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Well, we have been to the theater. I slept through part of the first 'Lord of the Rings' (we bought tapes for the other two episodes), and I have taken the grand kids to see a number of G rated flicks, most of which were, well, mediocre.

The Polar Express was good, but the kids got bored. They did alright in Narnia, and it held their attention.

There have been a couple of more adult (PG-13/R) movies the critics raved over and we bought on DVD, a couple of which would have been OK, but were ruined by the 'obligatory' gay character or scene. If I wanted that in my living room, I'd go down to South Main and invite some of them over (NOT happening).

We have an extensive library of movies on VHS, and many are old enough to rip and burn onto DVD, I suppose, but I do not have the equipment to do so, (although I'd like to, and save the tape for a master copy before the tapes or the machine get too worn).

But hollywood is deep into the gay thing and agenda crap, and suffering at the bottom line, so now they will cut their own throat and hang theater owners out to dry.

As for 'stars' nowadays, the sky is pretty dark, with only a few notables like Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, and the 'old timers'. I do not even know who most of the newbies are, either.

"We have an extensive library of movies on VHS, and many are old enough to rip and burn onto DVD, I suppose, but I do not have the equipment to do so..."

Take a look at the ILO sold by Wal-Mart for under $99. I did some pre-purchase online research and it came out recommended. One precaution; many of the stores only carry the new model, DVDR05. I bought one when it first came out. it was a piece of junk. I returned it for another and found it to be the same. Further research showed that the DVDR04 was a far better machine and the one all the recommendations were for (info was just coming out about the '05). Luckily, I found an '04 at another Wal-Mart and scooped it up before returning the 2nd '05. The '04 has been running for almost a year with no problems. The price for the '04 was the same as for the '05.

One can even get free firmware updates online for both models, burn them to CD and then update the firmware on the machine. I've done so with no problem. For those who've been thinking about such a move but hesitate because of price, this is an avenue to consider.

I've since converted close to 200 movies from VHS to DVD. It's really worthwhile from my standpoint.

The place to go for further information is http://www.videohelp.com. There's all kinds of information at that site.