The BBC release (via Warner Brothers in the US) of '
Planet Earth' has become the highest grossing high definition release since it hit store shelves earlier this year. Now, Discover Channel, who broadcasted the series in the United States, wants to get in on the action. They will release the Americanized version of the film at the end of this month on Blu-ray, which replaces British commentator David Attenborough with actress/conservationist Sigourney Weaver.
No technical specs have been announced, but coming this late to the game, one would hope the Discovery Channel rectifies the short-comings of the original BBC release. This includes missing content (which was oddly enough included on the DVD set) and low bit rate encodes which introduces banding issues to the image.
Another interesting note, the BBC will be releasing the original series in their native UK on a 5-disc set. No word on if the set will include all the content with better encodings, but hopefully the BBC will step up and give this series the treatment it deserves.