How To Play avi Video Files On Any Roku Player FREE!

Can my Roku player play .avi video files?

The answer is no… but there is a very easy and free workaround!

Unfortunately, Google is not of very much help on this one. The first result is an overpriced video converter. Don’t fall for it!

Do I need to convert my video files from .avi to mp4?

Yes and no. All you have to do is change the container (mux) the file from .avi to mp4! This takes only a few seconds and you don’t have to go through the lengthy conversion process that can take up to an hour for a feature length movie.

Enough already, how do I get this done!

Download and install MP4Box

Here’s the link: https://gpac.wp.mines-telecom.fr/mp4box/

If the link is broken just search Google for it.

Then download and install My MP4Box GUI

Here is the link: http://www.videohelp.com/software/My-MP4Box-GUI

If the link is broken just search Google for it.

Once your system is ready to get the job done:

Open My MP4Box GUI

play avi roku player free all any convert mp4 mux container

The default tab is Mux, stay on it.

Click Add.

play avi roku player free all any convert mp4 mux container

Select the .avi video file (movie, TV show, or what have you).

Once the video is loaded click the Mux button.

play avi roku player free all any convert mp4 mux container

The status bar at the bottom which used to read Ready will do its thing and voila!

You will find a mp4 version of your avi file in the same directory!

Load the mp4 into a USB flash drive and head over to your Roku.

NOTE: Make sure your Roku has the free Roku media player channel on it.

Roku Medial Player Channel play avi roku player free all any convert mp4 mux container

This one: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/2213/roku-media-player

And there you have it. My very specific Christmas gift to my readers who happen to own a Roku player.

In case you don’t own one, or want to upgrade to a better one, you can use the Amazon link below to support my website. Cheers!

Click here to visit Amazon and support this website. Thank you!

I Want To Be A Movie Star

My friend Ugo once told me a story. It was 1961, the year he turned eighteen. It was a time when getting out of Argentina wasn’t easy, especially for a kid prone to getting into trouble with the law. Ugo never told me exactly how his obsession with Rudolph Valentino had begun. I suspect it was because Valentino was the only man his mother ever allowed herself to admire. She had raised him on her own with the dignity of a catholic widow, somber and always wearing black. Remarrying was never an option so she enlisted the local priest to impart a strict education to her son. Ugo would have none of it and as soon as he was out of their sight, he would get into all sorts of mischief. His obsession with “the movies” was his ticket out of a dead-end job or a life behind bars. For as much as she hated to see him go, the fear of what could happen if he had stayed was enough to make sure he was given a chance. With the help of a family friend, Ugo was able to set-up a meeting at the American Embassy to be considered for a visa. Back in those days, coming to the U.S. from South America was no easy task. Every applicant had to undergo a thorough moral assessment, answer several questions, and prove they had the financial means to cover the costs of the trip. People spent months preparing for their meetings and gathering the necessary documentation in the hopes of being granted passage to the promised land. If your application was denied, it could take months, sometimes years, before you’d be allowed to try again. Ugo showed up late, hungover, and clueless. The interviewer was the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina himself. Without exchanging pleasantries, the Ambassador began the screening process. Ugo failed to produce any of the required documentation and couldn’t answer any of the questions. Before ending the interview and sending the applicant on his way, the Ambassador asked one last question, and that was the one question Ugo was certain he knew the answer to.
“Why do you want to go to America?”
Ugo’s eyes lit up, his mouth widened into the beautiful smile only a dreamer has and he answered:
“I want to be a movie star!”
The Ambassador remained silent for a long time. He sat there looking at a young man with big dreams and very little sense. In a way, that was how the American dream had began a few centuries ago. That day Ugo was granted a green card and he has been living in Hollywood ever since.

A Walk Around Hollywood (35mm)

After living in the digital world of images for a long time, I figured it was about time to let film do the talking. Recently my brother-in-law offered to lend me his 35mm film camera. He brought it over and I let it sit on my desk for a few weeks. It looked old and out of place next to my slick flat panel monitor. Where does one even buy film anymore? Turns out Amazon has got us amateurs covered. I kept it on the cheap side, 4 rolls for $10.99 (Fujifilm 1014258 Superia X-TRA 400 35mm Film). Once the film arrived, I actually had to go on YouTube to learn how to load a film camera. It doesn’t get more beginner than that. The camera had a very easy learning curve and despite never having shot film before, I have been looking through lenses for the past fifteen years so thing became clear fast. Once I got the hang of it, I took it for a walk around Hollywood. Here’s what came out of the camera:

Unlike most of the images I have shot thus far with my DSLR, these are unaltered, unedited and un-cropped. I took the 4 rolls to a lab down the street (this place), paid $56 and hoped for the best.

Continue reading A Walk Around Hollywood (35mm)

In Appreciation of Simplicity

“You have to be confident to dare to be simple” was the first line that got my attention in this very well-thought-out video from The School of Life.

The first example they use to support the claim is the pressure one may feel in a fancy restaurant to order something out of the ordinary or well… fancy. It has happened to me and probably to most of you out there. All you want is a greasy burger but the occasion calls for something “sophisticated”.

Why is that we may ask?

Being simple can make you vulnerable.

This is true for most of the choices we make, from our wardrobe to our favorite movies and books. We often choose what is popular or acceptable or “sophisticated” in favor of what we genuinely like.

But simplicity is really an achievement.

It certainly is. Simplicity stems in part from a state of “not having to impress others“.

This is especially important when a creative individual creates something not to impress but rather to facilitate evolution or further creation.

It follows from a hard-won clarity about what matters.

The art lies in concealing the art.

Dieter Rams, the subject of the video, chose to design products that improved people’s lives rather then design spectacular things to promote his own glory.

Such modesty stems from a lack on anxiety about being ignored.

We have almost a primordiale instinct to distinguish ourselves from others. In the animal kingdom, when it comes to procreation, standing out is often equated with survival. This isn’t always true in the world of design and function.

We complicate things because we want them to appear “interesting” and…

We don’t readily tell other people that we are a bit stupid.

We often conceal our confusion even to ourselves by complicating what is not complicated. The answer however lies in understanding our own confusion and designing things so they are simple and intuitive.

All the intensity, focus, high standards and the pursuit of integrity that is found in art can be brought into the realm of everyday design. And this is where it stands more of a chance of effecting people.

Here is the video:

Milwaukee’s Race for City Hall

Amidst one of the most divisive presidential primaries in recent history, the city of Milwaukee turns its eyes toward the exercise of democracy at the local level. This year’s mayoral election is gearing up to be as polarizing as what we have seen in the national landscape.

Today’s debate was hosted by the good people of the Public Policy Forum. The incumbent, Mayor Tom Barrett, faced the challenger, Alderman Bob Donovan, a 16-year veteran of the city’s Common Council. Opening remarks were done away with and the first question came before the small contingent of electors had fully settled. “What will your top three priorities be in your first one hundred days?

Mayor Barrett spoke about jobs, new developments and took the opportunity to bash the City of Chicago “for having to borrow $220 million to make its pension payments”. In contrast “his city” did not, thanks to “the strong fiscal stewardships we’ve had for the last 12 years”. As if Rahm Emanuel wasn’t having a hard enough time as it is, his counterpart in Milwaukee has chosen to throw him under the bus while seeking reelection.

Continue reading Milwaukee’s Race for City Hall

What I am Watching This Evening… YouTube.

YouTube can be a great educational tool. Here’s what I’ve stumbled upon this evening.

Nerdwriter1 talks about internet art and how machines perceive differently than we do.

Vox teaches us how the Oscar’s voting process ends up awarding bland movies. Incidentally, they use the film The King’s Speech as an example. A film I found to be extremely dull and devoid of any creative joy. It was one sterile set-up after another. It was not a bad movie, it was the perfect bland movie, carefully tailored to follow all the rules and not offend anyone (especially from a visual stand point). Watching it probably felt like reading one of those books written by a machine in George Orwell’s 1984. I stopped considering the Oscars a good gauge for quality a long time ago, the Vox video made sense.

Continue reading What I am Watching This Evening… YouTube.

Dick Goes to Hollywood

It was the summer of ‘62, and Dick’s first time walking down Hollywood Boulevard. He had left San Francisco with a bitter taste in his mouth. ‘Too many beatniks’ he had told his live-in girlfriend one freezing summer evening. The next day he packed his bags and headed south for the resort town of Los Angeles. The bus ride was long and uncomfortable but when he stepped out of the Greyhound terminal into the LA summer air he felt like he had made the right choice.

Dick reached out to the few people he knew in town. He quickly learned the expression ‘Southern hospitality’ did not apply to Southern California. Fortunately, the Charles Dickens would have him. Truth be told, the Charles Dickens would have anyone brave enough to drag himself through the lobby doors. The room was small, making the bed very easy to find. He was exhausted, but the heat had other plans for him. The city came in through the open window loudly. For a moment he missed San Francisco, then he remembered the beatniks. His girlfriend, Rita, paid a visit to his mind next. She was probably sleeping through the cool night. He hated her. He hated her for being too selfish to quit her job, abandon her blind father, and follow him to the land of dreams. Most of all, he hated her because she was certainly sleeping with the window closed. He could never understand some people. The night came and went, hating this and that, and without major incidents. As the morning heat rose through the building, it became clear someone had committed suicide in the room next door. They did it quietly and respectfully, and if it wasn’t for the stench of rotting flesh the tortured soul might have gone unnoticed. The heat had no mercy for the living let alone the dead. But then again, for all he knew, the Charles Dickens always smelt that way. Escaping to the streets was the only sensible thing to do.

Continue reading Dick Goes to Hollywood

Quotes From Zen in the Art of Archery

Selected quotes from Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel.

The story goes something like this: Eugen Herrigel, a German teaching and living in Japan, set out to understand the meaning of Zen. Realizing it cannot be studied but only experienced, he decided to learn about it through the practice of one of the arts “touched” by Zen, Kyudo (Japanese archery). Out of his experiences came the book Zen in the Art of Archery.

This was one of the first book I read on the subject. Given the choices made by Herrigel later in life, it is unclear what he took away from these experiences.

As I understand it, talking about Zen has a tendency to confuse things. What makes this a worthwhile read is not the author’s interpretation of what Zen actually is (or is not) but rather the fact that it is one of the earliest books to expose the Western public to Zen. It spawned a century of speculation and countless books on the subject.

Continue reading Quotes From Zen in the Art of Archery

Nietzsche’s Super-Human Explained

After reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra years ago,  I felt that Nietzsche had been greatly misunderstood by some . In a few cases, the concept of the Übermensch or Super-human (Overhuman, Superman etc.) has been misappropriated to justify wickedness.

Recently I stumbled upon a video that provides a very simple interpretation of this idea.

Continue reading Nietzsche’s Super-Human Explained