DS TV Goes on Sale in Japan

The little heard-of television adapter for the DS went on sale in Japan yesterday, retailing for ¥6,800 ($62.70). "The design is different from the prototype shown in 2004, as it features a simple aerial cartridge which plugs in the back of the handheld, and no base unit. The top screen is used for the TV picture, while the bottom screen can be used to do things such as change channels and take notes." The company has no current plans to bring the TV adapter to the US, or anywhere else.

Comments

Can't wait!

[4D6963]

Yay! I'm so looking forward to watching HDTV programs on my DS's 256×192 screen! \o/

Re:Can't wait!

[Simon (S2)]

This is just a dirty tactic to sell more copies of Eye Training!

Re:Waiting on third party?

[ChillinInNagoya]

Maybe because it's a 1-seg tuner there are no 1-seg broadcasts outside of Japan. Why would you want it in the US or Europe if you can't even tune to any channels?

Re:*eyes open*

[ChillinInNagoya]

It's a digital 1-seg tuner, which just receives an unencrypted 320x240 version of the HDTV signal.

So you're saying...

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

... I still wouldn't be able to make out Amy Wong's obscene tattoo?

Crap.

Still waiting...

[Chris Pimlott]

I'm still waiting for the GPS adapter. The DS could make a killer GPS system...

(yes I'm aware of this hack but it's not exactly ready for prime time and doesn't seem to have come to much beyond the first announcement)

Makes sense, sort of

[shindrak]

I just got back from Japan, and this attachment makes perfect sense there. Everyone travels by train, sometimes commuting 30 min to an hour. I saw a lot of Nintendo DS's being played on the trains by bored travellers, as well as a lot of people texting and watching video on their cell phones. A lot of cell phones I saw there actually have screens that rotate sideways to widescreen displays (the new phones there are huge) and have TV antennae built in for people to watch TV while they are travelling. It sort of makes sense that someone would tap into that for the DS crowd. Although, as someone else pointed out, it is a small screen. Their cell phone display would probably be larger.

Re:Waiting on third party?

[Mr. Roadkill]

I don't see why a third party can't bring this.... or maybe a grey market version. Off to ebay!

It goes in the back, so that makes it a Slot 1 cartridge. That means an unauthorised third-party device will need to use the same kind of trickery that Slot 1 flashcarts use - either exploiting some "defects" in the DS's bios, a'la Passme devices, or mimicking an actual DS cartridge through using copyrighted Nintendo boot codes. Nintendo are going to love that, and they're currently coming down on a number of flashcart manufacturers and issuing DMCA notices to a number of US based or hosted retailers over flashcarts as circumvention devices and over the alleged violation of Nintendo's intellectual property. If I had a box of third-party DS TV tuners, I certainly wouldn't be sticking them on ebay - I don't want Nintendo to get my account killed.

The interesting thing is, I suspect a third-party game manufacturer or third-party TV Tuner manufacturer might be able to stand up to Nintendo over this if they wanted to slog it out through the courts - the copyrighted code sequence in question appears in part to be an electronic representation of a Nintendo logo and its hash, and if it's not there the DS won't boot the cartridge - so it might be arguable that third-party products that don't act as circumvention devices should be allowed to use that code as it's the only way to provide interoperability.

I am not a lawyer, and I'm not really part of the "scene", but this is my understanding of things - and it may be flawed.