Customer Reviews

Nature's Journey [HD DVD]

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

 

 

Got the HD-DVD version yesterday and scanned through it fairly quickly I will give it a serious sit down this weekend.

For right now here are QUICK impressions for those on the fence.

So far the PQ is VERY good no noticeable artifacts, or compression issues, SQ is very good as well the background music is nice and pretty interesting for this type of release, instrumental new age type of music but not as boring as you would think.

The PQ is on par with the better parts of Planet Earth to give it some perspective. The interesting part of this disc is the CG effects that are SEAMLESSLY integrated with the nature shots. This not only adds a nice touch to the scenery it is VERY TRIPPY, Pink Floyd fans like myself should really enjoy this disc, The disc also has different seasonal loop modes, I have not tried those yet.


I'm quite fond of HD nature discs, I hate to admit that I now have every HD nature disc that has been released in HD, this includes the living landscape 9 disc series on HD-DVD, Planet Earth on BLU-RAY, All of the IMAX releases, Chronos, Nature's Colors, all of the HD-Scape releases. I currently own them all on either HD-DVD or BLU-RAY.

I can honestly say this disc provides the best PQ, SQ and most professional packaging out of all of them. With any of the Nature discs taken from Prosumer HD\DV camera's I've noticed compression issues, color bleeding, artifact movement in the background. I have NOT seen that on this release. I will closer examine it this weekend though and report back if any thing like that pops up.

From the liner notes you can obviously tell they spent a lot of time and effort on this project.

So in short this disc is a winner, if you like any type of Nature HD material, or are a Pink Floyd/Psychedelic fan or you want some good demo material for your HD setup this disc would be well worth it.

The best creative works inspire more creative works - and that's just what this does. I found the images and music to create a great atmosphere to which I can write, read, and either focus on a task or be inspired to create something new.

Definitely worth checking out. And I hope they make another one!

I hate to write negative comments about video, because it is very subjective. I purchased the disk for its appeal of HD-Nature images. There is no question that director John Banks worked long and hard to put this journey of nature on disk.

The problem I have with video is the short duration of screen cuts from one image to another along with rendered symmetrical morphing (Taking half of an image and mirroring it) which lends itself to visual distractions. There are morphed images of objects, places and things that present the effects of someone who may be on a drug trip. I found myself agitated after watching it, rather than relaxed. There is too much artistic license to make synthetic nature. One of the side effects of morphing fixed images into HD-video is that the rendering process of the scenery results in loses of its razor sharp clarity, such as water droplets on a leaf.

If you want a great HD video of nature, try "Living Landscapes HD The World's Most Beautiful Places". This video is produced in both HD formats, and gives you a beautiful un-modified look at nature in high definition with relaxing music. To give credit where its do, I have to say that the DTS-HD audio track on this disk is outstanding with excellent clarity and dynamic range.

One last note, I almost sent the disk back because my SONY BDP-300 was just sitting there for nearly three minutes saying "Loading" when finally it loaded the menu. Other blue-ray disks load under this time. This disk is intense with the highest bit rate I have seen yet, so you may have to give the disk a bit more time to load than normal.

I could only stand this DVD for about 15 minutes. My wife finally said, "Please put on something else, it's giving me a headache!" I tried it out from Netflix before deciding to buy. I didn't care for the "music," nor did I care for the tidbits of animation layered over the nature scenes. I did like the nature scenes on their own; I just wish they had left them alone. Granted, this sort of thing is subjective, and while I can see why some people might really enjoy it (thus two stars instead of one), it is certainly not for me, nor for my wife, for that matter, so two votes against.

Both sound and video are great examples of what can be acheived by blu-ray high definition.

For my family, this film is one we'll watch over and over again to appreciate the magnificence of nature captured by masters of the photographic art.

Highly recommended and a must for your blu-ray collection.

Once again John S. Banks, the artist responsible for "Nature's Journey", has given us a wonderful work of early 21st century art. His previous works Illuminated Manuscripts and Ritual Path showed him to be a uniquely creative filmmaker and animator. With this offering he takes us on an even more far flung journey into the mind of the artist contemplating nature through his digital-imaging-tools-eye. The tone is spiritual and calming. I can recommend this DVD for anyone interested in digital art, animation, and meditation.

This DVD is a beautiful and lyrical look at the fusion of the spiritual and natural world. The images and music work in perfect harmony. The digital imagery and manipulation is never distracting, but works with the film and the source images to enhance the experience. This is a great DVD to watch in pieces, to play in the background at a house party or while you are working on your own creative endeavor - the photographs and animation are sure to inspire you.

If you're into tranquil scenery and beautiful surroundings I strongly recommend getting this title. HD DVD transfer is superb...for after all, life is in the details.

Yes, the images has CG (computer generated) images, like addition branches, superimposed scenery. I was hoping for that and its there. Hope they will make a series of that.

It's not natural at all. They try to make you that you're in heaven, but in the contrary, too much remix image makes it worse. I don't suggest to buy this one, especially you're new to HD world.