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kevinyam
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 31
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 Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:46 am Post subject: Bilingual tv's? |
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| I was just wondering if all new televisions in Japan came with this feature, or if only certain models do. |
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bearcat
Joined: 08 May 2004
Posts: 367
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| Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:52 am Post subject: Re: Bilingual tv's? |
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| kevinyam wrote: |
| I was just wondering if all new televisions in Japan came with this feature, or if only certain models do. |
Most models do but some do not. |
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joncharles
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 132
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Some of your cheap televisions, such as small single speaker ones, probably will not.. but almost all the sets above 15,000 Yen are bilingual. When I went shopping for mine, I found a clerk who spoke English... in one case one of the staff from our school went with one of the new teachers to shop for one. Plus check for some sayonara sales.. you might find a good one. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:09 am Post subject: An answer |
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Careful how you ask the store clerks though... If you ask whether or not a TV is bilingual or not is a bad question... Many people will misinterpret this as asking whether or not the TV has on-screen English menus, etc... That is (likely) not your main concern.
Your main concern is being able to listen to programs in English (when available).
At the store, ask whether the TV is capable of: 1) stereo. If the answer is "YES" then ask question 2) How about SAP? If the answer is "YES" then you've got the TV you want.
Simply put, SAP stands for: supplementary audio program. Broadcasts that are bilingual are sent out stereo... The English broadcast is "hidden" in the transmission signal and are filtered out unless otherwise requested. In the United States, this is common on many local news channels for carrying programs in Spanish. (In Canada - French)...
The geek explanation is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_audio_program
No SAP = no bilingual TV. It's that easy.... |
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kevinyam
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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| thanks for the advice guys. Shopping around for televisions and satellite dishes when you don't speak the language can be a daunting task. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:49 am Post subject: |
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| My first TV in Japan was an old dinosaur, had missing buttons, a broken console and it still was bilingual. Real gomi material. Don't let appearance fool you. You could also try a recycle shop and save your yen. |
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kevinyam
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:16 am Post subject: |
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| really? because the guy at the local electronics store claimed that none of the tvs under 20 inches had SAP or bilingual functions. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:42 am Post subject: |
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| kevinyam wrote: |
| really? because the guy at the local electronics store claimed that none of the tvs under 20 inches had SAP or bilingual functions. |
This was a clunky 14 inches. Why do you think the guy at the store told you that? Give you one guess.  |
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