Solid half of this is from spending time in the country myself, but there are several tech journalist websites that have done limited profiles on some of the physical phone units that are available, and I think even the feds now admit that there are in fact multiple land and satellite connections to the broader internet in use in the DPRK with enough traffic volume that the only way the narrative of only people at universities or upper officials in the party being able to access the internet does not hold up. People show up on the Steam network in the DPRK all the time these days too, just downloading a shitload of games or doing the steam DRM check-ins, and then going back offline so they can use the internet for other stuff while gaming.
MANBANG! That’s the name of the netflix-y thing. It felt a lot more like using a plex library, it’s a little dongle like a roku that hooks up to your TV and lets you watch your own content in the same way those little DVD/USB player laptops would, but on your TV. The little notebook viewer things are pretty common, I think mostly with older and more rural/poor households, tablets are surprisingly common in cities and with university people. I was told by a few people that Manbang being available on all tablets and phones was something that was being worked on, but I’m not sure if it has happened yet. I saw one person’s tablet that was described as a “Korean iPad” that looked like an older android tablet with a really clunky keyboard accessory that looked almost like a children’s toy, and that did have access.
It was a lot like a smart TV, it had VOD stuff, about 7 or 8 live streaming tv channels, news articles you could scroll through with your remote, movies made in country, western movies that looked very pirated (hardcoded subtitles and weirdly bad quality, like worse than a DVD but for modern western movies, I saw a marvel film that wasn’t out yet on the list.) Watched a weird french-language sci fi animated film with robots that was made in the DPRK and a martial arts comedy movie, neither of which I remember too much because they were just on in the background while talking and doing other stuff.
Cable TV access is apparently common in cities, OTA broadcasting looked to still be 80s analog TV (which rules, my fave era of broadcast tech, so cool). I was told that all homes built since the 90s have to have access to cable and I’d believe it. North Korea loves TV! Most TVs are what westerners would consider small in terms of screen size, like 12-20 inches being common. That doesn’t seem to bother people, they bring their TVs all around the house to watch in different rooms, and I even saw people dragging their TVs outside to watch in the fresh air.
Decent mix of CRTs and LCD tvs, most of those LCDs I saw in use being pretty early tech ones from the 2000s, but smart TVs are available in stores and I saw them in homes with access to Manbang and Karaoke apps, even some of the CRTs are shockingly modern, and I saw one with an HDMI port on the front where you’d expect RCA cables. Was absolutely shocked to see modern HDTV DVB digital broadcasts from Russia on a CRT television. Apparently CRTs are still manufactured new in the DPRK, idk if the tubes are new or just everything around them.
Do you have a source for this? I’d love to read more 🧐🧐
Solid half of this is from spending time in the country myself, but there are several tech journalist websites that have done limited profiles on some of the physical phone units that are available, and I think even the feds now admit that there are in fact multiple land and satellite connections to the broader internet in use in the DPRK with enough traffic volume that the only way the narrative of only people at universities or upper officials in the party being able to access the internet does not hold up. People show up on the Steam network in the DPRK all the time these days too, just downloading a shitload of games or doing the steam DRM check-ins, and then going back offline so they can use the internet for other stuff while gaming.
MANBANG! That’s the name of the netflix-y thing. It felt a lot more like using a plex library, it’s a little dongle like a roku that hooks up to your TV and lets you watch your own content in the same way those little DVD/USB player laptops would, but on your TV. The little notebook viewer things are pretty common, I think mostly with older and more rural/poor households, tablets are surprisingly common in cities and with university people. I was told by a few people that Manbang being available on all tablets and phones was something that was being worked on, but I’m not sure if it has happened yet. I saw one person’s tablet that was described as a “Korean iPad” that looked like an older android tablet with a really clunky keyboard accessory that looked almost like a children’s toy, and that did have access.
It was a lot like a smart TV, it had VOD stuff, about 7 or 8 live streaming tv channels, news articles you could scroll through with your remote, movies made in country, western movies that looked very pirated (hardcoded subtitles and weirdly bad quality, like worse than a DVD but for modern western movies, I saw a marvel film that wasn’t out yet on the list.) Watched a weird french-language sci fi animated film with robots that was made in the DPRK and a martial arts comedy movie, neither of which I remember too much because they were just on in the background while talking and doing other stuff.
Cable TV access is apparently common in cities, OTA broadcasting looked to still be 80s analog TV (which rules, my fave era of broadcast tech, so cool). I was told that all homes built since the 90s have to have access to cable and I’d believe it. North Korea loves TV! Most TVs are what westerners would consider small in terms of screen size, like 12-20 inches being common. That doesn’t seem to bother people, they bring their TVs all around the house to watch in different rooms, and I even saw people dragging their TVs outside to watch in the fresh air.
Decent mix of CRTs and LCD tvs, most of those LCDs I saw in use being pretty early tech ones from the 2000s, but smart TVs are available in stores and I saw them in homes with access to Manbang and Karaoke apps, even some of the CRTs are shockingly modern, and I saw one with an HDMI port on the front where you’d expect RCA cables. Was absolutely shocked to see modern HDTV DVB digital broadcasts from Russia on a CRT television. Apparently CRTs are still manufactured new in the DPRK, idk if the tubes are new or just everything around them.