'The Universe: Season One' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Ken's review of 'The Universe: Season One' has been posted. He says this Blu-ray isn't a knock out -- with average video and sound -- but it presents a fascinating series in a fine high-def presentation. Worth a
look.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1574/universe_s1.html

[Arkadin]

I saw this yesterday at BB, and had no idea what it was.
guess I know now.
unfortunately I'll just have to pass for the moment.
just too many other releases to focus on especially given the somewhat middling review here.

[Smilin Jack Ross]

Instant buy for me. Great show.

[Menaceuk]

Not sure if this is coming to the UK but if it does i will snap it up.

[robulus]

Can't agree with this review of "The Universe". After a promising start this series very quickly begins to get padded out, and the information gets a silly Hollywood action makeover. I lost count of the amount of times I got told how quickly I would die in one alien environment or the other.

If you really want to get lost in this subject matter, you simply can't go past Carl Sagan's mesmerising "Cosmos" series. More than 20 years old now it's no show piece for your HD rig, but Sagan's passion for the material is palpable, the delivery is superb and the content is surprisingly current. More than a factual presentation on physics and astronomy, "Cosmos" is a profoundly moving meditation on all that exists, and our place in it.

In comparison, finding out you'd be incinerated after 7 seconds on the surface of Venus is just kind of annoying.

[DocHolliday]

it looks interesting, unfortunately Ken has given it a low video and audio rating. I will wait for some other reviews in case there is a difference of opinion. But I do prefer high quality audio before I shell out the bucks.

[Nuieve]

I wonder if the reviewer watched this blu-ray from a distance closer than 1 mile? Or on TV larger than 22"? Don't see how he scrambled 3.5 stars for video quality.

I found the video quality to be really, really poor - worse than a regular DVD. What's most upsetting is that the actual CGI scenes are low-res (horribly pixelated with tons of artifacts), and a few interview parts are in high-res and of more or less ok quality (nowhere near close crystal clear, but definitely above DVD). I just don't understand... was this show rendered in youtube quality or did they downgraded it in the "mastering" process.

I just don't see why they released it on BR... a regular DVD would be more than enough for this. I'd rate video at 1.5/5 at best (for interview parts).

[Ace_of_Sevens]

I was disappointed the wasn't more HD. While I understand NASA doesn't put HD camera on probes and such and if something's really far you can't get high-resolution images of it. This was particularly a problem on the section about Pluto. The HD seemed to serve largely to let me know Neil Degrasse Tyson is a bit bumpy.