High definition planet

posted by Jeff | Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 4:14 PM | comments: 0

Last night, I felt like I saw my TV for the first time, despite having it for a year and a half.

I mentioned previously that I planned to buy the HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. While the death match with the Blu-Ray format is far from over, I figured that the thing was cheap enough that it's not a huge mistake if HD DVD ends up not winning. One could argue that I'm still buying discs, but I can't imagine that some day the same players will do both anyway, just as they do with most any 5" disc type.

Anyway, people have raved about the Planet Earth series, which I think aired on Discovery HD Theater. It has the reputation for being some of the most spectacular motion photography of the planet ever captured. And you know what? It is.

I really feel like this series is the killer app for high definition video. If they were showing it on the TV's in the average Best Buy, they'd sell more of them. It's some of the most amazing imagery I've ever seen that wasn't live and in front of me. It's absolutely stunning.

The drive came with King Kong, which I already own on regular DVD, so I scanned through it a little to compare. No contest, the difference is dramatic. If anything, you appreciate some of the blue screen compositing errors in places, because the resolution is so good. It's amazing to see.

So while the HD DVD catalog isn't huge, it's growing, and this was pretty amazing stuff to see. Totally worth it.


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