DS TV Tuner

The new Nintendo DS 1Seg TV Tuner that was released today.

Been just under a month since it was announced that Nintendo was going to finally release the TV tuner for the DS.
This tuner was announced well over a year ago and most thought that Nintendo gave up on the development for this - maybe they did. Me thinks that Nintendo had pressure from Sony releasing their one for the PSP.

The tuner retails for 6,800 yen and is only available online through Nintendo's online store.

The digital tuner in action - goodbye to analog wavy lines.

The channel select is on the touch screen. When you first turn it on, you go through a few screens by selecting which part of Japan you are in. It then goes and searches for all the channels.

Thought of an interesting topic - the NHK is Japans national TV service which they ask people to pay for. Unlike the BBC in the UK, paying this fee to the NHK is not obligatory.

An NHK person would come knocking when they don't see the NHK sticker on your door and try to convince you that you need to pay the NHK just for having a TV antenna.

I have chosen not to pay the NHK and use the same excuse as many other Japanese - "you NHK guys are money wasters."

A few years ago it was discovered that the NHK were caught using money paid by viewers in extremely extravagant ways. Since then, the amount of people who paid a yearly license fee to the NHK have dropped significantly.

The NHK are trying to pass a bill to make it illegal not to pay this fee.
But for people who buy this tuner for the DS who don't have a TV at home - would they have to pay the NHK fee?

Do you have to pay for national TV in your country? If so, do you pay?

Back to the review. This is the "extras" menu.

The extras include this retro LCD Nintendo game. Looks like theres space for more on the select screen and am guessing that more can be downloaded from an access point or something.

If one travels around the country, one can "collect" TV channel information.

A small guide on how to relieve the stress and diarrhea..

A note pad is included to take notes - notes are saved in the adapter.

The bottom screen can be set to "read" mode to view the subtitles of some TV programs - useful for when you are on the train without headphones.

Digital TV comes with some extra information about the TV program.

The screen settings.

Sound settings.

Theme settings - unfortunately all themes are crap. Need a moe theme.

Some programs support subtitles - I would have loved this when I was learning Japanese.

The tuner folded up.

Bottom of the tuner.

Annoying stickers will be removed later.

Antenna bits - need to be fully extended to pick up the digital signals.

Back of the DS looks like this.

All folded up.

R4 for Homebrew games.

Comes with this extended antenna for those who live 40 feet underground.

The DS's new home on the MacBook.