Coral Sea Dreaming

Rating:
Summary: Without question, the best DVD I own
Review: After playing this DVD at least a hundred times, my jaw never fails to drop at the utter beauty of this undersea world. I've never seen such vivid underwater footage and it feels as though I'm right there as it happens. Smooth, mesmerizing video--no jumpy shots to break the mood.
The subtitles are nice to turn on every now and then to learn what those exotic creatures are! And then the subtitle feature can be turned off to savor the pure view and sound. There is no distracting narration.
This DVD is so precious to me because I can set it to play for a loved one with Alzheimer's using the loop feature (none of my other DVDs loop) and know she will be calmed and lulled to sleep by the most spectacularly beautiful images either of us have ever seen. Absolutely breathtaking. I can't thank David Hannan enough for his work.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: Beautifully filmed by Australian cinematographer, David Hannan. The undersea footage filmed is of the Great Barrier Reef. Amazing exotic fish and stunning coral reef footage. Loved the optional feature to include subtitles of each creature's common names. Nice conclusion with the night dive, too. Unicorn fish...who knew?!

A couple of additional vignettes also quick and nice if you want to flip around the menu: Dolphins surfing, sea lions, etc. Light music in the background.

Also, you can set continuous loop or straight play. Useful if this is being used as background.

Rating:
Summary: not what I was hoping for, but very good photography
Review: Coral Sea Dreaming consists of the main feature, "Coral Sea Dreaming" (54 minutes), and six short features Wetlands", "Surfin' Dolphins" (3 min), "Ocean Moods" (6 min), "Undersea Breeze" (4 mins), "Sea Lions" (7 min), and "Save the Reef" (1 min).

My personal favorite was the Surfin' Dolphins short feature which had nice shots of dolphins playing in the surf off an Australian beach set to lively music.

The cinematography in all the features is excellent and captions (when turned on) clear and easy to read.

But... What I was hoping for in the main feature was a more relaxing, less rushed, somewhat aquarium-like, view of underwater coral and fish of the reef -- what I got was more of a very well done streaming catalog of short clips of each fish or coral.

Rather than a more continuous flow of images, the main feature presented a view of one scene or fish species for 3 to 7 seconds before cutting to another fish or angle for another 3 to 7 seconds, over and over again.

This gave me the feeling that I was reviewing a substantial catalog of excellent views of coral and individual fish species rather than the more relaxing views that I had desired.

I was hoping for something that would bring back memorys of past snorkeling trips (Sea of Cortez) -- holding a view of a continuous and/or contiguous background longer or following a school of fish longer. But, too many scene changes too fast...

So, partly based on my expectations (perhaps unwarranted), I have to give this DVD 3 stars. I would happily give any of the 3-7 second scenes 5 stars, but I found the constant cutting and fading of scene after scene in such rapid order disruptive -- enough so that I did not find the feature relaxing, nor particularly suited for repeated foreground or background viewing.

I'm guessing that this would be a wonderful video for anyone planning to go the the Great Barrier Reef who wants to view and study a large collection of short segments of different creatures of the reef.

Rating:
Summary: not what I was hoping for, but very good photography
Review: Coral Sea Dreaming consists of the main feature, "Coral Sea Dreaming" (54 minutes), and six short features Wetlands", "Surfin' Dolphins" (3 min), "Ocean Moods" (6 min), "Undersea Breeze" (4 mins), "Sea Lions" (7 min), and "Save the Reef" (1 min).

My personal favorite was the Surfin' Dolphins short feature which had nice shots of dolphins playing in the surf off an Australian beach set to lively music.

The cinematography in all the features is excellent and captions (when turned on) clear and easy to read.

But... What I was hoping for in the main feature was a more relaxing, less rushed, somewhat aquarium-like, view of underwater coral and fish of the reef -- what I got was more of a very well done streaming catalog of short clips of each fish or coral.

Rather than a more continuous flow of images, the main feature presented a view of one scene or fish species for 3 to 7 seconds before cutting to another fish or angle for another 3 to 7 seconds, over and over again.

This gave me the feeling that I was reviewing a substantial catalog of excellent views of coral and individual fish species rather than the more relaxing views that I had desired.

I was hoping for something that would bring back memorys of past snorkeling trips (Sea of Cortez) -- holding a view of a continuous and/or contiguous background longer or following a school of fish longer. But, too many scene changes too fast...

So, partly based on my expectations (perhaps unwarranted), I have to give this DVD 3 stars. I would happily give any of the 3-7 second scenes 5 stars, but I found the constant cutting and fading of scene after scene in such rapid order disruptive -- enough so that I did not find the feature relaxing, nor particularly suited for repeated foreground or background viewing.

I'm guessing that this would be a wonderful video for anyone planning to go the the Great Barrier Reef who wants to view and study a large collection of short segments of different creatures of the reef.

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite!
Review: Coral Sea Dreaming shows a variety of ocean life and habitats, both under and around the water.   Compared to relaxation DVD's, this has the highest quality picture that I've seen. The picture on a widescreen rear projection TV needed no adjustments. Although the picture is very sharp and clear in many places, there is some variability in the picture quality. Some scenes were fairly fuzzy. It's filmed in full screen mode. I'd like to find this type of movie in widescreen filmed with high definition cameras. It probably sounds pretty goofy, but I enjoy watching fish swim around! I highly recommend Coral Sea Dreaming.

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite!
Review: Coral Sea Dreaming shows a variety of ocean life and habitats, both under and around the water.   Compared to relaxation DVD's, this has the highest quality picture that I've seen. The picture on a widescreen rear projection TV needed no adjustments. Although the picture is very sharp and clear in many places, there is some variability in the picture quality. Some scenes were fairly fuzzy. It's filmed in full screen mode. I'd like to find this type of movie in widescreen filmed with high definition cameras. It probably sounds pretty goofy, but I enjoy watching fish swim around! I highly recommend Coral Sea Dreaming.

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite!
Review: Coral Sea Dreaming shows a variety of ocean life and habitats, both under and around the water.   Compared to relaxation DVD's, this has the highest quality picture that I've seen. The picture on a widescreen rear projection TV needed no adjustments. Although the picture is very sharp and clear in many places, there is some variability in the picture quality. Some scenes were fairly fuzzy. It's filmed in full screen mode. I'd like to find this type of movie in widescreen filmed with high definition cameras. It probably sounds pretty goofy, but I enjoy watching fish swim around! I highly recommend Coral Sea Dreaming.

Rating:
Summary: I CAN'T WAIT TO DIVE THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!
Review: I always thought it would be nice to dive the Barrier Reef, but had other locations higher on the list. After seeing this DVD (and buying a copy for a gift, too!) it has moved WAY up on my list! I have shown it to non-divers as well as divers and all are awed. Spectacular clarify, beautiful new age original music. Makes me want to get my gear and go!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely stunning footage of The Coral Sea Inhabitants!
Review: I cannot believe this video is no longer available as it has captured everything a diver sees when exploring the depths of the Coral Sea off the East Coast of Australia. The fish life is bountiful and the species of coral seem endless. This video is crisp, clean and very well done, with a musical score to match. I will charish the copy I brought home from Australia!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best underwater DVDs!
Review: I have almost all available underwater DVDs. If you want one thats like meditation, "Coral Sea Dreaming DVD" is really one of the best. The quality of the film sequence is crystal-clear. It's indead as the title is.