You also had TV DETECTOR VANS that would go around looking for people with unlicensed televisions. That’s kinda fucked. That’s not still a thing, is it?
You also had TV DETECTOR VANS that would go around looking for people with unlicensed televisions. That’s kinda fucked. That’s not still a thing, is it?
Someone told me a while ago that wasn’t true, but i don’t know for sure. What i do know is that the tv license people didn’t go into certain places here in Northern Ireland for fear that they wouldn’t get out alive, hahaha. The TV license pays for the BBC, which is our state channel, so basically some people who hated the Queen and all that they assumed she stood for refused to pay it as they saw it as lining the pockets of the British government.
Yes, we’re very open-minded people here in Northern Ireland. I got caught out myself for not having a tv license, but it was rather simpler than some technological van driving around detecting me. They sent a dude around just knocking doors and saying “we don’t have this address on our database as having a license”. I was caught fair and square, and the guy said “Errr, this is really embarrassing but… erm… i have to read you your rights”. Haha, i was taken aback, but he was basically just telling me in official jargon that i had X amount of weeks to get a license sorted out.
I did kinda wonder though, by paying my license fee i am providing money for the BBC budget to make shows like Sherlock, Top Gear and Dr Who. But, the BBC then sell those shows for a fucking fortune internationally, so we’re paying them to make shows and then people in other countries pay them again for the right to show them. A bit cheeky of them but i’m not too bothered about it.
I remember back in the day we could go into ChinaTown or find some creepy guy with a van who would sell “Scrambler Boxes” . . . . then you could turn your “basic cable” (which was probably $40 a month or something) into “every damn channel that exists cable” (probably about $200-$300 a month). So, yeah, for $150 or whatever they were selling these little crime boxes for, you could get a lot of TV.
My family was both honest and cheap, though, so we never had cable. We just had a really crappy Sony Trinitron with the two channel dials (VHF on top, UHF on bottom).
I’ve had this conversation with others, but when we were kids (70’s and 80’s) we would literally watch ANYTHING that they put on TV because we simply didn’t have any choices.
Now I have literally 100’s of channels (Verizon) and I probably only watch about 4 of them.
TV Detector? Unlicensed TVs? What’s up with that? How would they even detect a TV? They don’t transmit anything.
In the UK the BBC is the main broadcaster, and was the only broadcaster when tv launched here. You pay a tv license fee in order to fund that broadcaster, they don’t show adverts/commercials the way other channels do.
Here’s something about the vans;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Detection_technology
Lots of people think it’s bullshit though and that there’s no such thing;
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-22440,00.html
[reply]TV Detector? Unlicensed TVs? What’s up with that? How would they even detect a TV? They don’t transmit anything.
In the UK the BBC is the main broadcaster, and was the only broadcaster when tv launched here. You pay a tv license fee in order to fund that broadcaster, they don’t show adverts/commercials the way other channels do.
Here’s something about the vans;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Detection_technology
Lots of people think it’s bullshit though and that there’s no such thing;
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-22440,00.html[/reply]
I love that you have to license your B&W TV in 2014.
Ha, to be honest i’d forgotten that there was such a thing. I wonder do they still even make them?
Ha, to be honest i’d forgotten that there was such a thing. I wonder do they still even make them?
Not in the US, that’s for sure. In fact, to get an old (and when I say “old” I mean something from the 90’s or early 00’s) TV to work it’s a hassle because you have to buy some funky satellite converter thing to get your transmission since all the signals are digital now.
When the switch to digital first happened about 6 years ago they offered two converter thingies to each household if you filled out some forms and sent off for 'em.
Now . . . . I suspect it would be more work to deal with the technical aspects than to just get a new TV. TV’s are astonishingly cheap now. You can probably get a flatscreen of like 60" for like $800.00 12 years ago the same TV would have been like $20K
Yeah, and the weight of a tv today compared to 10 years ago is insane, they’re so much lighter now, thank God.
I remember years ago people talking about turning the colour down on their tv when the tv license guy came to the door, haha, sneaky bastards. “Nah, she’s just a black and white, i don’t like them colour TVs”
Yeah, and the weight of a tv today compared to 10 years ago is insane, they’re so much lighter now, thank God.
I remember years ago people talking about turning the colour down on their tv when the tv license guy came to the door, haha, sneaky bastards. “Nah, she’s just a black and white, i don’t like them colour TVs”
Yeah, I was a furniture mover in college and the large TV’s were absolute bastards!!! In addition to being the size of a damn car, the weight distribution was super awkward too. They were extremely unwieldy. A 36" picture tube TV (which was pretty much as big as they came) weighed like 200+lbs and it took up the entire corner of a room since it went back 2-3 feet as well.
I do not miss those massive ugly monsters one bit.
And how about the stupid large screen projection TV’s from the 80’s? You’d have to be exactly perpendicular to the screen or it would just be black, hahahaha!!!
Yeah, we’ve got a 50" here now and it’s light as a feather, we had an old 36" and a big, heavy 40" that we (eventually) got rid of, fucking hell, getting those out of the flat and down the stairs was a nightmare. Crushed fingers were the order of the day, trying to squeeze these behemoths out through the door frames. You’re right about the depth of those older TVs, holy shit. Crazy! We eventually caught on “it doesn’t matter if they get broken, we have a new tv” and just rolled them down the stairs instead of carrying them, hahaha
Yeah, we have a 60 inch smart tv. Didn’t pay more than 800 for it. Gunnar’s right. 10 years ago those things would run 20k.
With TVs being so much lighter these days, removals men must be upset that they don’t get such a good workout every day.
Yeah, we have a 60 inch smart tv. Didn’t pay more than 800 for it. Gunnar’s right. 10 years ago those things would run 20k.
It’s good to wait for a price drop. Being an early adopter of new tech is not very smart. Technology advances so quickly these days.
Sometimes I can’t help but laugh at all the rich dorks who spend thousands on the new 4K tv’s which btw have no real 4K sources and theyre just gonna be cheap in a few years. And whatever happened to the 3D tv craze? I was never sold on those, what a gimmick.
Yeah, I was a furniture mover in college and the large TV’s were absolute bastards!!! In addition to being the size of a damn car, the weight distribution was super awkward too. They were extremely unwieldy. A 36" picture tube TV (which was pretty much as big as they came) weighed like 200+lbs and it took up the entire corner of a room since it went back 2-3 feet as well.
A friend and myself once carried one of those monsters up three very steep, very narrow, very long flights of stairs some fifteen years ago - in a building with no air conditioning on a 40 (110 Fahrenheit) degree day. When we did finally manage to get to the top still alive, the middle aged, fat assed, menopausal bitch from hell we were carrying it for couldn’t decide where it should go in her home and changed her mind three times. When we looked upset and angry at her indecision we were told that our “attitude” was unacceptable and were both promptly shown the door.
That incident was one of only three so far in my life where I’ve seriously had to repress the urge to cave someone’s head in with a claw hammer.
Fuck those stupid TV’s and fuck menopausal bitches.
[:|]
[reply] And whatever happened to the 3D tv craze? I was never sold on those, what a gimmick.
Is it just me or do 3D movies and TVs look blurry? I took my kids to the 3D Lego Movie the other night and it was so blurry that it was unwatchable. I took a nice nap for about 1/2 the movie.[/reply]
You got to wear the glasses to keep it from being blurry. They still sell the 3d TVs here in socal, but they tack on an xtra 1k to 1500 to the price tag for it
[reply][reply][reply] And whatever happened to the 3D tv craze? I was never sold on those, what a gimmick.
Is it just me or do 3D movies and TVs look blurry? I took my kids to the 3D Lego Movie the other night and it was so blurry that it was unwatchable. I took a nice nap for about 1/2 the movie.[/reply]
You got to wear the glasses to keep it from being blurry. [/reply]
I hope you were just making a smart remark. Of course I was wearing the glasses.[/reply]
Definitely a smart remark. [:/]
Damn crappy ass 3D movie with all these double images and red and blue lines everywhere! What the heck???
“What are these glasses for? I can see just fine! It’s the damned movie that’s blurry!”
But really, this movie looks fucking awesome from the very little they’ve shown (and I’m glad they’ve shown restraint in revealing a lot of the film). It seems really bleak and Godzilla seems to be the terrifying force he’s supposed to be.
Also, Brian Cranston.
THANK YOU GUNNAR NO WAY IN HELL KING KONG BEAT GODZILLA!!! Oh he gains lightning power a wakness godzilla happens to have now…GODZILLA would fry that monkey moron
King Kong, being a primate, had some intelligence. Godzilla is pretty stupid. So, there is that to consider.
BUT WHAT IS GODZILLA!?!?!? He’s unknown. He could be as intelligent, if not more intelligent than a primate.
Godzilla is king and he’s made all hail before him. I just hope he does it in a bleak and terrifying style in this new film and brings humanity to its knees.
Trailers are so well done.