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HD Window: Hawaii
DVD International // Unrated // October 30, 2007
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
HD Window: Hawaii is another in a series of Blu-ray releases from HDScape centered around high definition nature photography. Its focus this time is, as the title suggests, the islands of Hawaii: lapping waves, palm trees, and the distinctively Hawaiian coastline, with the photography leaning heavily towards expansive panoramic shots.
As with HDScape's other Blu-ray releases, HD Window: Hawaii's 1080p photography is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and encoded using the AVC codec. The presentation of this footage is the most lackluster of all of the HDScape titles I've seen so far, though. Black levels are anemic, and the image is often so soft that I wouldn't have even been able to readily identify much of it as being in high definition.
The light jazz featured throughout Hawaii is more melodic and varied than the New Age drone of HDScape's Serenity: Southern Seas, although it sounds uncannily like library music off the Weather Channel. The disc offers two Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtracks -- one featuring both this jazzy backdrop alongside the sounds of nature, and the other with nothing but that natural ambiance. The placement of those natural sounds in the mix takes reasonably strong advantage of the multichannel setup, and although bass response in the music is rarely deep or resonant, the LFE channel does have its moments.
HD Window: Hawaii offers viewers the option to repeatedly loop this footage, letting the 51 minute feature play repeatedly without any further interaction. A ten minute highlight reel is also included, along with previews of several other HDScape releases.
I'm admittedly not the sort to seek out this type of high definition screensaver, but the mediocre quality of HD Window: Hawaii's video makes it especially difficult to recommend. Skip It.
As with HDScape's other Blu-ray releases, HD Window: Hawaii's 1080p photography is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and encoded using the AVC codec. The presentation of this footage is the most lackluster of all of the HDScape titles I've seen so far, though. Black levels are anemic, and the image is often so soft that I wouldn't have even been able to readily identify much of it as being in high definition.
The light jazz featured throughout Hawaii is more melodic and varied than the New Age drone of HDScape's Serenity: Southern Seas, although it sounds uncannily like library music off the Weather Channel. The disc offers two Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtracks -- one featuring both this jazzy backdrop alongside the sounds of nature, and the other with nothing but that natural ambiance. The placement of those natural sounds in the mix takes reasonably strong advantage of the multichannel setup, and although bass response in the music is rarely deep or resonant, the LFE channel does have its moments.
HD Window: Hawaii offers viewers the option to repeatedly loop this footage, letting the 51 minute feature play repeatedly without any further interaction. A ten minute highlight reel is also included, along with previews of several other HDScape releases.
I'm admittedly not the sort to seek out this type of high definition screensaver, but the mediocre quality of HD Window: Hawaii's video makes it especially difficult to recommend. Skip It.
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