Planet Earth Blu Ray vs Direct TV?

[MBrown]

How much better is the picture quality of Planet Earth on Blu ray vs Direct TV HD or any other HD service? Is it worth at least renting?

 

[techwanabe]

I haven't watched both ways; I only rented it from Netflix on bluray disc. The quality was outstanding and some scenes especially show off the detail and clarity. I love some of the shots where the start zoomed in on an animal or scene, and the slowly pull back until the animal is barely a dot way way way down below, but you can still clearly see them crisply.

I supposed it depends if Direct HD is 780 or 1080 resolution too, and you can see the difference between the two on a 46-inch 1080 LCD TV. I've got Netflix streaming and I believe the streaming HD content is mostly 780, which looks good, but not as good as 1080. But anyone with a nice HD TV should get Planet Earth and watch it - it is a visual treat.

 

[Koing]

How close are you sitting to your tv guys and how big is it?

From 8-9ft on a 50" 1080p watching National Treasure 2 I could barely tell the difference between the BR version and the Sky HD version I had recorded. Maybe if I had a 60"? But the sound is very different being Sky HD only gives out DD 5.1

Koing

 

[Koing]

How close are you sitting to your tv guys and how big is it?

From 8-9ft on a 50" 1080p watching National Treasure 2 I could barely tell the difference between the BR version and the Sky HD version I had recorded. Maybe if I had a 60"? But the sound is very different being Sky HD only gives out DD 5.1

Koing

 

[kalrith]

It's hard to say. It depends on how much compression they use, and as Koing said how close you sit to the TV. A lot of people also prefer the BBC narration over the Discovery narration, so you might try to watch the BBC version.

 

[spidey07]

The compression on Direct TV means blu-ray will always be better quality.

 

[kalrith]

The compression on Direct TV means blu-ray will always be better quality.

It will always be technically better, but will it be noticeably better to the human eye? And the OP's wondering if it would be so much better that it would be worth renting on BD even though he's already seen it on DirecTV. Unless someone's seen both, I'm not sure if he'll get a good answer to his question.

 

[The-Noid]

It is noticeable to me on a 50 inch and a 120 inch.

Blu-ray is a bit better, having said that some of the scenes are not mastered as well even on blu-ray as others.

 

[tk149]

It will always be technically better, but will it be noticeably better to the human eye? And the OP's wondering if it would be so much better that it would be worth renting on BD even though he's already seen it on DirecTV. Unless someone's seen both, I'm not sure if he'll get a good answer to his question.

I'm pretty sure that the OP won't get a good answer to his question, because it's really a very subjective experience.

How good is OP's TV? How large is the screen? How far away does he sit from it? How much is his DirecTV signal compressed? What kind of sound system does he have? How discriminating is the OP?

I think the only real answer is that Blu-Ray is capable of providing a better audio/visual experience, but how much better is up to the viewer and his equipment.

OP, if you've already watched the whole Planet Earth series, then I'd suggest not bothering with the Blu-Ray version for awhile. Go rent some of the other Blu-Ray nature documentaries instead.

/hugs his Planet Earth BBC BD collection

 

[MBrown]

I sit about 8ft away. I have a 46" 1080p Samsung LCD. A LN46A550 to be exact.

 

[themisfit610]

Planet Earth in particular has lots of upscaled sequences, and much of the HD sequences were shot on first generation HD cameras which often shoot 1440x1080, and suffer from chomatic aberration due to inferior lenses.

I don't really get why people say Planet Earth is an amazingly good looking BluRay when actually it's one of the least impressive titles I've ever seen I think it's more to do with the footage itself, instead of the quality of said footage.

So, in this case, you won't loose too much when watching on something like DirecTV, even though they do some fairly brutal MPEG-2 compression, and probably encode / broadcast it in a 1080i wrapper instead of at its native 1080p24.

I don't personally think it's worth watching all over. That's just me

~MiSfit

 

[sdifox]

I would say bluray is better. Most sat/cable providers super-compress their signal to the point of defeating hd... Maybe the MPEG4 ones are slightly better, but it is great on brd/hd-dvd.

I would notice it at 46" and 8ft. But that could just be me.

 

[Project86]

I've got the Discovery version on HD DVD, the BBC version on Blu-ray, and a broadcast from Dish HD saved on my DVR (for comparision only). On my 50" high end plasma I can vaguely tell the difference between the Discovery and the BBC versions, but I can't be positive it is not placebo. I can definately tell (by compression artifacts) when I'm watching the Dish HD version. That being said, it is not a huge difference, and I wouldn't suggest renting/buying another copy.

 

[sdifox]

Planet Earth in particular has lots of upscaled sequences, and much of the HD sequences were shot on first generation HD cameras which often shoot 1440x1080, and suffer from chomatic aberration due to inferior lenses.

I don't really get why people say Planet Earth is an amazingly good looking BluRay when actually it's one of the least impressive titles I've ever seen I think it's more to do with the footage itself, instead of the quality of said footage.

So, in this case, you won't loose too much when watching on something like DirecTV, even though they do some fairly brutal MPEG-2 compression, and probably encode / broadcast it in a 1080i wrapper instead of at its native 1080p24.

I don't personally think it's worth watching all over. That's just me

~MiSfit

Impressive in terms of the material/scale/effort, not because it's HD.

 

[techwanabe]

I don't really get why people say Planet Earth is an amazingly good looking BluRay when actually it's one of the least impressive titles I've ever seen I think it's more to do with the footage itself, instead of the quality of said footage.
...

I don't personally think it's worth watching all over. That's just me

~MiSfit

I watched through the entire series recently, and there were some scenes which looked "ok" and not much better than well upscaled DVD material. And there were other scenes that looked quite crisp and sharp, with vivid color. I suppose the more medocre scenes could taint someones memory of the opinion that Planet Earth is not amazingly good. So the quality does vary through out the sequences, I'll hand you that.

Now that you've mentioned least impressive titles, perhaps you can offer some impressive ones for us to enjoy? That said, I think its worth watching though at least once.

I sit about 8ft away. I have a 46" 1080p Samsung LCD. A LN46A550 to be exact.

That is my TV and distance also. I can indeed tell the difference in quality on that TV at that difference, but the quality varies between BR discs to the point that some BR isn't very distinguishable from a well upscaled DVD. I am not sure but I think my Netflix streaming is 780P and it looks good, but certainly not crisp like a good quality BR movie.