The entire family — even grumpy Uncle George — loves to curl up on the couch with a bowlful of popcorn and watch movies. Next time, you can add your own Hollywood razzle-dazzle to the Saturday-night ritual. Before George pops ET into the DVD player, entertain your kin with flicks about your family history.

These days, anyone can get in on the action: Moviemaking has moved into the mainstream, thanks to DVD burners. These nifty little drives, which are showing up in new computers, allow users to burn movies and slide shows to DVD, then share them with anyone who has a DVD player.