If you want to show off your new widescreen HDTV for party guests, A View from Space with Heavenly Music will do the job just fine. While this one-hour program's high-definition images from low Earth orbit are certainly impressive, it's the "heavenly music" that is emphasized here, with eight different soundtracks to choose from, consisting of excerpts from nearly every classical composition in the popular canon. You have your choice of a public-domain "greatest hits" mix of great composers (on soundtracks 1, 3, and 7) while Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, and Tchaikovsky are all given exclusive showcases on the remaining five tracks. This variety of listening options provides satisfying compensation for the high-def footage, filmed from low Earth orbit by astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor.
It's amazing footage (despite occasional smudges, dirt flecks, and other anomalies caused by shooting through the shuttle's windows), offering viewers the next best thing to actually flying on the shuttle. Stunning vistas pass below, with vivid coastlines, filigrees of cloud cover, and bodies of water reflecting sunlight with breathtaking clarity. In addition to the spectacular opening sequence (a single, unbroken shot of the shuttle from launch to troposphere), the images serve as a colorful, dynamic reminder of the Earth's delicate beauty.
Unfortunately, the disc offers these impressive sights and sounds but nothing else, so A View from Space qualifies at least partially as a missed opportunity. The images eventually grow redundant as we return, orbit by orbit, to the same locations, and there's no bonus features or onscreen options to inform us about what exactly we're seeing. That makes this the HD equivalent of Muzak--soothing and pleasant, but that's about it. It's basically a classical music disc with space footage as a bonus, and if you expect nothing more, it's guaranteed to please.
--Jeff Shannon