Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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151 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and informative, September 30, 2000
There are simply too many videos available on tape and DVD in which relaxing but shapeless electronic music is being played as the visuals show waves against a beach or some such monotonous albeit beautiful pattern. At first I was afraid that <Star Gaze: Hubble's View of the Universe> on AlphaDVD label (DVD10726) would be one of the same. It is not. Even without the special features, the views of the universe are utterly breathtaking. The music by a group called 2002 is equally utterly negligible, but that turns out to be a virtue. When I hit the Title button on my remote, I programmed in the narration; and suddenly the item became a wonderful educational tool, actually enhanced by the musical background. For those who wish, there are narration tracks in French, German and Spanish; or you might prefer subtitles in the same linguistic choices. The video is widescreen, the sound superb. This would make the perfect gift for a friend and especially to a student.
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79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
See for yourself why the Hubble Space Telescope is called the Mirror to the Universe!!!, February 7, 2006
+++++
This program presents images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from 1990 to 1998. All images are accompanied by New Age music.
Before I say anything else, the images presented in this program are magnificent, awe-inspiring, and jaw-dropping. They should be seen by every Earthling so everybody can experience the extraordinary beauty of the universe.
The main menu for this program is as follows:
1. Play
2. Chapters (or Scenes)
3. Special Features
4. Credits (for all images and music presented in this program)
5. Previews (of other programs)
When I got this program, I simply put this disc into my DVD player and chose "Play" from the main menu. What I got was images accompanied by New Age music and nothing else. Personally, I liked the music that I found to be very calming and serene but I had no idea what I was looking at. I reasoned that there must be something I had to activate to explain the images I was seeing.
After being perplexed for a few minutes and wandering around the main menu, I eventually chose "Special Features" from the main menu.
The Special Features had the following selections:
1. audio (available in English, French, German, and Spanish)
2. subtitles (also available in the above languages)
3. language (also available in the above languages)
4. screen saver
5. web DVD
I knew that I wanted the "English language" so I selected it. I also wanted "English subtitles" that I eventually found out were termed "English nomenclature" in this menu. (I was initially confused by the term "nomenclature" because this word means "a system of naming" not "subtitles".) Choosing these, you get the naming of images accompanied by music. This was certainly better than just images and music alone but I still found that this was not enough to get full enjoyment from this program.
This time I selected "audio" from the special features menu. From this I chose "English narration." I also selected "English narration" from the subtitles section. With these selections you get music and narration that explains the images and the words of the narrator are printed under each image. I watched the entire program with "English narration" for both audio and subtitle selections. It was only after I watched the entire program like this that I realized that there may have been a better option for me: keep the "English narration" in the audio but have instead the "English nomenclature" for the subtitles. (With "English narration" subtitles, too many words appear on the screen. I found this to be distracting.)
The reason I explained all the above is that it is easy to see why I think that there should have been a note that explained the options available with respect to audio and subtitles. Instead you have to experiment. Some people may find this frustrating and time-consuming. (In fact, I'm still not sure if other options are available!)
For those who don't like New Age music, there is no way of turning the music off. However, if the narration is turned on, then the music becomes quiet background music.
The fantastic images in this program can be divided into three parts:
(1) This covers chapters or scenes (1 to 3) and lasts about 15.5 minutes. Here we are told everything about the HST. Oddly, there is not one image of the HST in this part. The images instead are deep space images that we're told nothing about.
(2) Covers chapters (4 to 9) and lasts about 32.5 minutes. This is where the mesmerizing images are explained. Here there are visuals of deep space that include nebulae, distant galaxies, galactic clusters, and other exotic objects. These are static images but the camera keeps moving across them giving the illusion of movement.
(3) Covers chapter 10 and lasts about 8.25 minutes. Here, we are shown time-lapse photography of the Solar System's outer planets, namely Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and even Pluto. The images were from the HST and were meticulously put together into a time-lapse sequence for each of the planets mentioned.
The end credits roll and that's the end of the program. Right? Wrong! There is no mention of this anywhere (why??) but we then get a sequential presentation (that lasts for about 4.75 minutes) of nine astronomical paintings of some real galactic images that were shown in the main program. The title of each painting is shown briefly at the bottom of each painting. The paintings were created by Marilynn Flynn who is, and the viewer is not told this, a great space artist.
Finally, I should mention the screen saver selections (that can be accessed through the "Special Features" of the main menu). Here we get a display of most of the images seen in the main program as well as paintings by the above artist. Oddly, some images of the HST are shown. (Recall that there were no images of the HST in the main program.) The images appear sequentially with their titles appearing briefly at the bottom of each image. It is possible to pause an image but you can't go back to a previous image.
In conclusion, barring some of the problems hinted at above, this is an incredible visual, audio, and educational delight, demonstrating just an infinitesimally small number of cosmic wonders that are in our vast universe!!
**** 1/2
(1998; 1 hr; widescreen; 10 chapters)
+++++
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51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Sharp Images leave you awestruck!, January 5, 2001
I recently purchased this DVD. I popped it in my DVD disk drive, and I was not dissapointed. The image quality is astonishingly crisp, and sharp. The colors are wonderful, and even the music (all by "2002") is a good match for images. I originally thought that the image quality would not be great because of all the pictures I have seen on the inernet, but none of them compare to the clarity of the images on this DVD. This dvd is also wired to the Internet somehow, although I have not tried this feature yet (supposedly you can go to www.stargazedvd.com and the dvd is interactive, to a certain degree). It also includes a screen saver, which I have not tried either, but I am assuming it uses images from the DVD.Don't want to have music? Need more information? Just switch to any of the narration audio modes, and you get descriptions of what all the images you are looking at are. The DVD also has a lot of different demos on it which are fun to watch. If you like observing stars, nebulae, etc., then this is a good buy for you. If you are not into that type of stuff, well, it might put you to sleep... Come to think of it, it is VERY relaxing, very serene, hmm.. I may go watch it right now!
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