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HD Window: The Great Southwest
DVD International // Unrated // October 30, 2007
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Part of the same HD Window series as Hawaii, The Great Southwest is another HDScape release anchored around high definition nature photography. Its emphasis this time is placed on the majesty of the American Southwest, offering lingering looks at the stark, rocky landscape, clouds soaring high above the mesas, colorful cacti in bloom, and the desert dunes. HDScape has collected a diverse assortment of footage, including a barren tree and a rusted pick-up truck both blanketed in snow to remind viewers that there's far more to the Southwest than craggy rocks and sprawling, inhospitable deserts. It occasionally revels in the juxaposition of simple, manmade structures against the backdrop of this natural beauty, and at one point, The Great Southwest even aims its cameras upward to capture a series of hot air balloons in flight.
The photography in this HD Window release is easily the most striking of the Blu-ray titles from HDScape that I've reviewed, although I'm still not finding its presentation to stand out above similar programming on cable. Encoded with AVC and presented at 1080p, the image just isn't especially crisp or detailed, looking more like something off HD Theater than a newly-minted Blu-ray release. The overall presentation of The Great Southwest is certainly acceptable but falls short of the showcase quality a title like this really ought to offer.
The Great Southwest features the same flavor of light jazz as Hawaii, again sounding as if the music had been lifted directly from the Weather Channel. This disc also offers a pair of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtracks -- one featuring 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: The Great Southwest includes an option to automatically cycle through this footage, allowing the 76 minute feature to loop repeatedly without any further interaction. Also included are a ten minute highlight reel as well as previews for several other HDScape releases.
HD Window: The Great Southwest is the best of these three Blu-ray releases I've seen from HDScape, although I'm still not impressed enough by the technical presentation to find it worth a recommendation. Skip It.
The photography in this HD Window release is easily the most striking of the Blu-ray titles from HDScape that I've reviewed, although I'm still not finding its presentation to stand out above similar programming on cable. Encoded with AVC and presented at 1080p, the image just isn't especially crisp or detailed, looking more like something off HD Theater than a newly-minted Blu-ray release. The overall presentation of The Great Southwest is certainly acceptable but falls short of the showcase quality a title like this really ought to offer.
The Great Southwest features the same flavor of light jazz as Hawaii, again sounding as if the music had been lifted directly from the Weather Channel. This disc also offers a pair of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtracks -- one featuring 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: The Great Southwest includes an option to automatically cycle through this footage, allowing the 76 minute feature to loop repeatedly without any further interaction. Also included are a ten minute highlight reel as well as previews for several other HDScape releases.
HD Window: The Great Southwest is the best of these three Blu-ray releases I've seen from HDScape, although I'm still not impressed enough by the technical presentation to find it worth a recommendation. Skip It.
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