Poll: Watching Life on Discovery tonight?
By Richard Lawler 
posted March 21st 2010 4:15PM
posted March 21st 2010 4:15PM
posted March 21st 2010 4:15PM
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I'm waiting for Blu-ray.
1) The quality will be better, Discovery isn't exactly known for the high bitrate, especially on some cable providers.
2) Attenborough is a real life naturalist -- no offense against talk show hosts.
3) The BBC versions aren't edited to fit commercials in.
The Oprah-fied version is a travesty, not to mention Discovery are going to sell the Oprah version on BD for more than $20 over the cost of the original BBC version narrated by Attenborough. Unfortunately BBC promised Discovery not to put their BD/DVD set on sale in the U.S. until after its aired, but the BBC Bluray set can be purchased through the UK and Canada.
My advice: Wait for the true-blue Attenborough-narrated BBC version coming to Amazon in a few months for around $50. This series absolutely exceeds Planet Earth by miles- some of the shots they get are just insane. The humpback whale "Heat Run" cannot be missed since it involves a diver being dropped right in front of 6 charging humpbacks going after some female whalesnatch.
@BenD
Hopefully the Planet Earth Blu-rays won't be the template for this release. 1080i only there and inconsistent video quality. Some fios users claim it was better on broadcast than on Blu. This review states that it's 1080p - it's either wrong or there are two versions floating around: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Planet-Earth-Blu-ray/384/
@Sonic Death Monkey
1080i or 1080p I want it how it was recorded. More P isn't always better. Anyone know for sure how it was captured?
@BenD
Camera attached to hand attached to cameraman with balls of steel.
@BenD
BD25 also...
@Mister Warmth
I ordered Life from amazon UK and it runs at 50Hz so I had to order a bluray drive for my PC because it won't work on US players which work at 60Hz.
@Sonic Death Monkey
There are two versions... the BBC original (1080p, Attenborough) and the Discovery version (1080i, Weaver).
However, the BBC version is over-compressed since they put the same video encoding on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
@erh
Very interesting. I have the BBC version with Attenborough and it's 1080i. Says so right on the box.
I think they stuffed 4 episodes on each BD25. Not so good.
What recording on our Media Center's / DVRs to possibly watch later doesn't get a poll mention?
I don't know what they were thinking of going with Opera. I will not be watching it until I can get my hands on version with Attenborough.
@zargon
Oh my goodness. I am watching this right now, and it is terrible. She is horrible as a narrator. I won't be watching until the other version is available either.
+1 just wait till the real-deal BBC version on Bluray from Amazon in a few months. His narration fits these documentaries like a glove, and to overdub him with Oprah babbling is just lunacy.
@zargon
I was half expecting Oprah to go off script and describe how the dolphins on screen are avid members of her book club.
Just like Planet Earth, I'll be buying the BBC version of Life on Blu-Ray for David Attenborough. I'm sure Oprah will be miles better than Sigourney Weaver, but no one trumps Attenborough.
@MaxH
!00% Agree. Attenborough is the voice of the BBC Documentary and has been for years.
@MaxH
I agree, but I rather have Sigourney Weaver over Oprah any day!
Hard to understand why RECORDING was not an option. It such the obvious runaway choice.
@(Unverified) Recording was every yes option, check the words next to the poll.
@RichardLawler My bad. It seems like it still should have been a separate option so we could tell how many are watching now or possibly saving the entire series for future use. Maybe even saving it to an external hard drive for their kids benefit.
Already seen the series on Bluray- the real BBC version. It's already available if you know where to look. This really is one series that you owe it to yourself to watch without commercials. That said, I saw about 60 seconds of the Oprah-fied version on TV tonight- Jaysus. She sounds like she's got a big sub sandwich stuck in her gullet while she's talking. Shame on Discovery for over-commercializing it with her name in the hopes it gets all her minion watching.
There's a theory that Discovery is trying to cater to the nutty creationist fringe by replacing Attenborough with first Sigourney Weaver on Planet Earth and now Oprah, but I don't know if that holds much water, though likewise I wouldn't be surprised.
A few more observations about the Discovery / Oprah version:
- DirecTV and Discovery have crushed the bitrate. Slow scenes are fine but fast moving stuff like rapids and its a macro block fest. For comparison sake I paused it and then went to the same position on the Bluray on another TV and there's no comparison the BD is crisp as hell. Not that it's a surprise to anyone but they really shouldn't have gone HDLite on *this* TV series.
- Soundmix is all jacked up -- they completely overpower Oprah's narration in some scenes to the point you can't even hear what she's rambling- I know it's not my 5.1 system because once again when I A/B compare the same sequence to the Bluray with Attenborough, the music doesn't overpower it.
I realize these are nitpicks and ultimately is a great series for the unwashed masses that are getting it free and will sit through commercials, but for anyone thinking they're going to record the broadcast for archive purposes, forget it unless you just don't give a crap about PQ.
I downloaded the BBC version a few months ago and it was jaw dropping. I found it to be better than Planet Earth.
SO FRUSTRATING.
Just tried watching it on Discovery on FiOS, and it is compressed to hell.
Not much artifacting or macro blocking, but everything is just blurry and without the clarity and definition that I know the blu-ray will have.
Also, Oprah just isn't doing it for me. She sounds all slurred, and I can hardly hear her over the background music.
Get Proxy Switchy on Chrome and go to BBC iPlayer. Attenborough FTW! Or get the Blu-Ray version but be advised you'll need to be careful because Amazon does not sell the UK original version, Amazon.ca (Amazon Canada) does carry.
@igeekone
I did some preliminary research about proxies and Proxy Switchy, but I still don't know what it actually does. Would you explain? Thanks!
I really enjoyed Sigourney Weaver and David Attenborough both. I don't think I can sit through Oprah's voice though. I actually had to stop the dvr. I'll try to get over it and watch it again tomorrow. I'll probably just go ahead and get the non-Oprah BBC, blu-ray version and skip the broadcast altogether. Whatever made them think Oprah's got the voice for this stuff? Isn't the world Oprah-saturated as it is?
As a Brit and having seen Life, with Sir David Attenborough, I am absolutely dumbfounded that such a great narrator and wildlife expert would be culled for a chat show host! America is this what you have come to?
@abulkasam Pretty much, yeah.
Yay. I was the 1234th person to choose "Of course, bring it on!" That's gotta be worth SOMETHING, right?
@abulkasam The Oprah b.s. is just marketing and politics, a lot of us recognize Attenborough as the gold standard for docu-narration. Same as if Antonio Banderas or Shakira narrated the spanish version for the masses in latin american countries.
Good