Audubon MasterVision DVD set

Yesterday evening I watched a great deal of the two-DVD set of 505 Birds of North America, from Mastervision. While the title has Audubon in the title, I think it may have been licensed a long long time ago. Though it was packed with useful information, it may have been the worst produced DVD I've seen in a while. And the information was quite a bit dated. True, I've only been birding for a couple of years, but I've yet hear anyone refer to a morph as a phase in person.

My cat loved it though. She followed the tweety birds back and forth across the screen and sometimes stared off to one side trying to find where the birds went. She even went into the kitchen and looked around thoroughly for the little bird that flew off the edge of the TV.

I enjoyed the DVD too. But if you're selling something for $70 and advertising it in every serious bird magazine, then put a little effort into making it look good. Fortunately I got it for free from the magazine I work for. It was sent in to be reviewed. I guess this is the review they got -- probably not what they intended.

I watched it intently for about an hour, then had it on in the background to listen to the relaxing calls and look up when something sounded interesting. I definitely like having it around for reference, but I really can't imagine having paid for it. I would have been terribly disappointed to get this product in the mail for my hard-earned bucks. As it was, I got it for free and was mildly disappointed.