Gov't braces for full start of digital TV broadcast in 3 years

Saturday 19th July, 05:43 AM JST

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7 Comments

escape_artist at 11:59 AM JST - 19th July

Will these tuners be available for a fee for people who aren't ready to throw out perfectly good analog TVs, like me, much like set-top converter boxes are available in the States? Or is this mainly an all or nothing exercise in Japan?

I can't believe that the govt & big business -- who likes to parade around about how "green" they and Japan are -- would encourage people to throw away analog TVs that work just fine simply because of their desire to force everyone in the nation to switch to digital. The landfills are filling up fast already even without any working TVs being dumped in. I mean, yeah, HDTV quality is nice, but it's not really a priority in life, is it?
USARonin at 12:19 PM JST - 19th July

EeAy, this is a total non-issue in the States.

Agencies have been paid exhorbitant amounts of money to assure the general public that the sky is not fallin'.

No one even considered the sky "might" be fallin' if these clowns hadn't gone all over the networks with their "public service announcements".

USAR
Youdontknow at 05:52 PM JST - 19th July

NHK can take a running jump for all I care.
borscht at 09:10 AM JST - 20th July

Will digital improve the quality of the programs? (Rhetorical question)
Okinawamike at 04:49 PM JST - 21st July

My question is, why did Japan need to go and select a digital signal that is different than the US and other NTSC countries?

While other Asian countries have PAL systems, some devices have a switch that allows both NTSC and PAL decoding.

The US and Korea kept with the same frequency, but Japan when a different way. Now the new US digital TV I have will not work after 2011. I’m thinking the only way to see Japanese TV on the tube is buy an additional digital tuner like the one need for analog.

Any ideas?
Badsey at 07:59 AM JST - 22nd July

buy the $50 tuner and pay the NHK fee. 2008 and USA is all digital. Most stations are already digital and PBS looks great. I have a freak 1080i 30" Crt and it works fine = at the time plasmas were dim unlike the new vibrant LCDs. I ain't changing until my CRT dies.
the_sicilian at 06:36 PM JST - 25th July

Now the new US digital TV I have will not work after 2011. I’m thinking the only way to see Japanese TV on the tube is buy an additional digital tuner like the one need for analog. Any ideas?

Just look at one of the big electronics stores (Kojima, Yamada, etc....) and get a discount DVD recorder/ HDD recorder for about Y50,000. If your TV is digital, and has an HDMI input, you can use the recorder as your tuner, and plug it in to the HDMI on you TV.