Just Received The Discover Atlas Hd Dvd Box Set

dkny75 · 01-05-07, 12:21 PM

I just received the Discover Atlas HD DVD box set from the DiscoveryStore in the mail yesterday.

The box set comes in a very nice looking leather (fake of course but looks nice) outer box. The cases for the individual episodes however are quite flimsy. They are the same height as the regular dvd cases but are slim digipaks with a slipcover. I was able to watch China: Revealed and Italy: Revealed yesterday night so here's a quick review of the video and audio.

China: Revealed was a little disappointing in terms of video. The transfer was very inconsistant. It went from looking very 3D to seeing lots of digital noise in the background. Some scenes just looked too soft and some of the wide scenery shots could have looked a lot better. Being a documentary the sound was adequate and very comprehensible.

Italy: Revealed was absolutely stunning in comparison. It had that pop you expect to see for such a recent documentary shot with HD cameras. Everything looked amazing.

I'm not sure why there was a huge difference in video quality between the two. The disc menus were encoded in MPEG2 but the actual features and special features were encoded in AVCMPEG4.

I'm a huge fan of documentaries but I have not seen this series on the DiscoveryHD channel so I'm not sure if it looked any better or worse than the discs. If you're a fan of this series or of documentaries in general, you should definitely pick this up. Either way it's great to have more content in HD.

Supermallet · 01-05-07, 12:33 PM

I saw some of these when they aired on Discovery HD and they did look very good. Can't wait to see how the HD discs look. Thanks!

Engel07 · 01-06-07, 11:07 AM

Can you take picture of the HD box set?

dkny75 · 01-06-07, 12:51 PM

If I have some spare time this weekend I'll try to.

I was able to watch Brazil: Revealed last night and here are my thoughts. First off the entire disc in encoded in VC1. I'm not sure why they used a different codec from the first two that I watched. Overall I think the video quality was a little lower than Italy although some of the scenes from Carnival just seemed to pop right into my living room. There was also an option in this disc to choose from 5.1 or 2.0 in terms of sound. This was another great disc.

Hopefully Austrailia will be just as good.

01-05-07, 12:21 PM	#1
dkny75 Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 707	Just Received The Discover Atlas Hd Dvd Box Set I just received the Discover Atlas HD DVD box set from the DiscoveryStore in the mail yesterday. The box set comes in a very nice looking leather (fake of course but looks nice) outer box. The cases for the individual episodes however are quite flimsy. They are the same height as the regular dvd cases but are slim digipaks with a slipcover. I was able to watch China: Revealed and Italy: Revealed yesterday night so here's a quick review of the video and audio. China: Revealed was a little disappointing in terms of video. The transfer was very inconsistant. It went from looking very 3D to seeing lots of digital noise in the background. Some scenes just looked too soft and some of the wide scenery shots could have looked a lot better. Being a documentary the sound was adequate and very comprehensible. Italy: Revealed was absolutely stunning in comparison. It had that pop you expect to see for such a recent documentary shot with HD cameras. Everything looked amazing. I'm not sure why there was a huge difference in video quality between the two. The disc menus were encoded in MPEG2 but the actual features and special features were encoded in AVCMPEG4. I'm a huge fan of documentaries but I have not seen this series on the DiscoveryHD channel so I'm not sure if it looked any better or worse than the discs. If you're a fan of this series or of documentaries in general, you should definitely pick this up. Either way it's great to have more content in HD. __________________ DVD Spot DVD Aficionado DVD Profiler Wii number: 8635 5577 9502 4722

01-05-07, 12:33 PM	#2
Supermallet Moderator Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Termite Terrace Posts: 39,330	I saw some of these when they aired on Discovery HD and they did look very good. Can't wait to see how the HD discs look. Thanks! __________________ "if you truly want to discuss Sodom with me, send me a PM" - dvdjunkie32 Watch me squawk on Twitter: @Supermallet Check out my Bond commentaries

01-06-07, 12:51 PM	#4
dkny75 Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 707	If I have some spare time this weekend I'll try to. I was able to watch Brazil: Revealed last night and here are my thoughts. First off the entire disc in encoded in VC1. I'm not sure why they used a different codec from the first two that I watched. Overall I think the video quality was a little lower than Italy although some of the scenes from Carnival just seemed to pop right into my living room. There was also an option in this disc to choose from 5.1 or 2.0 in terms of sound. This was another great disc. Hopefully Austrailia will be just as good. __________________ DVD Spot DVD Aficionado DVD Profiler Wii number: 8635 5577 9502 4722

01-06-07, 11:07 AM	#3
Engel07 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 377	Can you take picture of the HD box set?