BBC (and Discovery) doing what they're best at: Planet Earth

[dubbz]

Do BBC America normally run other BBC documentaries? If so it might just be a matter of time until you get this.

I'm not in America, so it doesn't really matter to me if they send it or not

One of the national channels here (Norway), NRK, usually send BBC productions (of all kinds). It's just a matter of time, really. (Edit: And no ads either!)

 

[bigandy]

i watched it yesterday, and was stunned at the footage.

it blows away the HD filming i was doing for my student TV station on Friday, some of the camera crew couldn't even get a steady close up WITH A BLOODY STEADYCAM, FROM THREE FEET AWAY! let alone 1km. damn.

 

[edesignuk]

it blows away the HD filming i was doing for my student TV station on Friday, some of the camera crew couldn't even get a steady close up WITH A BLOODY STEADYCAM, FROM THREE FEET AWAY! let alone 1km. damn.

Your forgot...attached to the bottom of a bloody helicopter!

 

[bigandy]

Your forgot...attached to the bottom of a bloody helicopter!

very good point!

i was out again today with my crew (of idiots) and HD cameras.. looking through the results was like witnessing what happens when you give a cat a video camera and invite it to jump off a moving car. drunken bloody students.

that said, i'm off to the pub. aaah, scottish licensing is great.

 

[edesignuk]

The slow motion stuff on RIGHT NOW is just astounding

 

[EGT]

'Twas astounding throughout as usual but next weeks episode looks particularly interesting. Caves etc.

Those Pirañas would give ya a nasty bite, eh!?

 

[nw43]

Thought it was great tonight. The best bit was all those otters ganging up on the crocodile!

 

[gauchogolfer]

The otters were great...I liked the mountains episode from last week as well. I'm looking forward to installments 4 and 5 to round out the series.

 

[dcv]

I'm resurrecting this thread to brag

The fact it has all been shot in HD is great too, can't wait for when they repeat it once we all have access to HD boxes/TV sets.

Well funny you should say that

I'm currently participating in the London-based Freeview (BBC/ITV/Channel4 & Five) HD Trial. Planet Earth is showing right now on BBC HD1 and it is simply *outstanding*. I remember watching some of the original series on BBC1 and thinking the pictures were amazing... but wow... what a difference the Dolby Digital sound and 1080i make

 

[Piarco]

I'm resurrecting this thread to brag



Well funny you should say that

I'm currently participating in the London-based Freeview (BBC/ITV/Channel4 & Five) HD Trial. Planet Earth is showing right now on BBC HD1 and it is simply *outstanding*. I remember watching some of the original series on BBC1 and thinking the pictures were amazing... but wow... what a difference the Dolby Digital sound and 1080i make

No fair!!! No freakin' fair! I want in! Awwww... c'mon DCV.......
How the hell did you manage that? I remember that it was scheduled to take place this year, but had no idea how they were going to set it up, and who the lucky buggers were..... booooooooooo, I'm well jealous.

 

[Chundles]

What a top-notch series this is. The ABC is showing it now, I love the ABC sometimes - we get all the big BBC documentaries with none of this silly "license fee" the poms have to pay. And it's still ad-free.

Sunday 7:30pm on the ABC.

 

[AlBDamned]

What a top-notch series this is. The ABC is showing it now, I love the ABC sometimes - we get all the big BBC documentaries with none of this silly "license fee" the poms have to pay. And it's still ad-free.

Sunday 7:30pm on the ABC.

ABC>Disney>Steve Jobs. There you go

Or is Oz ABC different to US ABC?

 

[AlBDamned]

By the way, talking of great BBC nature docus, is anyone watching Big Cat Diary? It's amazing, but so sad too - this poor little Cheetah cub chap called Toto didn't make it

 

[dcv]

No fair!!! No freakin' fair! I want in! Awwww... c'mon DCV.......
How the hell did you manage that? I remember that it was scheduled to take place this year, but had no idea how they were going to set it up, and who the lucky buggers were..... booooooooooo, I'm well jealous.

Muahahahaha! I've seen the World Cup and Wimbledon in high definition too

And best of all... it's all FREE. None of this £300 (or whatever it is) Sky HD box to pay for.

There is limited content - so far it's been live sports, a few films/documentaries on BBC HD1, World Cup on ITV HD, random episodes of Lost/Desperate Housewives and the odd film on Channel 4. Five only started their HD test broadcasts last week - they were showing stuff like CSI.

The quality of the broadcasts really varies... the footie was kinda 'meh', rather grainy looking and no digital surround sound. Wimbledon was better with surround sound so you felt like you were actually on court, but the picture quality was still a little off. The Planet Earth series though really is something else. It's absolutely awesome in HD.

I signed up for this trial a few months ago. The trial started in June and I think it goes on to the end of the year. I got a free HD receiver box which I get to keep at the end and I just have to answer a few online questionnaires and take part in occasional telephone surveys. I haven't had a chance to watch that much of it so far, but I'm enjoying the HD content a lot more than SD TV.

 

[AlBDamned]

Five only started their HD test broadcasts last week - they were showing stuff like CSI.

The quality of the broadcasts really varies...

Five can't even get analogue right. I dread to think what their HD programming will be like.

I think the BBC are on the money to really do well with this though. Sky will be close behind but will still obviously have costs to deal with.

 

[Chundles]

ABC>Disney>Steve Jobs. There you go

Or is Oz ABC different to US ABC?

Not "ABC," "the ABC."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Government funded television, mainly a local outlet for BBC programs and some local content.

We have five free-to-air channels in most cities (some remote areas have two channels combined into one):

Channel 9 - the big one, lots of cash but struggling due to lack of good shows.

- CSI​

- Lots of sports coverage, famous for it's cricket coverage​

Channel 7 - less money but more decent shows

- Prison Break​

- Desperate Housewives​

- Lost​

- Smallville​

- Some local reality TV​

Channel 10 - much less money, lots of reality TV

- House​

- NCIS​

- Big Brother​

The ABC - government station

- BBC programming​

- The West Wing​

- Many local children's TV shows​

SBS - The Special Broadcasting Service (Soccer Broadcasting Service)

- Foreign language news​

- The best news on Aussie TV​

- South Park​

- Mythbusters​

- Lots and lots of soccer​

- excellent coverage of overseas sport​

Thus endeth the lesson.

 

[Lau]

Ooh, how exciting! The bits I've seen in shops and stuff look great quality. We recently got cable, and there's loads of channels called things like BBC HD Preview, but if you click on them it just says you haven't subscribed. I don't know what that means though, whether the box can receive them or not. The telly's HD ready though, it would just be nice to try it.

 

[AlBDamned]

Not "ABC," "the ABC."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Government funded television, mainly a local outlet for BBC programs and some local content.

We have five free-to-air channels in most cities (some remote areas have two channels combined into one):

Snip...

Cheers for clearing that up . I just remember watching everything through Foxtel when I was over there in Feb, which is almost the same as UK Sky.

 

[Piarco]

Muahahahaha! I've seen the World Cup and Wimbledon in high definition too

And best of all... it's all FREE. None of this £300 (or whatever it is) Sky HD box to pay for.

There is limited content - so far it's been live sports, a few films/documentaries on BBC HD1, World Cup on ITV HD, random episodes of Lost/Desperate Housewives and the odd film on Channel 4. Five only started their HD test broadcasts last week - they were showing stuff like CSI.

The quality of the broadcasts really varies... the footie was kinda 'meh', rather grainy looking and no digital surround sound. Wimbledon was better with surround sound so you felt like you were actually on court, but the picture quality was still a little off. The Planet Earth series though really is something else. It's absolutely awesome in HD.

I signed up for this trial a few months ago. The trial started in June and I think it goes on to the end of the year. I got a free HD receiver box which I get to keep at the end and I just have to answer a few online questionnaires and take part in occasional telephone surveys. I haven't had a chance to watch that much of it so far, but I'm enjoying the HD content a lot more than SD TV.

Oh, its not as if I watched the World Cup. Or Wimbledon. Or Lost. Or Planet Earth. Or Lost. Or all of the CSI series.
*sob*
Mind you the World Cup HD was supposed to be pap, especially the ITV games. I've long since decided to wait until SKy can justify me spending that volume of money with some serious content upgrades. I'd only watch 5 channels of their HD provision, and only 3 of them with any consistency.

Interesting that you need a HD receiver then... or is that purely for the trial? If not then I'm about to waste some cash on a 23" HD ready IDTV for my bedroom.....

ME WANTS IN ON TRIAL! Right, I'm off to sulk in a corner for being left out

 

[Applespider]

ME WANTS IN ON TRIAL! Right, I'm off to sulk in a corner for being left out

Or we all go round to DCV's place and watch hers when there's something good on

 

[Chundles]

Cheers for clearing that up . I just remember watching everything through Foxtel when I was over there in Feb, which is almost the same as UK Sky.

Cable/Pay/Satellite TV is p*ss-poor here. Not all that many people have it let alone watch it other than for O/S sporting events in pubs.

All the newest stuff is on the 5 free-to-air channels.

 

[Mac Rules]

The BBC do manages to do a cracking job when it comes to series like Walking with Dinosaurs and Planet Earth etc, but like previously mentioned, they are completely screwed when Lord Attenborough dies.... Is there anybody really who could fill his shoes quite as well?

Cheers

 

[dcv]

Interesting that you need a HD receiver then... or is that purely for the trial? If not then I'm about to waste some cash on a 23" HD ready IDTV for my bedroom.....

ME WANTS IN ON TRIAL! Right, I'm off to sulk in a corner for being left out

The Freeview HD trial channels are:

501 BBC HD1
503 ITV HD
504 Channel 4 HD
505 Five HD

You should be able to find the channels in your EPG using an HD-ready digital TV/normal freeview box or something like Elgato EyeTV but you won't be able to see the picture. In fact it totally locks up the EyeTV box if you switch to one of those channels as it doesn't appear to handle the encoding. I've tried and had to pull the FireWire cables out to kill it. I've been given a Humax HD receiver for the trial - afaik these boxes have been designed specifically for this trial and you can't just go out and buy one.

 

[Piarco]

Or we all go round to DCV's place and watch hers when there's something good on

That would be the easier thing to do... you taking on the cocktail duties?
Me man. Me bbq. Man burn meat (or in DCV's case halloumi kebabs?). Man put out fire by..... well I think you can guess the rest.

The Freeview HD trial channels are:

501 BBC HD1
503 ITV HD
504 Channel 4 HD
505 Five HD

You should be able to find the channels in your EPG using an HD-ready digital TV/normal freeview box or something like Elgato EyeTV but you won't be able to see the picture. In fact it totally locks up the EyeTV box if you switch to one of those channels as it doesn't appear to handle the encoding. I've tried and had to pull the FireWire cables out to kill it. I've been given a Humax HD receiver for the trial - afaik these boxes have been designed specifically for this trial and you can't just go out and buy one.

Hmmm... so either existing boxes get updates to tackle the HD signals, or all IDTV's and existing SD Freeview boxes will be obsolete. There may be trouble ahead...... but while there's music and moonlight..... oh I'll stop there.

The BBC do manages to do a cracking job when it comes to series like Walking with Dinosaurs and Planet Earth etc, but like previously mentioned, they are completely screwed when Lord Attenborough dies.... Is there anybody really who could fill his shoes quite as well?

Cheers

True. I'll tell you who I don't want. Ray Sodding Mears that's who. Winds me up. Don't know why!

 

[dcv]

Or we all go round to DCV's place and watch hers when there's something good on

That would be the easier thing to do... you taking on the cocktail duties?
Me man. Me bbq. Man burn meat (or in DCV's case haloumi kebabs?). Man put out fire by..... well I think you can guess the rest.

Hehe, pay for a cleaner to come and sort my flat out first and you're on!

Mmmmm cocktails & halloumi kebabs...