'Planet Earth' - High-Def Digest review

[jed]

Blu-ray fans, meet your new high-def demo disc. Just posted Peter's review of 'Planet Earth: The Complete Series,' and happily for all those who pre-ordered this one, it doesn't disappoint. While the overall grade gets dragged down by a lack of supplements, it still gets an enthusiastic recommend from Peter, who says that you're looking for the best shot-on-HD Blu-ray release available today, 'Planet Earth' should be your five-star first choice.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/planetearth.html

[2nd_Gear]

4 single layer BDs? You mean they could have gotten the whole thing on 2 dual layer Blu-ray discs had they tried? Could have charged half the price! But I guess that would have been an embarrassment for the other HD format.

[samsung hd]

very nice , looking forward to get one for myself

________________
blu ray=12
HD DUD= what is that?

[Duncan]

Yes its shame that the discs dont contain the behind the scenes bits which were used on the BBC transmisions to pad the running time out to 60 mins.

Re Attenborough's narration - I think a little more respect is due within the review. David Attenborough is a complete television legend in the UK. For practically everyone in the UK he IS wildlife and nature programming, and anything with his involvement carries an assurance of quality and "BBC values".

Quite a lot of PE wasnt actually made in HD, as there are fair amounts of film, and intermediary resolution footage, but it still looks wonderful on screen.

I'd also say that I thought PE does the story of the Emperor Penguins far more effectively than March of the Penguins. The latter is far too emotionally cloying compared to the calmer more rational approach of PE, which never forgets that it is a factual documentary and not an attempt to attribute human emotions and characteristics to animals. I suspect the PE film-makers are also not as "up themselves" as the March people - I certainly had to turn off the making of docu on the March disc as it soon became quite nauseating.

[willpooted]

Thanks for the review.

[LizardMan101]

Looks like Amazon.com is backordered on both HD versions of this...
Maybe I'll cancel my preorder and hunt around for it today...

[LembasBread]

Originally Posted by 2nd_Gear

4 single layer BDs? You mean they could have gotten the whole thing on 2 dual layer Blu-ray discs had they tried? Could have charged half the price! But I guess that would have been an embarrassment for the other HD format.

Pfff... don't be silly, why use a format to its greatest potential during a format war? That's just idiotic when there is another format you need to be fair to.

But that is a very interesting point. Why would they spend more money to produce and ship the weight of four discs when they could have just made two.There's really no point in releasing two versions of the same title that are completely identical down to the last bit. I can see why retailers would be frustrated with this kind of thing because they can't really say that BD or HD DVD is better to the customer because certain studios are trying to make them as equal as possible (meaning they need to water down to the lowest common denominator).

Use BD to its potential studios and you'll probably sell even more discs!

[CrankyFrank]

It must make sense to the studios (to release a dual format title with equal audio and video quality). You see this with video games as well. A 'last generation' title is ported to a 'new' generation machine with nothing done to take advantage of the newer unit's power. Even a new title released on several consoles shows no major video and audio difference between them. Electronic Arts even stripped some of the features from Xbox 360 titles that were included on Xbox versions!...and charged 10.00 more.

The same thing happened with the move to DVD. The software publishers were releasing games spread out onto 4-6 CD's, why not release just a DVD version and be done with it?

[Duncan]

Re multi disc sets

Well never let it be forgotten that the mass consumer doesnt tend to be very bright - hence 4 discs as opposed to 2 appears to be worth more, and helps justify the hefty price.

Also, in terms of BD, its probably still significantly easier and cheaper to utilise single layer discs as opposed to dual layers, especially when the very efficient VC1 codec is being used.

The packaging is nice and smart though and fits nicely on the shelf with other blu-ray discs.

[bone crusher]

I will be picking this up in the future. Probably in a month or two when I have gotten some other financial stuff out of the way.

[Blu-heaven]

YAhoooo! I orderd mine today at amazon for $66 along woth Donnie brasco - freaking Walmart does not carry it - and Best Buy selling for $99

[LizardMan101]

Just so you know Blu-Heaven, Amazon is back-ordered on all versions of Planet Earth. They estimate their next shipment coming in on May 7 and nobody knows how many copies they'll receive.

[Sierra1049]

Amazon was back ordered, but WalMart online listed it as in stock. Ordered it for $67.00 plus shipping. Can't wait to check it out...and agree with the post about Attenborough....though Weaver is an accomplished actress, he has gravitas, big time

The other strange thing is that Best Buy (which has it listed online at $99) says it is not available in stores here and was not received along with the other releases yesterday. You have to order it online. Likewise Circuit City and Fry's.... Why would these retailers NOT stock what (according to this site and Amazon) is about the most successful pre order HD release in both formats thus far??????

Toshiba HDA1
PS3
Xbox 360 HD
Sony HDR UX1
Blu Ray Discs 28
HDDVD Discs 24
Last purchases Motorstorm, Blue Planet BR, Night at the Museum BR

[mgillespie]

Shame the review skips over the most important issue. Is there region encoding on this release?

As someone who lives in the UK, and has to wait until much later this year to view out own TV shows on Blu-Ray, I would rather stick a finger up to UK industry, and import from the US.

Can anyone tell for certain, if Planet Earth on Blu-Ray is region encoded?

Thanks.

[JimboJohnson]

Originally Posted by CrankyFrank

It must make sense to the studios (to release a dual format title with equal audio and video quality). You see this with video games as well. A 'last generation' title is ported to a 'new' generation machine with nothing done to take advantage of the newer unit's power. Even a new title released on several consoles shows no major video and audio difference between them. Electronic Arts even stripped some of the features from Xbox 360 titles that were included on Xbox versions!...and charged 10.00 more.

Can't argue with this one, EA seem one of the worst for this, it makes sense from a business point of view as they can slowly re-introduce the 'improvements in game/graphics!' as the back of the box will surely say... Their defense of course is that the new hardware requires more time to code to, they didn't have time to implement all the features they wanted... But they hope to include 'some' in the next version (next year).

Originally Posted by CrankyFrank

The same thing happened with the move to DVD. The software publishers were releasing games spread out onto 4-6 CD's, why not release just a DVD version and be done with it?

Thats a little unfair... There was a transition from cd drives to dvd drives in the PC market, many publishers just wanted to reach everyone with their software. I think I can even remember some games coming out on both formats so the consumer had the choice. I appreciate that there seems to be no excuse this time around. If you were to compare this situation to another it would be the one we had with dvds and their whole double sided, single layer or single sided, dual layer thing...

Perhaps when they sat down and worked out the price of doing two double layer discs as apposed to four single, the money men found four single layer discs to be cheaper...?

Who knows.