Customer Reviews

Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed [HD DVD]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Do not buy this video if you wish to be shown the Colesseum, etc. etc. - all of the tourist attractions, it is not that type of video. It is more about capturing the mood of the country, some of its background, and the prospects for the future.
You will meet a man purusing his dream of becoming a gondolier in Venice; a volunteer rescue worker in the Italian Alps; we follow a member of the Missoni family preparing for their new collection; a horse jockey who hopes to participate in Siena's palio (a 90 second horserace which brings the neighbourhoods of Siena to a fever-pitch); a young Roman girl who hopes to be the country's first femae race car driver; and a young Sicilian man who is a free diver, hoping to become professional. Along the way we are told about the state of the Catholic church in modern Italy, and other vignettes of information about the country that we learn while we look in on these people's lives. And of course, Isabella Rosselini's voice is wonderful, I love it.

So you will not be told where to go and what to see in this DVD. But you will have a better sense of the country and its people, what makes them tick, where they came from, where they are going. For me that was fascinating. I did find the scene of Siena's palio a bit upsetting actually (when they say it is a dangerous race they mean it). In my mind all I could think was 'is it really worth it to risk your life for a horse race?' but this is something that is obviously very important to them.

I did not make this purchase expecting to get a tourist's tour of Italy. I borrowed it from the library first. Then I bought it knowing what I was getting. It is a DVD that I will enjoy having in my collection.

I only wish that more time was devoted to the natural beauty of Italy and its cities,towns and natural coutryside, particulary in the north, as opposed to horse racing, auto racing etc.

This is worth watching in HD for the stunning photography alone.

Contrary to some reviews, there is nothing wrong with the disc. Certain HD-DVD players have firmware bugs which have been fixed in newer versions, that keep them from showing several titles including this one. Connect your HD-DVD player to the internet and run the update utility under Settings.

This documentary covers a number of sites in Italy by picking a human subject in each of the locations, and telling us the story of a slice of life in that individual and its bonding with local culture and history. These narratives run in parallel, we are taken back and forth between the heroes, as their character story lines progress.

The main feature on this Blu-Ray disk is compressed more than what I've seen on Blu-Ray titles from other studios. The picture is a little washed out, especially where fast movement is shown. The quality of the camera work is exceptional for the most part; but some of less than stellar footage, with bad lighting and color fringing, was also mixed in.

This DVD has extras. But, when I started watching the first one, I immediately noticed that there were some mastering problems, showing bad digital artifacting, most noticeable at scene changes. Fortunately, the main feature does not suffer from this.

Overall this is a very interesting work: it takes the concept of a dry TV documentary and adds a lot of warm human touch to it. I wish the Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed makers would have taken better advantage of features offered by the Blu-Ray format, but this is still a very interesting and great looking film.

Excellent photography and subject selection.Even though the dvd is in 1080i--on my Sony 60inch 1080P SXRD the picture quality was absolutely outstanding.I have a PS3 with Blue Ray DVD connected via HDMI cable.

The only part that I was disappointed was was when it was all over. It not only shows the beautiful country of Italy in high definition, Discovery follows several Italians during a pivotal point in their lives. I'm sad to say that Discovery will probably not make another Italy exclusive in HD for quite awhile. I'm infatuated with the Italian culture and lifestyle as well as their geography, landscape, and architecture. The Discovery Atlas series is excellent if you're at all interested in worlds outside of ours.

I have done some researching online and found out that these 2 HD-DVDs have been recorded in a different way from the Brazil & China which do work. DO NOT ORDER this product until they have created a working batch. I have also spoken with Discovery Channel and they advised they are aware of the problem and are trying to get this problem resolved. I was advised to return the product from where I bought it and keep checking back with them. Be very cautious who you purchase this from. You dont want to order a defective title and then not be able to get your refund. The only ones working at this time as mentioned above is Brazil and China, you should be ok ordering those.

This is not a tipical Turisty view of Italy, it's more cultural. They manage to create an in depth documentary, focusing on people from a few specific areas of Italy. The images are outstanding.

Sergio V.

The video quality of this movie was very good. My wife and I have been to italy many times and enjoyed this film because it had many of the same places that we had been to. We have a movie similar to this one that is not blu-ray and it just doesn't hold up to the beauty of Italy. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone interested and I would also recommend a blu-ray player so that you could watch this excellent movie in it's full quality.

When I selected the DVD Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed, I anticipated a visual tour of Italy's major cities. Instead, it is the story of a goup of people challenged to achieve personal goals. The DVD focuses on the personal struggles and objectives, which frankly I am not interested! The cinematography is beautiful, and Isabella Rossellini's voice is charming, soothing, and will put you to sleep.