1. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)
Arguably the best Thanksgiving movie of all time. Steve Martin plays an upper-middle-class ad exec desperately trying to get from a business meeting in New York to his family in Chicago by Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, a pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm happens to be blanketing the Midwest, making travel a nightmare. This misfortune is compounded by Del Griffith (John Candy), a shower-curtain-ring salesman who decides to accompany Martin back to Chicago–a decision that leads to a series of misadventures involving the aforementioned planes, trains, and automobiles (plus a bus, pickup truck, and more). If you’re feeling stressed by your life and busy from your job, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles will help you focus on the things that are really important in life.

2. Pieces of April (2003)
Before she was Mrs. Cruise, Katie Holmes starred in this indie flick about a quirky twentysomething who decides to host her family’s Thanksgiving in her small, dingy New York apartment. While April runs into one problem after another (including a nonfunctioning oven), her suburban family drives to the city, all the while questioning why they are headed toward a dinner that will be awkward and uncomfortable. In addition to Holmes, Patricia Clarkson stars as April’s mother, who is dealing with a cancer diagnosis (Clarkson arguably steals the show). Oliver Platt, Sean Hayes, and Derek Luke round out the cast. Over the past few years, Pieces of April has landed on many folks’ “favorite” lists. Interesting note: The film was shot in 16 days on digital video for $300,000.

3. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
Definitely catch this one in addition to your yearly Charlie Brown Christmas viewing! Charlie Brown gets roped into preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for his friends (through no fault of his own, natch). When the task becomes completely overwhelming, Snoopy and Woodstock are enlisted to help–and succeed in serving a meal comprised of toast, popcorn, and jellybeans at an outdoor picnic table. When complaints fill the air, it’s up to Linus to provide a lesson about the true meaning of Thanksgiving. As a bonus, the DVD also includes the Peanuts’ educational The Mayflower Voyages special, which was part of a series that cast the gang as participants in American history. (For another cartoon about the Pilgrims, try 1968′s The Mouse on the Mayflower, used only.)

4. The Ice Storm (1997)
Ready for a Thanksgiving movie that lacks any cozy story of family togetherness? Then The Ice Storm is for you. Featuring an all-star cast, including Elijah Wood (before he was Frodo), Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Katie Holmes (yep, she’s in this one too), this story of suburban Connecticut in 1973 is like a train wreck: you can’t take your eyes off it. The story centers around two upper-middle-class families during Thanksgiving weekend and their interactions with each other, from adolescent issues to adultery…and finally, to a tragedy. The Ice Storm may not be a “gather the family around the TV” movie for Thanksgiving night, but if you think your family is dysfunctional, this is the antidote.

5. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
You might not automatically pair Woody Allen with Thanksgiving, but Hannah and Her Sisters is indeed centered around the holiday–and is one of Woody’s most popular movies. Mia Farrow plays Hannah, who is the stable mother figure to her emotional sister Lee (Barbara Hershey) and neurotic sister Holly (Dianne Wiest). When Hannah’s husband falls in love with Lee, all heck breaks loose among the siblings. Naturally, Allen himself, as well as New York City, figure prominently in the film, which is assisted by beautiful direction and cinematography. Hannah is both funny and moving, and a perfect flick to share with family. And the Thanksgiving connection? All the drama takes place during three consecutive Thanksgivings.

Oddly enough, Sigourney Weaver and Katie Holmes each appear in two of these movies! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and we’ll see you back here next week.

We’re all attached to our electronics these days, from phones and iPads to camcorders and the all-important portable DVD player for the kids in the car. But these devices require battery juice to run–which isn’t always easy to track down when you’re away from house circuitry.

Luckily, there a number of portable power generators available that can recharge your devices. These compact, lightweight gadgets can power up cell phones, iPods, laptops, digital cameras, camcorders, and more. Products vary, from car-accessible to airplane adapters, so you may have to do some checking to see what type of generator fits your travel needs.

Here are a few portable power generators to start with:

The Trent iDual-Port Pack IMP50D is an Apple-friendly device, and can charge a iPhone up to 3 times. It even has two ports so two devices can be charged simultaneously. It’s a great solution for recharging USB devices of all kinds, and gets high customer praise. New Trent offers a variety of other battery solutions as well.

The Stitchway UltraPower Battery Charger is the largest-power iPhone battery in a compact size, capable of fully recharging a dead phone in less than two hours. It can be recharged up to 400 times. At $10 or less, it’s also one of the cheapest options available.

The ReVIVE Series Solar ReStore External Battery Pack is one of many solar-recharging options available. It can recharge up to 1,000 times either by solar energy, AC, or USB power, and can charge up phones, MP3 players, and other USB devices.

Don’t get caught powerless this holiday season! Adding one of these little devices may save you from a constant refrain of “Are we there yet?”

While the reasons for VCR tape consumption varies, the most common cause is a defective pinch roller inside the VCR or camcorder. As shown in the diagram at right, a pinch roller presses up against the plastic tape as it exits the cassette shell, feeding it into a rotating capstan. All video recorders, from the earliest Betamax and VHS units to recent MiniDV cams, use a pinch roller as part of the tape-feed mechanism.

A pinch roller made of rubber, which means the part can change shape as it ages. As the rubber hardens and deforms over time, it naturally does not do so in an even fashion–resulting in a slightly misshapen pinch roller. This is exacerbated in the smaller tape formats (MiniDV and 8mm), where even the slightest distortion in the rubber can create problems.

If the pinch roller in your VCR or camera is beginning to deform, you may first notice a tape fluttering upon playback. As the problem becomes worse, the roller can damage the physical edge of a tape, since the roller is now skewering the feed slightly higher or lower through the tape path. In serious situations, the tape will be forced out of the feed altogether–and that’s when your tape can become physically creased or “eaten” by the machine.

Of all the parts in a VCR or video camera, the pinch roller is usually the first to require replacement. A quick look at the pinch roller in your unit may indicate the level of age: If the pinch roller appears shiny or glossy, that is a bad sign. New or fresh pinch rollers are dull and lack sheen. They only become shiny because of wear–and this is not a coating that can be wiped away. Only a new, replacement pinch roller will fix the problem.

So don’t immediately trash your VCR if it eats a tape! All it may require is a new pinch roller. Have your VCR serviced by a professional repair shop, and your unit should be good to go for many years.

According to a few websites (primarily the Side-Line.com music magazine), the major recording labels plan to discontinue releasing albums on CD by the end of 2012. Music will thereafter be released via downloading and streaming platforms, such as iTunes and other services. Some CDs will still be introduced, but they will be of the limited and special edition variety, and distributed mostly through Amazon (currently the world’s largest CD retailer).

This news first broke a few weeks ago, but Side-Line.com couldn’t get official comments from EMI, Universal, or Sony on the story. Since then, they have received tips from informants associated with multiple labels who confirm that 2012 is indeed the planned CD end-date. (Nothing has been officially announced or confirmed.)

Granted, this news is not surprising. The CD format has been struggling to hold on for over a decade, beginning with the fight against Napster in the late 1990s.

The simple truth is that CDs cost money. Beyond the obvious manufacturing and printing concerns, there are also the issues of physical storage space for retailers and the money that recording labels pay whenever a CD is returned due to lack of sales. By comparison, releasing music digitally eliminates all stock and distribution issues, allowing the label to focus simply on the music and its marketing. But this change will spell the end for most physical music stores–especially ones that only sell CDs.

What impact does this impending change have for DVD releases? One big difference is that videos still have a strong physical presence. While DVD itself is a declining format, Blu-Ray is improving slowly each year. And while video streaming is growing as well, the physical size of video files mean that they can’t be downloaded nearly as easily as a single MP3 (which is usually just a few MBs). Plus, home videos still require a physical medium for the easiest viewing and archiving security. Music is simply an easier format to adapt to the purely digital realm than video. But it’s a possibility that when CDs go the way of the dodo, DVDs may someday follow.

Prior to the late 1990s, DVD didn’t exist. TV shows weren’t even available on VHS, generally speaking–and when they were, it was usually just selected episodes. When a particular song aired as part of an episode, the producers only secured music rights for that airing (and reruns on the same channel). Rights for video releases–or even cable syndication–were not usually obtained.

Around 2000, when the DVDs took off and channels like TNT and FX began airing repeats of hour-long dramas, it became standard procedure for shows to obtain musical rights for DVD and syndication as well. This is why TV shows that aired during the past decade usually have their original music intact on DVDs.

Unfortunately, this does not help shows like The Wonder Years, China Beach, Beverly Hills, 90210, and others that relied heavily on specific music. When companies decide to release shows like these on DVD, they have to obtain permission for each individual song. In doing so, they face four possibilities:
1) The artist agrees for the song to be used, with no extra fee involved.
2) The artist is agreeable to a mutually-acceptable fee for the song to be used.
3) The artist wants a ridiculous sum for the song to be included, and the company cannot afford it, so the song must be replaced with an alternate track.
4) The artist declines for the song to be used at all, and it must be replaced.

The problem is, whenever music is replaced on a well-known, beloved show, fans wail and gnash their teeth–and it’s hard to blame them. Many times, a song plays a key role in a certain episode, and its absence is quite obvious.

For example, the music of REM was widely played in the first few seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210. At the beginning of the second season, “Losing My Religion” was prominently featured on a car stereo during the scene when star couple Dylan and Brenda broke up for the first time. A year later, when they break up again, Brenda spends hours in her room listening to “Losing My Religion” on a virtual loop. When her brother asks about the song, she tells him that it was playing in the car during the first breakup.

But not so on the DVD release. “Losing My Religion” is replaced in the car scene, and the later scene in which Brenda and Brandon discuss the song’s significance is completely deleted! (I understand rights issues, but when it begins to affect a show’s actual content, I would argue that producers need to work a little harder to get the permissions.)

Conversely, when the series set for Freaks and Geeks was released about ten years ago, the producers paid for all the music rights, which was quite expensive. But they explained that since the show was set in 1980, they would be doing a disservice to their fans if they excluded music that was so essential to the show’s feel. They passed the cost of the music rights onto those who purchased the DVD set, meaning that the show cost much more to buy on DVD than most other TV shows. But for those who loved Freaks and Geeks, having all the original music intact on the DVDs was well worth the price.

Shows like Felicity, Moonlighting, and Roswell chose to replace their music in order to quickly release their DVDs, while other shows like The Wonder Years, China Beach, and Ally McBeal have been delayed for years due to music rights. (Annoyingly, many of these shows are often legally available abroad, with their original music.) In late 2011, a few episodes of The Wonder Years finally became available on Netflix’s streaming service, with the vast majority of the songs intact–causing many to ask if the long-awaited DVDs would follow.

The truth is that with proper care, video tapes can last anywhere from 10 to 25 years–maybe even longer. But since videotapes are comprised of degradable elements, they are particularly susceptible to damage from extreme temperatures (hot and cold), humidity and water issues, and repeated playback. Your tapes probably won’t be unwatchable tomorrow, but when one or more of these issues affects a tape, you do run the risk of losing your video memories permanently. And that’s not hyperbole.

Recent situation: A customer contacted us to ask if we would be able to transfer her family’s old Betamax tapes. She had been planning to have the conversions done for a long time, and recently decided to take the plunge. Here’s the rub: the tapes had been stored in a backyard shed for the past ten years. That means they were exposed to the cold of winter, the hot of summer, and any moisture that had seeped into the shed over the years. In addition, before they were placed in storage, the customer mentioned they had been watched over and over, since they were the only copies of the family’s home videos. (!)

We took a look at the tapes anyway, because we always try to preserve a customer’s videos, even if it seems tough. Naturally, the tapes were difficult for our Betamax decks to handle. Some of the tapes didn’t even have cases, so dirt and dust had gotten mixed into the cassette shell. A few of the shells were noticeably warped.

And to make matters worse, the tapes were visibly losing oxide. Have you ever flipped open a video tape cassette and seen the actual black plastic tape that threads through the VCR? The “black” on the tape is the oxide, which is where the magnetic particles containing the video and audio are held. If and when the oxide begins to flake off, the tape returns to its initial clear appearance. (At right is a photo that shows how it looks when the black oxide flakes off the originally-clear plastic videotape.)

Some of these tapes had stretches of tape that were completely clear–none of the oxide was even there anymore. On some of them, we could even see the particles drifting around inside the cassette shell.

We were able to restore some of the video on these tapes, but not all of it–and some of it was very unstable and jittery. This customer’s story should serve as a cautionary tale to those who think they have forever to transfer their videos. You might. But do you want to take that chance?

Awhile ago, we blogged about “The Golden Hour.” Go back and read that post if you missed it, because the Golden Hour (also called the “Magic Hour”) is ideal for autumn filming. The Golden Hour is a time of day that occurs in the early morning as the sun is rising, and again in the evening when it’s setting. At this time of day, the light casts a golden glow across the changing leaves, providing warm, gorgeous tones for your camcorder.

However, act quickly! The Golden Hour soon dissolves into harsh daylight or graying dusk. Keep in mind that the Golden “Hour” doesn’t always last a full hour, and can be as short as fifteen minutes. So plan ahead, and set up long before you need to start shooting.

For advanced camcorder hobbyists, keep an eye on your white balance when filming the Golden Hour. Light changes continuously during the far low-angle positions of the sun at this time of year. So reset your white balance manually every few minutes in order to ensure correct color temperature.

If the Golden Hour isn’t your thing, pray for rain. A heavy, brief rainstorm can also provide amazing fall colors. When the sky is bright–as it often is after a good storm–the wet leaves will reflect that light and display rich, vibrant color.

And most importantly: if you want to record fall leaves, don’t wait! We’ll be well into winter before you know it.

Everyone who watches a video absorbs the flickering pixels on the screen and the sound waves of the audio. But beyond that, watching video is an entirely personal experience.

Think of your favorite comedy film. Obviously, you find many of the actors, dialogue, and situations in the movie to be hysterical. But have you ever watched the movie with someone else, and observed his or her reaction? It’s likely very different from yours. (For example, I’ve never understood why anyone would find Talledega Nights even remotely entertaining–but that’s just me.)

The filmmaker of any comedy certainly can’t expect that everyone in the world will react to his or her movie in the same way. What every video creator wants is for the audience to understand something new from the work. Filmmakers hope that the audience grows more knowledgeable from watching the video, and absorbs the ideas that are being conveyed.

Secondly, video creators also hope to evoke emotions. With any luck, these will be the same emotions that the filmmaker felt while shooting or editing the video. If a comedy makes you laugh, it’s because the jokes made the writer or director laugh as well.

Think of how other popular programs want their audiences to react. Michael Moore incites liberal and populist outrage with his documentaries. The 700 Club and The Hour of Power share and inspire religion. Cooking shows want you to salivate (and maybe learn some tips). A movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book tries to make you cry. It’s hard to think of a program that doesn’t have a specific audience directive in mind.

So when you are editing your next film, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Will your editing techniques cause them to react in the way that you expect?

Have you just bought a HDTV? Well, guess what’s coming next: Ultra HDTV!

The main difference lies in the pixel count. Regular HDTV has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, while Ultra HDTV packs a whopping 7680 x 4320 pixels. That’s 16 times the screen quality of HDTV, and equal to IMAX resolution. To put it another way: if you’re familiar with digital camera resolutions, that is essentially a 33 megapixel image! So UHDTV should have a refresh rate high enough to enable 3D viewing without glasses (just like in the Best Buy ad, heh), and will likely feature full-quality, uncompressed audio options as well.

Keep in mind, however, this is currently just an experimental format. NHK, a Japanese public service broadcaster, has been working on this technology for awhile under the name “Super High Vision,” and it was only recently that the International Telecommunications Union’s Study Group on Broadcasting Service worked out the technical specifications. NHK demonstrated its UHDTV about a month ago, and in September a trial broadcast was made from London. The current plan is to show parts of the 2012 London Olympics in UHDTV.

However, UHDTV is likely a decade away from consumer release. After all, HDTVs were originally demonstrated in the late 1980s, but did not become widely available for more than a decade later. But we’re probably getting a preview of what the next major television format will be.

Here’s a brief video that advertises the format:

Here are some tips for budding family videographers on Halloween:

Start at full power
Stock up on extra batteries or charge up your camcorder ahead of time. You don’t want a dead camcorder before the night is over.

Film your kids at dusk
You’ll get better, clearer video (with more color) if you film your children in their costumes before it gets dark. Take your shots, and then go out trick-or-treating!

Direct them to have fun!
Remember, you’re not taking still shots. Encourage the kids to act out their costumes and interact with their siblings or friends. Don’t make them pose–a definite buzz kill. Keep the energy going!

Take some “B-roll”
B-roll constitutes shots that are not part of your main footage–atmosphere, so to speak. So on Halloween, get shots of your house (especially if it’s decorated), your jack o’lanterns, the fall foliage…anything extra that evokes Halloween.

Don’t forget to film a cameo: You!
It’s all too easy for the camera person to be cut out of the video–and years later, you and your family will wish that you had jumped into the action more often. So switch off recording duties with your spouse, kids, or even a neighbor. Make sure you’re part of the recorded memories too!

On Nov. 1, make a note as to who was in which costume.
You may know now that your daughter was the Disney princess, her cousin Sarah was the witch, and their friend Brian was Batman. But if you don’t write this down on your tape or another label, five or ten years from now, no one who watches your video will know which kids were in your living room. Anyone can be anyone under a mask!

We welcome your comments! If you have any Halloween tips for filming video, add them below. And if you have some great Halloween videos on YouTube that you’d like to share with our audience of video hobbyists, we welcome those links as well.

Have a merry, creepy Halloween!