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Rating: 
Summary: Breathtaking, but........
Review: Spectacular shots of the Australian coast and Outback, all taken from Shuttle missions, or the ISS, (International Space Station) accompanied by an incredibly high quality soundtrack of Aboriginal/New Age/ Relaxation music, by Aboriginal composer, David Hudson, who himself plays the didgeridoo. It has both DTS 6 channel, and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and as I said,is of a very high quality recording. Around 80 minutes long, PLUS the added bonus of NO REGION CODING make this exceptional value for money. My only gripe, and the reason for deducting a star, is the fact that there are many still photographs that are inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have a DVD-ROM drive. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to view these additional shots, but it's a small price to pay for the beauty of the main program. Outstanding!
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly will grow on me
Review: Stimulating- yes, brilliant and beautiful- definitely. But understand you are not going to have a particularly "Australian" experience with this DVD. The images are shot from so high that unless you have spent a lot of time in planetary orbit, there is precious little to really identify anything of where you are. A quite nice aussie theme soundtrack sets the mood, although smooth jazz with added didjeridoo sounds a little silly at times.The visuals were created by a drifting magnification over high-tech still images- like scanning Landsat posters with binoculars from across a room. This presentation technique is intriguing but becomes a little unnerving at length, like viewing abstract art. The let's-figure-out-what-we're-looking-at feeling intrudes for me. However, allowances for the fact that there is a particular intent with this unique presentation. And it IS amazing to see the beauty of the planet beyond the scale of recognizable surface detail. On DVD playback, a nice little feature of hitting the menu button anytime for a description and stats on any particular view helps somewhat. I wonder if more could have been done with familiar imagery here to dimensionalize the whole experience. On DVD ROM playback some interactability and the above info continually onscreen, but with the images unfortunately also shrunk way down to accomodate.
Rating: 
Summary: A response to esstee's review
Review: Thanks for the nice review. One comment though. All of the NASA images used on the Planet Earth series are available for viewing on any DVD-Video player or DVD-ROM computer. On a DVD-Video player just press the MENU button any time you see an image on screen you like. This will take you to a detail screen for that image. If you want to see a full screen version of that image just press the UP arrow and the screen will now show the original NASA image in the best resolution that a DVD-Video player can display. Pressing the MENU key again returns you to the frame of video where you left off. Higher resolution versions of each image are also available to users that have DVD-ROM drives, but it is important to note that all DVD-Video player users have access to the same images that DVD-ROM users do, and at the highest level of quality possible on a DVD player. Thanks Ralph LaBarge
Producer, Planet Earth: Series
Rating:
Summary: A response to esstee's review
Review: Thanks for the nice review. One comment though. All of the NASA images used on the Planet Earth series are available for viewing on any DVD-Video player or DVD-ROM computer. On a DVD-Video player just press the MENU button any time you see an image on screen you like. This will take you to a detail screen for that image. If you want to see a full screen version of that image just press the UP arrow and the screen will now show the original NASA image in the best resolution that a DVD-Video player can display. Pressing the MENU key again returns you to the frame of video where you left off. Higher resolution versions of each image are also available to users that have DVD-ROM drives, but it is important to note that all DVD-Video player users have access to the same images that DVD-ROM users do, and at the highest level of quality possible on a DVD player. Thanks Ralph LaBarge
Producer, Planet Earth: Series
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: While I personally, very much appreciate and enjoy the spectacular images of earth as photographed from space, I would also have appreciated, indeed expected, intelligent and expert commentary. My children were bored to tears after ten minutes, as were the adults. I had this feeling that we were somehow "stuck" in a preview mode of the overall program. True, the soundtrack is both soothing, and well matched to the visual. But the absence of commentary soon makes you feel as though you're listening to the sort of trendy, cosmic whatever that you might hear in,...well, your dentist's office. Bummer.
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