Galápagos Blu-ray

Galápagos

 (TV) (2006)

Documentary | Nature



The inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution, the Galápagos Islands are a living laboratory, a geological conveyor belt that has given birth to and seen the death of many species of plants and animals. As the western islands rise up from the sea offering a chance of life, the eastern islands sink back beneath the waves guaranteeing only death. Between the two are the middle islands; fertile, lush land in its prime that contains an incredible diversity of life. Nowhere else on the Earth are the twin processes of creation and extinction of species so starkly apparent... see it all unfold before your eyes in this stunning series filmed entirely in high definition from the BBC and the National Geographic Channel.

For more details about Galápagos on Blu-ray, see the Galápagos Blu-ray Review

Narrator: Tilda Swinton

Galápagos Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Averaging around 20 Mbps, Galápagos sports an interlaced VC-1 encoding, even though the packaging erroneously states it is formatted in full 1080p. The material was sourced at 1080i 50Hz from the BBC, which was then converted to 1080i 60Hz for BD. The documentary looks surprisingly good - much like its global scale cousin, Planet Earth. There is great care taken by the filmmakers to capture an extraordinary amount of detail in their subjects, and extreme close-ups are plentiful throughout. Every feather and rough, horned hide depicted has a fine amount of detail, and every feature of a slender garden eel or minute goby fish is apparent, and makes for excellent repeat viewing - if only to catch all the detail!

For all of its visual appeal, however, one can't help but wonder what this title might have looked like had it been able to utilize a full 1080p, high-bitrate spec. The picture did not look digitally "scrubbed clean," thank goodness, although there still seems to be an ever-so-slight amount of softness that's likely attributed to an interlaced source. Galápagos has incredibly good picture quality regardless, and I heartily recommend it.

Galápagos Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Where Galápagos really falls short is with its audio offering - nothing more than a Dolby Digital 2.0 option. While it sounds well enough, especially with the fairly generous amount of narration by Tilda Swinton, it's really a shame that such a wonderfully produced documentary, on a high definition format, has the sound of your average CD. Ambient effects especially would have benefit from, at the very least, a DD 5.1 treatment; if not a lossless option, something rarely found on minor BD releases like documentaries anyway.

As it is - and as would be expected - the audio presentation is very flat, with the sound feeling condensed into too small a space. As mentioned previously, ambient effects would have added a fuller and more immersive soundscape to the feature, and an LFE channel could have been an ideal tool to add rumble and "oomph" to the ubiquitous roaring surf. It's a rather unfortunate decision, what with Blu-ray's A/V capabilities, but given the educational nature of this title, it suffices well enough.

Galápagos Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Galapagos Announced for Blu-ray - June 29, 2007

Galápagos Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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