Over America Blu-ray

[royaloaks]

Anybody bought this? Have heard it is very average!

[GregBlu5]

Dunno. Had it on order thru amazon for weeks now, but it's Out of Stock and who knows when it will come in. Along with Over California.

[royaloaks]

Was it ever in stock? Sounds like a no go for me. Shame because something like that done well would be great. Read where it was filmed in 1994. Maybe someone will do it in the future and do it well.

[sj001]

I can't find the thread, but someone else on another thread warned that the quality was very subpar on the video, along with the audio. I was going to get it but I think I am going to hold off.

[JasonR]

This is for Over California, I assume it would be the same.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...nia#post657011

[Digital Filmmaker]

I just picked both up at Fry's while on my lunch break. Won't get to watch them until I get home from the studio late tonight.

[MRay]

Watch it tonight if possible Digital Filmmaker and tell me what you think. I just ordered it last night from Amazon, or one of their partners actually, which did have it in stock. If it looks crappy, I need to know ASAP so I'll have time to cancel my order. It's not supposed to ship for a few days. I recorded that program with my DVR last Summer from HDNet in 1080i and thought it looked excellent. I assumed that a 1080P disc would look even better. Let me know please.

[Sushisake]

Hi everyone. I was the one who posted a thread on this stating that I had
gotten both and found them to be truly horrible. Filmed in 1994/1995 - they are not 1080P films. They were incredibly disappointing - to the point that I actually returned them stating that they were one of the biggest rip-offs ever. Fortunately I got all my money back (from BJs Warehouse in the Northeast).

Save your money!!

[blu-backer]

I don't recommend this BD at all. The very first scenes make you scratch your head thinking "is this an upscaled SD DVD"? There are some scenes that look good, but overall, this is a poor BD.

[Digital Filmmaker]

Okay, I just finished watching both.

I must admit that I am very familiar with both works since I know the shooter, Marc Pingry. I saw much of this material in it's raw form back in the mid 90's.

First off - it was shot, and is presented in 16:9 1080i. These programs are the predecessor, and perhaps an inspiration to BBC's Planet Earth.

Now, if you are expecting it to look like Planet Earth, you will be disappointed. However, if you can accept that it was produced during the birth time of modern HD video production, and the aesthetic that comes with it - then I'm sure that you'll be forgiving and probably enjoy them both.

Most of the material was shot from either helicopters or ultralights, and is somewhat shaky or bouncy at times. Many shots are absolutely breathtaking - reminiscent of the Soaring Over California attraction visuals at Disneyland (probably also inspired by these programs). The only elements I find annoying at times is the canned synthesizer music and narration in Over California - both lack the subtlety and, at times, actually detract from the beautiful vistas on the screen. Tom Skerrit's narration in Over America is much more fitting, and complements the material much better.

One area that is particularly moving is in the beginning of Over America and the New York City skyline - which so happens to include the pre-911 twin towers of the World Trade Center in all their glory. They are truly beautiful to behold in HD, and the experience is bittersweet.

I viewed these both on a front projector and a 14-foot screen. Most of the material looks good - even great, with some occasional shimmering from the interlaced 1080i video in areas of fine detail. In Over California, I noticed two jarring compression errors during dissolves in the Northern California section. These are brief and close together, and are only on screen for an instant. However, these should have been caught and re-encoded by the mastering specialist.

All in all - I am not disappointed. I wasn't expecting perfection, and it's not - but it is certainly not bad in any sense. The series' videographer, Marc Pingry, hails from the Seattle area and is known in the production world as one of the earliest (and best) pioneers in HD video. Probably having shot more HD material than just about anyone else in the business. His first of these productions for PBS afilliate KCTS in Seattle, Over Washington, was groundbreaking, and I look forward to it's inclusion in this series of Blu-ray HD releases - as well as another favorite of mine, Over Canada.

[Russell_L]

I picked up 'Over California' yesterday at Costco for $9.99, and I have to agree with you--this disc doesn't look bad at all, and many shots look quite stunning (especially the 'Deserts' sequence). Considering that it was done on HD video 14 years ago, it's truly amazing. Of course, it's not perfect--not every scene is razor-sharp and there was a tiny bit of shimmering in some of the city fly-overs, but it's pretty minor and overall I was very pleasantly surprised with this disc, especially given the couple of negative comments. Bit rates were pretty high, too, averaging in the high 30's/low 40's. My only complaint is the bare-bones packaging: there's a nice glossy slipcase over the standard BD case, but that's it--there's no booklet or even the usual slip-in cover. (But for only 10 bucks, you can't really complain. )

BTW, Costco had this disc playing on a Sony 301 BD player hooked up to a smallish LCD display--some of the darker scenes looked very grainy when viewed up close, but I didn't notice much grain at all on my display (sitting at my normal viewing distance).

Russell