• tomjuggler@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In my country you are charged a license fee for the privilege of owning a tv. That’s why I always only had a PC attached to a monitor instead.

    Nowadays that is replaced with a dirt cheap orange pi running libreelec (Kodi) which also runs pi-hole in the background for all of the other devices on the network.

    The setup is a bit of a hassle but it’s a vast improvement on the interface and functionality of friends “Smart TV” experiences in my opinion. I even set it up to work with an old TV remote as the pi has IR built in, although there are phone apps to do remote control also.

    • greavous@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Where is that? We have a TV license in the UK but if you don’t use it to watch live TV you don’t have to pay it. You just fill out a form on their website to exempt yourself.

      • tomjuggler@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s in South Africa. You can’t legally buy a TV without showing your TV license here.

        Luckily this does not apply to computer monitors although there are some in our government who want it to be an obligatory national tax instead - due to widespread non-compliance. The fees support a bloated and corrupt nationalised public broadcaster.

      • rustyricotta@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard of the infamous NHK tv guys in Japan. They apparently go around knocking doors asking for the tv fee.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      I swear half the time I go to my parents house they’re trying to get the damn thing you reconnect to Wi-Fi.