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With the World Cup in Germany fast approaching, Gwangwhamun is becoming the center of football cheering again. But since it is impossible for all 48 million Koreans to get together in Seoul Plaza and root for their soccer team, the Chosun Ilbo suggests other means of being part of the action for those who can’t be there.

◆Big-Screen Digital TVs

While projection TVs were all the rage during the 2002 World Cup, liquid crystal display TVs and plasma display panel TVs rule the market now. Samsung Electronics has released its Bordeaux series LCD TVs, while LG Electronics’ Time Machine TV allows users to stop a live broadcast and resume it later. Daewoo Electronics has introduced 42-inch PDP TVs that are 20-30 percent cheaper than those of its rivals.

Samsung Electronics’ 40-inch Bordeaux LCD TV is priced at around W2.5 million (US $2,500) at online shopping malls.

◆Watching Matches on Portable Screens

As mobile TV starts in earnest, portable IT devices are getting more popular. Most of the recently released ones, -- portable multimedia players (PMP) and ultra-mobile PCs, laptops and expensive cell phones -- allow users to watch broadcasts on the move. Samsung Electronics’ digital camera Miniket Photo enables users not only to record video clips or take pictures but also to watch terrestrial DMB broadcasts. Reigncom’s iRiver Pocket TV is essentially a mobile TV and comes at a more affordable price. Those who have to watch games in their car may find TV-enabled navigators useful. They cost W100,000-200,000 more than PMPs but come with larger screens.

◆Watching Matches Online

If you have Internet access, you can get a glimpse of the atmosphere of Gwanghwamun or Germany even though you are actually in an isolated place. Daum will broadcast World Cup matches almost live, while Yahoo will dispatch a group of 160 supporters to root for the national team and designate 12 bloggers as correspondents to post the latest news about what is happening in Germany on its website.

◆Watching on Trains and Subways

TU Media, a satellite DMB service provider, will operate special KTX trains for cheering when the Korean team plays Togo on June 13. One so-called World Cup train will leave Seoul for Busan at 9:50 p.m. and the other starts in Busan for Seoul at 9:30 p.m. Passengers onboard the high-speed trains can watch the game on 17-inch LCD TVs and satellite mobile TV phones. Terrestrial DMB service providers are responding to their satellite rivals by allowing subway passengers to watch games underground. Seoul Metro set up facilities for terrestrial broadcasts just in time for the World Cup throughout Line no 1-4; they went into operation on Wednesday.

(englishnews@chosun.com )