Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 22, 2015

Holiday Lights is comprised of two parts: outdoor exploration of Christmas lights and and a selection of interior shots featuring finely appointed Christmas decorations. The program recycles some of its footage from the companion Christmas Traditions release (see screenshots six and seven in this review, which correspond to these shots from the other release). The program runs 50 minutes and features six different Christmas-themed audio tracks, each one categorized by theme but none of them labeled by song or artist beyond. See below for a full listing.

the program ranges from modestly professional to amateurish. Some of the outdoor shots appear to have been filmed literally from a moving car by sticking the camera out the window, complete with enough shake to give the viewer a headache. Fortunately, these are few and far between. Interiors are a bit more professional, featuring steady vertical and horizontal panning shots. No chapter select options are available.

The main menu offers only the option to select one of the six available accompanying soundtracks, which can also be changed "on the fly" via the remote's "audio" button. Options include:

• Piano
• Guitar
• Holiday Favorites (vocal components)
• Celtic
• Steel Drums
• Bosa Nova Christmas

Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Holiday Lights wasn't produced with a level of technical proficiency that one would associate with a "professional" release. At best, the 1080i, 1.78:1-framed program offers some static or slightly panning shots of holiday lights or ornaments. At worst, it looks like it was filmed out the window of a moving car with nothing to stabilize the camera. The nighttime exteriors offer decent black levels. They're a bit pale and prone to reveal some macroblocking and noise but they're solid enough overall. Christmas lights are appropriately bright and cheery with good basic coloring. Interiors fare much better with more controlled and brighter lighting and more detail and color to explore. Various ornaments, ribbons, and plastic tree branches show a solid level of detail, and their colorations are adequately vibrant and healthy.

Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Holiday Lights contains six audio tracks (listed above), each presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 configuration. Music is passable, with a range of definition that spreads from modern and clean to vintage and scratchy. The newer material enjoys satisfactory front side spacing and a sparse, but evident, surround support structure. Vocal and instrumental clarity are fine, again dependent on material age. The "Holiday Favorites" selection is the only one to offer vocals in accompaniment of music, and the same applies with the vintage coming off as scratchy and worn and the newer crisper and better defined, all with positive center placement. A few support effects, like a train whistle, are included but don't present with much realism in terms of definition or stage placement.

Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Holiday Lights contains no supplemental content.

Holiday Lights Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Holiday Lights is a decent enough Christmas release. The highlight is the music, much of which is very good. There's about five hours worth of music here, a relative bargain all things considered. A track listing would have been helpful, as would chapter select. Beyond the music, the release is rather redundant if one already owns Christmas Traditions. Video and audio aren't standouts but get the job done.