Planet Earth blu ray disc video quality issues....

[mistersh0w]

I just bought planet earth on blu ray from best buy, love it, looks amazing! But on the first disc, episode 3 (Freshwater), I noticed some strange picture issues. During one of the first scenes, the amazing helicopter waterfall fly-through shot,(at title 4 chapter 1 00:03:47) I noticed there was a kind of "off-and-on" flicker of white noise. At first I figured it was just some kind of camera issue, but it continued on for at least 4 minutes. I also noticed that it came back a couple of times throughout the episode. I haven't found any talks of such picture issues with planet earth, so i'm assuming it may just be my copy....But I figured i'd check in with you nice folks to see if it's a bigger issue. Please let me know if anyone else has experienced this problem. Thanks!

[samsung hd]

nope my copy is fine , no prob at all
by the way i think its your tv or blu ray player

[mistersh0w]

Thanks for the response. Dernit, just my luck I happen to pick up a messed up copy of planet earth....It can't be the tv, I just bought it ( a 57" Mitsubishi DLP 1080p tv to be exact!), plus I've been playing ninja gaiden sigma (PS3), and watching other blu ray discs yesterday/today I (via HDMI), and had no such picture issues with any of that. It clearly looks like it's imprinted onto the footage, that's why I thought it might be their cameras or some post production flub. Hope I can find that receipt!

[mistersh0w]

Originally Posted by samsung hd

nope my copy is fine , no prob at all
by the way i think its your tv or blu ray player

Did you double check the exact time I posted? I'd like to make sure that it's a "hit and miss" problem before I start going back and forth with messed up discs...

[Heresy]

Watching the first time I didn't see that but now I can see it. Barely at the scene you mentioned but it's more pronounced later (~5:30) when the background is darker.

[mistersh0w]

Well, got a replacement, it's the same...So now that we know this problem has affected a greater number of copies of Planet Earth, 2 questions remain: 1. Is this problem also visible on the HD release? and 2. Is it an issue with the master. (as in, perhaps the broadcast version has this problem as well...)

I have yet to watch any more episodes, so I can't tell yet if this image problem continues randomly, but so far this particular episode is ripe with em. Check out what Heresy pointed out at 5:30 in the same episode. You can clearly see the image problems more pronounced than in my example, and you can even see other image problems as well, like visible artifact lines. So, I guess it's time to contact BBC America right?

[Valore]

I didn't have this problem with my version or maybe I just haven't noticed it. But in your case, what do you have to lose from contacting BBC?

[Forresttheman]

Originally Posted by mistersh0w

Well, got a replacement, it's the same...So now that we know this problem has affected a greater number of copies of Planet Earth, 2 questions remain: 1. Is this problem also visible on the HD release? and 2. Is it an issue with the master. (as in, perhaps the broadcast version has this problem as well...)

I have yet to watch any more episodes, so I can't tell yet if this image problem continues randomly, but so far this particular episode is ripe with em. Check out what Heresy pointed out at 5:30 in the same episode. You can clearly see the image problems more pronounced than in my example, and you can even see other image problems as well, like visible artifact lines. So, I guess it's time to contact BBC America right?

are you saying that you do not have it on Blu-Ray?

[simcal]

Originally Posted by mistersh0w

I just bought planet earth on blu ray from best buy, love it, looks amazing! But on the first disc, episode 3 (Freshwater), I noticed some strange picture issues. During one of the first scenes, the amazing helicopter waterfall fly-through shot,(at title 4 chapter 1 00:03:47) I noticed there was a kind of "off-and-on" flicker of white noise. At first I figured it was just some kind of camera issue, but it continued on for at least 4 minutes. I also noticed that it came back a couple of times throughout the episode. I haven't found any talks of such picture issues with planet earth, so i'm assuming it may just be my copy....But I figured i'd check in with you nice folks to see if it's a bigger issue. Please let me know if anyone else has experienced this problem. Thanks!

got the same problem that is the only scene i have found with a issue and i would say it was only about 2 minutes for me.
i have watched 30-40 Blu-ray discs and that is a first for me. so with it being a first i think its not my set up. well take it back and get a new copy or complain to bbc america?

[jbuttler007]

This has benn happening to other BDs as well. I hope it doesn't happen to my copy.

[mistersh0w]

Hmm, so i'm not the only one... I'm taking it back right now, i'll let you guys know how it goes with the new copy.

[chelsel]

I'm so happy I have this problem too... seriously, I thought it was my TV or my PS3... but at the exact same timecode 3:47 on the Blu-Ray version of Planet Earth I get the white flickering effect.

I posted a moderately negative review of the disc on Amazon because of this issue, and other video issues... it appears that most fly over sequences with dark portions of the video are affected. I suspect that the people who *don't* see a problem actually have the problem but don't understand what to look for...

Anyone else?

Cliff.

[chelsel]

simcal, another problem area at 01:30-01:45 on Title 4, Chapter 1... heavy noise in dark areas.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by mistersh0w

I just bought planet earth on blu ray from best buy, love it, looks amazing! But on the first disc, episode 3 (Freshwater), I noticed some strange picture issues. During one of the first scenes, the amazing helicopter waterfall fly-through shot,(at title 4 chapter 1 00:03:47) I noticed there was a kind of "off-and-on" flicker of white noise. At first I figured it was just some kind of camera issue, but it continued on for at least 4 minutes. I also noticed that it came back a couple of times throughout the episode. I haven't found any talks of such picture issues with planet earth, so i'm assuming it may just be my copy....But I figured i'd check in with you nice folks to see if it's a bigger issue. Please let me know if anyone else has experienced this problem. Thanks!

I just checked that scene and it seems that what you call "a kind of "off-and-on" flicker of white noise", is probably what paidgeek and others have found was compression pulsing in the King Kong transfer: the grain/finest detail of the film image is fully visible in the reference frame and is smoothed on the following frames, till the next reference frame, so it pulses. That scene (A fairly complex, highly ramdom (organic ) details with movement scene) hits only about 13 to 14 Mb/s in the bitrate meter. Seems it required a higher bitrate at that moment. So that would mean a new compression encode. Interesting find, in the light that Blu-rays can be encoded with up to 40 Mb/s bitrates if the scene merits it. (But I guess most of us already know why this is not the case, in this case )

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

(But I guess most of us already know why this is not the case, in this case )

Indeed!

[Deciazulado]

The funny thing is that I didn't see any RF interference WHITE noise on that scene when I checked it, just what I stated above (1080p at 60Hz 1:1 pixels PS3)... I might take a look at it again and try to see those Shining rotor bladed interferences.. as the blood thickens

[VenomXR8]

I also noticed white horizontal lines flickering throughout episode 3 on disc 1. Its very distracting and to me makes planet earth unwatchable. The worst part is that I am now noticing the problem on other blu ray movies i own such as Open Season which never had this problem before.Can one disc affect the other???

[Sapper12B]

I to have the same "flickering" problem as described in the above posts. I will be taking my copy back also, hopefully it'll just be this copy, but from reading these posts my chances seem thin. thanx for the post all!

[Deciazulado]

Yup That's basically what I said in post 93.

For most viewing I run Blu-rays like an audiophile listening to a CD through a straight amp with wire.

(although some soft encodes could benefit from a little sharpness)

[Deciazulado]

this is getting ridiculous, nobody knows how to use the search function except... planet earth owners newcomers