Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

HD Moods Aquarium 2.0 Blu-ray Movie Review

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the virtual water. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 27, 2010

What has the high definition world come to? There was a time not so long ago when “ambient television” offerings were simple little titles, usually budget priced, which allowed consumers to show off their fancy schmancy new HD setups without spending an arm and a leg, and without requiring party goers to stop their festive celebrations long enough to actually pay attention to what was on the screen. Specifically designed to play in the background, early ambient television productions featured things like roaring fireplaces, scenic steam engines chugging through mountainsides, and, lest we forget, fish swimming around in aquariums (or is the plural aquaria?). Topics Entertainment, a Washington state company, specializes in these ambient television offerings, and if Amazon sales data are to be believed (and why shouldn’t they), a lot of Topics titles do very well, especially around the holidays, when people have given into that primordial consuming urge and splurged on a home theater setup. Aquarium was a big seller for Topics a few years ago, and indeed more than a few of you probably either purchased it yourself or at least saw it at a friend’s house, as it was a near perfect way to see high definition imagery while socializing. If you wanted to pay attention to the colorful fish and other sealife, great. If not, frankly you wouldn’t be kicking yourself and since the video looped back on itself, you could revisit the tv a few minutes later and pick up where your attention had left off. Topics has really been upping the ante for some of thse budget priced titles lately, with a slew of surprisingly excellent releases in 2010, several of which I’ve given near rave reviews here. Aquarium 2.0 might not have the visceral excitement of Rise or Rebel, two fairly recent Topics titles I’ve reviewed for blu-ray.com, but Topics is not leaving well enough alone, offering a new compilation of fish footage that is in 1080p (previous releases have been interlaced), and with a really remarkable set of soundtracks, all but one with a lossless option.

This may well be the first ambient television title for which I felt I needed a flowchart to keep track of all the possibilities the BD offers. In fact, I’m still not positive I’ve seen everything on this Blu-ray, as the running time is listed as being around 85 minutes, and I was only able to find around an hour’s worth of content. Basically the disc is divided into six chapters, each an individual scene. These bear the names Orange, Coral, Maroon, Current, Jelly and River. That may seem simple, but the pop-up menu has a whole host of options, including four soundtracks per chapter, each in a variety of mixes, and even more confusingly, there are a number of additional video options like “Camera Calm” and “Camera Motion” which I frankly was not able to completely figure out. It seems like there may be supplemental chapters for at least Orange, Coral and River which feature the same settings but with camera movement instead of a stationary view, but I’m really only guessing. The disc also allows the viewer to shuffle various chapters. It does seem that if you select an individual chapter, it (and its “motion” counterpart) will loop back on itself, without moving on to the next scene.

Aquarium 2.0 is also perhaps the first ambient television title I’ve encountered which includes a How to Use this Disc guide (in HD no less), which despite running a brief 1:13, includes a glut of information about various aspects, albeit nothing about the Camera Calm and Camera Motion elements. It would have been nice if Topics could have included complete “instructions,” for wont of a better word, for luddites like myself who stumble though a variety of menus not really sure what they’re accessing.

In terms of the content itself, this is a nicely serene group of various aquarium shots. My personal favorite was the Coral sequence, which features some astoundingly bright colors in both the coral itself as well as the many fish which dance in an among the strange structures. Maroon really didn’t have much going on, but the other chapters have a nice variety of species to hypnotize the viewer. Speaking of hypnosis, the soundtracks here are very ethereal and spacy, with lots of bell tones and synth washes that are nicely relaxing, listenable without being pushy, in fact a perfect counterpart to the visuals.

In the year-plus I’ve been reviewing these ambient television titles, I’ve seen this genre really grow and mature, and it’s been exciting at times to get product that might have low expectations attached but which manages to deliver some engaging content, at least within the confines of its narrow ambitions and on its own terms. Aquarium 2.0 will probably be playing on a holiday HDTV near you soon.

HD Moods Aquarium 2.0 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Despite their titles almost always advertising "Ultra Sharp 1080 HD," Topics has tended to release the glut of their product in 1080i. That's slowly changing, and Aquarium 2.0 boasts an extraordinary 1080p image delivered via the AVC codec, in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Now as anyone who's owned one of these titles will know, there's simply not a lot of knock your socks off imagery to wow the viewer here. Instead, you get an inviting variety of fish life swimming about in various aquarium settings. With that caveat, this Blu-ray offers brilliantly saturated color and impressive detail. Gill movements of various fish are easily discernable, and in fact some of the more translucent varieties offer views which seem to peer into their interiors. The Coral sequence is far the most impressive from a color standpoint, with really brilliant reds, blues, purples, greens and oranges to delight the viewer. The River sequence also has some really intensely saturated greens to recommend it. There are no artifacting issues of any type to report in this stellar Blu-ray release.

HD Moods Aquarium 2.0 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Time to get out that flowchart I mentioned above. Ready? OK. You have four soundtrack options here: Natural, Relax, Journey and Explore. The first three options are available in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. For some reason, the Explore option is only presented in DD 2.0. All of these tracks are impressive, with near constant, if very subtle, surround activity. Truth be told, there's not a whale of a lot of difference (sorry, pun intended) between the two synth-laden tracks, Relax and Journey. Relax features more synth washes, string patches and mystical choral patches (think Enya), while Journey has Tibetan bells and the like. Natural is simply the native aquarium noises, which tends to be mostly air bubbles and the occasional whoosh of a fish swimming through water. Fidelity is top notch on all of these tracks, and the lossless options offer stupendous range, with some great low end.

HD Moods Aquarium 2.0 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

You might consider some of the bells and whistles mentioned above as supplements, which is fine. Other than that, the disc itself does have two brief extras:

• Sustainable Cooking With Hajime (720p; 2:32), is a brief but engaging talk with a Seattle chef whose restaurant deals only in sustainable seafood.


• How to Use this Disc (1080p; 1:13) is quick Too quick, actually—be ready with your pause button) which offers successive screens with typewritten instructions on how to utilize the disc as well as the mobile Psychic Summit App which is included.


• A DVD copy of the feature is also included.

HD Moods Aquarium 2.0 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Topics has really been showing the HD world that these supposed "cheapie" ambient television titles needn't be less than full-fledged BDs. Aquarium 2.0 is a really nice little compilation of various seascapes with excellent image and audio quality. It would have helped to have a little more information on how to access all of the bells and whistles, but what else are you going to do on Christmas Day after the presents have been opened? Recommended.