NASA

Rating:
Summary: DON'T COUNT ON VISUAL EXPERIENCE!
Review: I strongly advise not even get near this product! It's simply a DVD media with sub-VHS picture and sound quality content. You will not be able to recognize any faces nor watch it for more than 20 minutes. I've purchased all 6 DVDs from their well packaged collection and force myself to watch this rubbish! Clearly, it's nothing but marketing and production scum.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Content, but not a "flashy" DVD
Review: If you like details about spaceflight, then you will probably enjoy this DVD, or at least enjoy parts of it. With lots of old footage, you can't expect it to be a flashy dvd that looks great on your five-thousand dollar plasma screen.

The Challenger analysis is simply amazing. There is so much data revealed in this DVD that you can make your own judgement as to what the flight controllers could have or should have done. I think they had time to abort and knew there were problems many, many seconds before the accident. This DVD is worth purchasing for the Challenger stuff alone, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: BAD VIDEO, BAD SOUND, BAD EVERYTHING---but nice packaging!
Review: Like the other films released by this company, I bought this DVD and was apalled to learn that this is simply re-packaged OLD NASA FILM with a misleading new cover. These 1960's-70's-era films are garbage, with bad picture, bad sound, and narrators so terrible that you expect to hear a projector start skipping, just like when you were a kid in elementary school. Shame on this company. There are many excellent space videos out there--and this IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile collection of original NASA films
Review: This two-sided DVD contains material from two volumes of NASA video releases, all of which consist exclusively of original NASA footage. As a whole, the almost four hours of video is somewhat uneven and is much less interesting than I certainly expected it to be. It is, however, an informative and worthwhile look at important moments in NASA history that should appeal to serious NASA and space enthusiasts. Both come with a number of special features that aren't very impressive for the most part, but I think Madacy did a pretty good job with this release as a whole, considering it is basically all original NASA video.

The first side of the DVD looks exclusively at four of the Apollo missions. The Eagle Has Landed covers the launch, mission, and return of Apollo 11; many of these scenes are familiar, but who can get tired of watching man first set foot on the moon? The story of Apollo 13, Houston We've Got a Problem is both fascinating and inspiring. This was the mission that almost didn't make it home, having suffered a serious problem onboard en route to the moon. The feature film Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks brought renewed attention to this story, which truly was NASA's finest hour, but nothing beats watching the tale unfold in reality. The missions of Apollo 15 and 16 are almost forgotten these days, but these missions provided the lion's share of data that man has collected from his lunar neighbor. Apollo 15: In the Mountains of the Moon is a real treat to watch. While the astronauts went about their business in a serious, commendable manner, they also had some fun. These guys were giddy all three days they spent on the lunar service, oohing and aahing almost nonstop. In addition to putting the moon rover to use for the first time, this mission also contributed more to scientific knowledge than any other. Apollo 16: Nothing So Hidden is in some ways quite similar to the Apollo 15 story, but here we have what are by far the best shots and video of the moon's surface.

You could hardly find a stranger juxtaposition between two NASA films than what you will find on the other side of the DVD. Our look at NASA's lowest of times is followed by a self-congratulatory video covering the first 25 years of the space agency's existence. Neither of these features is very impressive visually, and they are both far from exciting, but the look at the Challenger disaster makes this a fascinating, worthwhile DVD to own. Don't expect any kind of retrospective of or memorial to the Challenger, however, for the content you will find here is rather clinical and dry. The bulk of the footage consists of a tape prepared by the Analysis Task Force whose job it was to find out what happened and why. It is a rather technical presentation, but it provides some amazing looks at the video footage taken from a number of cameras on the ground and in the air, pointing out tell-tale signs of the disaster in the making. While it does provide a good assessment of the cause of the disaster, it really doesn't take things far enough to engage in a blame-game type of presentation, nor does it offer any speculation as to the probability that the astronauts lived long enough to plunge violently into the ocean.

Then you have the story of NASA's first 25 years, a film I found drab and sometimes pretty boring. The best part has to do with the early work by NASA and its original astronauts in programs largely forgotten today; there were really an incredible number of launches and missions that prepared the way for the moon landing in 1969. The video gives a good rundown of NASA's 1970s projects, as well, before concluding with a look at the first six successful missions of the space shuttle. The only complaints I have about this 25th anniversary NASA video are: 1) it slightly exaggerates NASA's importance in the creation of many non-space-related products and ideas and 2) it glances over the failures that were an integral part of NASA's history. The unfortunate and, given its cause, rather stupid fire that killed three astronauts on the launch pad in 1967 is at least mentioned, but there is no direct comment made about Apollo 13. I find this doubly strange because the Apollo 13 mission saw disaster transformed by NASA into its finest hour.

In the end, this double feature DVD, given its rather dry presentation style may not appeal to those not already captivated by NASA history and space exploration in general. The NASA 25th anniversary video in particular is surprisingly uninteresting as a whole and shamefully glosses over the trials that stand as an integral part of that history. The extra features on the DVD are also rather meaningless, consisting only of a few seemingly random astronaut biographies, a set of 10 trivia questions, a short description of a few prominent craft and missions, and a completely inexplicable film reel of the ludicrously fake spaceships featured in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile collection of original NASA films
Review: This two-sided DVD contains material from two volumes of NASA video releases, all of which consist exclusively of original NASA footage. As a whole, the almost four hours of video is somewhat uneven and is much less interesting than I certainly expected it to be. It is, however, an informative and worthwhile look at important moments in NASA history that should appeal to serious NASA and space enthusiasts. Both come with a number of special features that aren't very impressive for the most part, but I think Madacy did a pretty good job with this release as a whole, considering it is basically all original NASA video.

The first side of the DVD looks exclusively at four of the Apollo missions. The Eagle Has Landed covers the launch, mission, and return of Apollo 11; many of these scenes are familiar, but who can get tired of watching man first set foot on the moon? The story of Apollo 13, Houston We've Got a Problem is both fascinating and inspiring. This was the mission that almost didn't make it home, having suffered a serious problem onboard en route to the moon. The feature film Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks brought renewed attention to this story, which truly was NASA's finest hour, but nothing beats watching the tale unfold in reality. The missions of Apollo 15 and 16 are almost forgotten these days, but these missions provided the lion's share of data that man has collected from his lunar neighbor. Apollo 15: In the Mountains of the Moon is a real treat to watch. While the astronauts went about their business in a serious, commendable manner, they also had some fun. These guys were giddy all three days they spent on the lunar service, oohing and aahing almost nonstop. In addition to putting the moon rover to use for the first time, this mission also contributed more to scientific knowledge than any other. Apollo 16: Nothing So Hidden is in some ways quite similar to the Apollo 15 story, but here we have what are by far the best shots and video of the moon's surface.

You could hardly find a stranger juxtaposition between two NASA films than what you will find on the other side of the DVD. Our look at NASA's lowest of times is followed by a self-congratulatory video covering the first 25 years of the space agency's existence. Neither of these features is very impressive visually, and they are both far from exciting, but the look at the Challenger disaster makes this a fascinating, worthwhile DVD to own. Don't expect any kind of retrospective of or memorial to the Challenger, however, for the content you will find here is rather clinical and dry. The bulk of the footage consists of a tape prepared by the Analysis Task Force whose job it was to find out what happened and why. It is a rather technical presentation, but it provides some amazing looks at the video footage taken from a number of cameras on the ground and in the air, pointing out tell-tale signs of the disaster in the making. While it does provide a good assessment of the cause of the disaster, it really doesn't take things far enough to engage in a blame-game type of presentation, nor does it offer any speculation as to the probability that the astronauts lived long enough to plunge violently into the ocean.

Then you have the story of NASA's first 25 years, a film I found drab and sometimes pretty boring. The best part has to do with the early work by NASA and its original astronauts in programs largely forgotten today; there were really an incredible number of launches and missions that prepared the way for the moon landing in 1969. The video gives a good rundown of NASA's 1970s projects, as well, before concluding with a look at the first six successful missions of the space shuttle. The only complaints I have about this 25th anniversary NASA video are: 1) it slightly exaggerates NASA's importance in the creation of many non-space-related products and ideas and 2) it glances over the failures that were an integral part of NASA's history. The unfortunate and, given its cause, rather stupid fire that killed three astronauts on the launch pad in 1967 is at least mentioned, but there is no direct comment made about Apollo 13. I find this doubly strange because the Apollo 13 mission saw disaster transformed by NASA into its finest hour.

In the end, this double feature DVD, given its rather dry presentation style may not appeal to those not already captivated by NASA history and space exploration in general. The NASA 25th anniversary video in particular is surprisingly uninteresting as a whole and shamefully glosses over the trials that stand as an integral part of that history. The extra features on the DVD are also rather meaningless, consisting only of a few seemingly random astronaut biographies, a set of 10 trivia questions, a short description of a few prominent craft and missions, and a completely inexplicable film reel of the ludicrously fake spaceships featured in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Rating:
Summary: How Not to Produce a DVD
Review: Unlike the other reviewers, I didn't mind the content: NASA-produced documentaries. The second side's Challenger material was especially interesting, with unadorned pre-flight and flight footage first, followed by a detailed moment-by-moment technical analysis of the disasterous flight. The problem is the presentation. The four Apollo docs on the first side appear to come from scratchy, blobby 16mm prints, indifferently digitized at a low bitrate. (The disc is apparently a DVD-10-- double-sided but single-layer --so they must have used only half the maximum bitrate to fit 4 hours on the disc.) Result: artifacts all over the place. The low bitrate also affects the second side, sourced mostly from video, but not as badly. However, it looks like some sub-broadcast format like U-Matic was used, and it's riddled with dropouts. Oddly, the best-looking material on the disc was the montage from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" that was included for no apparent reason. I'd like to see this material properly released by a company that cares.

Rating:
Summary: How Not to Produce a DVD
Review: Unlike the other reviewers, I didn't mind the content: NASA-produced documentaries. The second side's Challenger material was especially interesting, with unadorned pre-flight and flight footage first, followed by a detailed moment-by-moment technical analysis of the disasterous flight. The problem is the presentation. The four Apollo docs on the first side appear to come from scratchy, blobby 16mm prints, indifferently digitized at a low bitrate. (The disc is apparently a DVD-10-- double-sided but single-layer --so they must have used only half the maximum bitrate to fit 4 hours on the disc.) Result: artifacts all over the place. The low bitrate also affects the second side, sourced mostly from video, but not as badly. However, it looks like some sub-broadcast format like U-Matic was used, and it's riddled with dropouts. Oddly, the best-looking material on the disc was the montage from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" that was included for no apparent reason. I'd like to see this material properly released by a company that cares.

Rating:
Summary: When are you all going to learn?
Review: When WILL people learn about Madacy Entertainment. ... The company producing it is MADACY. If chickens produced egges like Madacy produces DVDs, each bird would lay about 600 eggs a day with fancy, cheaply colored shells, cost [a reasonable amount] apiece and only about half would have yolks, and those would be about the size of B-Bs.