Hello there,

I've decided to continue my japanese immersion program with playing japanese video games. My problem is that the kanji are not clear at all on the TV, as soon as there's a big amount of strokes, it becomes a melted indecipherable mass. Does it depend on the game? Maybe I'll get a better rendering with another game? Should I change my TV (it's still a cathodic tv)? What would be the minimal resolution to take then? Or maybe I could buy a 24' computer screen or something like that. So what do you think?

Cheers,

Al

alucardchuu Wrote:Hello there,

I've decided to continue my japanese immersion program with playing japanese video games. My problem is that the kanji are not clear at all on the TV, as soon as there's a big amount of strokes, it becomes a melted indecipherable mass. Does it depend on the game? Maybe I'll get a better rendering with another game? Should I change my TV (it's still a cathodic tv)? What would be the minimal resolution to take then? Or maybe I could buy a 24' computer screen or something like that. So what do you think?

Cheers,

Al

What game, what console/computer, what cable are you using? Why the ancient TV, did you try hooking it up to any kind of LCD monitor?

I use 24 inch monitor with 19x12 resolution and a PS3, Demon Souls & Final Fantasy XIII display kanji without any problems. If you own any kind of console or computer it would be a crime not to have one, they are dirt cheap anyways and size+resolution combo make them a no brainer.

I have a 22", 1680x1050 computer monitor which has an insane amount of ports to hook up all my consoles. On it I never had any problems reading the kanji. The monitor was cheap back than, it will probably be even cheaper nowadays. Id recommend buying one

On another node, before that I also had a (small) prehistoric TV, and used to have the odd problem even reading normal english text. This was especially true for some xbox 360 games, since they apparently thought everybody had a HDTV back then. >.>

From my experience, kanji is unreadable on older analog TVs with RCA composite inputs, which is probably what you have.

RCA cables often have three cables (YELLOW, RED, AND WHITE).
Only the yellow cable is for video.
The red and white are audio cables.


RCA is really shitty video quality and lacks the detail you need to see kanji clearly.
This is especially true with kanji that have many strokes.

Maybe if you think you already know the kanji, you might be able to guess. But if you really need to see the strokes clearly, RCA is torture on the eyes. I'm surprised that Japanese didn't go blind during the NES and SNES, and PSX while looking at kanji on their TVs.

It's blurry, hurts your eyes and if you actually stare at the corners of your TV, you'll notice some "pixel swim", where the pixels on the screen float back and forth.

However, component (which can have 480p and 720p HD resolutions) works just fine.
Component has 5 colors (green, blue, red, and some other colors).


Component is good enough to read kanji, but not perfect.

Some analog TVs with component input can do HDTV at 480p and 720p.
Some analog TVs with component input CAN'T do HDTV at 480p and 720p.
It just depends on what TV you have.

Of course, that's with analog TVs.

If you have a digital TV with HDMI or VGA ports, you should be fine.

Japanese people have been reading kanji through composite cables long before HDTV became the new standard. I've played PS2 games on my 24" composite tv, and the kanji are a bit messy sometimes, but if you already know the word you should be able to recognize the shape right away. Basically, don't count on it for getting new words too much.

How about handheld systems where it is often difficult too?
The only solution I found was try a different game. Like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass I guess is designed for younger people and has big kanji and a function where you can see the readings. On Knights in the Nightmare it is just a jumbled mess for many of the kanji.
I guess the only solution is Do RTK and become familiar with kanji so you can recognize them even given the jumbled mass.

quincy Wrote:Japanese people have been reading kanji through composite cables long before HDTV became the new standard. I've played PS2 games on my 24" composite tv, and the kanji are a bit messy sometimes, but if you already know the word you should be able to recognize the shape right away. Basically, don't count on it for getting new words too much.

yea this depends on the tv/system. If it's a ps2 game, my tv is usual set on wide-screen. So just need to switch to 4:3 to get a good quality.

Thanks for your replies, my TV only has 2 RCA entries, very basic. I'm using a PS3 with Ryu ga gotoku kenzan and bayonetta and am counting on getting FF13 soon. Well, I guess I'll buy a 24 inch pc monitor with a lot of ports and an RCA entry if ever it exists (for the dvd player).
Last question, is there any problem with PAL/NTSC format with HDMI or both format are playing properly?

alucardchuu Wrote:Thanks for your replies, my TV only has 2 RCA entries, very basic. I'm using a PS3 with Ryu ga gotoku kenzan and bayonetta and am counting on getting FF13 soon. Well, I guess I'll buy a 24 inch pc monitor with a lot of ports and an RCA entry if ever it exists (for the dvd player).
Last question, is there any problem with PAL/NTSC format with HDMI or both format are playing properly?

You can use your PS3 to play DVDs. So why not just get
a monitor with HDMI and forget about the DVD player?

You will get much better image quality that way.

The difference between RCA and HDMI is like night and day.
Monitors with HDMI inputs are very cheap these days. (http://www.newegg.com if you
need to find one online)

Well alucard, get used to it! You'll find mashed kanji to decipher wherever you go.

Yeah I know there will be mashed kanji everywhere but I'm still in the learning process so I need to identify them properly everytime I read. But little by little, the kanji I've read many times start to pop up in my mind like they've always been here

For the info, I've bought this monitor:
SAMSUNG P2370HD-1 Black 23" 5ms Widescreen LCD HDTV Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 50,000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers

It's really great, I'm bluffed by the accuracy I get with the PS3, so much clearer than with my cathodic TV!! I see the kanji perfectly and the colors and the details!!

I also wanted to add that I've read that PAL and NTSC are Standard Definition (SD) formats, so apparently it doesn't apply to HDTV.

Concerning my dvd player, well, it plays any dvd so it's quite convenient, that's why I'd like to keep it. Besides playing dvds with PS2 was busting the lense so I would not want to push the ps3 too much.

PS3 is a great DVD player if you have an HDTV because it automatically upscales the image so that it fills the screen (or nearly does, depending on the original size). I actually use my PS3 to play movie files and DVDs more than I play games on it.