Kitz Forum
Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: sevenlayermuddle on December 12, 2017, 11:25:11 PM
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Bored, and looking for something to watch, I was surprised to stumble upon the entire series of Blue Planet II, available in UHD on iPlayer. You do have adequate broadband speed, and a TV that is deemed by the BBC to be compatible, listed at...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/latest-news/blue-planet-II-uhd
As well as UHD it is HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma, BBC’s implementation of HDR) though I remain a little confused as my TV is not supposed to HDR capable, yet is on the list, and certainly plays the material in UHD. Am I getting any benefit from HLG, not sure? ???
HDR or not, picture quality is amazing and unlike most of the UHD rubbish from web publishers, it is superbly filmed/recorded. Saunter over to the (55”) TV and, the closer you get, the better it looks. And you’ll probably learn a few things about fish into the bargain, if you can stop admiring the picture long enough to sit back and actually enjoy the programme. :)
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Wow! Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll check this out on my LG OLED set. :yay:
Some weeks ago I had a firmware update which enabled HLG and the Planet Earth UHD loop on iPlayer revealed itself. I also have the UHD Blu-rays disk for this and was able to do a direct comparison. Both pictures were stunning, but I thought the streamed image lacked a little punchiness in comparison. Nevertheless still very watchable and it is fantastic that these programmes will be available on demand. I’ve watched a few series on Netflix in UHD and was impressed with those also.
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Re HLG, I think one of its selling points vs HDR 10 is that an HLG stream can be backwards compatible with non HDR TVs. So maybe, my TV is on the list because it has implemented the backwards compatibility mode of HLG, and just displaying basic UHD but no HDR? Hard to say really, without a side-by-side comparison of two identical sets, but it certainly looked as good as anything I've seen on that TV.
Trouble with Netflix is, last time I looked, their 4k content seemed to focus on the home-brewed material, none of which I have ever liked much. Not saying it's bad for everybody, just that I personally don't like their style.
Amazon too, have some stuff in 4k, maybe I should look again, but nothing so far that I wanted to watch. Mine's an Apple household so I could be tempted to invest in the new 4k Apple TV but even then, the reason I resorted to iPlayer last night was that I'd had a nice dinner and a glass (or more) of wine, was in a mood for TV, and would have been happy to pay for an Apple rental. And then I spent ages browsing both Apple and Netflix, and failing to find anything new that caught my interest.
I guess it could be argued, I'm getting too fussy. :D
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Just had a quick watch of this and agree with you that the picture quality is outstanding, the detail is phenomenal! Fantastic job by the BBC.
I agree with you re Netflix and Amazon, their home-spun material is not too my liking either, but my other half insisted on watching The crown and, of course, I had to sit through it too! In general my TV watching attention span wanes once past the hour mark. Modern day movies are a nightmare for me! :lol: