TV licence inspectors in trinity halls?

palance

I just read a piece in a paper saying that tv licence inspectors are always checking student accomodation in the UK, does anyone know whether this has happened in trinity halls?

I'm thinking of bring my portable tv/dvd combo up but I don't want to be rumbled without a licence.

By student accommodation, I think they're referring to the accommodation which students don't pay college to use...

Pet

If you scroll down to "Electrical equipment" here they say that you do need a license, but I haven't heard of it happening, Trinity Hall is a pretty new development, and you know how useless the government is. It'll probably take them ten years to cop on. Anyways, how are they going to get up to your room? They need your permission.

eth0_

They don't need to get into your room. They can (allegedly) detect from outside your door, and i'm sure TCD would have no problems letting them in.

Also, don't give your real address when buying a new TV - all the details are passed on to the TV licencing people!

Nietzschean

erm with on campus accomdation the college covers all tv licence stuff.


And also there is no way to detect a tv from outside, you could attempt to detect the CRT, but that could be a computer monitor...other than that its all passive...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

in the UK they can detect a tv from outside (and this was a few years ago when i was an undergrad over there). A friend got a letter fining him saying that they had detected him watching cornation street at 7:43pm on such and such a date. They even knew which room he was watching tv in. i presume they can detect from the 'tv rays' going into the house..

...bring on the sciency people to tell me that there is no such thing as tv rays, couldn't detect them even if there was, etc, etc, all i know is that they did it and he ended up in court!

Nietzschean

myanmar wrote:

Be a doll and provide a link to where you acquired this information or explain how you know this.

Er no link, i lived on campus, and thats what we were told by the accomdation office.


As for that other thing, 'tv rays' are electromagnetic rays, same as radio waves, just at a different frequency, they are transmitted by big **** off transmitters, tv's only act passivly and pick them up(you can't detect something passivly slurping up the rays), i'd guess someone just saw him in the window.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Also I think you are allowed to have a TV without a license if it is de-tuned (Why would you do this?? A) TV is **** Even if it wasn't you have more important things to do and drink as a Fresher, and C) If you mainly use it for DVDs and game consoles.)
I know you are definitely allowed do this in UK (Though the TV License fascists will still harass the head off you), but I'm not sure if it's allowed in Ireland (Obviously RTÉ aren't going out of their way to clear this point up, it says nothing about it on their page.)

Edit: Serenity; I think they can pick up the frequency of the oscillator for the circuit that resonates and tunes in with the signal that they send out; i.e. If you are watching a TV broadcast at 5 GHz or whatever frequency they send out; "they" can tell; Though I am not a science huy so you might want to check it out in case I'm wrong. In anycase they probably just did look in his window in this case.

Nietzschean

no the definition of a tv is that which can recieve the signal as far as a tv licence is concerned...

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Yeah; but you can get the hardware permanently detuned by an electrician ; it is then incapable of receiving signals; even if you wanted it to. The English folk accept this. I would e-mail RTÉ about this but they dont seem to have any e-mail address for this purpose, at least not listed on the TV license page...guess the ambiguity means they can keep lining their pockets...beh.

wheresthebeef

An Post Administrate the TV Licensing System on behalf of RTE. Any queries or comments about the TV Licensing system should be directed to someone in their TV License Section. You can probably find info on their website www.anpost.ie

RDM_83

they've had tv detection vans in the uk since the fifties.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/february/1/newsid_2521000/2521357.stm
in friends halls in the uk they made someone pay the licence fee on a tv without an arial since if could pick a a fuzzy picture when moved, they didn't apparently actually fine anybody though just made them pay the licence.for the last two years didn't have licences for our flats (was living with dead ed at the time and we had the novel method of avoiding detection by not opening the door to anybody we didn't know) so u should be grand in halls.

air_vent

Ah the hole that was cabra, a photo would not do justice to how filthy and deprived mess these people lived in. I could descride but It would take way too long to describe it

RDM_83

it would have been a nice place to live if we had been midgets and had had three of us instead of five.it did have the shed though.

kippy

Here is allegedly some reasoning on how the "detectors" work..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/13/a_licence_to_print_money/
As well as some more interesting points brought up in regards the British system.
Look here for more information on TV licences:

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/public_utilities/telecommunications/tv_licences.html

I think trinity halls are safe from the inspectors.
Kippy

Kappar

myanmar wrote:

Be a doll and provide a link to where you acquired this information or explain how you know this.

http://www.tcd.ie/Accommodation/resident/handbook45.pdf para 4.7

Pet

Ooh, nice one, thanks.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Hmmn, I sent an e-mail to RTÉ asking for clarification. They are the biggest load of **** if they don't let me detune my TV (not that it matters to me, I still live with my parents, but it is the principle of the matter)
€150 for Ros na ****ingRuin, and Ann Doyle yeah right.....

po0k

Serenity wrote:

erm with on campus accomdation the college covers all tv licence stuff.


And also there is no way to detect a tv from outside, you could attempt to detect the CRT, but that could be a computer monitor...other than that its all passive...

Computer monitors generally run at (relatively) far higher frequencies than TVs, but as you say, pinpointing them is bollocks.

My knowledge of chemistry and physics is limited to leaving cert and 1st Eng but I'm pretty sure high-velocity electrons impacting on charged phospors doesn't give off a whole lot of distinct signature (~10Mhz bandwidth ??) signals in a radial arc. It would be quite directional and with the number and density of TVs in Ireland (especially in Dublin city centre) the spectrum would be swamped with noise.

themole

SyxPak wrote:

Computer monitors generally run at (relatively) far higher frequencies than TVs, but as you say, pinpointing them is bollocks.

My knowledge of chemistry and physics is limited to leaving cert and 1st Eng but I'm pretty sure high-velocity electrons impacting on charged phospors doesn't give off a whole lot of distinct signature (~10Mhz bandwidth ??) signals in a radial arc. It would be quite directional and with the number and density of TVs in Ireland (especially in Dublin city centre) the spectrum would be swamped with noise.

tv's give off shed loads of noise.

old monitors give off even more.

a guy i know did a project in this. he used a regular tv and portable aerial, he just put the aerial really close to the side of an old amstrad monitor and he could pickup the picture which was on the monitor on the tv. it was fairly fuzzy but you could deffo make out what it was.

this is without any special equipment at all.

i know modern monitors and tv's give off much less of a signal but it would be possible to detect with specialist hardware.

also its most likely not the electrons hitting the screen that he was picking up but rather the signal going to the electron gun inside the monitor.

Nietzschean

as syxpak says, the interference would be incredible, also you would need to prove it came from that house. Lastly, that test was done beside the tv, through walls or glass would be a whole other story + the distance. What happenes if its an lcd tv?