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[jimbo19]

My daughter will be off to uni next week.
She is not taking a TV , but will be taking her laptop and a usb tuner card.
As the laptop is essentially battery powered and the tuner will be running from the batteries as well , am I right in assuming that this means she will be covered by our home TV license ?

snippet taken from tv licence website

"Aren't I covered by my parents' licence while I'm away?


No. Unless your TV is powered by internal batteries, such as a pocket-sized TV. If you think that this is the case, please call us on 0870 241 5973 to check that you are eligible for cover on your parents' licence. "

[jimbo19]

Well just rang them and confirmed that is the case
As long as its not plugged into the mains whilst watching TV

[dmg24]

I'd be very careful with this.

What if the laptop runs low on power and she plugs it into the mains whilst watching tv through it?

There are several discussions on MSE about watching tv through a laptop. I would be extremely weary about doing it, and balance the cost of the licence with the cost of the potential fine.

[s0198362]

Originally Posted by dmg24

I'd be very careful with this.

What if the laptop runs low on power and she plugs it into the mains whilst watching tv through it?

There are several discussions on MSE about watching tv through a laptop. I would be extremely weary about doing it, and balance the cost of the licence with the cost of the potential fine.

And how are the lisence people going to know she is watching TV on her laptop? If the do come around, all she has to do is shut the lap top.

Not that I am condoning anything illegal here....

[Snow Angel]

Is she living in halls or a student house with seperate rooms? I used to work for an accommodation dept at a uni - I understand IF the TV licence people knock on the front door they have to have a name AND room number of the person they want to speak to about the lack of tv licence. This should bide some time to switch it off. Also, in halls of residence over a period of 3 years my friend had a tv, no licence (naughty!) and not once did the tv licencing agency visit.

[ringo_24601]

I spoke to the porters at my halls of residence when i was in uni.. they said they'd never let a TV license inspector in unless he had a court order. Good blokes those porters were

[Snow Angel]

Originally Posted by ringo_24601

I spoke to the porters at my halls of residence when i was in uni.. they said they'd never let a TV license inspector in unless he had a court order. Good blokes those porters were

That's what my job was - a student warden in halls. We all did the same thing

[t-elle]

Hi jimbo19
I emailed the tv licensing company and they wrote back confirming about the use of laptops, so we have it on paper that a battery powered (internal battery of course) laptop is acceptable on our license.

[MercilessKiller]

Im confused. What if it was running through a UPS system... (stores the power then u run the laptop off the UPS rather than the main plug socket)

If so.. then what if your running your tv through a UPS.. :s

[t-elle]

This is a quote from my email

Any television that is plugged into the mains or uses an external battery cannot
be treated as portable. A separate TV Licence is needed in this case.

Email to clear up any questions tvlcsc@capita.co.uk

[Gorgeous George]

So, what if your Sky+ runs off the mains but the laptop TV has internal batteries?

Where can I get 32-inch laptop for my home?



GG

[t-elle]

Not very portable if you are a student?

[rhig]

I would advise against unplugging the laptop to watch TV, the cost of replacing the battery after it’s wasted will negate the saving of not having a license. If she watches it with the cable plugged in without a license she is breaking the law.

Purchasing a licence in halls is really a moral decision rather than an economic one, your daughter will not get into trouble of she doesn't buy a licence for many reasons.

1. Her laptop has an LCD screen which is not detectable by TV vans, which work by listening to the signal returned from the CRTs transformer. This signal returned comes from the aerial into the air at 39.5MHz > than the channel being received. This allows detector operator to determine the channel being watched if at all, anything without a CRT cannot be detected by a van (projectors, plasma and LCD screens etc).

2. Detector vans are fading into obscurity, they are expensive and it is not worth the time or money for the BBC. The corporation’s current strategy is to send threatening letters to practically everyone in the country without a license, many of who do not have a TV set in the hopes of scaring people to pay. When you purchase a TV or digital receiver in the UK your details are taken and sent to television licensing unless you are buying from a small store or in cash.

3. If your daughter is just starting university she will probably be in halls where there are so many rooms in one building it is virtually impossible to detect TVs on a per room basis. TV licensing would have to get a warrant to enter her room; the university cannot grant a third party permission to enter your room without a warrant unless there is some kind of emergency. There are so many people without licenses in halls the licensing people would probably be harassed enough by students wanting to avoid being caught if this was happening.

4. Students are only in their accommodation for 9 months and by the time licence applications are reviewed and a couple of warnings sent it is the end of the year.

Your daughter will most likely receive letters telling her she is known to have a TV and will be charged if she doesn’t purchase one. Everyone in halls without a licence gets these letters, it is the second line of attack from the licensing authority (the first being the yearly TV adverts about a student who didn't pay and was fined £1000). There is very little chance a detector van has even passed the building in years, the main use of detector vans by the BBC is so they can plaster busses with posters saying x households in a certain road are unlicensed.

As I said the decision is a moral one, personally I bought a license for the first year, realised I never watched TV, unplugged my TV card and never bought one again. You don’t really need to bring a TV to uni anyway, its more sociable to watch with others and there are plenty of better things to be doing. You can usually keep one in the kitchen which should be covered under the universities licence too.

I would be very surprised if anyone in halls has ever been fined for not having a license, if they have been surely it would be mentioned on the TV adverts. Hell the BBC would probably pay you £10,000 to be caught in halls so they could use it on the next advert.

I just want to note that I am not attempting to encourage those with TVs not to buy licences, rather to dispell a few common myths regarding the policy of the licencing authority.

[mhoc]

Thanks to the person who put up the email address.

My daughter is in rented property with 6 others and her room is next to the TV room. All the bils and TV liscence are in the owners name. At the moment she has just her laptop in her room but if she also has her her DVD player I wonder if that then means she would need a seperate lisense?

With her room being downstairs and the biggest I would there could be nights when half the girls want to watch something on TV and another gang would want to watch a DVD in my daughters room.

And also the TV liscense at m-i-ls house where she has been living on her own since March is in her name. We have not cancelled it yet, son is till poppping in and out and watching odd bits of TV

Mary

[pcdj]

Originally Posted by rhig

1. Her laptop has an LCD screen which is not detectable by TV vans, which work by listening to the signal returned from the CRTs transformer. This signal returned comes from the aerial into the air at 39.5MHz > than the channel being received. This allows detector operator to determine the channel being watched if at all, anything without a CRT cannot be detected by a van (projectors, plasma and LCD screens etc).

Not the case. As an electrical engineering student we have discussed this a number of times in tutorials.

Detection has nothing to do with a 'CRTs transformer' as you put it, and everything to do with the local oscillator of the television receiver.

As every sort of TV, regardless of whether it's a projector, plasma, LCD screen or CRT requires some sort of receiver to tune into and separate the required frequencies to watch tele, it has no bearing what kind of television you have as to whether it can be detected or not.

If you need clarification take a look here: http://www.tvlicensing.biz/detection/index.htm Else simply google 'tv detection local oscillator' and have a read through some of the results.

The good news for students living in halls is the equipment that's used to detect the local oscillator's signal is only accurate enough to detect use perhaps in one side of a house. If you're in a hall of residence with 300+ small rooms all packed together they'd have no chance of identifying exactly which room has the tv reception equipment which is probably why they don't bother hassling students in halls.

[mhoc]

Yes my daughter has a door key for her room but her room does not have a socket for a TV liscense.

We have tried one of those TV cards in her laptops but her laptop is not powerful enough to get a signal.

Also my husband says thye use hand held TV detectors now rather thna a van to go around in.

But would whatever devise be able to detect a TV or DVD in in whichever room as her room is next door to the TV room.

I think some thick blackout curtains might be an idea as well!

Mary

[somner]

I had a TV license at Uni (purely because somebody paid for it for me) but many of my friends did not. Whilst I'm not against the TV license, I can understand why these friends did not because on the rare occasion they did watch TV it was usually E4 anyway. Most Uni halls won't let TV licensing in unless they have a court order, and they will usually ring you to tell you if TV licensing are coming for a visit anyway, so just switch your TV off, unplug the aerial and make it look like it's only for your playstation.

[Savvy_Sue]

Originally Posted by rhig

You can usually keep one in the kitchen which should be covered under the universities licence too.

But check this first: DS1's halls did spell out specifically that no TV was provided in the kitchen, and that if any student brought a TV they needed a licence for it regardless of where they kept it.

[Blacksheep1979]

Originally Posted by mhoc

Thanks to the person who put up the email address.

My daughter is in rented property with 6 others and her room is next to the TV room. All the bils and TV liscence are in the owners name. At the moment she has just her laptop in her room but if she also has her her DVD player I wonder if that then means she would need a seperate lisense?

With her room being downstairs and the biggest I would there could be nights when half the girls want to watch something on TV and another gang would want to watch a DVD in my daughters room.

And also the TV liscense at m-i-ls house where she has been living on her own since March is in her name. We have not cancelled it yet, son is till poppping in and out and watching odd bits of TV

Mary

You don't need a licence to watch dvd's play computer games etc you only need one if you are watching live tv through an arial (or recording it). TBH if there is a licence registered at that address they aren't going to come knocking to see if other rooms have locks on to see if everyone needs a licence.

[horne65]

Be carefull, the law was changed a while back. When serving in the army one license used to cover the whole camp, now every TV set has to have a seperate license. So all hard working men and women who are willing to lay down there lives for this country have to buy an over priced license to watch poor quality TV. As far as I can tell the only group usage still available on a tv license aplies to JAIL. Yes JAIL, If you are scum serving time for what ever crime one license held in the jail reception covers all the inmates so that they can not only have three square meals a day but also get to stay warm for free, shower for free and watch tv for free.