Planet Earth II – oh yes!

Is it just me that doesn’t get this type of programme?

Burn him!!!!!!

Is it just me that doesn’t get this type of programme?

Burn him!!!!!!

… and send the snakes! and the ants!

I usually love “this type of programme”… forgot this was on – put it on only to see the same old Galapagos Island stuff I’ve seen loads of time before. Then there was some seagulls… and I lost interest. (Oh, and penguins. Yawn).
Probably my loss, but was hoping for something new and different.

I was expecting something samey, but was pleasantly surprised (and later horrified) to see something new and different.

I suspect I missed all the good bits then and should give it another go 🙂

I’ve never seen the iguanas running away from Racer snakes before?

I want more deep sea stuff – BBC should throw squillions at new equipment and head into the abyss, theres proper monsters down there, and untold undiscovered stuff.

Re: HD & 4K formats. HD was invented by NHK (Japanese equivalent of the BBC) over 40 years ago but getting it to a broadcast system took nearly 30 years. There’s a lot of kit to upgrade from cameras, cables, editing systems all the way to the TV in your living room.

NHK also invented 4K and 8K. To adopt either of these would require the whole set of equipment to be upgraded again. Japan is considering just going straight to 8K to avoid this double upgrade. There’s no point in going past 8K as the definition is beyond what the human eye is capable of resolving.

It was only really with the widespread adoption of flat screen TV technology in the home that HD became a viable broadcast format. Going to 4K and 8K is more a matter of tweeking this technology than getting people to adopt a new one. It is very much chicken and egg: why broadcast 4K if only a few people can properly view it? But why buy a 4K TV if there’s nothing broadcast? Once the manufacturers have got the yield up to sufficient levels they’ll drop those models which are HD only and 4K will become the new norm.

The other potential blocker stopping 4k is that with the viewing distances most people have (compared to the size of their telly), it makes naff-all difference. freeview hd is currently pushing out 1080i (you might be getting 1080p over sky etc). Advertising 4x the pixels might help sell tvs (and the odd sky package), but in reality, its undetectable from the sofa. With a 55″ tv, the benefits (with 20:20 vision) START to become noticable @ ~12′ from the tv (which is probably close to UK average viewing distance?) – to start noticing the benefits of 4k you’d need to be 7′ away, and for 8k you’d need to be around 3′ away. As the beeb doesn’t really need to sell packages to a few elitists who want to claim unmeasurable benefits, I doubt we’ll see it here (on freeview) in the near future.

Meanwhile other parts of the world are trashed by piles of electrical waste as people needlessly up grade their tellys to watch the few bits of nature that are left in glorious 8k or whatever

Bloody ecologists, trying to understand how nature works before we destroy it entirely.

I see your attitude hasn’t changed much since you were arguing black was white with your lecturer…

*whooosh*

Coming from a geoscientist (was it?), that’s a bit rich. But ecology is great, it’s just I can’t feed my wife with it – very easily anyway.

God, you’ve got more anger issues than me Zokes. On a side note, my lecturer was wrong in the end.

So to boil down the techies arguments…. 4k is 29″; ace just now and the future, until 8k comes along with its 650b newness? Mountains next week, that will be my favourite methinks.

Mountains next week, that will be my favourite methinks.

You’ll need 8K to bring them alive.

But ecology is great, it’s just I can’t feed my wife with it – very easily anyway.

You should try harder, I don’t struggle to feed my family, and a few strands of my research do also look at how to better feed the world too.

God, you’ve got more anger issues than me Zokes.

Not really anger in this instance, more pity for you. I bet the lecturer just told you she was wrong so you’d leave her alone 😉

You’ll need 8K to bring them alive.

I’ve been struggling with this. If HD is 26″ and 4K is 29″, then surely 8K must be some even sillier clown size wheel, and what we actually need is 3K to make the racer snakes “alive”.

3.5k with plus size bezzel.

Oi! We appear to have stopped talking about the animals.

wasn’t expecting much but loved it. I’ve watched clips of the snakes all day on social media. I don’t even care if it wasn’t the same iguana in that sequence where he gets caught then escapes up the rock with the final leap for freedom. brilliant.
other highlights were the swimming sloth, the crabs and the tree jumping lemurs including the poor bastards that live on cacti.
not a big fan of birds, they’re a bit dim, but I liked the albatross bit.
loved the penguins smashing off the rocks, be interested to see more footage of the bloodied and broken ones. a gritty realism version of the cutesy schmaltz we usually get with penguins.
looking forward to the mountains one with bears, soaring eagles and frolicking goats.

Oh good, interesting footage ruined by some breathless anthropomorphism and a weird fascination with animal mating habits. Just retire Dave, let it go.

You should try harder, I don’t struggle to feed my family, and a few strands of my research do also look at how to better feed the world too.

And the rest involve researching better strip mining methods or how to intensively farm the shit out of everything, I assume?

All strands of my work have been for betterment of humankind – so don’t worry yourself too much Zokes.

Oh good, interesting footage ruined by some breathless anthropomorphism and a weird fascination with animal mating habits. Just retire Dave, let it go

Well, you’re a happy soul aren’t you? What would you rather, that the beeb stopped making these programmes?

To be fair, David is a racist cockwomble…or at least supports an organisation that is basically the Greens for UKIPers (Population Matters). He’s an aginging white colonialist dinosaur, I’m genuinely surprised that the Guardian hasn’t run some clickbait troll piece on him.

Unfortuantely, the alternative that the beeb has lined up in Professor Brian Cox – makes me want to rectally administer hydochloric acid to myself.

Yes, that’s the only choice. But for what it’s worth, yes, I would – at least until they can stop churning out the same footage just in better quality video. It’s like mtbing videos – same shit higher def.

Or they could get a better narrator, forgo the “Lion King” style stories and mix the camera footage with other technologies to really dig into what’s actually going on. There was a non Attenborough documentary a while ago which didn’t just focus on the video of lions hunting some gazelle or whatever, they tracked them and showed it on a top down image so you could see exactly how the lions were using chasers and cut-off groups etc.

Finally got around to watching this evening.
Next time work is crappy, i’ll remind myself it could be worse, i could be an iguana.

they tracked them and showed it on a top down image so you could see exactly how the lions were using chasers and cut-off groups etc.

Didn’t Attenborough do that years ago?

Enjoyed “Islands” last night on BBC iPlayer, great footage!

Weird how they only hinted at penguin fatalities, better half said it was a BBC policy to try and not show dead penguins as we regard them as miniature versions of ourselves in dinner suits! 😆

Continuing The Following season3 on Amazon Video can wait until tonight for shows like this. 😀

ozzy man delivers again!!

Thought this week’s programme was even more amazing than last week.

Out of the park.

Stunning, incredible TV. Last week was good, this week was even better.

To be fair, David is a racist cockwomble…

To be fair, that’s even more bollox than you usually manage to post. Having been privileged enough to have met and chatted with the bloke I don’t think I’ve met a more worldly or pleasant human

EP2 also excellent, though surprised they didn’t use wingsuits for the eagle bit.

Amazing! The baby ibex!

And then the crows just to make the fox feel even better 🙂

Bring me a sack of those snoring quasi-bunnies!

My 6 year old daughter ran out of “Deadly 60” shows to watch so I plonked her in front of Planet Earth 2 with the warning that this was a more grown-up show and there would be death.

She coped fine and was realy enjoying it until baby iguanas vs snakes.

After that, the mortally wounded penguins and the crabs with burning acid in their eyes, she was a bit less keen.

She now never ever not ever wants to see it again (but would quite like to watch the nice lemurs and sloths bit again please)

Those ibex reminded me of pro downhillers – somehow spotting lines at warp speed.

Those ibex reminded me of pro downhillers – somehow spotting lines at warp speed.

Reminded me of some old footage of Gee Atherton at the Rampage!

ozzy man delivers again!!

Poor man’s ‘Naasty Honey Badger’ rip off 😉

Beautiful photography as always but, I’m out.

Started off awesome with the Ibex this week,but kinda went downhill after that

Christ but there are some grumpy GITS on here, unparalleled footage of extraordinary animals in almost inaccessible parts of the world, and it’s still not good enough. 🙄
Pissing myself at the flamingos on the ice!
Had to feel a bit sorry for the fox after the Ibex, he must have felt that the whole of his world was pointing and laughing.

Oi, you lot, stop that anthropomorphalising right now! 😀

Highlight of the week’s telly, though, isn’t it? Scene after scene where you’re wondering how the hell they got that shot.

Those ibex reminded me of pro downhillers

I though the same – Red Bull Rampage.
Sadly, I also thought of the last scene in film Soylent Green – where Charlton Heston settles down to die watching nature programmes. It really might be the last time they can film some of these animals in the wild. Unless we do something.