Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie Review

It's like watching fish in a tank.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 10, 2015

Aquariums are so much fun. Filling them up with colorful, bright gravel and any variety of decorations -- plants, shipwrecks, treasure chests, divers -- can be a real joy and an easy way to show off that creative talent. The possibilities are nearly limitless when one considers the variety of tank sizes and shapes and the seemingly endless availability of fish of various shapes and sizes, from Neon Tetras to Oscar Cichlids, that are ready and waiting to be transported in that magical clear plastic bag from the crowded pet store to the more comfortable confines of their own home tank. But there's a problem: maintenance. Keeping an aquarium in top order is no small task. Even for modestly sized tanks, there's plenty of work to be done, from changing the water and the filter to making sure everything's connected and in good working order. There's also the smell, which might be an acquired taste or a real turn-off, particularly for novice tank builders. The other bad part? Fishing out the dead creatures that invariably appear and returning to the store to repopulate the tank (hint: don't name any of the more fragile fish in the tank. It makes their passing a little easier). It's a costly undertaking, too, one that requires a fairly steep up-front investment and a regular dedication of time. The rewards are well worth the effort, though; a good, well-maintained, and smartly populated tank can bring endless joy to the proud owner, but what options are available for anyone who doesn't want to invest that kind of time or money into the project or deal with the hassle of aquarium upkeep? Enter Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience, an hourlong Blu-ray that aims a camera at a beautiful fish tank. It's all the beauty and none of the fuss and for a fraction of the money. Is it too good to be true? Read on...

This is the only shot in the movie.

Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience is essentially a relaxation video/tech demo that places a static camera in front of what appears to a modestly sized tank and films the fish swimming around for an hour. Tank edges are not visible. The fish occasionally chase one another and zip across the screen at high speed, but it's mostly just casual swimming from side to side, up and down, and back and forth. At the end, the disc seamlessly loops back to the beginning. A Zen-like musical overlay accompanies the production, and the only option to get rid of it is to turn the volume knob down to the bottom. There's no narration, no expert identifying the various fish found in the tank, discussing the merits of the particular habitat in which they're swimming, or any kind of advice about how to create the perfect fish tank for home enjoyment. It's a camera pointed at a fish tank with music on top, nothing more, nothing less.

The benefit is the aforementioned aquarium enjoyment without the hassle of a real home aquarium. The drawback is the inability to customize. Even virtually, one cannot add or remove a fish or switch to another aquarium or even another angle. Viewers are forced to watch the head-on shot the entire time. In the production's defense, however, this isn't meant to be something one stares at for an hour. It's ambience, and ambience photographed about as crisply and sharply defined as is currently possible. It does look quite good (more on that in video below) and there's no glare or reflection or any kind of visual interference. It's so clean and well defined that it's almost like there's no glass wall, nothing separating the camera from the water, the fish, and the plants.

Even at a fraction of the price of a real aquarium, though, the disc doesn't offer any benefits beyond the crystal-clear picture. If one really wanted to replicate the experience and enjoy a wider variety of fish, there's nothing stopping someone from downloading some Zen music to their iPod, putting on a quality pair of headphones, and heading on over to the local big box or mom-and-pop pet store to stare, moving from tank to tank every few minutes. But...advantage still to Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience? Not only does the Blu-ray save the consumer on gas money, the raw clarity is so lifelike that it might even be better than a pet store aquarium where cleanliness and pristine viewing conditions aren't a top priority. Those tanks often look at least mildly neglected, covered in smudgy fingerprints on the outside and/or a general grime on the inside. There's nothing but aquatic heaven on the Blu-ray, and the only disappointment will be the repetition, though at an hour long and considering the unscripted and constant movement -- not only the swimming fish but the lightly swaying vegetation -- one could look at it all day and never remember but one or two key events in this world of fish.

Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience was photographed in 4K but presented on Blu-ray at 1080p. It's not quite as purely impressive as Adventure Yellowstone, but this is still quite the looker. The highlight, believe it or not, isn't the fish but rather the decorations in the tank with them. Clarity and detail can be positively striking when looking at plants and rocks, the former offering incredible definition, separation, and even mild depth on various tentacular ends. There's a spongy looking plant near the top of the left-hand side that's amazingly clear and well defined and makes for, arguably, the single best object in the program as far as raw detail is concerned. The quickly moving fish, on the other hand, aren't quite as precisely defined as the more static rock and vegetation backgrounds. There's a mild blur and softness to them, leaving precision detail out of the equation. Where they excel, however, is in their coloring. Whether orange and white fish, one with a blue body and a green/yellow fin, or multicolored vertical or horizontal striping, the barrage of oranges, reds, blues, greens, and yellows dazzle every time they swim on by. The image suffers from no perceptible flaws in terms of banding, aliasing, noise, or other unwanted intrusions.

Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There are no sound effects, no humming tank equipment, no bubbly effects, nothing but that Zen-like music. The music itself is a little too aggressively loud at reference volume, almost breaking the mood rather than enhancing it. Turning it down pretty far from usual listening levels is a must, and since it's meant to be ambience rather than a dominant factor, it's not much of a real problem. General clarity is fine, flow across the front impresses, and surround usage is consistent but not overpowering. There's no variety to the music; it's pretty much the same variation on a single theme. But the picture quality is the understandable highlight here, anyway; the music is just an added layer that's best enjoyed at the end user's discretion.

Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience contains only one supplement. Picture Slideshow (1080p, 2:00) offers a collection of still aquarium images set to music.

Aquarium 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aquarium 4K: The Tropical Reef Experience really is as straightforward as it sounds. Easily one of the most simplistic but also one of the most focused, it's a point-and-shoot production with no camera movement and no new angles over the hourlong presentation. It's just swimming fish and swaying plants. The real sell is the convenience and raw visual clarity. The sound is easily relegated to background mood noise or muted altogether on the user end. The disc includes a throwaway picture collage supplement. Anyone looking for a virtual fish tank for their television might find value in this. The picture is clear enough but the lack of depth or dimension won't be fooling anyone. This would work best as purely background ambience, as a screensaver, or maybe something to put on the television in some waiting room somewhere. Recommended for the novelty, the beauty, and in the right application, the utility.