Planet Earth in Blu-Ray

[smokinghole]

I'm watching it right now and all I can say is holy sweetness it's better than whe it was aired through cable. I missed out on the great whites attacking seals and flying out of the water like 8 feet. It is crazy impressive. If you like nature documentaries then this is the shiznizzle my friends especially for HD owners.:applause:

 

[Volusianator]

Planet Earth was an amazing show, seeing it on Blue Ray would be flat out sweet!

 

[bballbaby]

I loved it on HD. I have yet to see what blueray looks like.

Can it really be that much better?

I understand the concept and all, but does it get any better than 1080?

 

[Volusianator]

Your HD broadcasts are still in 780, there is no such thing as 1080 broadcast. Blue Ray...now that's 1080!

 

[bballbaby]

ok, maybe i didn't understnad.

so my tv has 1080 capability, yet the only thnig capable of displaying in 1080 is blue ray?

So i woul dhave been fine with a 720p version.

 

[dpricenator]

So i woul dhave been fine with a 720p version.

NOPE!!!, now you have a reason to buy a PS3, BLU-Ray plus games.

 

[smokinghole]

Yeah what Wade said. The only way to get true HD 1080P is either over the air broadcast (otab) or via movie disc. Well I at least thought last I read about HD broadcasting. I stopped looking into it after I bought my tv and realized the built in digi/analog tuner picked up free HD channels with my cable company. So maybe otab doesn't do 1080p I've certainly been wrong before.

Alas I do not have a 1080p tv. I went low dollar with a Vizio 32" two years ago and they only had 720p available. It still looks fantastic though.

 

[bballbaby]

I have to believe that to the undescerning eye the difference can't be that huge to jsutify the cost of blue ray, at the moment. My eye probably isnt' quite that discernnig as i see no need to have a more clear picture than the one i have now. Satelite signal w/ HD Converter, OTAB HD Broadcasts, HD DVD, HDMI cables. It's good enough for me. Watching a TV without HD is a real bummer now.

 

[mnelson]

here is a useful chart when deciding between 720p and 1080p...... although i would recommend the 1080p regardless :thumbsup:

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

 

[Clinton]

Your HD broadcasts are still in 780, there is no such thing as 1080 broadcast. Blue Ray...now that's 1080!

That's not true. Plenty of networks broadcast 1080i. CBS, NBC, PBS use 1080i. ABC, Fox, ESPN use 720p. (None 1080p, but no one can see that difference anyway.) However, satellite and cable signals are compressed which can degrade the picture.

 

[Electric Sheep]

Geez, this thread needs some real FACTS to cut through all this B.S....

• Blu-Ray = 1080p
• Broadcast HD = either 720p or 1080i (network's choice)
• "Planet Earth" was broadcast on the HD Theater channel, which is 1080i
• HD Theater is available on Cable, Dish, and DirectTV—and all of them over-compress their signal, often resulting in annoying digital artifacts.
• If you have a 720p HDTV and you watched the series on HD Theater, then your tv was downsampling and de-interlacing the 1080i signal on-the-fly to a 720p signal.
• If you have a 1080p HDTV and you watched the series on HD Theater, then your tv was upsampling and de-interlacing the 1080i signal on-the-fly to a 1080p signal.

Because of those factors above, "Planet Earth" on Blu-Ray will have a less-processed, less compressed, less digital-artifact-filled viewing experience than watching it on cable/satelitte...regardless of whether you have a 720p, 1080i, or 1080p HDTV. In other words, it should look spectacular on ANY HDTV with a BluRay player.

Now admittedly, watching these Blu-Ray 1080p discs on a 1080p HDTV is the current "ultimate" setup...but I'd bet most people couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless the two sets were sitting side-by-side.

 

[MichiganM]

One thing I've noticed is when viewing Blu Ray on my 1080p plasma any closer than 5-6 feet it looks very grainy, even more so than the plasma in the other room which is not 1080 and does not have Blu Ray. Now 8 feet away or so and it looks awesome! The grainy stuff does concern me up close though.

 

[Electric Sheep]

Jason, a couple of questions:

How do you receive your HD broadcasts? (OTA, Cable, Dish, DirectTV, FIOS, etc)

If you compare the BluRay to broadcast HD, is the BluRay "grainer" ?

What size is your plasma set?

How far away is your noraml viewing distance (say, sitting on the couch)?

 

[MichiganM]

Jason, a couple of questions:

How do you receive your HD broadcasts? (OTA, Cable, Dish, DirectTV, FIOS, etc)

If you compare the BluRay to broadcast HD, is the BluRay "grainer" ?

What size is your plasma set?

How far away is your noraml viewing distance (say, sitting on the couch)?

I receive my HD broadcasts from my cable set top box through Comcast.

The Blu Ray is definitely "grainier"...there is a significant difference.

My plasma is a 42" Panasonic HDTV 1080p.

My normal viewing distance is around 5-7 feet.

 

[Clinton]

Is the Bluray connected to the TV via HDMI?

 

[mnelson]

or DVI....

 

[MichiganM]

Is the Bluray connected to the TV via HDMI?

Yep, my PS3 is connected via HDMI and it can be pretty grainy.

The funny thing is my cable box that produces the HD signal doesn't even have HDMI output, I use component instead and it's still pretty damn good.

Not sure why??

:dunno:

 

[Electric Sheep]

Component is just fine for HD; in fact, many videophiles purposely stick with component instead of HDMI...and I'm sure that 99% of the public couldn't tell the difference. HDMI is a benefit in upsampling DVD players and BluRay players where they're trying to send massive amounts of data (due to less compression) as well as when it's required for certain copy-protection schemes, but from a cable box/satellite box, component RGB cables are fine.

As for your situation, sounds like you're doing everything right (tv size, viewing distanct, HD service, etc) and are comparing apples-to-apples correctly....so I have no idea why the BluRay is grainer.

If you think you have a defective unit, maybe a friend with a PS3 could bring theirs over and you could test it on your TV ?