I don't know what Moran is on about in his (her?) review, but I own the DVDs and now the Blu-rays of this set and there's no comparison, at least on my high quality 65" monitor. It's true that the Blu-rays could be better, but the problem is in the source material and not the remastering or at least that's how it seems to me. True there's grain, but FILM HAS GRAIN. To remove it you need to use strong noise reduction and then restore the lost sharpness through digital "sharpening". Both of these destroy quality.

There are issues with colour changes. On occasion the colour tone will shift mid scene. Also there are times when the sharpness isn't as good as I would like. Are the Blu-rays up to the highest quality possible now? Of course not, but either of these issues changes the fact that the Blu-rays are much superior to the DVDs.

I have the "Planet Earth" Blu-ray set and the quality of the images is impressive. I recall that when Blu-ray first came out all the electronics stores used this series to demonstrate their monitors and I was hoping for similar quality here.

The "Blue Planet" Blu-rays just aren't of this technical calibre. The image quality ranges from okay to poor, often with jagged edges on swimming fish and "halos" around them (I imagine from sharpening artefacts) and washed out colours (and paradoxically, gaudy cartoonish colours). Even the best "Blue Planet" sequences can't match the average (or even poorer) quality "Planet Earth" sequences.

I can't see any reason to replace the DVDs (which I also own) with the Blu-rays and regret doing so, especially since I bought a second set for my daughter. We watched it together in dismay. She said it reminded her of watching "Magnum PI". I didn't ask for enlightenment, but she wasn't being complimentary.

They don't appear to be HD at all. I have hundreds of Blu-ray discs and, while I haven't watched them all yet, this set is the poorest quality I have seen. If this is the best that the BBC could do with the source material that they had, they shouldn't have issued it on Blu-ray.

The show itself is excellent. 5 out of 5 for the DVDs.

I won't comment on the show itself. Either you're a fan and know all about it or you need to see it and decide for yourself. It's the perfect definition of cult and, like all cult shows, a description can't explain it's appeal to the true believer.

If you are a fan though (or interested in experiencing the show at it's best), the Blu-ray is the way to go. I own the DVDs and am amazed at the superior quality of the Blu-ray set. Vivid colours, sharp picture - the DVD version isn't even close, at least on a large good quality monitor. The original production values are the best I've seen so far for a TV show of this vintage.

I've never been a fan of Carmen, but bought this set for my daughter who is. While playing it to check the discs before I gave it to her, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and bought a copy for myself.

It was recorded in 1958, but the sound quality is fine. Absolutely no problem. All of the singers seem very good to excellent to me. If there is a weak one, I haven't noticed, and de los Angeles is superb. Part of my aversion to this opera has been from listening to Callas in the lead role. Call it a lack of taste on my part, but I've never enjoyed listening to her Carmen. I have no issues with de los Angeles in the role.

that while I am a Bach fan (he's easily my favourite composer, especially his cantatas and choral works), I've never really taken to his orchestral suites. Even Neville Marriner and the ASMF, my baseline for such music forty years ago, couldn't really get me interested. Yes, yes, I know. He's been surpassed and outdated by period instrument versions and modern scholarship. Nevertheless ......

I've listened to other versions of this music over the years with none that I've found satisfying. The Freiburger barockorchester has changed that for me and recorded a set that I find enjoyable and worth repeated listening. They are a large enough group that they don't sound anaemic, yet small enough to be "fleet footed" and agile. A satisfying version and "only" a 4 because of my hesitation about the music itself and not the Freiburgers. If you're a fan of the suites, this set is a solid 5.

at least so far! I'm less than half way through listening to this set, but have no reason to believe that the remaining CDs will be any less excellent than the ones that I've heard already. Philips has always been my favourite label, starting over 40 years ago when I first began buying classical records. I always thought that they had the best combination of artists, recorded sound and record pressing quality (something no longer pertinent now in the age of CDs, but important then - it didn't really matter to me how good an artist was if he/she was on an Angel or Columbia pressing).

This shows in the present set. The performances are generally first class and the recordings are all excellent for when they were made. Outstanding of the discs that I've heard so far are the Verdi Requiem (Gardiner) (Verdi: Requiem - Quattro Pezzi Sacri), Symphonie Fantastique (Davis) (Symphonie Fantastique), The Miraculous Mandarin (Fischer) (The Miraculous Mandarin / Hungarian Peasant Songs / Hungarian Sketches / Roumanian Folk Dances / Dances of Transylvania) and The Rite of Spring (Rite Of Spring/Poem Of Ecstasy) and Tchaikovsky 5th (TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO.5) (both by Gergiev). But none of the first 20 CDs has been a disappointment.

If you follow the links above, you will find both that these recordings are highly reviewed and that they are mostly discontinued now that this set is out. Get them here or you're out of luck and you may be "time limited". The Mercury Living Presence set (Mercury Living Presence: The Collector's Edition - 51 CD Set LIMITED EDITION) that I bought just 7 months ago is already out of print and the recent Decca set (The Decca Sound (50 CD Set)) is getting challenging to buy. These sets often seem to have a very limited shelf life.

An added bonus of this set is that Philips has added extra material to fill the discs up and, unlike some other sets that I have, the added material is usually an excellent match for the original recording. For example, one of the discs is Tchaikovsky's Suite No.3 for Orchestra (Dorati) and the "filler" is Suite No.4 (Dorati also) (Complete Suites For Orchestra). Somehow I hadn't heard either of these pieces before, but enjoyed them both. Another example is the Scheherazade disc (Kondrashin). I have the original CD which is only 44 minutes long, but in the set they've added Borodin's Symphony No.2 (Kondrashin also) for another 27 minutes (Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Borodin: Symphony No. 2). I'm looking forward to hearing it when I get there.

The Verdi Requiem mentioned above shows the lengths Philips has gone to to give value for money in this collection. Originally issued as a two CD set, they've managed to get it onto a single 82 minute disc. That's pushing the medium to its limits!

At its bargain price, this set was an obvious purchase. My only regret was that I already owned a significant number of the discs.

Now if only Philips does a second set (and even a third and a fourth)!

An excellent small coffee maker with the feature that I like the most, simplicity. There's a rocker switch to turn it on and off and nothing else. No timers, clocks, settings .... Just like my old Braun.

The only problem I've had (and it's very minor) is that #2 filters are just a bit too large to fit into the basket properly. They fit, but are just a touch too tall. Perhaps the filters in Japan are sized a bit differently. Okay, another small problem is that the lid has to be held down with your thumb while you pour or it falls off spilling coffee everywhere. That hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm sure that one day I'll forget. Those two problems get it a 4 star!

Except for that, near perfection. It's easy to use and clean and it makes excellent coffee. Also, with the basket in the coffee pot, it won't accumulate a patina of drips and coffee stains over the years either.

Near perfect for what it is, a light duty kitchen scale. My only complaint (though it really does annoy me) is that I find the display somewhat hard to read with the lighting in my kitchen. If I turn on the back-lighting on the display, it's excellent. Oxo has decided though that, in the interest of battery life, the back-lighting turns itself off after a minute or so and I'm rarely finished measuring when it does. Come on guys! Give me the choice of whether I want to use up the batteries and see what I'm doing or not.

I bought this set on Amazon four months ago for quite a bit less than the present asking price. I thought it was a great deal at the time. Little did I know just how great it was.

I was previously collecting the individual discs and was well into the set when I saw this complete box. I do prefer the individual discs which are grouped by singer and theme to the discs in this set where the songs are presented in chronological order with the singer changing with each song. With the excellent documentation that comes with the individual discs, they certainly make a deluxe set, but come at a deluxe price.

As for the music, I have a fairly large collection of Schubert lieder and feel that the performances in this set are usually at least equal and often superior to those in the rest of my collection. They really did get the best of the young singers (and older ones!) for the performances.

At the price I paid, getting the set was a "no brainer". At the present price I'm not so sure, especially considering the discs that I already owned. I might have just continued buying the individual discs.

Five stars for value and performances, one star off because the individual discs are noticeably superior in grouping and documentation.

I started buying CDs in 1984 and from the start this album was on my short-list of "must have" discs, but it took me until last year to find it. Well worth the wait, though at times I thought that it would never show up. The CD sounds just like the LP (except that my record is well worn after all of these years) which means it's an excellent recording.