Sir David Attenborough drones on & on again, and we couldn’t be happier about it.
I hope there’s an IMAX release of some kind to go with all that aerial 4K footage.
I am very excited.
Oooh, can’t wait. I could listen to that man babbling all day. The gorgeous filming doesn’t hurt a bit of course.
He’s done a couple that aired here recently.A three-parter on the Great Barrier Reef, and then a one-off on the discovery of the Titanosaur skeleton in Argentina, a replica of which is now on display in New York.
Can’t wait.
Pfft, they could afford bigger cameras but couldn’t put in the effort to get a new set? Come on, it’s like they aren’t even trying!
Technically the cameras are smaller and only the resolutions are bigger.
I’m interested in the the episode on cities. That counts as a new set, right?
Just a heads up to remind folks that this starts airing in the US this Saturday. Do not miss it!
Agreed, there’s footage in every episode that will drop even the most trismussy jaw.
I’ve been trying to figure out if this is going to be streamable somewhere. Amazon Video? Hulu? Netflix? Anybody know anything?
I have the 4k blu ray ordered. (my first 4k blu ray experience) Now I am deciding if I want to wait and watch it first that way or watch it when it comes out and then watch it again in 4k.
Historically, BBC wildlife shows were on Netflix, but I know that their old deal with the BBC expired a while back and a bunch of shows got pulled. Not sure if the nature docs were among them. Why don’t you see if there are any on there now? If so, it will probably show up sooner or later.
Yeah, there’s BBC stuff everywhere, it seems. Maybe they’ll just have the episodes up on the BBC America website.
Apparently Blue Planet II is coming later this year. Hopefully there’ll be more deep sea nasties this time round, and less charismatic megafauna.
We lasted about 5 minutes before my wife thought all the baby ibex were going to be slaughtered or fall to their death. Does this series have a lot of the harsh reality of nature to it, or is it pretty tame?
Somewhere in the middle. It’s not cruel—they won’t show you cheerful happy footage of some baby animal just to suddenly watch it be ripped apart by something else. They don’t surprise you like that; when there’s danger in a segment, you’ll know it and be prepared for it by how they present it, and sometimes that means something’s getting eaten, but it’s not usually something adorable. I got sad watching wasps eat a couple frog eggs though.
It’s gorgeous though. Monkeys falling as they try to climb trees is my new favorite thing ever. No, wait! Brightly colored birds is the best—wait, now very unusual bugs are being hit by rain drops in slow motion, that is the best. No wait—
Etc. Every episode so far has just been captivating from start to finish.
This. Is. Fucking. Amazing.
Watching it at 4k on the OLED set with HDR enabled via the sigh Xbox One S.
The “UHD Blu-ray” version of Planet Earth II has the same maxed-out video profile, and it uses the “HDR-10” standard, as opposed to the “hybrid log-gamma” HDR standard used in the BBC’s iPlayer test last year. (Right now, more 4K TVs are compatible with HDR-10 than HLG, but more sets should have both standards in the coming years.) You will need a television rated for the HDR-10 standard, along with a Blu-ray player that specifically supports UHD Blu-rays. (Most UHD Blu-ray players right now cost way too much, which means the $250-and-up Xbox One S offers the best value proposition for anybody with UHD dreams.)
I enabled HDR on both the set (per port, for some reason) and on the Xbox One S and I verified we’re getting 30-bit color via the receiver info overlay.
Since writing a guide about HDR standards, I have spent months looking for a UHD Blu-ray that can truly make friends jealous of my home theater setup, and the BBC has finally granted my petty wish. Do not even think of getting an HDR TV without pairing it with Planet Earth II (and the compatible UHD Blu-ray player to match).
Here you go:
Yeah, I have a 4k set (non-HDR) and this is the first thing to come along to make me want to go out of my way to make use of it.
But how? I don’t really want to drop huge sums on a 4k blur-ray player. I am considering buying the blu-ray, ripping and watching from USB, but I have no idea on the state of play for BR ripping.
But damn it, is the cheapest 4k blu-ray player is an xbone?
Oooooh, I have a Sammy JU6400, which apparently had an HDR patch last year some time…
If you use a VPN/proxy, you should be able to see some 4K clips from it on the iPlayer site. And if your set is HLG capable, they’ll be in HDR.