'Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of 'Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed' is up. You may remember that we reviewed the first episode of this shot-on-HD series a month or so ago, and it won raves from Kenneth. This one, alas, not so much. While the video reference-quality and would be a perfect choices for HDTV showrooms, it's pretty much the only redeeming feature of this 90 minute doc, which is marred by a boring audio package with amateur narration, a slim set of supplements, and -- worst of all -- a middle-of-the-road group of participants.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/disco...yrevealed.html

[Mark_H]

Given the great image reviews of the Atlas Revealed titles, I was disappointed with the image quality of this disc - there were plenty of examples of the sort of artefacts we are used to seeing on DVD (and on OTA broadcasts) - particularly i-frame pulsing and banding, which we rarely see on film releases on HD. The image also wasn't particularly sharp compared to some movies. Yes, the imagery was nice to look at but it is by no means the best HD stuff we've seen...

Mark

[CompitaVeggie]

Do anyone have any idea if there still is a problem playing this on the xbox 360 add-on?

thanks

[BaronDandy]

I can't play it on my 360. Black Screen....

[Rich86]

I've had all 4 of the Discovery Atlas HD-DVD titles on my shelf for quite some time, and just watched Italy this evening for the first time. It wasn't quite what I expected (I guess I expected a tour guide of Italy) but it was actually very good. In addition to providing some excellent film footage of Italy to view in high definition, it also delved into the lives and aspirations of folks living in a half dozen key areas of Italy and was very interesting - far better than a simple travelogue. I was satisfied with the video quality, although I also noted some digital artifacts occasionally. Fortunately they were not frequent nor severe enough to distract from our enjoyment of the program and high def presentation.
I think maybe we'll watch China next . . . .