Customer Reviews

Earthlight: Nasa Spectacular Views

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought Earthlight: Special Edition with much anticipation, as it was billed as the space shuttle view of earth. I was disappointed in the video segments. While it is true that 70% of the earth is water, there is a limit to the interest generated by showing cloud formations over water. 70% of the video segments are over the Atlantic or Pacific ocean with no land in sight. Within these segments there are a few where you can see land approaching and thats' where the video segment ends. It's as if they asked NASA, "What are the most uninteresting video segments you have on all your shuttle missions. We want to make a DVD out of them.". That being said, the still photographs they have are marvelous. They are all land or island shots. The screen saver software will load them on your HD. They have additional stills available on the web site that can be unlocked from the DVD after they are paid for. Wait for Earthlight: The Land Edition, if your interested in this sort of thing.

This DVD features beautiful, digitally filmed, views of Earth from the Space Shuttle set to relaxing music, some of it Brian Eno-esque. Unlike the previous reviewer, I find there is quite a bit of variety to the scenes, from city lights on the U.S. east coast at night, the MIR spacestation, to the Sahara desert. The video quality is truly excellent -- this is probably the best looking DVD I own. Earthlight SE is great for relaxation -- do not expect thrills and chills.

Seeing tis magnificent Atlantis launch and hearing it in roaring 5.1 dolby is solely worth the price of the dvd. lus, you get many, many shots of our beautiful planet, crisply videotaped from the space shuttle missions. You get to see most part of the south emisphere of earth, along with USA at night, most Asia and Arabia and South America. Subtitles in more than 10 languages let you know what you are looking at, and the ethereal, space music really lets you get in the mood for watching, meditating or simply enjoying the pictures. Dont let it pass.

I really love the video quality, and I also found the variety of views to be fine - I would wish for a few more night views, but other than that it's great. They also have subtitles telling you what you are looking at (in just about any language you'd want, including Klingon!).

I also really like the stills they provide, BUT I must take exception with the locked stills - they provided some very nice stills for free, but locked away many of the more interesting ones (Mt. Renier, Grand Cayman) in the bundles you have to pay for - which I can't even see on my (video) DVD player. I rather wish they had an option to buy a DVD with all the stills unlocked as I don't have a DVD player on my PC yet. Still, it's well worth getting if you want many beautiful images of the earth from space...

I eagerly ordered "Earthlight" and even bought 2 copies. THANK GOD I bought them at half price from Amazon Marketplace!!!

This set of overflight views is extremely repetitve. If I had made the DVD, I'd not be at all proud of it. It is just clouds, clouds, more clouds, a couple minutes of desert, back to clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds ..... It could make a beautiful 15-minute video. At 85 minutes, it's a joke.

As example, the 3 overflights of Brazil take almost 15 minutes alone and the entire time you can scarcely see a single ground feature. Just clouds. And clouds, and clouds ... for 15 minutes!

Maybe if you view this stoned, the views set to fairly nice music would be entrancing. But I wasn't stoned and my normal-speed brain kept wondering when I'd actually get to see something!

Maybe that's what the whole view really is. Probably. But I was expecting much, much more. With modern telephoto photography a spy satellite can see you mailbox from space. There was no real telephoto camera work here. A few zooms such as a amateur videographer could do with cheap equipment. That's all.

Bummer. Any commercial crosscountry flight is more interesting.

PS - After writing the above, I have had a change of heart.
1) I finally started looking at the screensavers. They are among the best I've seen. I like them all. These views are just exactly what I'd expected from the 85-minute video. They are maybe worth the price of the DVD, though rather pricey.

2) Also, the view of the earth, though as stated in my main review as boring and needing huge editing, it is nevertheless instructive. That is to say: we DO live on a water planet with a very thin envelope of habitable space. It is a view everyone needs to understand viscerally. Maybe it WOULD be a good idea to view the whole series of overflights, but preferably stoned or somehow in a deep meditative state. Once.

A FANTASTIC CHANCE TO SEE OUR WORLD FROM SPACE THANKS TO NASA'S AMAZING WORK ,LET 'S HOPE AN HD VERSION WILL COME OUT OF IT ALTHOUGH IT IS ALREADY A BREATHTAKING WORK;

When you're sick and tired of these filthy life on earth,
you may turn to this amazingly secluded world of 'earthlihgt".
Some criticize it for its long coverage of water or oceans,
but it's the way the world exists. They needs to know more things of the real world?!

What a wonderful world!

It needs no addtion, no disguise, no distortion and no documentary footage.
Just as it is...
The earth is just simple, clear, bright and cool...

You would have heart of mercy on your fellow humankind.

Looking down from the heaven,
you may see not people's immeasurable sorrow, agony and bitter revenge,
but their ephemeral achevement and transient joy...

I would like to recommend it.

This is not exciting or awe-inspiring. The pictures are repetitive though well-photographed. The music is mundane and boring. There are far better examples of s[ace and music combinations. The IMAX 'The Dream is Alive' is far superior, although it has narration.

In the MIR clip on this DVD, You can clearly see an object (UFO) fly right through the shot. Mind-blowing UFO footage. It looks like it is phasing in and out...My ex-girlfriends 11 year old son said it looked like it was "catching up with itself", I thought that described it perfectly & Because it's on DVD, you can zoom right in on the object in slow Motion. If it's not a UFO, Then we had a VERY near miss from a huge object. It casts a shadow on the Earth as it flies over.

Unfortunately, the people at DVD International are fond of showing water shots in small screen, whereas this material cries out for land shots in widescreen.