History Channel DVD Box Sets: Best Of History Channel/Bible Collection/Duck Dynasty: Seasons 1 - 8/War (2015 compilations/A&E/Lionsgate)

Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Programs: B/C/D/B+

In time for the holiday season, A&E and The History Channel have issued four box sets that will make fine gifts for all kinds of persons and their interests. We have covered some of the content on each and to my surprise, I had watched more of these than I remembered.

Best Of History Channel is a pretty bold title for the company to dare to go for, but it is tilted towards U.S. history and includes The Men Who Built America (3-discs) on the Industrial Revolution capitalists who made the country what it is. To its credit, it does not hold back on some of their more infamous activities. Then, there's the previously reviewed America: The Story Of Us...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11222/America:+The+Story+Of+Us+Collector%E2%80%9

This edition does NOT have the book. Mankind: The Story Of Us is a sequel/spin-off series of sorts looking at influential people in the world, usually world leaders or the like. The World Wars was also previously reviewed on Blu-ray, but here's a DVD version...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12987/The+World+Wars+(2014/History+Channel/Lionsgat

As is the case with WWII In HD...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11263/Band+Of+Brothers/The+Pacific+(2001+%E2%80%

And it wraps up with Vietnam In HD, which has been under-distributed and promoted as far as I am concerned.

Next is the Bible Collection which may not always be as scriptural as purists might want, but programs include Bible Stories From The Old Testament, Christianity: The First Two-Thousands Years, two volumes of Banned From The Bible, two of Mysteries Of The Bible, the previously reviewed Bible's Secrets Revealed...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12667/Bible+Secrets+Revealed+(2013/Lionsgate/History

Mary Of Nazareth/Jesus: His Life, The Execution Of Jesus and God Vs. Satan: The Final Battle. Needless to say with some of those titles, the set gets to be a bit much, but here it is.

Way more obnoxious is Duck Dynasty: Seasons 1 - 8 showing the less-controversial side of the duck hunters who made a whistle that made the millions of dollars.I've had plenty of chances to say how much I disliked the series in lame single DVDs, but here's our coverage of later seasons...

Five

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12894/Duck+Dynasty:+Season+Five+(2014/Lionsgate/A&

Seven

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13565/Duck+Dynasty:+Season+7+(2015/A&E+DVDs

Eight

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13841/Duck+Dynasty:+Season+8+(2015/A&E/Lionsgate

Needless to say a little of this goes a very long way, unless you're a fan. Take it on at your own risk.

Last but not least is War featuring The Revolution (about America breaking from the British), Battlefields Detective: War Of 1812 (interesting since A&E has not issued all installments of this series on DVD), The Mexican-American War, a Civil War Double Feature of Gettysburg and Lee & Grant that we covered before here...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11225/African+Cats+(Disneynature+Blu-ray+w/DVD)/The

Then we get The Spanish-American War: First Intervention, the also-reviewed 100 Years Of WWI...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13219/100+Years+Of+WWI+(2014/History+Channel/Lions

and 75 Years Of WWII...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13008/75+Years+of+WWII+(2014/A&E/Lionsgate/History

...then the set rounds out with The Korean War: Fire & Ice, The Vietnam War and Vietnam War In HD. This is the best of the sets, but you can choose for yourself and they all make great catch-up/crash course sets, though some might wait for Blu-ray editions.

The image is anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image throughout with some older 1.33 X 1 content, while sound is either lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 or lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Duck has extras that are superfluous, while few featurettes show up anywhere else, but at least they are watchable, keeping their sets just above basic status. We'll let you uncover the rest for yourself.

- Nicholas Sheffo