Customer Reviews

Living Landscapes: Earthscapes - Sacred Canyons of the Southwest [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first "Living Landscapes" Blu-ray I purchased and watching it, all I kept saying to myself was "WOW!"

This video covers the high deserts of Southern Utah. Most of the scenes are from the National Parks of Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands and Arches. (I wish they had included Capitol Reef National Park, a stunningly beautiful but often overlooked National Park.) They also include scenes from Monument Valley as well as other places outside of the Parks.

Even though I live in Texas, I grew up in Utah and spent countless weekends camping and exploring Southern Utah. This video is the first I've seen that really captures the area. Watching it, I felt like I had gone home.

The producers could easily make another Blu-ray covering other areas of Southern Utah like Capitol Reef, Goblin Valley, Cedar Breaks, Natural Bridges, Kodachrome Basin, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Hovenweep, Lake Powell, and the Escalante Wilderness. Southern Utah is simply that Beautiful!

Concerning this video, there is no dialog, just soft music mixed with natural sounds from the area. There are no chapters on the video dedicated to a particular area. Instead, the scenes jump around randomly, without titles or other indicators of where each particular scene was photographed. If you aren't familiar with Southern Utah, then the whole program becomes one big video montage of the area.

My only complaint is that the program is only an hour long and there are no winter scenes. Also, I wish they had shown some night scenes with the landscape silhouetted against the stars. The night skies are truly stunning in Southern Utah. I will definitely be buying more of these "Living Landscape" Blu-rays.

My first exposure to the High Definition experience of the series of Blu-Ray sensations of the Living Landscapes collections was at a Costco where I and three other people stood transfixed in front of a 58" plasma TV and watched the images flow from a sample collection of Living Landscapes. We stood there and watched as a lake scene played across the screen. A fish jumped out of the lake and the ripples danced away across the lake and right off the plasma screen. It was more than a window, it was a door to walk through. I now have five discs from this collection and I am beyond words on many occasions. My favorite?? Sacred Canyons of the American Southwest! From the opening scene and the first sounds of the flute in 5.1 surround...I am standing in the desert and in awe. The occasional nature sound effects placed in the music, thunder, coyotes howling, the wind blowing, is just transfixing both visually and aurally. You are wrapped in a layer of calmness as the images faded one into the other. I have this disc playing on my 53" TV in full 5.1 surround all evening when I get home from work. I take my friends on trips when they enter my home theater. For me, I wish some images would linger longer than others, but that is just me. For those of you that have never visited the American Southwest, thanks to this disc on Bluray...you have no excuse..of course you won't feel the heat and arid nature of this beautiful realm,,but you could just turn up the heater and sit back and gorge yourself on the beauty as captured by outstanding video photography. It truly is a work of art. I highly recommend it.
To those who say it is too slow all I can say is why would you want to experience beauty at freeway speeds. Slow down!Take a walk through the Sacred Canyons of the American Southwest.

I also own "Rocky Mountains" another video by the same producer. This producer has an eye for beauty. I love both videos. Relaxing and breathtaking at same time. I have never been out west but the Blu-ray captures such beauty and grandeur that I now feel like I have. Such stunning detail that it truly captures the scenic and natural wonder. This is not a documentary it is just pure beauty. I live on the East Coast and have never been out West. Thanks to this video I now have a greater appreciation of our land and beautiful Country. I highly recommend it.

The views are dramatic and stunning. It's easy to see why Utah has so many National Parks. If you are unable to go and see these places in person, these pictures on a big screen TV are the next best thing!

Want to test your HD TV and sound system? Get this video and you will put your set-up to a test. You will not be disappointed. Too bad it is only 60 minutes long with wonderful Native American music by Gary Malkin.
You will not regret having it. Show off your HD with this video and your guess will be saying "WOW"!

The photography is fine, but it is somewhat repetitive, and hardly worth viewing as a serious video. It's fine for keeping on in the background.

I have a bunch of the blu-rays from this series and I love them. I put them on when I want music and I get the beautiful scenery that goes with it too. It's almost like meditation in a way. They calm me, and the kids, and I'll watch a few minutes, go about my business and come back to it. I never tire of the scenes and the music. This one on sacred canyons or the canyonlands of the south west has the most haunting yet delicate music. It creates a special kind of setting that I'm getting addicted too.
Other series I've purchased don't have the quality of music and photography that this one does. I hate 'canned' elevator music and this one has small artists that have wonderful sounds. Plus there are bird, water, basically other nature sounds woven throughout the film that really enhance the experience.

Music anoying and sometime they stay too long on a frame.
A little comentary would have been nice

Hi Guys, I bought this series, 4 Blu rays, for one friend in Brazil. I opened one just to see if was good enough, also I bought more 20 Blu rays of others series, like Scenic series and OVER series.
To be honestly when I started wacthing the first one: Earthscapes Pacific Coast, I thought that my Blu Ray player was freeze or not running anymore. The images stayed still forever on the same place, there are no edition, the Camera Man, just set up the camera on a tripod and let it there, I wonder that maybe He went to restroom ! Lol... OMG.
I ended up return all the 4 blue rays, and had to pay shipment and other stuff.
Don't BUY !!!
now Senic Series and OVER series are PERFECT.

Whander - San Francisco Bay Area. CA.

I am an avid collector of nature dvds. I love them as background while I complete tedious chores around the house. This series brings something different into the genre. Each disc is a destination, not just a theme.

The Sacred Canyons disc has a musical soundtrack that enhances the disc viewing.

I recommend this series to any nature enthusiast, and I encourage all office bound working folk like myself to add something like this to your viewing collection to provide an escape to a tranquil locale at any time.

These titles are shot in HD, and I can only imagine how much more spectacular the picture is on an HD set since I do not yet have one.

More titles are due to be produced in this series, and I will be first in line to get them.

Dana Paull "teagal" (Reno, NV USA)
Originally posted for standard definition of this DVD