New to Blu: January 12-18 (TV)
January 11, 2011 
2 Comments
Science-fiction and factual science dominate this week’s TV-on-Blu-ray newcomers.
Last Chance to See is your first chance to see this Stephen Fry eco-travelogue with a Kiwi connection in HD – it originally aired here in SD on Prime.
Unlike many BBC series, the transfer is 1080p rather than 1080i.
“The result is a series that looks very good but doesn’t aspire to reach the heights of the BBC’s other flagship nature series,” Michaeldvd.com judged.
“The colours are strong and accurate and the image is always clear.”
Concurred Blu-ray.com: “Detail is impressive as well, revealing the tiniest feather on a kakapo, individual scales of a komodo dragon, the grooves of a black rhino’s leathery skin, and every pore on Fry’s face.”
Also new from Wednesday are Richard Hammond’s Invisible Worlds, the Discovery Channel ice-age hat-trick of Clash of the Dinosaurs, Last Days of the Dinosaur and Prehistoric, Doctor Who: Complete Series 5 and Stargate Universe: Season 1.
Reviewers thought the HD transfer of Stargate solid but short of excellent. The Digital Bits best summed up the processing overkill as “warm metallic” and “a little too smooth” but praised the DTS-HD MA audio as one of the more impressive TV soundtracks of late.
Metalocalypse: Season 3 also surfaces Wednesday while due on Monday is WWE Bragging Rights 2010.
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January 12, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Are you sure about BBC series usually being 1080p? Certainly my Blu-Ray copies of both Doctor Who and Torchwood are all 1080i – I believe this is for technical reasons connected to the fact that the BBC still broadcasts at 25fps.
Thanks for that. I have erred — it should have read most BBC series are 1080i and not 1080p (as it does now). I wondered if Last Chance would be 1080i, too, as the US Blu-ray is 1080i. But Michaeldvd.com is a reliable, authoritative website that usually can be trusted. That’s confirmed by my reviewer’s copy, which arrived today — the packaging says 1080p, 25fps and my Panasonic TV displays it as 1080p/50Hz.