What do you think of New Japan World?

Hi Scott,

Many promotions now have their own “network” or streaming set up (DDT, Big Japan, Stardom, Progress etc) and more and more are appearing every month. NJPW World is clearly one of the better networks in regards for getting more bang for your buck but are you happy with it overall as a service?

I’m personally surprised at how poor the picture quality can get for what is essentially a static resolution video on NJPW World, there is no dynamic resolution like WWE Network yet there is no super 1080p option for NJPW World videos either, which is a bit of a let-down. The sources exist as the rebroadcasted events that appear on Japanese TV (post 2013) are in stunning insanely clear HD yet somehow these same videos aren’t the ones on NJPW World.

Also the lack of classic era junior heavy heavyweight archived content isn’t there either, I’m talking 1992 – 1997 top grade quality matches. Yeah there are a few but there is so much missing.

Granted the modern NJPW product is truly amazing, especially giving those who want it American commentary is available too something I think many thought wouldn’t have been embraced as much as it has been. So these faults are certainly minor as just having access alone makes it all worthwhile, yet would you like NJPW to offer more archived content or are you fine with what’s on hand with all the modern events and matches? Is there anything you would like to be done different or improved upon?

Cheers.

I’m fine with the content offered thus far, but what I’d like them to improve upon is providing a better experience for the growing English-speaking audience they’ve been building up thus far. Adding the English commentary versions are a big step, but it’s still tricky to navigate the site and figure out what you’re looking for.

Quality-wise, I’ve never really noticed any problems with the resolution or whatever. But then when I’m watching either this or the WWE Network, it’s typically on a 14″ laptop screen where I’m snapping the browser window to half-size so that I can have Word open at the same time. So I’m not noticing a lot of issues, is what I’m saying.

One thing I do dislike about WWE Network from a technical aspect is that the window itself doesn’t dynamically resize like Netflix does. So when I condense the window to half of the screen to rant on a show, I have to shrink my Word window to a tiny size to keep the Network picture full-sized and the controls usable. If I’ve got Netflix in another window and I change size, the video output scales to whatever size the window is. It’s super-handy and I wish WWE would implement that for the Network as well. But that’s my boring technical issue.

Anyway, I greatly enjoy New Japan World, but keep working on making it more user-friendly for those of us in North America, says I.