Coral Reef Adventure Blu-ray

Coral Reef Adventure

 (2003)

Documentary | Nature | Short



The power of IMAX projection transports you to an amazing underwater world as ocean explorers Howard and Michele Hall dive on a coral reef in the pristine waters of the South Pacific. With Jean-Michel Cousteau, deep reef scientist Richard Pyle and Fijian diver Rusi Vulakoro, they explore and capture on film one of the most beautiful places on Earth ... in all its fragile splendor.

For more details about Coral Reef Adventure on Blu-ray, see the Coral Reef Adventure Blu-ray Review

Coral Reef Adventure Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Coral Reef Adventure floats on to the Bluray format with a gorgeous 1080p/AVC encode framed at 1:78:1 which completely fills the screen with beautiful underwater images. The film overall has a very wide visual dynamic range from white whites, to deep dark blacks. Images are always clean and clear, with even the darkest murky water visuals showing up with stunning clarity. Colors are just vividly breath taking and well saturated, contrasting the deep blue water with beautiful colorful fish that are all over the color palette. There is no smearing or I could not detect any instance of edge enhancement, pixilation, or any other digital artifacts throughout this short film.

Coral Reef Adventure Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio is featured on this release, and while not sound effects driven, it sounds quite good. Featuring the music of Crosby, Stills and Nash blended with tribal island music the sound is a little bright, but overall very balanced. The tilt towards the high end really accentuates the leading edge transients of the plucked guitar, giving it a very percussive sound. The 360 degree sound field is well used, with great phantom imaging on the side and rear walls. Occasionally singing will appear spread across the back wall, with music up front, but all tied together seamlessly. The LFE is not used, so all of the bass is spread in the three front channels, with an occasional dip down to 50 Hz or so in the surrounds. Panning is dead accurate, and smooth as glass. Whether moving left to right or front to back, there is never jumping or holes in the sound field. Dialog is the only thing in the center channel, so it is always clear and natural. Just like all IMAX releases, this sound track sound very good, and supports the images extremely well.