The high-definition DVD version of the Discovery Channel and BBC’s Planet Earth has sold about 45,000 copies. That’s “one for every five owners of a high-def disc machine, a ratio only a handful of DVDs have ever come close to,” USA TODAY reports.

Those sales translate to $3.2 million, “the biggest moneymaker yet to hit Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD.” The set actually has “a list price of nearly $100 costs more than the average DVD player,” although it retails for around $65—still more than many DVD players.

The four-disc high-definition set has been available in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray; both have the British narration by David Attenborough, and are not the Sigourney Weaver-narrated US version. There’s also a standard DVD version. Today, the Discovery Channel starts selling HD versions of the US version.

Warner Home Video’s Ron Sanders tells the paper, “This series was made for high definition. Its success points to consumers wanting to see and hear high-definition content, and there isn’t a huge amount of content available from broadcast or cable or satellite.”

The BBC’s Burton Cromer tells the paper, “In a month and a half, we’ve sold more copies of Planet Earth across all three formats than we’ve sold of The Office or Fawlty Towers. And we don’t see any letup; in fact, we’re selling more units a day than when we first streeted.”

He attributes that success in part to Oprah, who talked about the series during two episodes of her show. “If you don’t think I have a shrine to Oprah set up in my office, you’re wrong,” he said.
‘Planet Earth’ looks great in HD — and to the BBC [USA TODAY]

Way to go HD DVD again.

This is interesting news. I wonder if this US re-release will contain the missing making-of documentaries?

Their website already says "No longer available" for both the HD and BD editions.

So basically with the US version we'd be listening to Ripley instead of a British Guy?

"This is interesting news. I wonder if this US re-release will contain the missing making-of documentaries?"

Good question.

why WB/Discovery didn't just make an uber-disc set including both UK/US episodes and the inclusion of the extras for the 'new' HD versions is beyond me...

The episodes are shorter as well.

Anyone else think that 45K is a ridiculously low number for a "best seller"?

Also, isn't this number HD DVD and BD combined?

Not when it actually is a best seller.

45K units for any hi-def disc is pretty damn good.

No, it's not. As I read the article, I assumed they were again wrongly lumping in BDs as "high definition DVDs," but the number is too low for that, so they are indeed only referring to HD DVD here. The number can't be for both formats because they've sold a combined 100,000 copies of The Departed.

Wait wait wait..

This is getting re-released with shorter episodes and Weaver narrating? Is the existing set going OOP?

I'd better get this ordered..

shorter episodes, regardless if Weaver is narrating = no sale...

I wouldn't worry about the current version going OOP. The new set is from a different company (Discovery HD as opposed to the BBC). It's just an alternate version.

I bought the BBC version yesterday, and every single disc in the set was scratched when I opened it. Fucking hell. Anyone else have any problems?

I guess the British use the same care in maintaining their DVDs as they do their teeth

Nope, it's the COMBINED number of Blu-ray and HD DVDs. But it's made more in sales than THE DEPARTED has, since the set retails for almost three times what THE DEPARTED retails for. The combinded sales of THE DEPARTED has totaled about 2.8 million.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/686

Best-selling DVDs sell in the millions. I wonder how many of the regular DVDs were sold.

It's combined sales for both formats.

One of my discs (BD) was a floater, but there were no playback problems.

Yeah, this keeps getting passed over.

And the number is insignificant in the big picture. How many DVDs of this were sold?

They need to supply supplement DVDs to people who bought the HD sets, for the cost of shipping. Leaving that material out was a ridiculous, incomprehensible decision. Great set otherwise.

you should have noted it this way