From the Earth to the Moon (DC/BD) [Blu-ray]

The media could not be loaded.  There have been lots of reviews stating their disappointment in how scenes were cropped to get to the widescreen format. Some had a few photo examples. I've taken scenes for the first episode and created a short video to show an example of all scenes in the episode.Yes, there is cropping and special effect were redone but there is also additional data horizontally in many scenes. Is this good or bad? That's the viewer's opinion. I think overcall, the widescreen version does enhance the end product.I am disappointed in the quality of real archived footage used in the widescreen version when compared with the original broadcast but it's not the end of the world.Color is different between the two versions but it doesn't bother me much.

While this was broadcast years ago I just discovered it and it's fabulous. If you have any interest in the space agency and how the astronauts went through training, trials and tribulations in both their work and persoonal lives, you need this HBO series. This would make a great gift.

The Blu Ray Remastered Edition of this outstanding miniseries boasts 250 re-done visual effects shots. Unfortunately, some of the (very few) technical errors in the original miniseries were not corrected, and some new errors were introduced unnecessarily. Some artistic choices in the area of "artistic license" were good ones, and others not so good, in my opinion. Examples follow:EPISODE ONE:In episode one, the CGI artists made a serious technical error in their depiction of Alan Shepard's Mercury spacecraft: they added a lot of extra equipment to the retro package on the underside of his spacecraft that really wasn't there during his flight. This is really unforgivable and was totally avoidable. What they depicted in the new CGI was the future configuration of his desired (but unapproved) second Mercury flight. You can go to the Dulles Airport extension of the National Air and Space Museum today and see this "Freedom 7 II" spacecraft with the extra equipment added to the retro package underneath the heat shield. But no Mercury spacecraft ever flew with this extra gear hanging underneath the heat shield! How do I know this? I know this because I have examined the NASA film footage of all of the Mercury spacecraft that actually flew, being assembled at the factory, and then being hoisted up onto their booster rockets, and NONE OF THEM had this extra gear attached. This must mean that a CGI artist either saw the Museum exhibit at NASM Dulles, or a photograph of it, and mistakenly took that as an example of the actual flight configuration. This is the equivalent of an unforced error that loses a baseball game. It was a jarring mistake, and almost ruined episode one for me. The CGI artists took something that was formerly correct in the original miniseries, and made it wrong in the remastered edition. This is what happens when you try to get "too cute."The visual effects retrofire sequence of the Mercury spacecraft in the original miniseries showed the retrorockets firing IN SALVO (at the same time), when in actuality they fired IN SEQUENCE (i.e., one at a time). The CGI artists had an opportunity to correct this, since they were redoing all of the visual effects shots in episode one. They failed to correct it---the remastered edition still shows the Mercury retrorockets firing in salvo, i.e., at the same time. This is particularly egregious since the script---the dialogue---got it right, and shows Alan Shepard reporting retro rockets 1, 2 and 3 firing sequentially. This should have been a big hint for the CGI artists to correct this, but they didn't. The real facts are that the Mercury retrorockets fired sequentially, for 13.2 seconds each, and fired 5 seconds apart from each other. It is quite jarring to watch the miniseries and to note that the dialogue in the script does not match the visual effect for retrofire, not even in the remastered version. This should have been corrected, and it would have been easy to do so.One artistic choice made in episode one was poorly decided and should not have been done: the CGI artists replaced some model shots with CGI when showing the Gemini spacecraft. The white spacecraft adaptor section is a beautiful, clean white color in all the model shots in the original miniseries, but in the shots where CGI replaced models, the CGI artists "smudged up" the surface of the white adaptor section and unnecessarily made it brown and dirty looking. This was not only unnecessary, but was inaccurately done. The white adaptor section was brand new and clean when it launched, and did NOT get brown and dirty on the way to orbit! All you have to do to know this is examine all the 16mm film that exists, shot in orbit (particularly of the rendezvous between Gemini 6 and 7). This unforced error reflects the love of production designers (and apparently of CGI artists, too) of "ageing" props and sets by making them look old and dirty. That is not appropriate for brand new NASA spacecraft depicted in a docudrama. It might be appropriate for science fiction movies like Star Wars and Alien, but it is not appropriate for a NASA docudrama about Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo---when all of the spacecraft were brand new and pristine.Another artistic choice that was unfortunate was the depiction of the exterior surfaces of the Mercury and especially the Gemini spacecraft (and the Agena target/docking vehicle) as a "gloss black," which was jarring when compared to the dull, flat black in other scenes in models used in the original miniseries. Seeing the surface of the Gemini spacecraft shift from gloss black to flat black and then back to gloss black from scene to scene constituted a "continuity error" which was totally avoidable and unnecessary. Where was the second set of eyes that should have pointed this out and prevented it from happening?EPISODE FOUR:In the episode about Apollo 8, the original miniseries mistakenly showed a docking probe at the top of the Command Module. But in reality there was no docking probe at the top of the Apollo 8 Command Module---the reason was because even though it was a "Block II" version CM, the docking probe had been removed; a heavy docking probe was not needed because Apollo 8 did not fly to the Moon with a lunar module. Since the remastered Blu Ray decided to replace every single one of the model shots from episode 4 of the original miniseries with CGI, they could easily have corrected this unintentional mistake---but they didn't know enough about the Apollo program to note the mistake or correct it. And it would have been so easy to correct this mistake, since all of their spacecraft shots were now CGI instead of model work! A real shame.The new remastered visual effects added a new error that was not present in the original miniseries: they added a "USA" decal or logo to the side of the Saturn V's third stage (called the S-IVB). This is really disappointing: the only version of the S-IVB stage that had "USA" stenciled onto the side of it was the S-IVB stage used with the Saturn 1B booster rocket, used in the launch of Apollo 7 into low earth orbit. All the Saturn V third stages (or S-IVBs, as they were called) had the "USA" removed. This is another example of a CGI artist getting "too cute" and not really having an in-depth knowledge of his subject matter.One jarring mistake in the original miniseries episode 4 was that it showed the LOI burn (Lunar Orbit Insertion) beginning PRIOR to the Command and Service Module disappearing behind the Moon. This was incorrect. The entire burn took place behind the Moon and could not be monitored by Mission Control. I thought this was simply an editing mistake in the original miniseries. With some small but imaginative editing changes in scenes that did not involve dialogue, this could have been corrected in the remastered version by minor scene juggling. But I don't think the folks producing the remastered version knew enough about their subject to even be aware of this. Aside from the Mercury retrofire mistake, this was the only significant historical/procedural error in the original miniseries. It's a shame it was not corrected with some minimal editing (the small changes would not have affected dialogue or soundtrack).In the area of artistic license, the CGI artists---for some reason unknown to me---turned the background of the Apollo 8 Saturn V launch into a pre-dawn or night-time launch, when in reality it launched at about 7:30 AM in full sunlight and was traveling EAST at liftoff. It looked "nice," but was historically completely inaccurate. The Earth's surface during the Apollo 8 launch would not have been black or dark, as shown in the remastered edition.Also in the area of artistic license, the CGI artists depicted long gouts of yellow flame coming out of the J-2 engines in the Saturn V's second and third stages. In reality, of course, the J-2 engines, which burned hydrogen and liquid oxygen, burned with a clear flame, not a bright yellow flame. One way to depict this might have been to show it slightly blue-white (the way those engines looked when they first started burning), but mostly invisible. The CGI artists chose to stick with bright yellow flames coming out of the J-2 engines, as seen in the original miniseries---but they didn't have to. They could have corrected this. Launch film shows that the metal in the J-2 engines in the second stage glowed white hot while burning, but that the flames themselves were clear (as also revealed by engine tests on the ground, for which there is ample NASA historical film footage available).Another criticism of the artistic license in the remastered edition is that I found it jarring that the CGI artists depicted the bottom of the Service Module a bright gold color, and also depicted part of the enormous, attached SPS engine nozzle as gold too. Why? They weren't gold. This is a choice I would not have made.GENERIC COMMENTS ABOUT ARTISTIC LICENSE (AND SOME MORE ERRORS):The opening credits look better, visually, because color was added to the closeups of the spacesuits and mission patches; and there is beautiful "3-D" image of the Moon now in the opening credits, also.I thought some of the shots of the Command and Service Module in space were actually BETTER than in the original miniseries, because they showed how extremely reflective the surface of the Command Module was---it truly was a bright silver mirror. Now, in the remastered version, you can also see through the wire mesh of the Service Module's high gain antennae dishes, which is accurate and very well done.Most if not all of the Lunar Module "flying" model shots were replaced by CGI, and these changes were well-done, I thought. It was not necessary to change them, but well-done nevertheless.In the Apollo 11 episode, one weird choice was to replace the shot of an actual Lunar Module (Apollo 18's unused LM) on the lunar surface with CGI (the hatch opening establishing shot). I thought this strange, since they were actually shooting a real LM in the original miniseries in this scene, and the "real thing" looked pretty good, of course. The replacement CGI was OK, but it was clearly CGI, and not real.I thought that the lunar surface as seen from orbit was more interesting and perhaps more accurate since the remastered version shows it as a combination of tan and grey colors, not just a monochrome grey as in the original miniseries. The true colors did vary from tan to grey, based on sun angle, so this was probably a good creative decision by the new CGI artists.More unforced errors: at the beginning of Episode 4, Stephen Root's first name is blatantly misspelled as "Stepehen." If you are going to re-do all the credits, you should have good quality control. This is a junior high school mistake.In the closing sequence in Episode 12, titled "We Choose to Go to the Moon," astronaut Jack Schmitt's first name is misspelled as "Jake." Furthermore, when astronaut Mattingly's name appears, a photo of Astronaut Swigert was mistakenly posted, instead of Mattingly's photo. Thus, Swigert's photo appears twice, and Mattingly was short-changed since his photo does not appear at all now (whereas it did in the original miniseries). Another junior high school mistake.Finally, I want to register my deep disappointment with the new CGI images of Earth as seen in cislunar space and from the Moon in the remastered version. They look like crude, one-dimensional paintings of the Earth (which of course is exactly what they are). They do not look like the image of a sphere---but rather, like crude one-dimensional images. They also show too much brown, continental land-mass. By the time you got about three quarters of the way to the Moon, and into lunar orbit, the land masses were almost indiscernible. For the most part all one could see on the Moon and in deep cislunar space was a "blue marble" with about 40-50% of it covered by clouds. The new CGI artists really got all of this wrong. Every time they show the Earth from the Moon, it just looks fake---not nearly as good as in the original miniseries. Too much brown land-mass, and not enough clouds. This is a real shame, because it detracts from almost every single lunar scene in the new remastered miniseries. They could have, and should have, made the Earth look much more like the actual photographs taken from the lunar surface and from lunar orbit. This effect was much better done in the original miniseries than in the remastered version.CONCLUSION: Historically, this is still an outstanding miniseries, which I would rate a 9.5 out of 10 on a numerical scale. But visually, for all the reasons noted above, I can only rate this Blu Ray remastered edition a 3 out of 5, or three stars, which is what I have done. It is interesting to see how other visual artists have re-done certain scenes, but overall, it is disappointing because they could have done so much better.

I was fortunate that my wife, then girlfriend, had a friend at HBO back in the late 1990's when this series first aired. What that friendship did was allow me access to one of the first box sets of this series, as a gift. I recall every Sunday waiting for the first and every new episode to air for the short time it was on. Needless to say this gift and the series meant a great deal to me and, to my dismay, over time it felt as if this series was just dismissed or forgotten. Band of Brother was released in standard def and again in HD and probably 4K by now but this series saw nothing done with it. While the content quality of the old DVD's were, at the time, pretty cool with practical special effects and some earlier CG they're just not up to the standards of today. But I still loved to watch them from time to time because I love the stories, the subjects and the passion and love in which they are presented. So when I saw this was coming I pre-ordered and waited hoping that the same love was still shown to the stories. They did an amazing job in restoration and bringing the CG and practical effects up to par with today's expectations all while keeping everything I loved about the original intact. Thank you to all the hands and minds that created the first and to those that brought it back bigger and better!

If you liked the original, you'll love the Blu Ray.I pre-ordered this on 7-14 and got an expected delivery date of 7-18, but I was pleasantly surprised that it arrived today, 7-16. Receiving it on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch meant that I had to binge watch most of the episodes.It's a remaster and is NOT a black bar upscale. The original film stock was scanned and adjusted, the sound has been remastered, and the visual effects are now photo realistic.The external scenes of the Lunar Modules in flight now look like they do in NASA pictures, with shadows on uneven surfaces and realistic textures. The original filmed models always looked a little cheesy to me, like when the Apollo 11 Eagle spins around for inspection after un-docking ( "The Eagle has wings" ) or when the Apollo 12 LM footpad wobbles from the contact probe after engine shutdown. The CGI of Aldrin and the Agena in Gemini 12 looked a little robotic in the original DVD but it was as good as it could get with late 90's technology.All that is fixed now in the revamped special effects, which are spectacular.My only gripe is that there is a ladder and porch on the BACK of the LM when Apollo 11 starts its Powered Descent. That mistake is not in the original DVD and it's not on any of the other missions on the Blu Ray remaster. How can HBO put so much time and effort into making this Blu Ray release so amazing and let such an obvious error slip by ?Regardless, I highly recommend retiring the standard definition DVD and getting this Blu Ray !

Great combination of documentary and drama. Outstanding 12-part HBO miniseries from the team that brought us Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and others). In 1998, they decided to tell the story of the 60's and early 70's through the U.S. space program. primarily Apollo. Each episode is unique but the series has recurring characters, for example, Neil Armstrong was part of both Gemini 8 (Ep 1) and Apollo 11 (Ep 6). He's played by Tony Goldwyn in both episodes. Some characters are fictitious, like Emmett Seaborn, a seasoned Cronkite-like TV broadcaster, but most of the characters are based on the real people. Tom Hanks wrote and directed a few episodes and he introduces the first 11 episodes à la Rod Serling and his Twilight Zone.The series is understandably male dominated. The producers tried to make up for that with Episode 11 "The Original Wives Club", one of the best episodes, directed by Sally Field. This series has never looked better, even better than when it was originally shown in 1998. All the footage was remastered, recolored, and most of the miniature effects were refilmed to take advantage of the widescreen and HD formats. There was a previous widescreen release on DVD but there is no comparison with this latest BD version.

This is a beautifully (re-)done (in HD) 12 episode series that covers the entire US space program. From Sputnik to Gene Cernan's last step, the drama of the people, the politics, and the HD quality of the spaceflight sequences, it's all here. Every episode is told with its own unique perspective. If you liked Apollo 13, here's 11 more mini-movies. I love everything that Tom Hanks (and Ron Howard) do with respect to devliering us the space-race Apollo era excitement. My fave episodes were 'Spider', 'Galileo was right' and 'La voyages de la lune'. But it's all great. The flight & ground crew dialogues are accurate as well, which gives it the final touch of authenticity. I've watched this whole series many times.

The bluray version of from the earth to the moon was masterfully done. The image quality is beautiful and well worth the wait. My only complaint is the menu, even though it to has some beauty to it, was kind of bland. The original menu from the dvd version was top notch. But that being said , still worth the cost. You're buying for the episodes which in this version are crystal clear and stunning. Enjoy :)

The Blu-ray discs are fine, and I LOVE FTETTM. It's one of the best series, up there with Band of Brothers etc.However, HBO is no longer giving an Itunes Copy with it's products. I guess I lucked out, when I purchased Band of Brothers a few months ago (I already owned both on DVD).

If you are a history buff, then you will definitely like this series. Packaging of this set is well done. Easy access to the discs is appreciated. Thank you manufacturer.