"Blue Planet: Seas of Life" on Blu? April 9, 13

[Jimmy Smith]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

I agree somewhat, but this still destroys my old dvd set, if just for the better compression alone.

If I want to watch standard definition upconverted to HD ill you know watch the DVD on a player with upconversion. Isn't the entire point of the Blu-Ray format based on the principle that true HD transfers are better then standard def upconversion. If upconversion was Ok then the Blu-Ray format wouldn't be needed would it

[Jimmy Smith]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

[I mean, why did the author ask the BBC manager "why wasn't everything shot in HD" if it was all in HD?? I'm guessing that's the reason we're stuck with a standard-def upconvert.

I don't understand the all or nothing approach there. If some scenes had to be upconverted fine but why the ENTIRE THING? Clearly they must have at least some scenes in 16mm film that could get an HD transfer so not doing that is pretty inexcusable. I see this release as little more then a sneaky attempt to rip off people who don't go to forums or read the fine print

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith

If I want to watch standard definition upconverted to HD ill you know watch the DVD on a player with upconversion. Isn't the entire point of the Blu-Ray format based on the principle that true HD transfers are better then standard def upconversion. If upconversion was Ok then the Blu-Ray format wouldn't be needed would it

The compression on the dvds had been pretty terrible. It is far more pleasant to watch here. The schools of fish just had been massacred... Now it isnt nearly as bad.

Thanks for the info about some video source being used, btw.

Also, this is a documentary series... It would be a large and expensive undertaking to go back to the original 16mm source and piece it all together again. I dont see that happening. Especially with this other info about some video footage coming to light.

[Pyoko]

I'm still hoping there's a reason this wasn't announced for the UK yet (namely that they're still working on a proper remaster.)

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

The compression on the dvds had been pretty terrible. It is far more pleasant to watch here. The schools of fish just had been massacred... Now it isnt nearly as bad.

Thanks for the info about some video source being used, btw.

Also, this is a documentary series... It would be a large and expensive undertaking to go back to the original 16mm source and piece it all together again. I dont see that happening. Especially with this other info about some video footage coming to light.

Agreed. this will look better if for no other reason that reduced MPEG noise.

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

I'm still hoping there's a reason this wasn't announced for the UK yet (namely that they're still working on a proper remaster.)

Doubtful. Again, in order to do that, they'd likely have to go back to the original 16mm footage and recut the entire thing... this is a much more daunting task than merely doing a new transfer. If you want an example of a product that's had to do this for Blu-ray already, look at Star Trek The Next Generation. Granted, their restoration efforts are far more extensive due to the sound and special effects, but it's still time consuming and costs a lot of money. Is Blue Planet likely to see big enough returns for the BBC to warrant going through all that trouble? Probably not. People are probably just going to hold out and see if they'll do an updated HD 'Blue Planet' type series in the future.

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Agreed. this will look better if for no other reason that reduced MPEG noise.

And it does. I actually retired me old DVD's a LONG time ago, because they were simply unwatchable to me. I can at least tolerate this and not be horrified to the point of shutting my Blu-ray player down.

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

Doubtful. Again, in order to do that, they'd likely have to go back to the original 16mm footage and recut the entire thing... this is a much more daunting task than merely doing a new transfer. If you want an example of a product that's had to do this for Blu-ray already, look at Star Trek The Next Generation. Granted, their restoration efforts are far more extensive due to the sound and special effects, but it's still time consuming and costs a lot of money. Is Blue Planet likely to see big enough returns for the BBC to warrant going through all that trouble? Probably not. People are probably just going to hold out and see if they'll do an updated HD 'Blue Planet' type series in the future.

This is true. But if they have the films in good order and timecodes or project/shot notes saved (and the show isn't that old so I hope they do) then it should mostly be a matter of re-editing it and recreating some fades (easily done using the existing SD master as reference on a separate video track and just matching the frames and cuts/fades.) It would take some time but it's not a very advanced job nor would it require a lot of people to complete.

On the other hand if they have no index of which films to scan and which shots go where, or if there were any more advanced effects than simple transitional fades then it's a whole different situation.

I remain optimistic for now. Because of the nature of the programme I think they may not put as much weight on immediate profit as a normal studio. I kind of doubt they'll make back their costs for restoring Life on Earth and Trials of Life anytime soon either.

[arnie]

I guess we will see tomorrow how this turns out. Can't wait!

[rammsteinfan]

Just got mine from Amazon. Nice shiny slightly embossed slipcover included.

Hope I can watch tonight to see the quality for myself.

[bookcase]

The review is up, and it seals the deal: I won't be picking this up until it is really cheap. This is why I avoided buying it from the Discovery store. I was hoping for something better.

[Jimmy Smith]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

The compression on the dvds had been pretty terrible. It is far more pleasant to watch here. The schools of fish just had been massacred... Now it isnt nearly as bad.

Thanks for the info about some video source being used, btw.

Also, this is a documentary series... It would be a large and expensive undertaking to go back to the original 16mm source and piece it all together again. I dont see that happening. Especially with this other info about some video footage coming to light.

The compression on the DVDs was not terrible. It was a actually a pretty solid standard def presentation. I really can't imagine any upconvert being more then a very slight improvement as the review confirms

The review confirms my worst fears. I would probably be picking this up today if BBC had put effort in this release but this release is one of the laziest on the format. Peicing together the shows 16mm elements for an HD scan may have required some effort but why is asking for effort a bad thing? The show was not entirely shot in standard definition. Much of the show could have gotten a true HD presentation and if thats possible it should be demanded for the Blu-Ray

If BBC wasn't willing to put such effort why release this on Blu-Ray at all? Fixing slight compression problems could have been done with a remastered DVD and I can't imagine such a small improvement being worth the upgrade to 99% of buyers if they were to know what they were buying. This release seems like an attempt to trick people who don't read the fine print into wasting their money. BBC shouldn't be rewarded for that

I am a huge fan of Attenborough nature series and I was excited when this release was announced. My dissipointment could not be higher

[Veronica Mars]

I'm returning mine still sealed. Very disappointed with this release. I love the series and since I waited this long, I'll wait however long it takes until it's 70% off (or so) and buy it then.

[Ace_BB6]

Very disappointed to see such a low score for the PQ in this series, especially from BBC. I love me some underwater docs, but this.....does not compute.

[laz305]

Originally Posted by Veronica Mars

I'm returning mine still sealed. Very disappointed with this release. I love the series and since I waited this long, I'll wait however long it takes until it's 70% off (or so) and buy it then.

I know right, What's taking it so long?

[albabe]

I just returned two copies of the Blu-Ray to Amazon.

Both looked okay at best, but both sounded awful. The Audio had this very odd wavering effect that I first assumed was some odd special effect that the Music Composer had done because it sounded like the Music was under water. Then I noticed that Attenborough's voice sounded odd too. I returned it and the replacement had the same problems.

I checked it against my old DVD copy and the Audio on the DVD was just fine - No weird effect.

For the last week or so, Amazon has a disclaimer saying that there were unresolved issues with the Blu-Ray. That disclaimer is gone now.

[jvorhees]

Im a huge fan of original BBC nature blus and documentaries in general so I picked this up when I saw it for a decent price....been sitting on it for awhile but started to watch it in parts a few nights ago. It is obviously upconverted and some parts are really really bad with aliasing and rainbow jaggies etc, but overall its not the complete disaster I thought it would be. Its definitely better than any blu player would do at upconverting content and although I don't have the original DVDs Im willing to bet it is far superior to that. Even with all its problems I would still watch this over the SD and I am quite picky on transfers. Accept it for what it is and the fact it can never look better.

The audio is a little weird though in that David doesn't sound quite right....you can actually mistake him for another person even if you are quite familiar with him. Maybe something to do with a PAL source being converted to 24FPS??

[BLUgrass]

Originally Posted by jvorhees

Im a huge fan of original BBC nature blus and documentaries in general so I picked this up when I saw it for a decent price....been sitting on it for awhile but started to watch it in parts a few nights ago. It is obviously upconverted and some parts are really really bad with aliasing and rainbow jaggies etc, but overall its not the complete disaster I thought it would be. Its definitely better than any blu player would do at upconverting content and although I don't have the original DVDs Im willing to bet it is far superior to that. Even with all its problems I would still watch this over the SD and I am quite picky on transfers. Accept it for what it is and the fact it can never look better.

The audio is a little weird though in that David doesn't sound quite right....you can actually mistake him for another person even if you are quite familiar with him. Maybe something to do with a PAL source being converted to 24FPS??

You have a very similar attitude as me towards this release. Some of it looks pretty good, some of it looks awful. All in all, I am happy to own it over the DVD. It is probably my favorite thing to put on at night and fall asleep too - particularly the deep sea episode.