Japanese with anime voice: episode2
Hello everyone. I’m Sachi.
I like movies very much. I even enjoy watching movies. Coincidentally, my partner also likes movies. When we first started dating, we used to go on dates where we would rent a lot of DVDs and watch them at home while drinking. Since we signed up for Netflix, we watch a movie a day, every day. Of course, I also like dramas.
One day, my partner said he wanted a sound bar because he wanted to make our living room like a home theater. I thought, sure, a sound bar would be nice, making the house look like a movie theater.
When we made a short trip to Tokyo, he was going to buy a soundbar that day. So we went to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, where I was told that the soundbar would be a great addition to my home. After much consultation with the sales clerk, we bought the soundbar. We took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Shizuoka and back, carrying the soundbar with us.
When we tried to install the soundbar at home, we couldn’t find a place to wire it to our TV, which had HDMI, but none of them were labeled as ARC-compatible. No matter which HDMI I plugged in, there was no sound. ARC is supposed to be what outputs audio, and it is required for the TV to output sound to the soundbar. But our TV did not have it. The manual said that if it did not support ARC, you could use an optical cable. Unfortunately, our TV was not even compatible with an optical cable. Actually, that TV was not compatible with the soundbar in any way.
It was purchased 8 years ago, but it is certainly not 10 years old from manufacture. When an appliance is 10 years old, it is considered old. However, there must have been an optical cable before this TV was manufactured.
The clerk at Yodobashi Camera also made sure to check how long ago the TV was purchased. When my partner answered that he had purchased the TV seven or eight years ago, the clerk said that if that was the case, the product must be compatible with the soundbar. But, alas, it wasn’t compatible.
However, when our TV was manufactured, it seemed that both ARC-compatible and non-ARC-compatible products were manufactured. Unfortunately, our TV seemed to be the non-ARC-compliant one.
I googled to see if there was a converter but could find no information at all. I did manage to find a converter, but I couldn’t find any detailed instructions about it. I learned that using a converter complicates the wiring and there is no guarantee that the sound will come out clean from the soundbar. Certainly, going through a number of devices could mean that this could be the case.
We consulted a local electrician just to be sure, and he told me that the only way is to change the TV. Is that really the only way! Don’t you think? I just want to use the soundbar, but I even have to replace the TV!
We left that day, but in the end, my partner decided to buy a new TV. I was very surprised at his decision. It was not an inexpensive purchase. But since it was my partner’s decision, I agreed with it.
Fortunately, TVs these days are inexpensive, even big ones if you are not particular about the manufacturer.
In fact, I prefer Panasonic when it comes to home appliances. Probably due to my mom’s influence, for some reason, I’m inclined to choose Panasonic for any home appliance. Furthermore, my partner is influenced by me. So, my partner told me that he didn’t care about the manufacturer, but he still decided to choose a Panasonic TV.
Then we found one TV that looked good. There was another TV that cost several tens of thousands of yen more than that one. We asked the clerk about the difference between these two TVs. The clerk replied that the clarity of the image was definitely different. To be honest, I had never paid much attention to the clarity of the image, so I thought there would not be much difference, but when I compared the two, the difference was totally different. The higher TVs were clearly visible, even when viewed from the side. Usually, when you look at a TV from the side, you cannot see the image clearly, but with that TV, even when you look at it from the side, you can see the image in vivid colors.
However, neither of the TVs is inexpensive, but when we compared them, we could clearly see the difference in price. Either way, we decided that if we were going to spend the money, we wanted something we could be satisfied with, so we purchased a Panasonic TV with a beautiful picture.
The soundbar was less expensive, at 18,000 yen. But the TV was 200,000 yen. As long as we had a soundbar, we could have easily built a home theater at a low price, but as a result, it ended up costing us a lot of money. It is sad. When we compare the sound from the TV and the soundbar, they are still different, so the living room is like a movie theater. And the video streaming image is beautiful to watch. Well, in the end, we are happy with it.
