[TheSimplePanda]

Picked up Planet Earth on Blu-ray disc. I absolutely love it - just blown away by photography and it's really a showcase set of Blu-ray discs.


I watched the first 3 episodes on disc one, and today after breakfast, my girlfriend and I sat down to watch episode 4, the first on disc 2.


I put the disc in my PlayStation3 and, low and behold, nothing happened. I ejected the disc, look at it - it looked clean and unscratched, so I tried it again. Still, nothing, and indeed, the PS3 locked up and I had to reset it to get my disc back.


Ejected the disc again and my girlfriend asks me "Are you sure it's Blu-ray?"... I say "Of course it is, don't be silly...", and as I look down the disc cover, low and behold, it's an HD-DVD.


I checked my other discs, and sure enough, discs 1, 3 and 4 are all Blu-ray discs with the typical "smooth" edge of a BD. Disc 2 is an HD-DVD and has the grittier, sharper edge of a DVD/HD-DVD.


I have an XBox 360 with the HD-DVD add-on so I tossed it in and sure enough, it's an HD-DVD and works just fine.


I called the shop where I bought it and they agreed to exchange it, but just a word to everyone that the HD-DVD and BD versions of Planet Earth appear to be manufactured or packaged at the same location and there does seem to be some cross contamination, so to speak.


I suppose it's possible that it's only me - but hey, I doubt it. If it's happened once it's probably happened again.


Also, I feel compelled to stir the pot and mention that the HD-DVD looks great, but has more obvious artifacting then the BD's do. I find this hard to understand because I assume it's HD-DVD-30 vs. BD25 (this is marked on the back of the box so I'm sure of this) and the encoding is probably identical... but from where i'm sitting there is a pretty clear advantage to the BD discs.

 

[ryoohki]

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL nice.. i know that some fella got empty cases and missing disc in Casing. Both version must be packaged at the same factory so..

 

[Fardoche]

Same thing happened to me!


My third disk was not working. Fortunately, I had few days left on my 30 days return policy of the store where I bought it. The second bd-set had the same problem (third disc also), only this time I noticed the faulty disc was an HD-DVD. Now the store does not have any more copie of Planet Earth in stock, they offered me store credit. I will take store credit and rebuy it later.


No wonder why the BD version is no where to be found since it's release, probably that Warner found out about the problem and had to inspect all packages.

 

[lilstinky]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dylanneild /forum/post/0


Also, I feel compelled to stir the pot and mention that the HD-DVD looks great, but has more obvious artifacting then the BD's do. I find this hard to understand because I assume it's HD-DVD-30 vs. BD25 (this is marked on the back of the box so I'm sure of this) and the encoding is probably identical... but from where i'm sitting there is a pretty clear advantage to the BD discs.

I have a feeling that its either your display or display input settings because all the professional reviews that did side by side comparisons said they were identical. Maybe you have your noise reduction turned on for your PS3 input? I just added the first disc on Blu-Ray to my Netflix account so I can check it out.

 

[wildfire99]

When I checked both formats the encodes were identical all the way down to the video noise, banding, and other (numerous) quality problems. The player can make a slight difference though, esp. if your HD-DVD benchmark source is that add-on, but not with regards to the awful video noise that is encoded into the program.

 

[lilstinky]

When I run both the 360 with add-on and PS3 on my 32 inch lcd I get a better picture with my 360 running through the VGA port than I do with my PS3 running through an HDMI to DVI input with like movies such as The Departed(the issue was noise in the picture just like you're getting on with the 360 but mine was with the PS3). On my 55inch SXRD I have both running through HDMI and the picture is the exactly the same with like material. I still want to buy a stand alone HD-DVD drive because every once in a blue moon I will get some frame rate stutter with the 360 add-on and I've read the stand alones have a slightly better picture. So far I'm satisfied with the PS3. I wasn't before getting the 55 SXRD.

 

[neogeo333]

And i thought I was the only misfortune one, my disk 3 was also HD-DVD and called Warner about it and they will send a replacement. Damn those guys, i was watching the ending of disk 2 and now this? Running from a PS3 to JVC 61 1080p is spectacular.

 

[pernar]

That's hilarious. What wasn't so hilarious was when I went to Best Buy yesterday, and both HD-DVD copies they had in stock had discs rattling around inside. Annoying. You'd think that they would have perfected DVD packaging by now...

 

[r.k]

I have the same issue with my copy as well. I ordered my copy online and have since contacted the retailer. They've agreed to send me a new set, but there's no guarantee that it'll have proper discs either.

 

[JE3146]

My disc 3 looks different than the rest... I'll try it out tonight...


What a dumb problem to have really...

 

[pentatonic42]

same here, 2 first were HD dvd and 3 and 4 BD. Waiting for replacements in mail. Hope they'll get it right this time

 

[dlconner]



Quote:
Originally Posted by pentatonic42 /forum/post/0


same here, 2 first were HD dvd and 3 and 4 BD. Waiting for replacements in mail. Hope they'll get it right this time

They will probably send you disc's 3 and 4 in HD DVD

 

[Johnsteph10]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dylanneild /forum/post/0


Also, I feel compelled to stir the pot and mention that the HD-DVD looks great, but has more obvious artifacting then the BD's do. I find this hard to understand because I assume it's HD-DVD-30 vs. BD25 (this is marked on the back of the box so I'm sure of this) and the encoding is probably identical... but from where i'm sitting there is a pretty clear advantage to the BD discs.

They are exactly the same encode. There are no artifact differences. It is something in your equipment.

 

[sxr71]



Quote:
Originally Posted by lilstinky /forum/post/0


I have a feeling that its either your display or display input settings because all the professional reviews that did side by side comparisons said they were identical. Maybe you have your noise reduction turned on for your PS3 input? I just added the first disc on Blu-Ray to my Netflix account so I can check it out.

Probably HDMI vs. Component.

 

[sxr71]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dylanneild /forum/post/0


I had mine replaced at the record shop (HMV at Eglington/Laird for anyone in Toronto - they are quite cool about things like this, even though I had lost the receipt). They opened the replacement set up for me on the spot and checked they were all smooth-edged Blu-ray discs and all snugly in their place.


Disc 2 looks great in my PS3 now. The "caves" episode is pretty noisy on both formats though - the darkness of that episode just doesn't compress well, at least on a 25GB disc. BD50's would have been preferable I guess (3 hours per disc of content, give or take), but then they would have had to do a different encode for HD-DVD-30 and obviously there's cost to consider.

This is what always happens when a company releases a half-ass platform. The content producers always want to cater to the lowest common denominator and hence we have Planet Earth compressed to fit the inferior format. The same thing happens in video games where last generation developers made sure that their multi-platform games could play on the weakest system (PS2) and basically ported it out to other systems.


I really hate to say this, but seriously, one format has to die for us to get what we pay for.