Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Woah dude. #disney24 traffic is nuts. Singing along to some of my favs with the wife.

Woah dude. #disney24 traffic is nuts. Singing along to some of my favs with the wife.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Remain Seated, Please – Pinocchio and Friends at the Park!

The Disney Parks blog posted an incredible photo of Pinocchio and his supporting cast at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. What a unique opportunity to see these rare characters from Walt Disney's classic film!  I wish Stromboli and Lampwick still walked around the parks!

Fixed the blog! (for now). Still lookin' for a Wordpress guru, y'all.

Masecaaaaaaaaa cc/ @toddymike

Monday, February 20, 2012

Near the end of its bloom cycle but these flowers were purdy

TiVo Woes

The time has come.  I have been a staunch supporter of TiVo, it's products, and what it stands for since getting my first TiVo in 2006.  It was the first (and best) DVR interface I had ever seen, it was fast, reliable, and had an apple-like fanboy effect on me.  I was stoked on anything and everything TiVo.

Over the years, things changed at the company.  They stopped selling lifetime subscriptions (of which I was never a part), they stopped offering points for referrals, but they remained reliable with hardware and software.  Their desktop software even went to Mac (although only with the Toast Titanium package) but the networks started cracking down and it got to the point that while a trip to Costco or Fry's would get you an expandable HDD for your DVR, you couldn't even transfer recordings into the other room anymore.  What was going on with my beloved company?

My wife and I just moved and when the Time Warner guy came to re-route the cable in our new living room to the place where we wanted it to be, I really thought about what I had and what was out there.  Times had changed.  People we unplugging all around me and even AT&T's U-Verse was offering wireless boxes for those that still wanted to be plugged in.  Why, in 2012, was someone at my house re-wiring ANYTHING?  It really hit me.  Even more recently, I noticed

Since we have been in our place (just under a month) the thoughts of unplugging have been swarming in my head.  Back at the end of 2010, TiVo had released a new box - The TiVo Premiere.  This box had it all: streaming, HD menus, etc.  It seemed that while they had fallen behind the big cable companies that had been trailing behind all these years, they had made the comeback.  They were going to show all the cable companies how to do it all again, right?

Well, I had read the reviews then and read some more now that the box had been around just over a year and the outlook is still bleak.  What happened?  What's going on with the (basically) inventors of the DVR?  Why did they get passed up by all of their competitors (and I use that term lightly -- they were the only game in town for years)?

Now I am faced with the decision: do I stick with what I have - a series 3 HD TiVo box that still runs great but has an admittedly out-of-date UI that is no longer getting support from the company?  Or do I unplug completely?  Getting a TWC box or switching providers, to me, is out of the question all together.  Why would I want to get inundated with information of which I am only watching maybe 2%?  Why not pay for exactly what I watch?

I may be answering my own question so then let me ask this: what do I go with?  I am an Apple devotee.  I love their products, I love their UI and aesthetic, but they don't have Hulu on Apple TV.  I know I can get season passes for shows, etc. but if I am going to unplug all together, why even buy a download of something?

This leads me to the Roku or Boxee boxes which I hear nothing but great things about.  They stream all the stuff I want them to but I am a fan of integration.  Does anyone have any great stories of integration with their Apple products and these third-party developer?  I feel like if it's not Apple, it needs to be TiVo for me but TiVo has yet to announce anything in this market.

I would love to know what everyone else is doing?  I just want to stream and have it all on-demand.  Don't want to download, don't want to store things on a HDD, just want to pay my subscriptions and go about my business.  Does everyone have Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix all at the same time?  Do you supplement with iTunes season passes?

Even my Xbox already has Netflix and Hulu and I think the Zune (cringe) marketplace has season passes for shows as well.  I just want to do the right thing... once.  No more physical media storage (although I did just get Drive on Blu-ray from my mother-in-law) just streaming or nothing.  Pay for what I watch.  WHAT DO I DO?!

 

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Remain Seated, Please – Trivia Tuesdays

Welcome to another Trivia Tuesday.  Before we get on to our trivia question, let’s answer last week’s question, shall we?  Remember the question? In Pirates of the Caribbean, several pirates have names.  Do you know the name of the pirate pictured below? The answer is: Ol' Bill C

I love when even I don't know the answers to the trivia questions. Dont forget to "like" us on Facebook. Giving away some small Club 33 trinkets for the 75th follower!

Remain Seated, Please – Trivia Tuesdays

Welcome to another Trivia Tuesday.  Before we get on to our trivia question, let’s answer last week’s question, shall we?  Remember the question? In Pirates of the Caribbean, several pirates have names.  Do you know the name of the pirate pictured below? The answer is: Ol' Bill C

I love when even I don't know the answers to the trivia questions. Dont forget to "like" us on Facebook. Giving away some small Club 33 trinkets for the 75th follower!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Remain Seated, Please – Top Five Attractions: Walt Disney Studios Park (Paris)

David's Top Five: 5. Art of Disney Animation 4. Disney Studio 1 3. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 2. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster 1. Crush's Coaster   What are your favorites?

Crush's Coaster is my all time favorite Disney attraction. Do NOT sleep on this!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Remain Seated, Please – Top Five Attractions: Disneyland Park (Paris)

Since Robert has yet to visit Disneyland Paris, David alone will be listing his favorite attractions. David's Top Five: 5. Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Pirates' Beach 3. Sleeping Beauty Castle w/ Dragon's Lair 2. Space Mountain: Mission 2 1. Phantom Manor   What's yours?

It was raining, we got stuck in the train station, and the parks were only open from 8am-6pm. We had 10 hours to do two parks! Stay tuned for the park with my favorite Disney attraction of all time: Walt Disney Studios Park!

Remain Seated, Please – Top Five Attractions: Disneyland Park (Paris)

Since Robert has yet to visit Disneyland Paris, David alone will be listing his favorite attractions. David's Top Five: 5. Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Pirates' Beach 3. Sleeping Beauty Castle w/ Dragon's Lair 2. Space Mountain: Mission 2 1. Phantom Manor   What's yours?

It was raining, we got stuck in the train station, and the parks were only open from 8am-6pm. We had 10 hours to do two parks! Stay tuned for the park with my favorite Disney attraction of all time: Walt Disney Studios Park!