Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-11-12
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 550 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Not only is Planet Earth one of the most jaw-dropping, ambitious, nature documentaries the BBC has ever produced, it's now taken on another role: as a superb demonstration disc for the potential of HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Spread over a good ten hours, the series charts life and nature in dozens upon dozens of differing locations around the earth. Diligently and warmly narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Planet Earth calmly goes close in on its subject matter when required, and then pulls out some stunning perspective shots that are simply breathtaking. It's hard to come up with the right superlatives to do the photography on the programme any kind of justice, and that it's married to such fascinating subject matter is all the better.

And if you think the original broadcast of Planet Earth was something special, or you were gobsmacked by the picture quality on DVD, just wait until you see it in 1080p HD glory. Particularly some of the broader shots here are all but without parallel, and it's a real reward for those who have invested ahead of the crowd in high definition technology.

Presented over five discs, and matching wonderful content to spot-on visual presentation, Planet Earth is now not just a landmark in nature documentary film making. It's also a chartermark of quality for just what HD DVD and Blu-ray can offer. A stunning release, in more than one sense. --Jon Foster

DVD Description
From the team behind the multi-winning Blue Planet comes this epic series celebrating the Earth as never before. Embracing the world's incredible landscapes and fascinating wildlife, Planet Earth takes the definitive look at the diversity of our planet.

Four years in the making, with a budget of unprecedented proportions, Planet Earth has stretched the boundaries of natural history television. High definition photography, revolutionary ultra-high speed cameras and detailed images from the air enabled the series to capture the most amazing footage ever seen.

This stunning television experience combines rare action, unimaginable scale, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this blockbuster series takes you on an unforgettable journey through the challenging seasons and the daily struggle for survival in Earths most extreme habitats. Prepare to be overwhelmed by the beauty of Planet Earth.

Including: Natural World: Desert Lions & Snow Leopards
The BBC's flagship natural history series Natural World has consistently produced amazing wildlife stories with breathtaking imagery. These two gems from the series feature incredible footage of these rare, beautiful and magnificent big cats.

"Expect everything from underwater elephants to mountains of guano and a snow leopard in attack mode… Pure Class"-- The Guardian

Synopsis
Emmy award winning series which explores the evolution of the Earth, and the life which it supports.

Customer Reviews

This series on Blu-Ray is awesome!
Lots of people here arating this box set badly on the grounds that some parts aren't in high-res or not full 1080p. They don't seem to understand that this series was filmed on many many different cameras and was shot in real world environments in many many locations and not in a controlled studio environment. So not all the footage is in full HD or even 720p in some cases. It's as good as you're going to get for some time and besides, it's a great documentary with or without 1080p so stop your whinging.

Blu-ray customers are being short-changed.
A warning: It seems that the BBC has been cheese-paring and, as a result, the disc 5 extra included with the blu-ray version of this excellent series, entitled 'Natural World', is not at all the same as the disc 5 extra included with the standard DVD version of the series. Let me explain: Disc 5 of the blu-ray version, entitled 'Natural World', contains two separate documentaries; one entitled 'Desert Lions', and the second entitled 'Snow Leopards'. These two middling documentaries, also narrated by David Attenborough, although certainly watchable, do seem rather like an add-on, almost to fill space. In my opinion, they fall well short of the outstanding viewing quality of the main series, as shown on the first four discs in this five-disc box set.

However, the disc 5 extra included with the standard DVD version of 'Planet Earth' is entitled 'The Future', and this contains three excellent documentaries. These three documentaries (namely; ' Saving Species'; 'Into The Wilderness' and 'Living Together') amount to one complete whole: namely, a cry for action to save the future, our future. This is about global warming, habitat destruction, poaching, pollution, global overpopulation - all the threats to those magnificent animals and habitats - and ultimately ourselves - that we have just seen in the main series. The use of film footage from the main series (and some new film clips) - supported by a superb commentary both from the film-makers themselves and experts, including David Attenborough and others - carries a real impact. To give one example, the polar bear and global warming. Blu-ray customers never get to see the full picture about how this magnificent animal faces an increasing struggle to survive as global warming destroys its habitat - because this disc 5 gem is included as part of 'The Future' documentaries on the disc 5 extra with the standard DVD boxset, but not with the disc 5 extra of the blu-ray DVD boxset. Yet, in my opinion, these 'The Future' documentaries are essential viewing. So it really is inexcusable that they have been excluded from the disc 5 extra included with the blu-ray version of the 'Planet Earth' series.

The BBC are completely out of order. Why did they do this? They have no excuse; there surely would have been plenty of room on a blu-ray disc to have included these - as well as the two films about desert lions and snow leopards. Buyers of the blu-ray version are being short-changed by this omission.

My advice: Buy the standard DVD version of this outstanding series. You will then get the complete series - with the addition of the three excellent 'The Future' documentaries on disc 5, which are excluded from the blu-ray version. And furthermore, as I found, the viewing quality of the standard DVD version (which. like the blu-ray version, also includes 5.1 surround sound) will be outstanding on a standard DVD player. (And those with a HD TV could always consider buying a cheap multi-region DVD upscaler like the Philips DVP5980, or similar, rather than a blu-ray player).

Jaw-dropping
Watching this release on a Full HD set is, for lack of a better word, astonishing. I watched this series with my jaw open, and at times was actually moved to tears by the stunning beauty of the images of our planet on show here. This is what I invested in Blu ray for, and time and time again, hi def proves not be a marketing gimmick but a genuine next-step experience in home entertainment; the amount of pin-point detail, dimensionality and scale takes you into the images, so that you feel as if you are there, and in this regard Blu ray is involving in a way DVD cannot match. The wonderful thing about Planet Earth on Blu ray is that the stunning image actually makes clear the filmmakers intentions-not necessarily to give an in-depth education, but to remind us of the beauty and awe inherent to our troubled planet, and the vast open vistas, mountains, plains on show here are enough to make anyone remember why our planet is so very special and worth saving. If that isn't reason enough to invest in this set, I don't know what is.