Good idea or silly idea?

[Tony]

Tony - strictly if you do own any TV, rather than one of the commercial video only player (they have no socket for an aerial & every thing is internally wired) you do neefd a TV license as you own equipment that can be used to pick up TV. Whether you choose to make use of this facility is up to the owner.

Bit stupid really.

Sorry mate, but I think you're wrong. You actually need a license if you receive a signal, or if your equipment is set up to receive a signal. If you're in a situation where you cannot receive a signal (ie there's no Arial) you don't need a license. You don't need a license just because you own something that it capable of receiving a signal, only if it's in a position to receive a signal.

if the licence man comes to the door and asks to see your TV and you say yes and show him that nothing is tuned in and that the arial is snipped or disabled in some way he cannot and the institution cannot prosecute you. They can only do that if they can prove that you have been watching TV or you have equipment set up to and capable (at that time) of doing so.

The TV licence website states

If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one.

not, if you own a TV, but if you use it to receive or record. They used to be a lot more guarded about it and the site actually said if you own a TV but it's changed, I presume through pressure to be honest and accurate.

 

[redcollective]

Yup I have to jump in here - You need a license only if you recieve tv signals, it is not a license to own a tv. However, for piece of mind - it is always best to get rid of the telly (sell it, store it, detune it, use it as funky aquarium, whatever).

Do the right thing of course!

There is quite an interest in this elsewhere on the web:

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/

http://www.marmalade.net/lime/

 

[M@rk]

We stopped using the telly about eight years ago. I put it away to see what it would be like to live with out one. Well it was a bit odd for a while but about 6 months later I was around my mates and the telly was on that’s when I really realised how crap it was.

We kept getting letters for not having a licence so I phoned to let them know we had a telly that we didn’t use. They said it wasn’t a problem and I didn’t need a licence. They took us off the list of addresses that get sent the letter and said that someone would call round to see we really didn’t us it. That was about five years ago never seen anyone and haven’t had a letter in all that time. In the end I gave the TV to me old man. He put it in his spare bedroom and now plays his Xbox on a 28” TV which mums not to happy with but that’s another story.

 

[JoeG]

We still have a TV. I seem to watch it because if i went outside i get asked why by my mum, i dont know why. Over the last few days i've been reading 'The Book of the Bivvy.' When i have been reading it, i havent had the TV on at all. I hate soaps and the other programmes, but when i have nothing to do, you watch one and then when something happens you wont to watch another. I could live with the tinterweb and my amateur radio and doing my other hobbies.
The new amateur radio handheld i bought can recieve TV, but it hasnt got picture. I have no controlle with unprogramming this i dont think. But i could listen to it using the frequencies, so if i wonted to i could listen to it anyway. Its abit pants really, you have to had the radio flat to get any good serial. To detune the TV, couldnt you just put the wire that goes to the antenna plug, you wont be able to reveive because you have no socket. Or would you need to have it detuned altogether?

 

[sharp88]

Don't even get me started on soaps . There so awful even my mum stopped watching them. They'v been branded as crud by all.

When I get my shed my mum promised me (wants me out of the house because I make a mess lol), TV is out the window for me, so to speak. I'l just sit in there all day doing college projects or my own weekend projects or a bitta carving or reading.

 

[pibbleb]

Don't worry guys just 355 days until the next Big Brother!

lol

Pib

 

[Keith_Beef]

I am going to be moving away and have found that my TV will take up too much room where I am going too. Now I was thinking of getting a smaller one, however even though the TV is on a lot, most of the time it is in background talking to itself.

So I have decided to ditch my TV

These days few things interest me on TV and I spending more and more time reading or walking.

Anyone else not got TV how you find it?

I am being silly?

I haven't had a TV set for a long, long time.

During my degree,I lived in a house with a set, and watched maybe an hour per month.

Since then, I only ever watch it when I go back to the UK... Then, it's probably about an hour per night, after the pubs have shut, on one of the nostlagia channels (Good Life, Yes Minister, etc.).

Why don't you ....
Why don't you ....
Why don't you .... just switch off your television set and go and do something else mess boring instead?

K

 

[Tony]

Why don't you ....
Why don't you ....
Why don't you .... just switch off your television set and go and do something else mess boring instead?

K

Now and then that goes through my head, maybe they should put it back on TV

 

[Bootstrap Bob]

Haven't had a TV for many years and don't miss it.
I get round the watching of DVDs via a mini DVD player and a projector which creates a 10 feet screen at one end of my lounge. Sound is via the hi-fi system. When you've finished you just switch it off and that's it, no big box taking up space in the corner of the room

Even though I don't own a TV I do find myself watching wildlife programmes and Top Gear round at the GF's house from time to time

 

[JoeG]

Don't worry guys just 355 days until the next Big Brother!

lol

Pib

Theres another programme that you sit and watch once, then you have to watch most of them then. But i think celebrity Big Brother will be on soon, so for those with a TV, E4 and E4+1 and channel 4 will be taken over by a load of .

 

[Cyclingrelf]

I didn't have one for years, then I started an OU degree course, so got one to watch their programmes. But I've found I still don't watch it much - only for Bruce Parry when he was on...I'm going to get rid of it again soon.

I can get most things on DVD and watch on my computer.

Mind you, I do like going around to my friends house for a film evening occasionally with a really big screen....

 

[Klenchblaize]

Today they were cleaning the Landy

No, I’m sorry Tony but you simply cannot drive a clean Landy! Get them to throw mud at it now or forever hold your head in shame!

Cheers

 

[Tengu]

Haven't had a TV for many years and don't miss it.

I get round the watching of DVDs via a mini DVD player and a projector which creates a 10 feet screen at one end of my lounge. Sound is via the hi-fi system. When you've finished you just switch it off and that's it, no big box taking up space in the corner of the room

you jammy bugger!

Id love one of those.

Id mount it above my chair, and have a pull down screen across the end bookshelf.

I have a huge lounge for it too....

 

[demographic]

One point that maybe worthy of note is that when they use detectors they can only pick up a signal from a cathode ray tube so expensive plasma screens and LCD screen ones don't show up.

Well, thats what New Scientist said anyway.
Most of their "detecting" is done from databases anyway.

 

[Not that Taz]

Woah - not a silly idea at all!!!

Haven't had a TV for .. erm... can't remember when - Uni Days I think.

I catch my news online, watch DVD's on my computer so that satisfies my movie cravings and the rest of the rubbish, well, I get to hear about that at work.

The other great thing about it is I get to wind up the TV Licence Fraggles who assume I am a lying toerag when I say I haven't got a telly... best comment yet from them was roughly as follows...

Me - I haven't got a TV
TV dude - Yes you have, we have proof.
Me - No you don't.
TV Dude - Yes we do.
Me - You can't have. What's your proof?
TV Dude - I don't have to tell you.
Me - Well, I can't help you if you don't tell me.
TV Dude - We saw flickering lights in your flat.
Me - I have a PC.

At this point it all went terribly downhill and the man left quite distraught!



Taz