TV licencing bloke calls...

[Ellendra]

And you can't just claim to watch commercial stations, if you can get ANY signal you need a licence.

Weird.

Why don't they just encrypt the signal and charge for the decryption device, with the code updated periodically for a fee?

[MuddyWitch]

Because that would be sensible & the BBC would be skint in a week flat!!!

MW

[Kezz]

If you take the ariel off the roof can you still keep the tv for games consoles without a licence?

And can you watch dvds without a licence? Cus I would assume dvds are fine because you've already paid for them but I've heard you need a licence incase you watch bbc dvds......

I'd like to try tv free for a while. When my parents first split my dad had no tv and it's one of my favourite times with him. OH loves the tv though, and can't go 12 hours without the xbox going on....

[eco-mick]

If you take the ariel off the roof can you still keep the tv for games consoles without a licence?

Yes you don't need one to play games on the tv, but you don't even "need" to remove the aerial at all

And can you watch dvds without a licence?

Thats correct - no licence required for watching DVD\Blu's

I've heard you need a licence incase you watch bbc dvds......

Wrong, no licence required

I'd like to try tv free for a while. When my parents first split my dad had no tv and it's one of my favourite times with him. OH loves the tv though, and can't go 12 hours without the xbox going on....

Good on you.. there are times where my TV is off for days, and I watch the odd DVD every now and then.

Please remember - you only need a licence to watch "live" TV as its "being" broadcasted by the main transmitter ;) everything else you don't need a licence for. The licence covers the right to access the singal from the transmitter... so legally, I can own 250 tvs, 22 DVD recorders, 69 digi boxs, 1 pc, 3 xBoxs.. and not require a licence for any of those provide I do not watch any "live" tv on any of them

Have fun

Mick

[Green Aura]

Sorry to come late to this discussion.

When I moved in up here I had no TV for the first few months (bliss) but got a letter approximately once a month from the licensing bods, the last one threatening to bring the sheriff!

My gal, while still living in Manchester got a visit from them - they had a quick look around, saw she had a TV for her games machine, but no means of getting a signal to it despite there being both an arial and a satellite dish. She wasn't bothered again by them.

[greenorelse]

If I had a TV it would annoy me so much I'd probably end up throwing something at it and breaking it

tvs in pubs make me want to do similar things... or worse, when you visit someone and they leave the tv on, grrrr.

90% of what's on, holds absolutely no interest to me whatsoever so it's not a great hardship to go without.

Only 90%?

It does mean you have the time to do other things - which you DO need if you're trying to be anything like self-sufficient!
Only trouble is the internet is just as bad a time-waster

+1

It all depends on a personal interpritation of Self sufficiency, frivolous items or having more than you need etc.

In the true sense of the words "Self sufficiency" no one can succeed as no one can truly be self sufficient. Take it back to the bare bones of survival. You need heat, food, shelter and water. Shelter could be a natural made cave but anything "man made" such as houses or flats would have to be made by the SS person. Can you ( as in the SS person) make your own house, boat, caravan, barn etc? Food, You could forage food, trap, hunt and grow food so you could possibly be SS in food or you could go to the shops but that would not be SS as others have had to grow, hunt, farm the food, package, deliver, sell the food etc etc.

If you were to keep animals then you would need to make fences and gates. Can you make a gate hinge or latch like a blacksmith etc ?
Water you could collect your own water provided you dug your own well or bore hole. Maybe you could carry enough water from a nearby stream or spring if it runs through your land so in essence you could be water SS If you don't dig your own well or bore hole but take water from adjacent land not owned by you then you are not self sufficient in water. Heat. Well you would need to gather fuel for the fire, learn how to strike a light, keep it going and then use it.

So if you live in a cave, gather your own fuel water and food you can be self sufficient. Anything else could be frivilous or living a more modern life.. To me a self sufficient lifestyle encompases treading lighter on the earth, helping and educating others in SS, being as strong mentally and phyically as I can and having enough to eat, drink and share with others.....

..... Oh and sky sports 1,2,3,4 to keep the bloody wife quiet.......

....Well that's how i see it.

That's fair enough, BA, thanks. It doesn't quite address this:

self-sufficiency, does this include having more than you need?

but I'll let you off!

The better word in relation to your post is, I think, "co-sufficientish". Skills and co-operation in your local community as opposed to struggling on your own.

[crowsashes]

so technically since the digital switchover (down here anyhows in the southwest) if i own an analogue television - have no tv aerial ( never have done) - do not own a freeview box i can LEGALLY have a tv just for my playstation and dvds?

the only reason i ask is . on the tv licensing site it states you have to have 'tv receiving equipment' so technically an analogue tv can no longer do this right? so im well within the 'law' to own one without forking out £150 for a usless bit of paper?

[Odsox]

Apparently so Crowsashes, the UK law states ....

You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.

However we in Ireland are still the same as the UK used to be regarding TV sets ....

Every household, business or institution in Ireland with a television or equipment capable of receiving a television signal (using an aerial, satellite dish, cable or other means) must have a television licence.

It's the wording that makes all the difference, from "TV capable of receiving a picture" (Ireland) to "watch TV while it's being broadcast" (UK)
Or to put it another way, if I had an old telly in my attic covered in dust and boxes of junk, if it still worked I would technically need a yearly licence. AND to make it even better coughing up €160 every year, our TV broadcaster RTE who get the money have bloody adverts every quarter hour like every other channel (BBC excepted).

[eco-mick]

Apparently so Crowsashes, the UK law states ....

You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.

The TV licence under the Communcation Act 2003 doesn't cover the equipement at all. What your paying the Licence for is the right to access the signal. Now, one has mentioned about the old pre digital tv's that is correct - since the singal has moved to digital and you got an old analogue you have that extra barrier to say I can't recieve a broadcast.

Back to your post odsox :

"You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast."

Note the bit in bold as per the communcations act 2003- that the only thing you need a licence for.. nothing else - the ownership of the tv/digi box/ VCR player/mobile phone etc does "not"requires a licence. You only need the licence if you want to watch TV as it's being broadcasted by the main transmitter

[Odsox]

Err ... I believe that's what I said

My "apparently so" comment was in answer to Crowsash's question "so I'm well within the law not having a licence ?".

Another anomaly in Ireland (and also in the UK before 2003), I can legally TRANSMIT television sound and pictures under my amateur radio licence, but to receive a reply to my signals I need a TV receiver which I need ... you guessed it, I need to pay the Irish TV broadcaster €160.

[ajs88]

We don't have a lincence and when the guy came round we encouraged him to come in and inspect out TV that had no ariel, he very quickly signed us off his list and left, although I think our barking yorkie locked in the bedroom and his fear of dogs helped

[Shirleymouse]

I always thought their special vans could detect if you had a telly without the man having to go inside the house - am I just very gullable?

What I don't get is why in shared accomodation e.g. a house converted into flats or student accommodation, everyone needs their own liscence? Presumably they share one aerial?

[Kezz]

It's because each are behind their door and it's their own private space. If they have a common room with a tv they can have one licence, but if it's in their own room they need an individual one as well. I think it's just to make the licence company more money.

[Shirleymouse]

That sounds like a money-making scheme to me! How is that different from a family having TVs in different rooms? When we moved into our house there was an aerial in every single room except the bathroom - it made me wonder if the previous inhabitants every spoke to one another!

[gregorach]

I always thought their special vans could detect if you had a telly without the man having to go inside the house - am I just very gullable?

I'm not sure, but I have heard (second or third hand) that the principle means of "detection" involves counting TV aerials on the roof and peering in through the windows. Neither of which work very well if you live in a block of flats...