Saltwater aquariums are breathtakingly beautiful, but onerous to maintain. The exception is The Classic Aquarium DVD--a "no-care" aquarium with white sand, exquisite coral formations, large barnacle clusters, and a hos... more »t of colorful tropical fish. View the full aquarium with the 40-minute full-tank option or follow the paths of individual fish in the eight-minute close-up segment. Tranquility and beauty reign in either, and each sequence offers a crystal-clear picture and a repeat function for continuous play. Audio choices include gentle beach surf, authentic aquarium bubbling, and New Age relaxation and meditation musical tracks in both DTS and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. An on-screen "fishography" provides aquarium enthusiasts with detailed information about the natural habitat, diet, temperament, and care of 12 individual species of fish. DVD-ROM extras include screensavers and a fish calendar. Just think of this as tranquility through television. --Tami Horiuchi« less
"This DVD is a dream come true for me. Ever since the introduction of the DVD medium, I have been wishing that someone should release a DVD with colorful fishes of all kind swimming back and forth just like a real aquarium. I had an aquarium years ago and it was a time-consuming hobby. The time to change the water and clean the aquarium were too messy and too expansive. After half year, I discontinued the hobby but until now still missed watching those beautiful fishes. Finally, this is the DVD I have been wishing for in the past two years. It allows continuous play on your monitor or TV with two choices of viewing options (close-up or full view of the aquarium) and four choices of background sound (two music tracks, one sea surf sound, and one bubbling water sound.) My prefer choices are the close-up view (the fishes are larger) and the bubbling water sound (more natural sounding). You can program the aquarium to play continuously and effortlessly with this DVD.The video quality on this DVD is top notch and crystal clear in the close-up view ( * * * * *.) The fishes are a bit small in the full view (* * *.) I whole-heartedly recommend this DVD to all aquarium watchers and lovers that don't want the mess of changing and cleaning water. The water in this DVD remains crystal clear and clean forever. One last benefit of this DVD: the price is hard to beat considering all the time saved and trouble-free enjoyment of a realistic aquarium right on your monitor!"
My new fish tank.....
Ralph Goodson | Whiteleaf, United Kingdom | 08/29/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Earlier this year I saved my pennies and bought a 50" plasma screen. It's great for home cinema but when I'm entertaining guests and not watching the screen, it's a large black hole on the wall of my living room, until now that is.This DVD is the perfect solution. Instead of being faced with a boring featureless black void, my guests can now gaze at my fabulous collection of marine fish. The bonus is, I never have to clean the tank or feed the fish! I bought the Coral Tank version but I assume they are all variations on a theme and would perform more or less the same function. I Take on board what other viewers have said about the size of the fish on a smaller screen, but on the plasma screen, the proportions are perfect and I think, very realistic.The DVD also has some extra features for your PC including a fishy screen-saver, which gives a slideshow of each of the inhabitants of the tank. It also has printable high-quality photos in PDF format and a copy of Acrobat Viewer if you do not already have it. I love it and I intend to buy the other versions!"
DON'T BUY THIS ITEM - LISTEN TO THE REVIEWS!
pescalito | NYC | 09/17/2002
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Beleive me, I'm being generous giving them a whole star - if I could figuire out how to give them less than that I would! I should have listened to the other disatisfied customers. The video quality is terrible (no- it's not my Sony Wega 27" TV). It just looked liked someone went to the local Marine Aquarium, paid their [$$$] entrance fee and set a tripod in front of the tank. The lighting is terrible, the music is [poor]. Do I sound upset? You bet I am! I wish I had been smart enough to rent a camcoder and call myself a movie maker! I am willing to venture all the other Aquaria volumes in this series are equally as [poor]. Why else would the price fall from close to [$$$] to under [$$$] in only about a year?My advice, save your money and just buy a real fishtank!"
Great idea but disappointing, I'm afraid
Coralreefscape | 03/20/2006
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I had great expectations of this dvd as I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to have my own salt water aquarium in the foreseeable future. I was disappointed with it, I'm afraid to have to say. Perhaps I have been spoiled by my local salt water aquaria "petshop" which has a very nice 1800 liter salt water aquaium with many live corals, anemones and tropical fish species. Now these dvds came out in 1999 and since the WMVHD "Coral Reef Adventure" came out, this dvd just cannot compete and doesn't have any of the color quality, focus, or detail that one could hope for. The better of the various aquaria in my opinion is the "The Classic Aquarium" and "The Fresh Water Aquarium" so I would recommend just ordering the single dvd instead of the "The Complete Aquarium DVD Collection" if you absolutely need one to tide you over until when they start producing HD aquaria dvds. I found both "The Natural Aquarium" and "The Coral Reef Aquarium" very disappointing with not-so-clear water, poor focus, unnatural colors, disappointing detail, and not very many different fish to look at. I do like the idea of a loopable aquarium dvd and with the dawning of HD dvd, it shouldn't be all that difficult to produce a new and better series. And I am sure there are many more beautiful aquaria to film - with more "depth" and content to them - than the ones used for this series."
Misleading
pescalito | 04/14/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The DVD says this can be viewed in 3 different formats; 16:9, 4:3, and Widescreen. Not so. The only view offered is widescreen.It also says it's 15 hours long. Wrong! 5 different tanks, each last 1 hour in full view, and about 15 minutes in close up view. So in full view the DVD is about 5 hours long; in close up about 1 hour 15 minutes. If you use the "repeat" function it could be 15 hours long.The picture quality is very good in close up view but only fair in full tank view. For each tank, they provide a "Fishography" which describes every fish in that tank."