That big-screen TV is great for experiencing the explosions of action movies, the immersion of sweeping historical epics, and the excitement of live sports. But sometimes it's nice to just kick back and relax. Instead of turning off your display so it sits as on the wall as a big black rectangle, you can use it to help with calming music and peaceful scenes.
Screen Dreams Living Series DVDs
You can get started with the inexpensive Screen Dreams "Living" DVD series, which started as animated screensavers (Living Aquarium, Beaches, Waterfalls, Butterflies) and have expanded into widescreen video (Living Fireplace, Aquarium volume 2) and photo slide shows (Living Earth) -- for $11.99 each.
For example, the Living Earth disc cycles through a two-hour slide show of 42 outdoor nature scenes, at three user-settable speeds.
It's accompanied by user-selected music tracks, including orchestrial, chamber, and guitar.
Find the Screen Dreams Living Earth DVD on Amazon.com
Alpha DVD / Ralph LaBarge
For more peaceful relaxation, meditation, and background ambiance, look to the earth and the sky with some of the more than 200 DVD projects created by Ralph LaBarge of Alpha DVD, an independent DVD title developer, and distributed by DVD International.
These classic discs include the Planet Earth series (Visions of the Earth from Space) with seven titles featuring video of different continents taken from the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (North America, South America, Australia, Oceania), each with over an hour of imagery, with music complementary to the region ($7.95).
The StarGaze discs (Visions of the Universe) feature images from the Hubble Space Telescope, plus the option to jump to more information about the current celestial object on the screen. ($21.99)
And the Natural Splendors series displays photography of nature scenes with surround sound music ($17.99).
Find the Planet Earth DVDs, the StarGaze DVDs
and the Natural Splendors DVDs on Amazon.com
BBC - Planet Earth / The Blue Planet
Beyond background video and music, and widescreen but standard-defintion DVD, the 11-part BBC Planet Earth series offers the full high-def experience of natural history filmmaking.
It was shown in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel (also see the Planet Earth Guide), and is available on Blu-ray ($63.95)
The earlier series from the BBC, Blue Planet: Seas of Life explores the natural history of the oceans and deeps (also shown on the Discovery Channel), and is available on DVD ($38.99).
Find the Planet Earth on Blu-ray and the
Blue Planet: Seas of Life on DVD on Amazon.com