Customer Reviews

Visions of Britain and Ireland

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The only thing better than watching "VISIONS OF BRITAIN & IRELAND" is doing the isles in person. This is next best, for sure. I've been to all 4 countries (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) and this set does a magnificent job of relating the beauty of the country, architecture, cities, and historical places. It offers a vantage point obtainable only from the air. Even if you've been there, you'll enjoy this film documentation.

Each of the 4 DVDs is narrated by a person with the local dialect, but well understood. Closed caption is available on the Ireland and Wales DVDs but not necessary, except for seeing some of the spelling of names and words. The voice of the person describing what you are seeing combined with the background music, which too, relates to the particular country being shown, adds to the soothing pleasure of this travelogue style documentary.

The only warning: Only after watching, this set might influence the budget. You will want to fly to Britain and see it for yourself. It's that enticing.

The product description is deceiving in that it falls short in revealing how very much this set covers in film. For example the England DVD Scene Index lists no less than 69 locations including Stonehenge, Dover, Bath, Harrods, & so much more. 75 minutes, including 19 minutes of "bonus footage" not seen on public television.

Scotland is 88 minutes including the "bonus footage."
Wales is 58 minutes with unseen "bonus footage."
Ireland, both Northern Ireland and Rep. of Ireland, is 75 minutes with the "bonus footage."

Planing a trip to Europe? Watch this prior to setting your itinerary.
Genealogy minded? See where your family originated, these DVDs cover many centuries.
Incapable of travel? Here is dazzling, dramatic visualization of more of the British Isles than one person could visit in months of costly travel.
British book lovers will delight in SEEing locations described in novels.

Every travel agent should have these playing in their waiting room. Every library should offer this set to its users. Great for watching while on the treadmill--walk the skies of the British Isles.

When I compare the places I have visited; this set provides a better view than what I was able to see from the ground. Also available in REGULAR or NON-Blu-Ray option.

The only thing better than watching "VISIONS OF BRITAIN & IRELAND" is doing the isles in person. This is next best, for sure. I've been to all 4 countries (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) and this set does a magnificent job of relating the beauty of the country, architecture, cities, and historical places. It offers a vantage point obtainable only from the air. Even if you've been there, you'll enjoy this film documentation.

Each of the 4 DVDs is narrated by a person with the local dialect, but well understood. Closed caption is available on the Ireland and Wales DVDs but not necessary, except for seeing some of the spelling of names and words. The voice of the person describing what you are seeing combined with the background music, which too, relates to the particular country being shown, adds to the soothing pleasure of this travelogue style documentary.

The only warning: Only after watching, this set might influence the budget. You will want to fly to Britain and see it for yourself. It's that enticing.

The product description is deceiving in that it falls short in revealing how very much this set covers in film. For example the England DVD Scene Index lists no less than 69 locations including Stonehenge, Dover, Bath, Harrods, & so much more. 75 minutes, including 19 minutes of "bonus footage" not seen on public television.

Scotland is 88 minutes including the "bonus footage."
Wales is 58 minutes with unseen "bonus footage."
Ireland, both Northern Ireland and Rep. of Ireland, is 75 minutes with the "bonus footage."

Planing a trip to Europe? Watch this prior to setting your itinerary.
Genealogy minded? See where your family originated, these DVDs cover many centuries.
Incapable of travel? Here is dazzling, dramatic visualization of more of the British Isles than one person could visit in months of costly travel.
British book lovers will delight in SEEing locations described in novels.

Every travel agent should have these playing in their waiting room. Every library should offer this set to its users. Great for watching while on the treadmill--walk the skies of the British Isles.

When I compare the places I have visited; this set provides a better view than what I was able to see from the ground. Also available in Blu-Ray option.

So when I purchased this, I hadn't seen it on TV and with all the glowing reviews, I thought, it would a great purchase. I will admit that the visuals are stunning. The problem is the narration. There is very little of it. I would say that it is only narrated 25% of the time with 75% being music. The product description and the blu ray itself have the music only and narration as choices so I assumed the narration track would be extensive. It unfortunately wasn't. I'm not saying I wanted someone to be talking 100% of the time but there are more shots of sites, where nothing is said (only a title at the bottom telling you the name of the site) than sites that are narrated. There are some nice little facts thrown in every once in a while but not enough to really keep our attention. I felt like I needed to get on the internet to look up the sites, just to get an idea what we were seeing. We want to the UK for a family vacation one of these days and I can see this being a nice reminder once we had gone, seen (and learned) about the sites already. But there's no substance, it's just pretty. Maybe my expectations were too high. In the end my wife fell asleep about 1/2 into Britain. It felt more like a teaser or trailer...which is probably what it's meant to be...a teaser to get you to want to go to the UK.

Pleasant, interesting flight over many beautiful sites, not all of which are identified and some of which are redundant. Some concentration of the lens on pretty pictures of no consequence or significance (farm fields, etc.) while unusual pieces of landscape or architecture which look to have historical or geographical interest are blinked at with nary a hint of identification. The Scotland video was lovely; the England video was visually stimulating but was narrated by a voice which seemed artificially breathy, sweet and so quiet as to be drowned out by the "background" music. Might be a good idea to take dramamine first if one is susceptible to the effects of motion on peripheral vision. Truthfully, I expected more but didn't get it. Not quite disappointing; but then again, not first class, either.
I haven't watched Ireland or Wales, yet; if further review will be edifying it will be supplied in an update.

Es una excelente reseña de las ciudades y paisajes (landscapes), un exquisito placer para la vista y el oído
la música es excelente. sientes que te transportas a esos hermosos lugares
No debe faltar en tu colección de videos de Alta Definición (HD)!

This set is beautifully filmed and narrated. The music is excellent and unobtrusive, and the transfer is clear and crisp.
But the scenery! Absolutely beautiful. No video can do justice to the beauty of the Irish countryside, but this one comes darned close!
This is available on DVD, but don't do it. Get the BluRay. This is one of those disks that will absolutely justify the extra expense.

I always try to find the negatives in my reviews just to give balance but the only one I can come up with on this is that the narration is a bit outdated. They still tout the "Celtic Tiger" economy for example. But that is the worst I can say about this.

My daughter gave this set to us for Christmas and we absolutely LOVED our trips to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England. Never could we have seen these views from a "land only" trip. Helicopter viewpoints of the old castles, cities, the views to the seas, sunsets, topiary, gardens, mountains, - we will watch these numerous times in the coming years while we pretend we are there! Outstanding filmography.

Visions of Britain and Ireland [Blu-ray]
The stars of this new blu-ray set are Ireland and Scotland. Ireland was lacking in the DVD version with a weak narration, poor music selection and a limited set of locations. The narration has been greatly improved, the music is great and many of the added locations have been photographed at street level to give a more balanced view. Five stars for the blu-ray Ireland. I had not seen the Scotland DVD, but this one is outstanding, with gorgeous shots of the countryside and excellent narration and music. Five stars.
England is fine, but it has too many shots of palaces and other buildings and not enough of the countryside. Four stars.
Wales has been added and is very well done, but since it is a very small country, the number of shots are limited. I spent several hours looking for the bonus shots of Wales, so I called Acorn Media and was told there are no bonus shots of Wales. The narration and music for Wales are excellent.
The major advantage of the blu-ray set, since the DVDs were mastered in HD, is the greater capacity of the blu-ray disc. All four countries fit on two disks. I'm looking forward to Greece (maybe Greece and Turkey) on blu-ray and France and Italy. I would like to see a Spain/Portugal set.

The scenery is nice and the short narrative is good. The aerial views make this dvd very worthwhile.