hbo nordic

I've been a HBO Nordic subscriber for the past year, but I'm going to stop today.

According to their website (only those in Nordic region can view this), they support the following:
1. Computer 
- PC and Mac only
2. Tablet/Mobile 
- iOS and Android only (I'm grouping these together since the lines between tablet and mobile are blurred anyway)
3. TV (three weak options)
- HBO is available as a 24 hour linear channel. More information will follow. (I've been waiting over a year, still no infomation)
- A small set of Smart TVs - Samsung TV's Series 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (2011-2014)
- Running a HDMI Cable from your computer (I think this just confirms you can watch HBO Nordic on a computer)
4. Xbox 360

That is it.

They don't support any modern way of viewing TV.

• No Chromecast Support
• No Apple TV* Support
• No Playstation 3 Support
• No Playstation 4 Support
• No Xbox One Support

*While they have support for AirPlay Mirroring on Apple TV, it is far from ideal. You have to play the show on your device and then mirror it to the Apple TV. This drains the battery on your device since it is playing on it and then displaying it on screen. I've also tested it and there is some lag, and blurred lines. It isn't a enjoyable viewing experience.

The only way I can watch HBO Nordic is on my Xbox 360. Even then I run into this problem:

@HBOse sick of seeing this each time try to play anything. Have to retry a couple of times to get it to play. pic.twitter.com/of3qCOsQJg
— Darran Crowley (@darran) March 2, 2014

I've been told many times I have to crawl under the TV where all the plugs are, unplug my Xbox, wait and replug it. It works sometimes, and other times it doesn't. What it always does it return back to the same Video Player Error screen after I finish an episode.

The year is 2015. It is a lot to ask for some proper device support? I can watch Netflix on every device mentioned in this post with no problems, as well as my LG Smart TV.

Finally, I have a post from February 2013 on the HBO Nordic Facebook page:

"Hela AirPlay" which was translated here as "All the AirPlay", I would understand as Full AirPlay still isn't here. Still only the mirroring option. Still no PS3 option, I guess their talks with Sony didn't go too well.

There are far better ways I can view HBO Nordics content, I tried the legitimate route, but they are forcing me to seek other ways to get the content.

fake christmas tree

Following on from Dec's post on Christmas Trees, I thought i'd share my thoughts. We have always had an artificial/plastic Christmas tree and I don’t see the problem really. There are many advantages to a fake tree:

• They pay for themselves the following year
• They are safer. They are made with fire resistant materials they don’t go up like dried out trees do
• They don’t loose their needles
• There isn’t an issue with sap (sticky stuff not anything here)
• It is environmentally friendly. And don’t listen to those people who tell you that are from a controlled forest. What happens to your real tree when you’re finished with it? You gotta pay for a wood chopper, or chuck it in a car park/recycling centre and it will set on fire? Right?
• They save time. No need to search for a nice tree
• They are allergy friendly. Nothing on a fake tree will cause you to sniff your way through the month of December if you suffer any allergies!

There are a few advantages to having a real tree (so my argument is kinda balanced):

• Help the local economy
• Cheaper to produce.. yes it is true.. 
• The smell of a real Christmas tree.

That last point would be a very strong reason to have a real one. This however can be artificially created too! Just buy a load of Royal Pine car fresheners and stick them around the tree, out of sight. This will give you the real smell you were looking for, without having to go get a real tree!

Anyway, with trees like the following video ... why would you ever consider a real tree again!

P.S. I notice from a comment that they were first invented by those who make toilet brushes! Classy!

south park

Ya gotta love South Park. They are taking digital distribution to the next level. They have their entire catalogue of episodes going back 12 seasons available to watch online on their South Park Studio website (and none of this outside the US Region crap either!).

I just watched their latest episode, Canada on Strike. The Canadians want some of that Internet Money, similar situation to the writers strike, so Cartman and co make a video that becomes a huge internet hit. When they go to collect their millions of "theoretical dollars" from the hit, they meet a load of other internet memes; numa numa and tron guy as well as the Star Wars kid!

What I didn't know was the song Butters put online was already up there! See the videos below:

happy birthday baby jesus

Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases! This is my Christmas card to everyone I know. It saves paper and the environment! Go me! Plus I only have to write this once and saves loads of time on writing cards and emails and stuff. I also get to wish everyone who reads this blog and I don't know a merry Christmas!

IsItChristmas.com is currently showing me a "IS EA" for some reason. Hopefully it will turn into a "YES" in the morning!!

If you don't celebrate Christmas and prefer to refer to this time of the year as holidays or Festivus or whatever, I could say stop leaching off Jesus' Birthday, but then that wouldn't be very nice, after all it is Christmas!


Click Play to watch the True Story of Santa!

blogs in plain english

Another excellent Common Craft video. This time it's Blogs in Plain English!!



Click Play to watch!

jamboree video

With a break to this weeks Science Week Ireland posts, I just have a video to show you.

Yesterday I saw a short film about Scouting Ireland and the Irish Scout Jamboree next summer. It went down really well at the AGM with the parents (it could of been about 2 or 3 minutes shorter tho!) I got the DVD last night and *cough* VOB2MPG *cough* Google Video *cough* and found it online! :-D [too big for YouTube]



Click Play to watch. If you look close enough you can see Robin!

all hail vhs

Its Science Week Ireland this week and they have a little blog post competition (tip of the hat to Damien)! Each day has a different question and todays one is:

What was the favourite invention from your childhood?

After thinking long and hard all day I came up with what I think is the best invention from my childhood. It has to be VHS, cassettes and the player! (That's Video Home System or just videos to some of you!)

Altho after doing a bit of research for this post, it turns out VHS was invented 6 years before I was born in 1976. But then again I don't think VHS players were readily available till the mid-80's as the Betamax/VHS war was only just about over when I was born in '82.

I can still remember two films that we were allowed rent, and we rented them many times. First was Santa Claus: The Movie and the other was Zig and Zag's: Nothing to do with Toast! We didn't mind one bit that we saw them before and could probably could recite the entire movie from heart, but back then there wasn't many children's films out.

We probably got to see these once in a blue moon because we didn't have a VHS player. We either had to rent one from the video store or borrow one but I didn't mind, I got to see Zig and Zag 3 times in a row!!

Later on, I think that VHS had a huge impact on the way we spent out time and our habits. A trip to the video store was nearly a weekly occurrence (with the amount of TV channels we had, you could count on one hand) and we got to bring the big screen into our home and watch films that we were not able to see in the cinema.

The best thing about VHS has to be the possibility to record TV. No longer were we slaves to the program schedulers! We were liberated and free to go about and live our own lives and watch TV as we pleased! Even to this day you can get a VHS player to record your favourite programs!!

Long Live VHS!



Zig and Zag!

students today

Saw this on Ricks Blog. It is quite interesting!

A Vision of Students Today

dove ad

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Before:

After:

Click Play to watch.

It really makes you think... I wish I has those Photoshop skills!

via Will

how to: fill your ipod

(like a bus, there is none for ages and two come along at once)

There are loads of music videos online on sites like YouTube where you can watch them all for free on your computer. Set up your own playlist on the site and leave it run in the background for constant music. So why can't you listen to it from your ipod?

Here is a step by step on how to get a video off you tube and onto your ipod as a .mp3!

1. Find the song you want to put on your iPod or music player.
Example: The current No.1 single: Rihanna - Umbrella - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bK4Vee36M

2. With the url of the song (similar to that link up there) head over to KeepVid and get the download link.

3. Save the file to your computer and rename it from get_video to songname.flv, in this example Rihanna - Umbrella.flv

4. Download, install and open SUPER ©

5. Drag the .flv file into the box at the bottom and choose MP3 as the output container on the top left, then click Encode.

6. The MP3 is then usually saved straight onto the C Drive, find it. Move it to where ever you keep your music. (You can rename it too... Rihanna - Umbrella.flv.MP3 to Rihanna - Umbrella.mp3)

7. Open iTunes and add file to Library. Rename the file and Sync to your iPod.

8. Wash, Rince and Repeat.

EASY!

kenya

From Weebls Stuff, this is classic Internet! Reminded to me by Seb.

Click Play to Watch!

wikis in plain english

Following up on the RSS in Plain English video, Common Craft have created a video explaining wikis!



Click Play to Watch!

mr tayto

I'm sure this is all over the news and everyone knows about it at home. I heard about this a couple of weeks ago, there have been a few "Vote for Mister Tayto" election posters up. I just found their party political broadcast!

Press Play.

UPDATE: I just found this one too:

rss in plain english

I found a great video to explain RSS and that that big orange button does in Plain English!

Click Play to Watch.

firefox

Comon... this year 55% of people here on my blog are using Internet Explorer. Only 36% use Firefox. Get those numbers higher!

Watch it on YouTube

GetFirefox.com

montage video

A video of our trip so far... Bringing a tear to my eye!



Only half way through our adventure...

tubing in whistler

I went tubing a few days ago. I took a video of it and uploaded it to both YouTube and Google Video. It was the exact same video uploaded to both, but as you can see, the Google Video version of the clip rendered a lot better than the YouTube one.

Google Video:


YouTube:

911 cover up

An interesting mini-movie about September 11th and ideas around it and making you ask questions about if it really was a cover up. If you have 80 minutes to spare today or this week, have a watch of this.

Its really good.

finished the game

Mike and Foley spent about an hour playing The House of the Dead III and they finished it!

Watch the Video!

spike

Seb and Brick decided to go out to to Spike island as we were walking down the beach and found the bottom of a boat. Good idea in theory. Watch the Video!