08-11-2018, 10:52 AM
When our daughter had her first flat she had a monochrome TV and licence to match.
Then someone gave her a VCR and, because it could record programmes in colour although, of course she could only watch them in B & W, she was now supposed to buy a colour licence! (What bureaucratic clown thought that one up?)
I would place the odds of detection in the range of very slight to zero, especially in a block of flats surrounded by lots of - presumably licenced - colour sets but she was still worried. Could I do something? she asked.
So I went over to take a look, wondering what to do. Something simple and easily reversed if required in the future. A short across the subcarrier crystal, perhaps? When I saw the VCR, it was a Ferguson with a B & W/Colour slide switch on the back!
Just for the hell of it, as I just happened to have something suitable with me (no idea, now, what it was) I took the VCR apart, removed one switch securing screw and loosened the other. Then I inserted a shim between the switch and the back panel and pushed it up flush with the knob, bodged a hole in it for the screw, which I then replaced and tightened up the other.
When reassembled, she had a VCR which could record only in B & W and demonstrably could not be switched to record in colour, either by accident or design!
Then someone gave her a VCR and, because it could record programmes in colour although, of course she could only watch them in B & W, she was now supposed to buy a colour licence! (What bureaucratic clown thought that one up?)
I would place the odds of detection in the range of very slight to zero, especially in a block of flats surrounded by lots of - presumably licenced - colour sets but she was still worried. Could I do something? she asked.
So I went over to take a look, wondering what to do. Something simple and easily reversed if required in the future. A short across the subcarrier crystal, perhaps? When I saw the VCR, it was a Ferguson with a B & W/Colour slide switch on the back!
Just for the hell of it, as I just happened to have something suitable with me (no idea, now, what it was) I took the VCR apart, removed one switch securing screw and loosened the other. Then I inserted a shim between the switch and the back panel and pushed it up flush with the knob, bodged a hole in it for the screw, which I then replaced and tightened up the other.
When reassembled, she had a VCR which could record only in B & W and demonstrably could not be switched to record in colour, either by accident or design!
