Anyone Watching Planet Earth?
 

I caught two episodes at a friend's house last night, in hi-def, and I just now picked up my jaw from the floor.

You can just say that, yes, I'm seriously lusting for a HDTV now.

Anyway, even in low-def TV, the photography in this series is amazing.

I saw some during the marathon this past weekend. The footage of the snow leopards was really cool.

We've seen Deep Ocean and Mountains and we're loving it. Ice Worlds is sitting on the TiVo. It's largely fluff in terms of information, but it's pretty fluff. Really really pretty. Don't know if I'll purchase the DVDs, but it'll be one of the first things I rent when we eventually get an HDTV.

I watched the first one ("Pole to Pole"), and the others were sitting on my DVR, taking up precious space... until last night when I discovered that they're available "on-demand" through our Comcast account.

Beautiful show... not sure I'm learning too much... but HD eye candy that's not NASCAR or Jim Cameron is nice.

I'm watching them in fast forward increments. I've recorded them on my HTPC (essentially DVR on my computer).

I can't just sit and watch because the shows are boring (and the score is grating) so I jump through in 30 second increments until a picture looks interesting and watch until bored again.

Loved the glow in the dark vampire squid (which, so far, is the first imagery that is completely new to me).

This is something we'd be interested in watching but we can't seem to remember to turn on our TV.

I wanted t watch it I do have hdtv and I love it

Hmmmm, I'm getting kind of discouraged that reviews here peg the series as long on beauty but short on knowledge. I certainly can't watch it as it airs ... but was considering renting the DVDs later. Now, I'm not so sure.


The series of this genre that I adore - Richard Attenborough's Secrets of Life was long on both beauty and knowledge. I cherish it much more for the fascinating information ... and am not too keen to experience a nature/science programme where I don't learn interesting stuff.

Like the others, the documentary narration is sketchy, but I still think, visually, it's absolutely stunning and worth a Netflix rental. Of what I have seen, I do wish they had spent a bit more time, at least alot more footage. Meaning, it took them 5 years to film all of this, I'd like to see more detail on deserts and not 2 minutes on the Gobi, etc. After all, I doubt I'm getting to the Gobi in this lifetime!

I'm still enjoying it and am anxious for them to reach the deep caves underground, the previews look fab and I'm a frustrated spelunker anyway.

It holds my interest. I call it fluff in the sense that there's nothing particularly earth-shatteringly new, but even old info about animals and nature is interesting. And there's a lot of "first time captured on film" type stuff that, while not necessarily "informative" is certainly interesting to watch.

For me it's about seeing the world on film in a way I (and, I imagine) most people have never seen it before. Seeing a snow leopard on the hunt and being awed by what I'm seeing rather than what I'm being told. I love the time lapses and the slowed motion (the shark!). And I can never get enough of monkeys - all kinds of monkeys! But watching that on herd crossing terrain in the 800s was AMAZING, even if I didn't walk away being able to write a paper about it.

I'll have to give it a shot. But the bar's been raised, for me at least, by Secrets of Life, which both showed unbelievable things incredibly captured on film, and relayed fascinating knowledge concerning what you were seeing.

If a series does one without the other, I cannot help but find it substandard ... by virture of the new standard set by Richard Attenborough. Not to say that I won't enjoy cool nature visuals. Heck, I still love True Life Adventures, the granddaddy of them all.

Whenever I see this thread title, I keep thinking to myself "Why? Does it need a babysitter?"

They should've had Mike Rowe narrate :)

(or better yet..) did you see it, i just had in on the leash and i went inside just for a minute... dam...

Well, I thought that was Al Gore's job now.

I watched 1 1/2 episodes last night. Sigourney Weaver's voice just about lulled me to sleep. I was glad i caught the sea episode, since that was a lot of pretty, but I don't think I actually learned anything interesting. (Although the sped-up footage of the Sunflower Star wa cool and the Great White sequence was amazing.) It was perfect eye candy for my exhausted body and mind.

I watched about 1/2 of the Plains and Grasses episode but that made me REALLY tired. There's something about grass waving in the breeze that just knocks me out.

The commercial breaks drove me CRAZY! I just don't have the attention span to watch TV any more. Maybe the whole thing would be better on DVD - and on HDTV.

I missed the Sharky episode?! Does anyone remember what it is called?

We have a huge HDTV at home and it is amazing. My friend will have a 50in HDTV delivered on Friday. I can't wait to watch it on that.

We caught the desert episode on my sister's 56" LCD HDTV. *droooooooool*

I believe the great white episode is called "shallow seas" or something like that (as opposed to Deep Ocean). They're repeating them like mad, so you should have plenty of opportunity to catch it.

Thanks! We set up his DVR to record everything so I'll be able to catch it.

The polar bear episode made me cry. :(

We watched the Shallow Seas episode last night on a friend's smaller (37") LCD last night. Beautiful colors!!! Can't wait to watch on on ours (We have it recorded).

The entire episode guide can be found on Discovery's web site.

I think my attention span isn't short enought for this program. What I saw was pretty, but the constant commercial interuptions and little messages zipping across the bottom of the screen were maddening. I eventually left during one break to balance my checkbook.

I found I also had a hard time with scale watching this. Is that satelite footage? is that an island group or a continent? Are those creatures huge or microscopic? The uberzooms help but I wish they'd provide a bit more context to some of the images.

I had the same problem until I started watching it on the HiDef channel (Comcast 722 here in SF Bay Area) fewer commerical breaks than on the regular Discovery Channel.

I think I will enjoy these more, however, if I rent the DVDs with no commercial breaks.

Oh blessed DVR how I love thee.

We also discovered that the HD broadcast has fewer commercial breaks. Though the points at which there would be commercial breaks stuck out and were a tad distracting, having me reaching for the remote to fast forward the non existent spam ads. I wonder if the DVD versions have those or if they did a different edit for the DVD release.

One of the things they talked about was the camera technology used which allowed for some of the arial close-ups. basically, they could be a kilometer (about 6/10 of a mile) away but the shot would look like they were about 50 feet overhead. They said that enabled them to get the close shots while not disrupting the animal's natural behavior.

Also, on the HD channel, they showed some of how they did things and the technology. One of the things they did was have a ballon that was set up with a wide seat (for two) instead of the usual basket as well as a fan with a rudder (so they could control where they went). However, the balloon was not completely controllable as they showed one shot of them running into a tree :D

One thing I was fascinated with was showing wolves (or some other kind of pack dog) stalking a gazelle (or some other kind of prey - yeah, my memory sucks). It was fascinating to see about five of them chasing one animal and seeing a couple of them break off (one to the right and one to the left) to flank them in. Researchers have suspected this for a while, but supposedly, this was their first time to actually witness it.

Heh, we just watched an episode of the Dog Whisperer where a bulldog/miniature pincher pair did just that to a mail carreir.

The hydroplaning dolphins were incredibly cool.

I sure wish they'd stopp putting secret messages on the bottom of the screen. It really distracts from the program.

I've watched 2 full episodes of it an never noticed any messages at the bottom of the screen.

Were you watching the HD version? I believe the messages only appear on regular television.

As my friend with whom I watched this last night, this stuff is HD porn.

Nope, regular basic cable.

I never noticed the messages...until tonight now that everyone's mentioned it. And even then it was because I was looking. Once I saw it, I went back to ignoring it.

Finally saw the Shallow Seas episode. That great white footage was mesmerizing. And the time lapse starfish/polyp shots were incredible. Like something straight out of Harryhausen's creature shop.

The whole series has me thinking about how many animals risk their own lives to care for their young. It's a lot. Whether it's by pure instinct or a higher sense of awareness doesn't even matter, there seems to be a clear dividing line in the animal world between animals that do care for their young beyond conception and gestation at risk of their own well being and those that don't. It's an undeniably powerful evolutionary force.