Planet Earth (Blu-ray) UK - Picture Quality ?

[Fjorko]

Hi

Got this the other day and tonight watched a few episodes via my PS3. I was a bit disappointed in the picture quality in most of the shots. It looks a bit "DVD" quality in that it doesn't look HD ( crisp, well defined, great detail ) at all !!! There are some short moments where you can see a much better picture that looks High Def quality. I wonder if they perhaps didn't use a HD camera in alot of the the shots.

I have a Full HD Samsung LCD TV and as I said I play back via the PS3 ( set to output 1080p). Does anyone here own Planet Earth and do you agree that the picture looks "soft" as if you were watching a SD DVD ?

Many thanks !

[philbam]

I've only watched the one disc so far, 'Desert Lions and Snow Leopards', but can assure you that judging by that disc alone the picture ranks as one of the very best High Definition reproductions so far.
Looking forward to the main part of the set (Planet Earth as opposed to 'The Natural World' disc that I've watched, because if its even close to the disc I've watched it will be awesome.
Jaw droppingly good!!!!!

[Fjorko]

Originally Posted by philbam

I've only watched the one disc so far, 'Desert Lions and Snow Leopards', but can assure you that judging by that disc alone the picture ranks as one of the very best High Definition reproductions so far.
Looking forward to the main part of the set (Planet Earth as opposed to 'The Natural World' disc that I've watched, because if its even close to the disc I've watched it will be awesome.
Jaw droppingly good!!!!!

Yeah, I watched only disk one so far and alot of the footage didn't look HD to me ( apart from a few bits here and there ) - most of disk 1 looked more upscaled DVD quality and there were quite a bit of "noise" on some of the footage.

Maybe the other disks will look better, I will see.

Thanks

[Sonic67]

I have this on HD DVD and it is full of 'wow' moments.

[Bald Monkey]

I have the HD-DVD version, and whilst the majority of this is stunning, there are some bits which arn't.. It was a long time ago now that I last watched it, but underwater shots of the Amazon River for example were IIRC film in SD Video, and there are a few scenes dotted within the HD footage that arn't HD. IIRC some places were simply too difficult to get the HD cameras to, or for other technical reasons they used SD video. I don't think it distracts too much from the overall quality!


EDIT: had a quick look, can't find the discussion about this, that I seems to remember, but this is an interesting post

[Fjorko]

Originally Posted by Bald Monkey

I have the HD-DVD version, and whilst the majority of this is stunning, there are some bits which arn't.. It was a long time ago now that I last watched it, but underwater shots of the Amazon River for example were IIRC film in SD Video, and there are a few scenes dotted within the HD footage that isn't HD. IIRC some places were simply too difficult to get the HD cameras too, or for other technical reasons they used SD video. I don't think it distracts too much from the overall quality!

Hmm.. thats what I thought . . . .

[JohnG84]

I was worried when I heard that it was "only" 1080i, but I got my copy last week and I couldn't be happier.

The picture quality in most (nearly all?) scenes is nothing short of stunning.

[Pana440]

Wasn't it said that the actual footage was 1080p?

I am still confused as to which copy to go for Although would I even notice any difference between the two? Wanted to hold out for the UK version

[robo989]

Hmmmm....I'd say 95% of it was definately filmed in HD and the other 5%, for example some under water bits\dodgy places\arctic nonsense etc etc looked like SD....or HD material that had deteriorated...

At the end of the day this stuff was never shot in digital anyway, so saying some of it was "SD" doesn't make any sense...but it prolly had been shot on lower mm film.

[ani4ani]

Originally Posted by Fjorko

Yeah, I watched only disk one so far and alot of the footage didn't look HD to me ( apart from a few bits here and there ) - most of disk 1 looked more upscaled DVD quality and there were quite a bit of "noise" on some of the footage.

Maybe the other disks will look better, I will see.

Thanks

Hi there, I have been waiting for my new 1080P screen before I watched PE and have to say, that especially on Disc 1 there is quite a bit of noise on the picture. I am almost certain that it is disc based since I have tried it on 3 BD players [PS3, Pioneer PC, and Sharp standalone] and each plays the disc with a lot of noise. However, when its good it's very good. I must say after watching the first disc there was periods when I was underwhelmed with the quality at times.

However, other releases, e.g. CR etc look exceptional in 1080P

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by robo989

Hmmmm....I'd say 95% of it was definately filmed in HD and the other 5%, for example some under water bits\dodgy places\arctic nonsense etc etc looked like SD....or HD material that had deteriorated...

At the end of the day this stuff was never shot in digital anyway, so saying some of it was "SD" doesn't make any sense...but it prolly had been shot on lower mm film.

i think you will find it was shot with hd digital cameras.

[chrishull3]

a bit out of date [prices etc ]but proves made with digital cams as are most nature programns now.

[leckie]

It was filmed in HD and 35mm. But if you look say in the snow leopard special his camera is only capable of capturing 720p.

[philbam]

I noticed that too. Stunning picture,though, simply awesome.

[chrishull3]

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0082/t.1997.html
only a fraction on film