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I've been really looking forward to this DVD ever since I got my Blu-ray player. I have a regular DVD version (different company) and I really thought it would be very similar. I was wrong.
Firstly, the video is stretched so the image is a bit distorted. I'm one of those people that can't watch those faux-HD movies/shows. This is HD, but possibly shot on the lowest-quality possible. It was also shot interlaced, which means you can see all the horizontal scan lines in the fire so the picture quality is sub-standard. It's not true.. THIS IS NOT A 1080p DISC (besides seeing scan lines, my Blu-ray player says it's 60i...so it's not just my eyes).
Secondly, the camera is zoomed in too close to the fire. The DVD I had before had several options and all of them were at least zoomed out far enough to see the whole fire. This DVD is cropped at the top and the fire fills the screen. Some shots are cropped so close it feels like part of my house is on fire. If you like this kind of thing, that's fine, but I prefer the "fireplace illusion"...the TV either looking like a fireplace or zoomed out enough to actually see a fireplace. There are four different fires and they're all shot from basically the same distance so one will have a very hard time distinguishing the difference between any of them. The only difference I could tell was that the wood was stacked slightly differently. Of note: where the description says "different angles & shots" it doesn't mean that you can use the angle functionality on the DVD player. It just means that throughout the DVD they chose slightly different angles to shoot from... you have no control over those.
Finally, the audio is also a disappointment. Blu-ray should have at least 5.1 audio and the Crackling Fire is only 2.0 (stereo), though there's an option to play the classical music with 5.1.
All in all, a lackluster release by a manufacturer who clearly just wanted to beat any other product of its kind to the HD market. The images look far better than the actual blurry video so make sure you really really want to sacrifice all the above aspects just to have this DVD. Wait a while and better ones will surely be available soon.
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Its the nicest one I have used... but it could have been nicer...Pan a little out so the whole flame would have been welcomed..
Also there are some fires that the camera pans and scan around and thats just not called for!
I would have rather seen different views back off the same fireplace... some tv's are bigger than others and if its like 50 or 60" the fire just looks too big... so different views further back would have been better.
At least they did use a real fire with real wood not a gas fire like most of the other discs I have seen. The first one is a full fireplace with wood that burns almost down then loops... thats the way to do it. The others that scan the fire are distracting and dumb.. the whole concept of these discs is an illusion of a fireplace so why does the camera need to move ? instead just offer different views of the same fireplace instead.
Overall on a lcd around 32 to 40 " you will be very pleased.... the bigger your set your fire will look too big and will not look natural at all.... in fact it will look like your living room is on fire... hence the further away view would have been welcomed...
Best Deals for Fireplace: Visions of Tranquility
I don't know how you could mess this up, but they did. Like everyone else I wanted a nice fireplace scene in 1080p. What I got was something my grandma would record and give to me. Every one of the fireplace selections is zoomed in and not very different in configuration. How hard would it be to produce several scenes of beautiful fireplace settings rumbling in high quality uncompressed audio? It's obvious they produced a low budget product hoping it would sell simply because it's released in Blu-Ray format. Don't buy this. I recommend buying a fireplace scene on upscaled DVD until a respectable product is released on Blu-Ray.Honest reviews on Fireplace: Visions of Tranquility
The last reviewer is accurate when he said it does not work on the Sony PS3. If you go to the "HDscape" website they will offer you a free replacement disc that will work on the PS3. They stated something was wrong with the encoding process and that it should be fixed in all future releases of the Fireplace disc.As far as the quality, I have no idea as I am waiting to get a replacement disc. Hope this helps.
