Planet Earth series on Discovery Channel

Old Mar 26th, 2007, 04:28 AM
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Planet Earth series on Discovery Channel

Did anyone else watch this last night? They had the first three episodes of the 11-part series.

I watched it on the Discovery HD channel and it was fascinating. The cinematography was absolutely wonderful.

Wild dog hunts, eles, lions, baboons, Okavango Delta, Ethiopian wolves, just to name a few in Africa.

The snow leopard hunting, the amur leopard, pumas in the Andes.

Whales sharks, great whites, dolphins, deep sea creatures, etc.

I was captive for the full three hours last night and I could have watched the entire series. Can't wait to watch the rest.

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly suggest taking a look. It's pretty darn good!




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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 04:51 AM
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Missed it.
Choices were the "Amazing Race" - they were in Zanzibar this episode. And, then the season finale of Rome.

Wanted to tape, but forgot. Will have to catch the reruns. Thanks for the reminder.
 
Old Mar 26th, 2007, 05:07 AM
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It was magical. Breathtaking in HD! The snow leopards and Amur Leopards were amazing but I was wondering about their claim of the snow leopard hunting being the 1st time caught on film. I recall seing a show about snow leopards which showed a hunt down a mountain slope...maybe it was filmed after this but broadcast prior to this being released. Anyway just a very minor quibble.
Regards,
Eric
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 05:25 AM
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I agree, that was a really excellent three hours of TV. The scenes were beautifully shot, and they concentrated on some things I haven't seen before -- like those cranes migrating over the Himalayas and that incredible footage of the birds of paradise in PNG. I can't wait to see the rest of it now!
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 05:43 AM
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I agree. I DVRd the series, and only watched two shows last night (its amazing how fast you can watch an hour-long show if you skip the commercials). Lots of stunning photography (only weakness is Sigourney Weaver's narration).
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 07:17 AM
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I was so disappointed to that they replaced David Attenborough's narration with Weaver's -- in my opinion it is a huge drop off in the quality of the experience.

I purchased the set for Amazon UK but do the country code restrictions and no code hack for my DVD I have only been able to watch it with my computer. Finally seeing it in HD was thrilling, I had been counting the days. I may have to watch on HD and mute it and then play the sound on my computer for the correct narration, the script seems to be the exact same its just the passion fo the delivery makes the difference. The 'how it's filmed' segments are a little different on the UK version too. Some of it better and some of it not.

I believe this is the most incredible nature filming ever. I did think the snow leopard footage was a first but I know their claims of the lions hunting elephant isn't even close to a first, the Jouberts did a 2 hour film on it and even Be the Creature successfully filmed it so I wouldn't doubt it if some other claims were wrong too but the quality is unbelievable.
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 07:17 AM
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I watched two of the hours from my dvr and the footage was amazing-loved those birds of paradise, Ethiopian baboons, and the filming of the great white in SA!
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 07:21 AM
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In the UK, we also had a 10 minute section after each programme which showed some of the background into the filming of the series. It's worth getting the dvd just for this if it's available.
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 07:25 AM
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The one thing I noticed about the great white segment was that they showed a shark chasing a seal and then the narration said "the chase is over" or something like that while showing video of the shark breaching. Of course, the video showed the shark, not with a seal in its mouth, but with Rob Lawrence and Chris Fallows' seal decoy instead. Moreover, it gave the false impression that when the shark and seal are maneuvering around like that, the sharks will breach the surface. Of course this isn't accurate -- the breach happens on the initial strike from beneath, then if the shark misses there is a chase on with a lot of splashing and the seal jumping around. But at that point the shark is already at the surface and won't breach again.

I have to say that the super-slo-mo video of the breaches was just astonishing and I loved watching it.

Chris
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 07:28 AM
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P.S. -- Here's a picture of Rob with the decoy:
http://www.pbase.com/cwillis/image/74757562

We are planning to go back to Cape Town in July 2008 to have another try with the sharks, since our first visit in late September didn't bear fruit.
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 08:02 AM
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Yes the photography was outstanding! But that's about all the program had to offer -- very pretty pictures without much information. For example, the entire sequence in the Okavango delta did not once mention the name of Botswana. And I'm afraid that the program will give many viewers the impression that planet Earth actually looks like this, when the reality is that only tiny pockets of pristine wilderness remain.
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 08:24 AM
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I loved it! Yes a lot more pictures than information. It was probably a great ad for HD Television.

Some smart eletronics company (Sony, Panasonic, etc.) should be sponsoring the show also. As I watched it, I kep wishing I had an HD TV.

When the snow leopard footage was coming on, I remembered seeing some footage of a snow leopard hunting somewhere on the web.

As I watched the footage last night, I realized it was the same footage.


My TIVO is all set to capture it all.
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Old Mar 26th, 2007, 08:26 AM
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I didn't mind Sigourney's narration of it and thought she did a good job.
I may be a little biased, though, since she is the Honorary chairperson for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

I'm not one to critique the filming of it as I'm not a cameraman. But you can see the passion these folks had during filming. On the bird of paradise, they were in the forest for six weeks, I think, every day, all day.
And for the snow leopard, the first year of filming only yielded seconds of film. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is.
I think they did a darn good job and it's a well made documentary.

Like one of the producers said, it will hopefully give folks a glimpse on how beautiful the planet and the animals really are and the reasons why we need to preserve them.

My hat goes off to them!
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 06:38 AM
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Just a friendly reminder...

Don't forget to watch the next installments this Sunday night April 1st.
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 07:18 AM
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Thanks for the reminder Divewop. I had been anticipating this show for two months and completely forgot about it last week. Still hitting myself over that.

Juliet
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Old Apr 2nd, 2007, 02:47 PM
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I just noticed that the 11 series set will be available in the US sometime in May for $79.

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-65140.html

If they make the series available in either HD DVD or Blu Ray I will go get whatever platform is needed to own the series in high definition. Truly stunning, and I have only seen the first three episodes. The birds of paradise just blew my socks off. Oh, and the snow leopard just elevated it even more.

I didn't realize there were tidbits of 'the making of' type footage at the end of each episode, so I missed the first two at the end of the episodes. Oh well. Time to TiVo them again.
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Old Apr 2nd, 2007, 03:04 PM
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Last nights episodes were just as captivating as the first three.

The polar bears. God bless them. They face one helluva struggle now.

And those poor little lost penguins.
You can't help but feel terrible for them.

I'll also be buying the series when it comes out on DVD.

Can someone enlighten me on the differences between the Blue-Ray and regular DVDs? All this new technology is mind-boggling. Sheesh!
Thanks.
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Old Apr 3rd, 2007, 04:26 AM
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Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are 2 competing HD formats. Blu-Ray and promoted by Sony (with some other companies) and HD-DVD by Toshiba (with some others).

There is no clear winner right now but this if going to be another Betamax/VHS type format war.
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Old Apr 3rd, 2007, 07:14 AM
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So does that mean blu-ray dvds can only be played on sony dvd players?

Or can they be played on any brand of dvd players?

I do have an hd-tv.

Sorry for my ignorance, but I've seen the blu-ray dvds in stores and don't know anything about them.

Another footnote about the Planet Earth series is that the shows are also aired on Monday nights on the Discovery Science channel so if you miss them on Sundays you can catch them on Mondays.

And they are also aired throughout the week at various times on both the Science and Discovery channel.
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Old Apr 3rd, 2007, 07:30 AM
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As I understand it you can not play a high def DVD of either brand on a standard definition DVD player. I suspect you will be able to play standard def. DVD's on which ever high def DVD player you purchase. There is no plan to have a single DVD player that plays both high def. DVD formats.
You do need a high def. TV to watch high def. DVD's at their best quality.
At this point unless you don't mind buying one format now and another one in the future if the one you get turns out to be the Betamax of formats stick with standard def DVD's. It may be some time before the industry sorts out the favorite high def. DVD format.
Regards,

Eric
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