Mars: The Red Planet

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Starring: Mars-the Red Planet
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Studio: DVD International
Release Date: 1999-10-12
Mars: The Red Planet takes DVD viewers where they've never been before: on a personal, guided tour of one of the galaxy's long-standing, and greatest mysteries. This 90-minute program; which includes 80 minutes of 5.1 Channel Dolby Digital music performed by Ryan Shore; features an array of video, still images, interactive maps and historical spacecraft graphics. Advanced DVD features include multi-angle video, multi-track audio, 3D video and still images, informational subtitles, dual operational mode, WebDVD support, and a Windows 95/98/NT screen saver.

Neat idea...poorly executed
This DVD really had me excited. A giant DVD packed with info, pictures, and video of Mars! Wow! Well, the idea is a novel one, it's just not all that great in reality. The menus are a confusing mess of links and you can easily end up really frustrated trying to figure out where you're clicking and what the icon you clicked on means. The DVD is seperated in two categories, operational and interactive. From what I've seen though, both basically have the same content. The interactive branch just offers more easter eggs and a more or less hands on approach to accessing the materials. This is where the DVD went from cool idea to being tossed into the island of misfit DVDs. The content should be easy to navigate through. It is not. You never know how to get to anything! Why couldn't they just categorized the pics and video into single menus listed as video and pictures?! They pretend to use this approach but the execution is far more nefarious. The DVD was obviously made to allow the user to "uncover" secret video clips or info but this approach just lead me to turning the thing off. The information is entertaining and educational but even the info is more or less abrupt, giving us the cliff notes version of Mars missions etc. The box also suggests that there is over 2,000 photos and something like 200 video clips. Yeah right! More like a hundred photos and a dozen video clips. I'm sure there are more in there somewhere but finding them becomes a thankless and unfun effort. This could have been a great DVD and while alot of what's on this disc is good to have, it's just not worth buying. Save some money and go to the library and rent some books on Mars instead.

It's boring
The interface is confusing. The scenes are presented without any explanation, then since you don't know what is it that your are looking at, the whole sequence becomes boring. The sound is not very good, additionally, the close caption is practically inexistent.

Great Novelity
I just want to say that the view from Germany must have some sort of player problem because the disc works wonderfully.

This is a great disc to show how DVD can "REALLY BE USED" in a way that is just not playing a movie with better video and sound. This title shows how you can use DVD as a educational source. The title has great video, great menus, and great ideas in it. We need more like it.

Take my view and the other who gave it a fair shot that if you are a Space or Astronmy buff, you'll like it.

I'm very dissapointed
There are only snippets of usefull and interesting information, the videos suddenly stop. The "digital soundtrack" sounds horrible - never play classical music on a synthesizer! A new age soundtrek would've been much better. All in all I find this product superficial and incomplete. I'm sorry but I would't recomend this tittle.

Incredible Product for Demonstrating WEB-DVD Technology
Unlike the previous reviewer of Mars: The Red Planet, this is a fantastic product! Not only does it provide a great deal of fantastic video, but the web interface is the key to an emergent technology that will revolutionize home education and entertainment in the early-twenty-first century. Soon DVD players at home will be embedded with a chip that allows home users, connected to the Internet, to bring a web interface onto the home monitor or display and bring real-time imagery and data directly into their home. Titles such as Mars: The Red Planet will be constantly updated with new information making these dynamic documentaries and encyclopedias of information and imagery.

So bottom line: As an example of the future of value-added entertainment and education titles, Mars: The Red Planet should not be missed. For now, enjoy the power of exploration on your DVD-ROM connected the Internet. Tomorrow, get ready for the future of interactive multimedia like never before.