Search - Earthlight on DVD

Earthlight's video ocean segments need to be cut.

aDouglasAdamsfan | LV, NV usa | 02/15/1999

(2 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Relaxing, high quality images of Earth from space

aDouglasAdamsfan | 07/17/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Should be edited down to 15 minutes - extremely repetitive

J. S. Radford | Woodside, CA USA | 01/24/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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."