This October, Warner Home Entertainment, 2 Entertain Video, and the BBC will release special Blu-ray editions of the Emmy award-winning nature documentary Planet Earth. The ten-part miniseries takes an in-depth look at life in some of Earth's most extreme conditions.
Warner's new Blu-ray versions of Planet Earth include a Special Edition and a Limited Edition. Both six-disc Blu-ray packages present the show as it aired on the BBC in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround audio tracks; the two box sets also feature a number of supplementary materials, such as:
One 10-minute behind the scenes program for each episode
Planet Earth: The Future documentary on the environmental issues raised by Planet Earth
Commentary on select episodes
Great Planet Earth Moments featurette
Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth featurette on the snow leopards that annually visit a cave in the mountains of Pakistan
Secrets of the Maya Underworld featurette on the freshwater pools in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula
Elephant Nomads of the Namib Desert featurette on two female elephants trying to raise their young in the Namib Desert
"Music Only" viewing option
Sneak Peek at Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill's next project: Frozen Planet
The Special Edition comes in a standard Blu-ray slipcase, while the Limited Edition comes in a numbered collector's edition globe package with a set of 4 exclusive art cards.
Both versions of the program will street on October 4th.
OH, I want that Globe. Damn, if I don't already own the original release, this would be Day 1 purchase. But I just can't justify double-dipping this one. Maybe if there is enough price-drop.
Hmmm. I have the original BBC, David A, 4 disc set. What is on the 2 extra discs? Did they just spread the episodes out for better PQ? Those extras wouldnt take much space.
The UK Special Edition doesn't have The Future documentary, but it does have DTS-HR audio.
So this US version should have that also, otherwise I'll go for the UK SE.
Before this I had to decide whether to buy the beautiful but barebones Blu-Ray or the extras-filled but lower quality DVD. Now I can have the best of both worlds in one package.
knovle sigourney weaver narratted plant earth on discovery oprah narratted life on discovery sir david attenborough narratted bbc versions of both the only versions to own
Packaging is a bit too much (after all, aren't we trying to be "green"??)...anyway, I have the UK edition, and won't double dip unless it goes down in price like the UK edition.
I may upgrade to the limited edition if it contains the Attenborough narration, the price drops and I don't learn of any quality problems
with the unusual packaging. Or I may upgrade to just the special edition for all the on-disc extras.
If the video quality AND audio quality are substantially better than the original release, I could see myself getting the SE, but since the audio is apparently still DD only, I will stay with the VERY disappointing and over-hyped original release.
I'm all for the "music viewing option"! Love the music in the series, and it'll be cool to listen to stuff without dialogue or sfx that may not have been on the CD release!
I own the bluray set with David Attenburgh. I am not as impressed with PQ as i thought i would be. The sound is almost nil cause what kinda 5.1 do you really expect? A better PQ and MAYBE a small upgrade to the sound would make me consider this.
As much as I want that globe packaging, I'll stick to getting the special edition digipak.
Even though the discs are housed in their own cardboard sleeves (from what I can tell in the picture), having them rest inside a styrofoam container seems like a bad idea.
They'd probably have to do some kind of buyback/replacement plus small fee to get me to "double dip". Seriously doubt I'll pay full price twice for the set.
If the PQ is better I may get this. Still can't fathom why it's only Dolby Digital again on the re-release. Same with all their tv shows. Someone at WB needs to be replaced for making these ridiculous decisions.
I have the original it looks amazing!! Even at 1080i. only problem is it was shot on so many different cameras that the quality 1 shot to the next is not consistent so im not sure they could really improve the video quality much anyways. But like i said the 1080 and slo-mo shots are nothing short of amazing, i doubt they could look any better since they wernt using super high-end hollywood cameras to begin with, good cameras for sure, but obvioulsy not the huge ones used for movies.
FWIW, the UK version has HD audio on it so I'm asuming the US release will use the same tracks. I've seen a snippet of part of an episode from the fixed UK special edition (raw file, no re-encode) and it does look a lot better than the original version.
this kind of pisses me off... i got the Discovery version during one of their $25 sales for Christmas because it had better artwork.. and i DO NOT like the book packaging thing.. if they ever make it in a normal case then i might get it.. for way cheap
I'm glad I waited - The DVD release of Planet Earth had more special features than the BD. Looks like they finally corrected it. Also the original release was encoded in VC-1 on a 25GB disc, I'm crossing fingers for a AVC encode on a 50GB disc.
