HD Travel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

HD Travel Blu-ray Movie Review

Airmchair travelers will have a field day with this interesting set of Richard Bangs episodes.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 30, 2010

If video killed the radio star, is it fair to ask if Blu-ray might kill the travel industry? Back in the days of the lowly VHS and even SD-DVD, travel documentaries weren’t able to fully portray their subjects in all their visual and aural splendor. That, of course, has changed with the advent of high definition, and a glut of travel related Blu-rays has flooded the market in recent years, offering picture window views of places both far and near, as well as in at least a few instances, nice lossless audio offerings which at least partially offer some sonic insight into any given locale. Before the advent of Blu-ray, armchair travelers really needed to get off their collective keisters and spend the time and money to properly investigate various vacation spots. I have to wonder now that we have such pristine imagery and audio available with Blu-rays; maybe the less ambitious among us will find watching videos like the four assembled in this new HD Travel set will suffice in terms of “visiting” exotic locales. Richard Bangs has had a series of well received, and Emmy nominated, ecologically themed specials devoted to a number of worldwide locations, and this new four disc compilation offers four interesting episodes, two of which have never been independently released, that not only provide an often extremely picturesque travelogue, but also highlight Bangs’ interest in preserving endangered species and helping to ensure the natural environment is around for future generations to enjoy. Bangs tends to be a little more didactic and flowery in his narration than, say, Rick Steves, whose recently also entered the Blu-ray fray. But Bangs maintains an easy affability through these four episodes, imparting historical, sociological and environmental information about some very different locations.

Greece. Bangs almost always has some great connections for expert commentary and guiding around various locations, and this mythologically themed episode is no exception. None other than the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington sits down for a chat with Bangs in Los Angeles, telling him she’s going to get him a one on one meeting with her sister, scholar Agapi Stassinopoulus, once Bangs arrives in Greece. Agapi turns out to be just as charming (if occasionally thickly accented) as Arianna, but she knows her Greek Gods (and Goddesses), which is Bangs’ chief interest in this episode. Agapi smartly sums up the difference between the Judeo-Christian concept of a Deity and the Greek. The Jews and Christians maintain that men were created in God’s image, while the Greeks insist that the Gods were created in Man’s image. Therefore, each of the main Greek Gods—seven men and seven women—embody certain distinct traits, which Agapi likens to the “software of the psyche.” This focus gives this episode a rather interestingly introspective slant, even as Bangs and Stassinopoulus visit a host of incredibly evocative locations like the Parthenon. It’s the pursuit of meaning vis a vis the Greek deities, however, which gives this episode its import, and as Bangs and Stassinopoulus make very clear, the Gods are still alive in each and every one of us.

Hong Kong. The symbology and national and cultural meaning of the Dragon becomes Bangs’ raison d’etre in visiting this teeming island metropolis. Hong Kong is both figuratively and literally a combination of opposites. Opposites figure prominently in one of the major religions which inhabits the island, Taoism, which introduced the idea of Yin and Yang, and perhaps more importantly, balance. As odd as it may seem, the Dragon itself (at least to Eastern sensibilities) is seen as a symbol of balance, being made up of disparate parts of several different species (everything from carp to bear). The Eastern viewpoint is that the Dragon is a benevolent entity whose scales are evenly split between Yin and Yang energies. Bangs also explores the clash of Western and Eastern cultures which has colored Hong Kong for at least the last one hundred and fifty years or so. While he doesn’t get really explicitly into the long British occupation of the island, there’s no ignoring the very unique melding of Western and Eastern sensibilities which the island embodies, a spirit which seems balanced itself between the Western ideals of growth and financial reward and the more Eastern meditative qualities of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Bangs also crosses Victoria Harbor to Kowloon (which actually means “nine dragons”), and rides aboard a kind of scary looking, glass bottomed gondola that takes him high over some rugged countryside of the Lantau Islands, where the locals say you can “bite the clouds” due to the gondola’s height.

The two remaining episodes in this set have been previously released as standalone titles, and I reviewed them some time ago here on Blu-ray.com. Egypt and Switzerland offer some sumptuous sights and interesting information, with the Egypt episode probably being the better outing of the two. Full details can be found in the reviews linked above.

What sets all of these episodes apart from the more run of the mill travel documentaries is Bangs' often unusual focus on various environmental and ecological issues. Therefore, in Hong Kong, for example, we get a nice review of that island's ability to reign in progress and prosperity to help preserve the lush ecosystems. In Egypt the entire episode is bookended by attempts to preserve the now endangered crocodiles. Bangs subtitles these outings Adventures With Purpose, and unlike some other television tourguides, he's not out there simply to show the viewer the sights and sounds. He's obviously interested in helping to put these often exotic locations into a worldwide context of ecological problems and challenges. It's to Bangs' credit, therefore, that despite his often proto-poetic language, he rarely if ever seems to be lecturing the audience, instead gently urging them toward better stewardship.

HD Travel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All four of the HD Travel episodes are offered in 1080i via the relatively older MPEG-2 codec, in their original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. For the most part, these are very sharp and well detailed looking television fare, with abundantly bright and extremely well saturated color. Close-ups of both humans and the various beasts that trundle into various episodes reveal an abundance of detail. What often plagues these episodes is some pretty consistent artifacting, including some pretty bad digital noise on shots of leafy mountainsides and the like. Shimmer is also fairly prevalent at times, and once or twice aliasing and moire patterns also bloom into view. If you can get past these usually transitory issues, for the most part this is a really nice looking set which offers a lot of incredibly beautiful on location footage of sights both well known and comparitively rare.

HD Travel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The good news is we're given lossless audio on all of these episodes, courtesy of uncompressed LPCM 2.0 tracks. The bad news is, no surround activity, obviously, but that's not entirely a bad thing, as all of these episodes consists pretty much of nothing other than Bangs and his cohorts talking about the sights they're visiting. While there is a lot of local music included on all of these episodes, and some of it certainly would have benefitted from a surround mix, there's really comparatively little ambient environmental effects in any of the four outings here, so I doubt too many people are going to be that upset by the lack of surround sound mixes. Fidelity is excellent here, with both dialogue, onscreen narration and voiceover all very clear and easy to hear, and the supporting source music and underscore very well mixed for an excellent balance.

HD Travel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included, other than trailers. As I mentioned in some of the standalone reviews, I find this incredibly peculiar, as the trailers for the SD-DVD versions included on these Blu-rays tout "hours of bonus features." Ahem. . .Topics? Are you paying attention?

HD Travel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Releasing this set as a four disc compilation is a bit of a stretch. This really could have easily been at most a two disc release or, frankly, even a one 50g disc release. That aside, and granting the fact that this is still budget priced, you get a lot of bang (or Bangs) for your buck here, with four well produced, very informative and incredibly scenic episodes. Bangs' tends to be a bit more locquacious than other hosts, but he does it with such a low key friendliness that it's hard not to be drawn into his often extermely flowery language. Bangs is also to be commended for his admirable emphasis on the environment, something that is front and center in each of these episodes. Recommended.