WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.720 One day I will go on vacation and pack all the tech that I need. 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:09.560 But it is not this day. I was still in the Uber to the airport 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:12.880 when I realized that I didn't have the webcam 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.360 or high quality microphone that I needed for the WAN Show, 00:00:16.360 --> 00:00:21.120 which means I've got two options. I could end a five year streak of weekly WAN shows 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.480 or I can venture out once again in search of an Asian tech model that has what I need. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:31.840 Welcome to Yongsan Electronics Market, which according to Flip Korea is the largest in the country, 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:35.960 boasting about 5,000 stores across more than 20 buildings. 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:39.400 Now I won't be exploring all of them, at least I hope I won't need to, 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:44.640 but it seems like a pretty good chance I'm gonna end up in more than one because unlike some of my previous adventures, 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:48.480 I don't have a local guide or even anyone who speaks the language. 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:53.480 And if this recent conversation on Reddit, as well as TripAdvisor is anything to go by, 00:00:53.480 --> 00:00:58.280 it seems like this place can be a bit of a challenge if you don't know exactly where you're going 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.200 and exactly what you're looking for. Things aren't looking much different on the second floor. 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.720 It feels kind of like a ghost town. There's not a ton of people here 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:11.840 considering that this is a weekday afternoon. What I would also love to see is any peripherals, 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.480 but what I do know is exactly the segue to our sponsor. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.480 According to Wikipedia, soon in Plaza is the place to start 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:31.400 if you're looking for computers and computer accessories. 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:35.800 And right out of the gate, literally the gate. I think we're looking pretty good here, 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:39.960 which is kind of a relief because honestly getting here was a bit of a bear. 00:01:39.960 --> 00:01:45.880 Anywhere about China, I'm accustomed to using Google Maps, but here because of a data sharing agreement 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:49.400 or rather lack of an agreement that the South Korean government has with Google, 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:53.920 we instead use Naver, which has some stuff that's really good about it. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.280 Actually found the walking instructions to be freaking outstanding. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:02.200 But it's not really super English optimized. And in fact, even just searching for this Plaza 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:05.400 and it didn't bring up any results. So I've had to look things up on Google 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:09.440 and then cross reference with Naver in order to find any specific building. 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:12.600 I was about to say, look, look, they have RAM, 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:16.280 but they actually don't, most of them are empty. One thing that doesn't seem to have hit 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.920 at least too hard here yet though is storage shortages. 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:23.760 Lots of hard drives at this shop, not to mention plenty of SSDs. 00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:27.200 How's pricing though? I'm already noticing a pattern I've read about online 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:30.920 where a lot of things don't have pricing and you're just kind of expected to haggle. 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:34.360 Can I have a price? Eight terabyte. Eight terabyte? 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:41.640 Yeah. Yeah, the price buddy gave me for that was about 247 US dollars, which isn't ridiculous, 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:45.880 but it is about 40 USD more than if I just bought it from New Egg. 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:51.200 One nice thing if you're looking for a deal though is there seems to be just tons of secondhand stuff here. 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:55.640 Even the shops that seem to deal predominantly in brand new hardware will unashamedly put, 00:02:55.640 --> 00:02:58.480 you know, older used CPUs on display. 00:02:59.440 --> 00:03:02.200 As a scrap yard borer, I love to see it. 00:03:03.200 --> 00:03:06.440 What I would also love to see is any peripherals. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.400 What I'm really here for is a microphone, remember? 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.920 And a webcam. Oh, here we go. Well, let's have a look. 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:17.520 That's a microphone already. With that said, I don't want to buy the first thing 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:21.920 that I find, especially when there could be deals to be had. I was on my way to explore other options 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:25.560 and I came across this bin of Logitech G102 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:29.640 mice for seven US dollars each. If I could find a deal like that, 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:32.680 but for my webcam and my microphone, I'd be pretty stoked. 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:37.680 I do wonder if some of the deals are because this place has kind of fallen on hard times though. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:43.480 A lot of the stuff piled up in here seems to be e-waste and there's not a ton of people here 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:47.320 considering that this is a weekday afternoon. 00:03:47.320 --> 00:03:52.560 Things aren't looking much different on the second floor. On the one hand, there's all this inventory 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.080 and there's plenty of staff, but it just feels kind of like a ghost town. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:59.640 To the stairs we go again. 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:05.200 Nope. Maybe better luck going up one more. 00:04:05.200 --> 00:04:09.040 Okay. I think we ran out of stairs here. 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:13.680 Back on the second floor now then, where with my fresh perspective, things seem a little more alive. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:16.840 Oh, is that? Is that an entire knock to a store? 00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:21.360 Okay. Kind of cool. Not gonna lie, this place kind of hopping. 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:25.040 People trying out all the different mechanical keyboards. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.520 Great. Made my way back to that first shop where I found the razor mic. 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:33.160 And the closed. I guess the adventure continues. 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:37.160 Wait, you gotta be kidding me. I came in on the second floor. 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:41.760 I haven't even seen the first floor yet and some of these shops look big. 00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:46.640 Lots of inventory in this one. Mics and webcams though. 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:51.040 Hard to say. And in fact, I don't even know if I'm allowed in there. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:56.680 I think it might just be a pickup location, which might explain the very limited foot traffic here. 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.840 Like that place looks cool. I think it's time to ask directions. 00:05:00.840 --> 00:05:05.280 Apparently there's someone here who speaks English. At least enough that the rest of the staff 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:08.960 is bullying him into trying. Yeah, they sent me back upstairs. 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:13.840 I really don't know if that's gonna work out for me. Holy crap, how did I miss this before? 00:05:13.840 --> 00:05:18.120 A Logitech store. This may be the answer. 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.520 Show me a desk microphone. Show me any webcams. 00:05:22.520 --> 00:05:26.240 I don't see any. All they have is the most basic of webcams 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:27.800 and no desktop microphones. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:34.480 According to my new bros at the Noctua store, I might be better off trying Electroland. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.960 So my prediction came true. 00:05:37.960 --> 00:05:41.520 We are done at this building and moving on to the next one. 00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:46.200 All right, it might be time to adjust my objective here. I mean, even back home, I can't think of anywhere 00:05:46.200 --> 00:05:50.120 that I would go to buy a bougie webcam. So how about this? 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:55.960 I plan to use my phone as my webcam. I just find some kind of phone tripod 00:05:55.960 --> 00:05:59.000 and then as long as I can find a decent microphone, 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:03.040 then I'm GDG. Maybe some LED strip lights. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:08.400 Why am I adding things? I just left the last building because I couldn't find anything on my list. 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:13.280 There it is. The f**k is that? 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:19.120 Anywho, here we are and okay, I could get a camcorder. 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:25.080 That would be a camera solution. Already, this is looking way more promising 00:06:25.080 --> 00:06:29.200 in terms of what I'm likely to find for consumer electronics. 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:33.120 Here we go. This looks promising. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:38.400 Not bad. It's a little over a couple of hundred US dollars for the mic, which is more than I wanna spend 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:42.280 for something that I'm gonna use once. So I'm gonna go ahead and get my camera. 00:06:42.280 --> 00:06:45.520 It's something that I'm gonna use once, but is a high quality enough mic 00:06:45.520 --> 00:06:50.120 that could just be part of my travel kit permanently. And then I'll never be in this situation again. 00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:55.120 And there's a little vlogger kit that has a little stand that you can put your phone on 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:58.400 and then a little LED panel. 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:01.920 Didn't actually ask for the pricing on that one because I was like, well, hey, look, 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:08.080 if the second place I walk into here already has what I need, who knows what else I'll find? 00:07:08.080 --> 00:07:10.960 Oh, dude, totally unrelated to my quest, but this is so cool. 00:07:12.520 --> 00:07:14.480 Wait, it actually works. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:21.640 Floor two looks like it can serve all of my portable CD player needs. 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:26.760 Whoa. I don't even wanna know how much this stuff costs. 00:07:26.760 --> 00:07:27.960 Nevermind, I found out. 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:34.840 And that's just scratching the surface of the crazy hi-fi stuff in here. 00:07:34.840 --> 00:07:37.880 Check out this place. Next door is another one. 00:07:37.880 --> 00:07:42.280 Are enough people buying this stuff that we can sustain multiple of these shops 00:07:42.280 --> 00:07:46.880 right next to each other? It, is that, is that an old CRT projector? 00:07:49.200 --> 00:07:53.280 What? What is this place? 00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:57.080 Even more of this stuff. Look at this damn turntable. 00:07:57.080 --> 00:08:03.200 That's enough bougie audio stores for me. Let's see how things go on floor three, where, okay, we're back in, 00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:07.440 build a PC out of parts land. Really close to finding a phone stand here. 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:10.680 That's only about seven American dollars. 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:16.840 Unfortunately, the build quality feels like seven American dollars and my iPhone doesn't fit with its D-brand case on it. 00:08:16.840 --> 00:08:20.000 So I don't wanna have to take off every time I go to use my phone as a webcam. 00:08:21.280 --> 00:08:26.520 All right, let's go up another floor, I guess. Where we find gaming land. 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:30.520 Also arcade and cinema. 00:08:30.520 --> 00:08:35.040 And that seems to be about it. Other than this trippy aorist lounge, 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:38.860 whatever the heck this thing is. After the spooky hallway, we get to new building 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:44.060 where they've got this Lego themed cafe with a little build it yourself workshop next door 00:08:44.060 --> 00:08:47.500 and a little racing ramp. That's pretty cool. 00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:51.580 Just found another place that carries a road, but they don't have any other desktop mics. 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:55.380 And I just realized I'm back to the CD Walkmans. 00:08:56.300 --> 00:09:01.220 I somehow ended up back in the old building, which means I've pretty much seen this place 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:06.220 and I only found the one spot that had a high quality desktop microphone 00:09:06.220 --> 00:09:09.820 and the price, I looked it up after. Turns out, not great. 00:09:10.740 --> 00:09:13.740 Let's see if he can do anything to help me with that. There is good news though. 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:19.700 On my way over, I found this selfie stick tripod combo unit for 27 US dollars. 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:26.140 Am I stoked to pay that much for it? No, but it seems sturdy enough 00:09:26.140 --> 00:09:29.660 and I'm kinda running out of time here. So I think I'm gonna go for it. 00:09:29.660 --> 00:09:33.680 Starting to run out of options. Found a place that had a little panel light. 00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:38.500 They wanted about 50 US dollars for it. It looked like it was worth maybe 10. 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:43.060 However, there is a shop right over here that has the same road mic in stock, 00:09:43.060 --> 00:09:46.340 so maybe I can get a price quote for that. How much is this one? 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:51.780 250. 250? Can you do a discount for this and this and this 00:09:51.780 --> 00:09:56.100 all together? No. No, okay. Well, I didn't love negotiating with that guy, 00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:59.380 but Stahl B106, gotta give him credit. 00:09:59.380 --> 00:10:05.560 He gave me a far better price on the NTUSB Plus and while I paid a little bit more for this small rig light 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:12.180 and a matching stand than I would have liked, the overall bill was $223 US dollars, 00:10:12.180 --> 00:10:16.480 which is honestly fine. Now I just need to stand for my phone. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:20.920 I think I'm gonna go back and get the one I just saw. Add another 23 US dollars for this mama-jama 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:24.040 and it's time to have a look at the results. Let's start with what I would have had 00:10:24.040 --> 00:10:28.400 or may very well still have because it just occurred to me, right, 00:10:28.400 --> 00:10:34.080 I'm doing the Linux challenge right now. I actually don't know if I'm gonna be able to use my phone 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.560 as my webcam. Anyway, here's our camera. 00:10:37.560 --> 00:10:43.400 Not too impressive. Also, I'm not getting any audio capture off of this thing. 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:48.360 Where the hell are my audio devices? These were working. 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:53.320 Or, wait, were they? Come to think of it, had I only used Bluetooth headphones on it? 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:59.100 Well, if the point was to show that this would have been a disaster, 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:04.800 I guess mission accomplished. Horrible camera and nonexistent audio. 00:11:04.800 --> 00:11:07.280 All right, let's see the new setup. All right. 00:11:08.920 --> 00:11:12.960 Well, this is progress. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:17.600 Okay, all right. Checkity, check, check, checkaroo. 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:21.560 Nice. Okay, we've got audio now. 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:28.280 Okay, now we just gotta figure out how to get video from my iPhone to my Linux laptop. 00:11:28.280 --> 00:11:31.480 All right, is this working now? I think so. 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:36.720 I've got monitoring, I've got video with actually surprisingly low latency. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.200 I've got audio. I think I'm ready to go. 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:45.080 And I haven't even shown you guys the best part yet. Haven't even turned on the light yet. 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:48.320 Oh, oh lord, is that ever worse? 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:51.640 Okay, well, not everything about this was a huge success, 00:11:51.640 --> 00:11:56.800 but this entire setup, assuming that I already had a pretty nice phone, 00:11:56.800 --> 00:12:00.720 cost less than what I spent on the Razer webcam 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:06.480 that I did my last away from home stream on. So as far as throwing something together at the tech mall 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:10.040 goes, I am pretty freaking happy with this. 00:12:10.040 --> 00:12:13.680 I'm sorry, but no amount of trying to make Steam 00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:18.440 the same thing as the App Store and the Google Play Store is going to make it the same thing. 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:21.960 And I'm pretty freaking happy to tell you about our sponsor. 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:25.240 If you guys enjoyed this one, and you liked the whole Linus checks at a tech mall vibe, 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:30.240 you might like the time that we built a $12,000 custom gaming rig in a Taiwanese tech mall 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.320 that was freaking awesome. And then we gave it away at the end.