Ambient Fire 3rd Edition: Ultimate Video Fireplace DVD

Rating:
Summary: Good quality
Review: I bought this DVD and Virtual Flames. This one is much better, mainly because it uses real wood, not gas logs. Of the 9 fires on this DVD, (if you count candles as a fire), most are no better than 1 star. This is mostly because they show too much foreground instead of just the fire. However, there is one good one and one is enough. All you see is the fire. It uses real wood and is realistic. It's not a huge fire, more of a cozy one, with about 4 pieces of wood, (I wouldn't call them logs). However, it is about right for my 28 inch TV. If you have a giant screen you might want to find a bigger, log burning fire. I liked it well enough to buy another one for a gift. It can be automatically looped to run forever.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Fire Simulation for the TV
Review: I purchased this DVD after a search of similar products and I must say it is very professionally done. The video quality, along with the DVD menus and options are quite good. The images of the flames are shot with professional equipment, with 4 fireplaces running 35 minutes apiece. There are other 10 minute scenes of the same fireplaces only with the camera further back. There is a campfire scene of 10 minutes. The camera will fade in to a close up for a few moments, then back out in the campfire scene. All of the other fireplace videos the camera remains perfectly stationary. All videos begin with the fire going full strength, no match striking scenes or scenes of someone throwing kindling in the fire. Logs and flames only. The videos end pretty much as they started, with the flames at about the same height. The full flame is scene, not cut off at the top. There are a few instances in some of the 35 minute videos, where you will notice that they repeat a scene a few minutes after it first happened in a slow fadeback dissolve. A log can be seen breaking off due to burning in one of the scenes, then a slow fadeback to the time before it broke off and the image repeats. The Brimstone fireplace scene has a roaring flame the first 25 minutes, then the last 10 minutes it slowly dies down to a scene of little flame. All flames are natural, no gas logs. There is no glass or screen between the camera and the flames which is good. Lots of popping from the logs which sounds great. The camera does not zoom in or out, it stays perfectly fixed. It is DVD quality, not a VHS transfer. If you choose the option to hear music, it is music only and no flame sound effects can be heard. If the natural flame sound can be heard it is very natural with no other sounds other than the fire heard, no annoying background noises like people talking for instance. For a "TV Fireplace" video of a fire I do highly recommend this DVD it is excellent. You can even see a demonstration of what the flames look like if you go to the manufacturers website 8 demos are there with about 15 seconds each of the flames. This is what sold me!

Rating:
Summary: A Hit for the Holidays
Review: I purchased this DVD to play on the office TV set as part of our holiday decorations. It was a big hit. Offers eight different fires and a sequence of holiday candles burning. Special features allow you to play the different fires in a loop or in sequence, allowing for a nice, constant fire on the screen or the various fires in sequence. For the office, we played the "fire crackling" sound, but the DVD does offer other music, holiday and non-holiday to play along with the fire. A fun item for parties if you don't have a real fireplace.