KeyHoleVideo
Howdy guys. This is only my second post on Figure.fm, but I'll have a few more soon. This is basically a repost from my blog (here), but I think you'll find it quite interesting too ^^
For those who've been looking at my Twitter feed (or on Twitter itself) you may have noticed my "What's going on in the world of Japanese TV" posts every now and then. Yesterday afternoon was one such event after discovering that TBS is now on KeyHoleVideo.
"What's KeyHoleVideo?" I hear you cry. Well, KHV is a program that allows streaming of Japanese TV and radio being aired live at that time. As can be seen in the picture above, I'm currently watching a programme about baseball on 日本テレビ (Nihon/Japan television). It's a pretty cool program, and I definately recommend it for all of you learning Japanese. Although if you have a limited Japanese vocabulary, it is kinda difficult to follow due to, as expected, the programmes not having English subs. But it's live Japanese TV, if you're expecting English subs there's something wrong with you.
There are a few issues, but considering it's streaming from across the globe it's understandable, and the quality of the stream is impressive considering. Watching it on a video size much bigger than what you see above is a bad idea, as it's then difficult to make words out, and pixelation gets out of hand. Also the Engrish used in the buttons and program itself could cause a little confusion, but on the whole they're pretty self explainatory.
One pretty cool feature is the ability denoted by the "NO TOP MOST" button, which allows it to ALWAYS be on top of other windows. So if you're browsing the interwebs and wanna watch TV too, just click that button so it's green and you'll be fine! It's something I do quite often.
The one thing that you need to remember is the time difference. Their best programmes (like Utaban) show at around 1900 Sapporo, Osaka, Tokyo time, which is 11am for us brits. Don't use the program between 7pm and 9pm GMT though, as you'll be stumbling into that annoying informercial part. Unless you want to watch the SAME four adverts over and over and OVER again avoid it at all costs. I made that mistake yet again last night, wondering why all I was watching was adverts, before I noticed the time of day.
If you're interested you can download the program HERE by selecting "SetupKHVideo4.41.exe", installing, and then choosing a username and password, then clicking registration. It's relatively simple to use, and I recommend three channels predominantly: Asahi TV (TV朝日）, TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting Station), and Nihon TV (日本テレビ).
Have fun guys!
o/
Sorry, fixed the link at the end for those interested
Thats pretty neat! Will help sharpen my listening skills. But the test pattern stays a part of the viewing window in a smaller box.
That's simple to fix. Discovered by sheer accident, if you single click the little test pattern in the corner, then single click the bigger video viewing part, you get rid of the little test part. Hope that helps =)
NVR mind.^^; Got it.
Yep, had to keep trying stuff an got it. Thanks again though. ^^
Been using this for a while and I love it ^_^ Only 1 hour behind Japan time-wise too which is good (except all the anime is on at stupid times at night -_- )
I've been using it for a couple of years now, but not often. I mainly just use it to live-watch the first and last episodes of Sentai and Kamen Rider seasons. It's just too laggy for me to use it all of the time ^^;
Used it for a while but stopped at the end of summer. Can't use it until summer again because of the time difference.
It's also low quality and laggy, the sound and video doesn't match up at times.