Some of you may know that I have a recently acquired an LCD HDTV. It is a thing of beauty. I have no cable service yet because Comcast is somehow screwing me over. But that axe will be ground another day.
Today, I am here to talk about NHK. How did I get to NHK? Well, lets leave that aside for a minute. What is NHK is perhaps the first question to ask. NHK is Japan's public broadcaster, a sort of BBC or CBC of Japan. So now that the what has been resolved, lets get to the why. UHDV. Ultra High Definition Video. What's that? You've heard of 1080p by now. Blu-Ray DVDs can be encoded at that resolution. 1080p is it, right? Hmm, maybe. You see, the standard 1080p on NTSC has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. That's pretty cool. Well UDHV is 7,680 × 4,320 pixels. It is 4 times taller and wider.
NHK is the force behind UHDV. That's how I was led to NHK. They are hoping to start broadcasting in UHDV by 2015. By the way, they switched to digital broadcasting in 2000. The United States will switch over in 2009.
By itself, I think UHDV is wonderful on its own. But what was truly a trip down memory lane was Oshin. Oshin was an NHK television show that was exported to many parts of the world. I remember being a kid and watching Oshin with my family. I could have sworn it was in English, but I guess they did a voice-over for the actors. Or perhaps it was sub-titled. Anyway, it was a really nice story of Japan and Japanese society.
Now, I moved to Canada many years after I watched Oshin and was in Chemistry 12 class one day and for some reason, had time to talk to people. There was a Japanese lass in my class; her name escapes me at the moment, but for some reason, we were talking about Japanese television and I mentioned Oshin. What happened next was quite awesome. The lass had never heard of Oshin. I need to add that she was Japanese by heritage, but probably no different than your average Canadian, being born and brought up there.
My buddy Ekow on the other hand was born and brought up in Ghana. Accra to be more precise. Ekow sat next to me in Chemistry class. And I think around the same time I mentioned the word Oshin, he mentioned Oshin too. It was quite surreal. So apparently, dear Ekow grew up watching Oshin too. It was hilarious. Neither of us is Japanese... and we seemed to be more in touch with something of a Japanese export than a Japanese girl.
I have since then met at least one other person with whom I have had the Oshin conversation. She happens to be from Iran. And apparently, she used to watch it too as a child and quite enjoyed it. And I've lost touch with Ekow since high school graduation. It will be 10 years this Summer since I last spoke to Ekow. I should have a 10 year high school reunion. I am not sure if I will make it there since I didn't particularly enjoy the 2 years I spent in high school in Canada... but who knows. The people that matter, I keep in touch with. I'd just be interested to see what the rest of them are up to... I know a few have been hitched and have issues, as in children.
Anyway, so ends my story about NHK. Hope you enjoyed it.
Today, I am here to talk about NHK. How did I get to NHK? Well, lets leave that aside for a minute. What is NHK is perhaps the first question to ask. NHK is Japan's public broadcaster, a sort of BBC or CBC of Japan. So now that the what has been resolved, lets get to the why. UHDV. Ultra High Definition Video. What's that? You've heard of 1080p by now. Blu-Ray DVDs can be encoded at that resolution. 1080p is it, right? Hmm, maybe. You see, the standard 1080p on NTSC has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. That's pretty cool. Well UDHV is 7,680 × 4,320 pixels. It is 4 times taller and wider.
NHK is the force behind UHDV. That's how I was led to NHK. They are hoping to start broadcasting in UHDV by 2015. By the way, they switched to digital broadcasting in 2000. The United States will switch over in 2009.
By itself, I think UHDV is wonderful on its own. But what was truly a trip down memory lane was Oshin. Oshin was an NHK television show that was exported to many parts of the world. I remember being a kid and watching Oshin with my family. I could have sworn it was in English, but I guess they did a voice-over for the actors. Or perhaps it was sub-titled. Anyway, it was a really nice story of Japan and Japanese society.
Now, I moved to Canada many years after I watched Oshin and was in Chemistry 12 class one day and for some reason, had time to talk to people. There was a Japanese lass in my class; her name escapes me at the moment, but for some reason, we were talking about Japanese television and I mentioned Oshin. What happened next was quite awesome. The lass had never heard of Oshin. I need to add that she was Japanese by heritage, but probably no different than your average Canadian, being born and brought up there.
My buddy Ekow on the other hand was born and brought up in Ghana. Accra to be more precise. Ekow sat next to me in Chemistry class. And I think around the same time I mentioned the word Oshin, he mentioned Oshin too. It was quite surreal. So apparently, dear Ekow grew up watching Oshin too. It was hilarious. Neither of us is Japanese... and we seemed to be more in touch with something of a Japanese export than a Japanese girl.
I have since then met at least one other person with whom I have had the Oshin conversation. She happens to be from Iran. And apparently, she used to watch it too as a child and quite enjoyed it. And I've lost touch with Ekow since high school graduation. It will be 10 years this Summer since I last spoke to Ekow. I should have a 10 year high school reunion. I am not sure if I will make it there since I didn't particularly enjoy the 2 years I spent in high school in Canada... but who knows. The people that matter, I keep in touch with. I'd just be interested to see what the rest of them are up to... I know a few have been hitched and have issues, as in children.
Anyway, so ends my story about NHK. Hope you enjoyed it.
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