gusamo

I want to use these in my classroom. I was wondering which one is the better of the two and if you have one of them is there any need to own both. The Planets box set (4 disc) is about half the price of the Cosmos box set (7 disc). The Cosmos is also done by Carl Sagan. I could use a little advice here.

Apocrypha

I only have A&E The Planets, it is very informative with spectacular visuals and sound. Depending on the age group I would probably recommend Planets because it is educational and entertaining at the same time. I can't wait until my son is old enough to enjoy these with me, the program is powerful enough to seriously peak ones interest in a vast number of the topics it covers.
Easy to watch and understand and presented beautifully no reason not to own it.

www.deepdiscountdvd.com has The Planets for 42.93 shipped by the way by far the cheapest I have seen it.

Harlock415

I have the Cosmos set, and it is as educational and fascinating today as it was decades ago. It also has the bonus of a subtitle feature that offers updates where applicable such as the comet impact on Jupiter. I have not seen the Planets yet but I do plan to pick it up. But Cosmos is definitely a worthwhile disc set. Keep in mind though, that it does run 13 hours.

purplechoe

I have both of them. It depends on what you're looking for. Planets, as you can tell by the name deals with just that, the planets. Cosmos, deals with the cosmos. They're both top quality shows. I would get both, which I did. Cosmos is rather expansive though. I got mine from someone on the trade forum for about $100. I see it going on ebay for at least $160 and up. The only online store I saw the Cosmos set still available was Amazon.


edited to say that if I had to choose one, it would be Cosmos. I just wish they they could go back and redo some of the visuals. It doesn't look bad, but it would look amazing with some CGI considering how much technology has improved in last 20 years. I'm not complaining, just thinking out loud.

JesseCuster

I haven't seen The Planets but I was fortunate enough to have parents that insisted I watch PBS for a certain amount of time every week when I was a kid and Cosmos was probably the material, along with the extraordinary British presentation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, that's most stayed in my mind over the years. Amazing and very thought-provoking stuff.

Harlock415

Cosmos is going for $139.95 at www.digitaleyes.com which is a lot better than Amazon's $169, and at Carlsagan.com for 169.