Friday 15 April 2005

Pic of the day: Things that could happen if you watch TV, as these two characters from the anime Final Approach did. (In Japan, TV screens are flat.)

Brotherhood of TV

My brother called last night. To my surprise, it wasn't about any changes in the number of family members one way or the other. Instead we talked about painkillers (we are brothers after all) and TV (he is married, after all).

Because he is married and has children, they are evidently expected to have a TV. I don't have any such pressure, and so I don't have a TV, don't plan to have a TV, and don't miss it in the least. Even so, I just realized that I spend at least a couple hours each week watching TV, often more.

Most of the Japanese anime I watch are TV series. They were originally broadcasted in Japan, where they were recorded by fans, and later subtitled by other fans who translated them into English. Then I download them and watch them. No TV in sight, but without TV most of them would never have been made. I have been assimilated!

In addition, Monday I'm ordering Smallville Season 3. I've already watched seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. But once again, this is at heart a TV series, and without the TV it would never had been made. Which would be a loss, kinda. I've thoroughly enjoyed them. It's nice to watch some other superhero grow up for a change! ^^

I said to my brother that I might consider buying a TV when really huge harddisk recorders became affordable. I don't want TV to set my schedule, but if I can pick a program days or weeks later and view it at my leisure, it's more appealing at once. Discovery Channel and such came to mind. To be honest, I don't think I would actually do it, though; it was just idle speculation. As my brother pointed out, I can already view the Norwegian State Broadcasting on my PC for days or weeks after the programs were broadcast, from their website. I stopped by there afterwards and verified that this service is actually there and seems to be free. But it required registration with quite a bit of personal information, and I balked already there. If they find out that I watch their programs, even once, who knows if they won't demand that I pay the big yearly license fee which they get from everyone who owns a TV in this country? And I don't want that. It is after all not as good as the free stuff I can find on the Net.

For the record, I don't download movies such as Lord of the Rings and such. The anime are not for sale here in Europe in a language we can understand, so I don't see it as a loss that I download the fan-texted ones. Technically it may be illegal, but probably not for the TV series, ironically: In Norway, broadcasted material can be freely copied for personal use. That's the law, at least for some more weeks. And the new law is supposed to be a formality to comply with some EU directive. Politicians, policemen and the record label union insist that it won't be used to punish non-profit users. Even so, I don't like it. People shouldn't say one thing and do another. Like, scorn and dismiss TV and then watch TV programs ... oops, wrong example! ^_^'