) but just as an example, if they have no tv and never want to watch tv, but now because they have a pc that could watch RTE online they now must pay the tv licence would be a bit annoying.

I got rid of eircom myself because of the line rental, never made any calls at all but was paying the €25 a month rental.

My old PC had a tv tuner card (s-video and RF i/p) and that allowed me to watch the terrestial channels with an ariel, did that make me eligible to pay a tv license?

Yes this would require a licence under the current licence requirements i think.

stoneill

You have a telly - just pay the feckin licence like the rest of us.

Bruthal

Anton Short Shepherd wrote: »

Do what I did, get a projector :P

You would have to hide the sky box, satellite dish etc or they will still want you to pay it.

I think if everyone in the country got rid of tv`s overnight and got projectors in the next few days to use instead of tv`s, it would be called a projector licence very shortly.

Jesus Wept

stoneill wrote: »

You have a telly - just pay the feckin licence like the rest of us.

no.

cursai

I can tell you for a fact its a myth. I have a licence....out of principle!!!
Vague letters like this are sent out. No such way of detecting receivership of a reception. a bluff most people fall for.



Anyway just get a licence cause we all love paying taxes!

cursai

cursai wrote: »

Vague letters like this are sent out. No such way of detecting receivership of a reception. a bluff most people fall for.

Televisions have things called local oscillators in them, they need these to tune in the channel being watched before demodulation.

Using the right kit, it's possible to pick up a signal from a TV over 100metres away.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

Televisions have things called local oscillators in them, they need these to tune in the channel being watched before demodulation.

Using the right kit, it's possible to pick up a signal from a TV over 100metres away.

And tell its from my house and not next door of course, or the endless other electronic items that use oscillator circuits.

robbie7730

robbie7730 wrote: »

And tell its from my house and not next door of course, or the endless other electronic items that use oscillator circuits.

IF frequency -/+ Local oscillator = TV channel being watched (470MHz - 850Mhz) & narrow beamwidth Yagi and bingo. Plus a portable unit just to be sure.

Simples!

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

IF frequency -/+ Local oscillator = TV channel being watched (470MHz - 850Mhz) & narrow beamwidth Yagi and bingo. Plus a portable unit just to be sure.

Simples!

So a narrow bandwidth yagi will tell the difference between my side of a 12 inch thick wall and the other side of it from 100 meters away? Right. Sounds simple alright.

robbie7730

robbie7730 wrote: »

So a narrow bandwidth yagi will tell the difference between my side of a 12 inch thick wall and the other side of it from 100 meters away? Right. Sounds simple alright.

I did say a portable unit is used as well to be sure.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

I did say a portable unit is used as well to be sure.

To be sure of what? That a house has a tv. Well what if the said house is actually not using the tv to tune in tv broadcasts, and the yagi does not show up the 40mhz(or whatever the local oscillator puts out+ the channel frequency) its exempt from the licence now? Or will the inspectors then climb garden walls to peer into peoples homes instead.

Again, yagi antenna`s are not that high a gain that they pin point a signal to absolute pinpoint precision, we use them for video stuff the odd time, although patch antennas of 8dbi we mostly use for 60 degree beam. A 16dbi yagi will have 25 degree beam i think, it would seem hard to definitively say a tv is in one living room and not next door without being 2 meters from it. Maybe assume it when 2 different channels are being watched? What about when the tv is being used with a sky box?

Unless the walls are paper thin, it's possible to just check signal strength, some of the latest technology can use twin antennae and use phase difference to increase the accuracy of the DF for the signal, to less than 1 degree. You also assume that the neighbours have the same brand of TV and are watching the same channel.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

Unless the walls are paper thin, it's possible to just check signal strength, some of the latest technology can use twin antennae and use phase difference to increase the accuracy of the DF for the signal. You also assume that the neighbours have the same brand of TV and are watching the same channel.

No i dont really assume anything. Most tv`s are not being used as tuners anyway, but as displays. Im sure they have that covered too of course. Its like everything else in ireland, we put up with everything.

The sat & cable boxes still have tuners.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

robbie7730 wrote: »

You would have to hide the sky box, satellite dish etc or they will still want you to pay it.

I think if everyone in the country got rid of tv`s overnight and got projectors in the next few days to use instead of tv`s, it would be called a projector licence very shortly.

I would if I had any of those things :P I can watch programs and films from with the use of a HD media player which has wifi so I can stream from my computer

Well how could they warrant charging people for a license for a projector, I mean they say it's for funding RTE now, but what excuse would they use for projectors? Either way, I wouldn't buy a TV license.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

The sat & cable boxes still have tuners.

Yes but there goes the assumption that i have a different brand of tv as the neighbour to show its my tv they are detecting. I suppose this scanner setup can now detect what sky channel we are watching too. And that its in my house beyond a doubt.
I can see that standing up in court alright:D

Down to the mux you're receiving yes, the individual channel no, unless you're using the RF feed from the sat box or have forgotton to disable it!

Bruthal

Anton Short Shepherd wrote: »

Well how could they warrant charging people for a license for a projector, I mean they say it's for funding RTE now, but what excuse would they use for projectors? Either way, I wouldn't buy a TV license.

I mentioned projectors as an example, to show its only a tax called a tv licence because a tv can be associated with watching our national channel, even if you never in your life watch it, and just about everyone has a tv.

So if everyone tomorrow got rid of their tv`s, a new name would be needed for the tv licence. And likely it would be named after whatever device was used to watch tv broadcasts instead of tv`s.

robbie7730

robbie7730 wrote: »

So if everyone tomorrow got rid of their tv`s, a new name would be needed for the tv licence. And likely it would be named after whatever device was used to watch tv broadcasts instead of tv`s.

They probably wouldn't bother, just lump it into another tax elsewhere (like VAT), much cheaper to collect and no need for detector vans etc.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

Down to the mux you're receiving yes, the individual channel no, unless you're using the RF feed from the sat box or have forgotton to disable it!

Well thats the channel we have tuned in on the tv gone from the equation now, it seems a lot of bother to be going to just to see who has a tv in their house when just about every house has one.

Bruthal

Deleted User wrote: »

They probably wouldn't bother, just lump it into another tax elsewhere (like VAT), much cheaper to collect and no need for detector vans etc.

Thats just it though, they could lump it into another tax tomorrow without anyone knowing, but still try get the tv licence money out of us anyway, nothing new in that setup in this country.

So saying it would be cheaper to put it or collect it as a different tax is meaningless, just do that anyway and still go to everyone for a tv licence fee or whatever they re badge it as.

It's job retention, just like many other jobs in the Civil service, the system could be revamped and many departments merged without loss of needed "public facing" services.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

robbie7730 wrote: »

I mentioned projectors as an example, to show its only a tax called a tv licence because a tv can be associated with watching our national channel, even if you never in your life watch it, and just about everyone has a tv.

So if everyone tomorrow got rid of their tv`s, a new name would be needed for the tv licence. And likely it would be named after whatever device was used to watch tv broadcasts instead of tv`s.

Yes, I understand that, but how could they condone the new "projector" tax? What would the reasoning be?

Bruthal

Anton Short Shepherd wrote: »

Yes, I understand that, but how could they condone the new "projector" tax? What would the reasoning be?

Well it would be just the same tv licence(tax) with a new name. What i was getting at was that its just called a tv licence because everyone has a tv, so it catches as wide a number of people as possible in the net.

Lots of tv owners dont use the tv as a tuner, just as a monitor. So it would be interesting if shops started selling tv`s with no tuner in them. You still need a licence if you have a sky box hooked to a monitor though. But still, lots of schools and business premises would then be exempt if they used monitors (tv without a tuner) as they only use tv`s with DVD players.

dolanbaker could well be right though, they could just lump it onto some other tax, or come up with some other name for it which no one is exempt from anyway.

mfceiling

Feck the tv in the skip.
If detector head comes again tell him to fcuk off and if he evers darkens your door again you will take legal action against him.




Then sit down and look at the bare walls...

Kidchameleon

strobe wrote: »

If they ask to come in and check say "no", then LOL. LOL a lot.

Always wondered, are they actually allowed to come in and check?

anewme

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Always wondered, are they actually allowed to come in and check?

No, they have no legal rights to enter your home. In fact, you don't even have to tell them your name. Once they have a name though, they can send a summons, whereas they can't send a summons to "the occupier".

On my sisters road when it was a new estate, they reported a weirdo interfering with wheelie bins at the front and side of the houses. Turned out to be the TV inspector getting names from the bins so he could send the letters.

I make sure my name is not on my bin!

iPlop

A friend of mine in dublin got nabbed and ended up in court with a 1500 euro fine for not having a TV licence.How they caught him was that he decided to get sky and apparently they matched his sky account and address to the register of tv licence addresses and saw he hadn't paid.He denied everything and ignored all the letters until it was shown to him in court.