BBC High Definition
Natural History Collection (Planet Earth/Galapagos/Wild China/Ganges Blu-rays + Wild China & Ganges DVD-Video sets)
Picture: Sound:
Extras: Films:
Planet Earth B+/B-/D/A-
Galapagos B+/C+/D/B+
Wild China B+/B-/C/A-
Ganges B+/B/C/B+
Wild China (DVD) B-/B-/C/A-
Ganges (DVD) B-/B/C/B+
Having
already covered the brilliant Planet
Earth series…
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5514/Planet+Earth+(BBC/Mini-Series/Blu-ray
…as well
as Galapagos…
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6110/Galapagos+(BBC+Home+Video/Blu-ray
…we are
excited about this box set, which includes both of those features, plus two
others: Wild China and Ganges.
This easily makes this one of the more sought after box sets in the
Blu-ray format as it not only contains 4 terrific documentaries, but is one of
the few of it’s kind thus far to offer such great quality, plus great
programming and it is this type of fare that will greatly contribute to
Blu-rays success.
Here we
will cover the two titles that we have not covered yet as they are included
here and are available individually as well as on standard definition DVD,
which we will also cover in this review.
Let’s
begin with Wild China, which I have
always had a unique fascination with the culture and history of this amazing
place, this particular documentary covers a ton of material in just a few
hours, which is incredible considering we are talking about one of the oldest
civilizations as well as one of the more diverse places in terms of natural
beauty. I found this program to be on
par with the spectacular nature of Planet Earth and because it was more
focused, it was able to cover some more in-depth areas, where Planet Earth had to give equal weight
to a wide variety of places.
Ganges is equally absorbing, refreshing,
and engaging all at the same time, which makes it another great addition to
this set. You really can’t go wrong with
any of the four titles and to get them all together is just a terrific
idea. This is perhaps the one title in
the set that most people will be the least familiar with, but it doesn’t
disappoint in the least and opens up the viewer to a whole new world that has
seldom been on display.
The
technical specs are also about even for all of the discs, with the 1080p
transfers in High Definition glory; both Wild
China and Ganges are presented
in 1.78 X 1 framing and look terrific showing some of the great work that HD is
capable of capturing and delivering.
Unfortunately the DVD’s for these two features just can’t keep up with
the high level of detail, color, and depth.
Instead the DVD’s come across rather flat with limited color range and
poor blacks. There are some minor
moments on the Blu-rays as well where softness is evident, but it’s not an
abundant problem.
Each of
these features seems to be presented with slightly different audio mixes, Planet Earth was in 5.1, as is Wild China, but only a 2.0 stereo mix
for Galapagos and the winner out of
all four is the DTS 5.1 mix that is on Ganges. It would have been a great addition to have
all four of them in at least one uncompressed format, even if they didn’t do
these in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, a PCM uncompressed 5.1 mix would have been
great, but sorely missed here. While the
material lends itself just fine in these formats, there are limitations to the
music and certain effects that really could have taken these presentations to a
whole new level, if not match the picture performance. The DTS mix on Ganges even shows just how much more depth can be achieved with the
benefits that DTS has over Dolby so you can imagine just how much more refined
a true HD sound mix would have been as well!
Extras
are not abundant for these discs, but that’s not really an issue since the
material itself explains so much.
Although there was a making-of program that ran on Planet Earth that was equally as engaging during the broadcast and
those additions would have been great. Wild China and Ganges do feature ‘making-of’s’ that are decent, but not super
engaging or remarkable overall. The
DVD’s for these two films are the same in terms of extras and feature the same
audio mixes as well.
The
bottom line is that this box set contains four terrific features that will not
only educate you, but also entertain you in the process and with great picture
performance; it will also challenge your system and wow your friends and
neighbors. It’s also great to get such
superb titles all in one set and each are unique in their own approach, but
still hit the high quality standards that BBC is well-known for. These are the types of programs that schools
across the world should be turning into mandatory viewing for students as they
are THAT good and necessary!
- Nate Goss