BBC Planet Earth HD

loz

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I see that the BBC say this is the first of their nature programs to be produced entirely in HD.

A slight disappointment is that this implies that classic documentaries like Blue Planet are not available in HD. I was hoping we could look forward to these being repeated in HD.

According to the Daily Mail TV supplement (I know, but the wife likes it) Planet Earth looks stunning in SD.
 
Blue Planet has been upconverted to HD spec for foreign markets and for some parts the source material was revisted and remastered in HD and from what I have read they did a good job on it.
I think it's been show on Teleport already as a HD program.


HD production raises the bar through out the process so even when broadcasting SD the final result will benefit from the higher demands placed on the creation of the product.
Broadcast it at a decent bitrate then it'll look excellent second only to a native HD broadcast.
 
Blue Planet was shot on a mixture of film and SD video. From memory the video stuff was underwater and the film stuff above the water? The show was initially post-produced in SD - with the film telecined in SD.

ISTR that it has been converted to HD twice now.

First time round, when it was sold to Korea, the SD edit masters were fed through the best quality upconverter available at the time - a Snell & Willcox device - that converted the 576/50i 16:9 to 1080/60i 16:9. The film in particular still looked very good - even though it was an SD upconvert.

Discovery in the US also bought the series in HD, but for them the BBC had to re-edit in HD, upconverting the SD video, but replacing the SD film transfers with new HD telecined material - in full HD quality. I assume this was done in 25p/50i and converted.

Planet Earth is the first full-length series of this type that the BBC have shot entirely in film and/or HD video.
 
shame we'll be watching it in SD then. I wonder how long before it gets shown in HD? Any chance its a discovery channel co-production?
 
richard plumb said:
shame we'll be watching it in SD then. I wonder how long before it gets shown in HD? Any chance its a discovery channel co-production?

In an interview in the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago the producer of the show said that the first half of the series would be seen in SD, the second half would be broadcast in the Autumn in HD.

No mention of HD trials, just a straight statement that the second half would be shown in HD.

Mick
 
The second half will also be shown in SD for the 99.9% of the UK population without HD:)
 
richard plumb said:
shame we'll be watching it in SD then. I wonder how long before it gets shown in HD? Any chance its a discovery channel co-production?

I think it is likely to be - though this doesn't mean it will be shown on European Discovery outlets. Could be that the co-pro deal is for Discovery US only. (Similar to the Proms etc.)
 
Well, just watched the first episode (in SD of course) and I'm hooked! Breath-taking photograpy, absolutely astounding! Roll on the HD version, can't wait!
Paul
 
loved the diary bit at the end showing how they did it ,it also mentioned the hi def cameras
 
The photography and sheer scale was awesome.........:thumbsup:
The shark attack on the seal was particularily brutal but very humbling...

Well done the BBC....:smashin:
 
Discovery Channel was displayed at the end of the credits. So it should turn up in HD on these or other shores sooner or later :thumbsup:
 
It was pretty impressive! and HD will top that?! Can't wait! Some of the ice shots were amazing you could just about see all the cracks!
 
bbdivo said:
It was pretty impressive! and HD will top that?! Can't wait! Some of the ice shots were amazing you could just about see all the cracks!




No doubt at all that natural history be it animal life or landscapes really does make HD shine, the fact that a HD produced program looks so good in SD makes the argument for a broadcaster investing in HD behined the scenesa logical step and once that's done then offering it to the public is a no brainer.

There is hope for ITV, Ch4 and Five:)
 
1080 jawbreaker said:
Discovery Channel was displayed at the end of the credits. So it should turn up in HD on these or other shores sooner or later :thumbsup:

Think that BBC/Discovery co-pros (in this case BBC produced, but Discovery chip in quite a lot of money) get shown on the US Discovery channels (and in HD on Discovery HD Theater?) - but aren't shown on the European Discovery channels?
 
Firstly Having watched Blue planet on Teleport HD, on my Pio 436Fde i have to say the picture is great at 720p. I did a direct comparison with my DVDs over a progressive out from my HK DVD21 and the picture was better on the HD version. Not massively better but better non the less.

Secondly I can see the bbc putting this series on teleport very quickly (personally i'll probably wait for them to do it before watching it). After all they have put Pride on there already, which i believe was only aired around xmas time. The bbc and telewest seem to have a very good relationship at present which can only help.
 
Reaperman said:
The photography and sheer scale was awesome.........:thumbsup:
The shark attack on the seal was particularily brutal but very humbling...

Well done the BBC....:smashin:

Anyone know if it will be repeated? I miss it.
 
HD cameras enrich the viewing experience of this fantastic program.

Absolutely breathtaking content which has been painstakingly shot - 10/10!
 
Looked superb on my set, cant wait to watch it all again in HD, that gyroscopic steady cam on the chopper is amazing, compared to the camera used to video THAT camera its just incredible it eliminates almost all of the choppers movement. Agreed the Great white attack was stunning, needed no words and all in -40x slow mo.... incredible for SD
 
It's also on teleport all week if your a telewest customer.

PS only problem with the great white shots was it was so clear you could see it was a decoy seal! (I'm talking about the 2 or 3 breaching shots.)

Stunning never the less, you could just about see the plaque on it's teeth :)
 
cant say i noticed anything dummy about the seal , what makes you say that?
 
Sort of on topic, I bought the "deep blue" documentary movie based on blue planet and the quality of the dvd on my hd tv was appalling. I've neve seen anything look so bad, it even changed screen size during the programme, ie, one chapter filled the screen, but the next had a black border all the way round. There was a constant pattern of noise across the screen, it was a total let down.

I had the DVD replaced, but the second copy was the same. The programme actually looked better when it was on freeview.
 

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