Human Planet [DVD]

This BBC series features people interacting with many varied environments around the world. The photography and the content are just stunning. I don't want to labour the superlatives but if I just used astounding, awesome and breathtaking then they will suffice to illustrate how good each one hour programme is. I have always regarded David Attenborough as being at the peak of BBC natural history documentary making but I think this series surpasses even him. Even the additional 10-minute features at the end of each episode are as breathtaking as the main programme.However, my one complaint is that all distances, measurements and quantities are given in metric values. I'm afraid that I just don't understand them and I have no concept of a value given in metres, kilometres or kilos. When the narrative tells me that a falcon can fly at 280 kilometres per hour, an elk is 3 metres tall or a herd of elephant is 50 kilometres away I'm left with no idea of the speed, height or distance! Along with millions of other people of my age here in the UK, as well as for the many millions more in the USA, it would be nice to have such measurements given in the mph, feet and miles that we understand and are comfortable with.

Incredible, I would give this an extra star. This is the best documentary I have ever seen done by the BBC. While I have found the nature documentaries (esp. Mr. Attenborough's) to be highly informative and entertaining, this documentary is full of "I never knew that" information about humans and how we survive in environments many of us city dwellers would not think possible. From the frozen regions of the world, to the desolate deserts, and even our cities, this documentary has taught me more about humanity than any other documentary I have ever seen. Something that makes this very special, is that it is also FULL OF HOPE in a world where many of us are starting to despise ourselves Yes, I have personally encountered this, and after watching "Human Planet", I realize that humans are a part of nature, not some "unnecessary freak".My sincere wish is that the "Human Planet" would become part of every school curriculum (to be watched). I believe by seeing this documentary, we can better understand our place on "Planet Earth", and we can all plan for a much better future.EXCELLENT WORK BBC.

This 470 min Human Planet REGION FREE BLU-RAY (subtitles in English if required) is beautifully filmed with high quality camera work and well narrated by Sir John Hurt. I first saw this series on TV and decided to buy the boxset that has been worth every penny. It has three discs that are titled as follows :- DISC 1 Oceans, Deserts, Arctic. DISC 2 Jungles, Mountains, Grassland. DISC 3 Rivers, Cities, Exrtas.Extras include Behind the lens - Fez - Volcano - BD LIVE Feature- Zanskar.Following in the footsteps of the BBC's great natural histoty programmes, Human Planet is an epic yet intimate celebration of the amazing and sometimes challenging relationship between humans and the natural world.A boxset that is interesting, informative and suitable for adults and older children, highly recomended.

I cannot think of words good enough to describe this series - it was utterly amazing, fascinating, informative and always stunning! The BBC always does good natural history programmes, but this one was, without a doubt, one of its best. The Madagascar one was also stunning, but the Human Planet showed how we, as humans, adapt to the different environments in which we live. I loved the one about the Tibetan family who had to walk for six days along a frozen river for the children to get to school! How many children in this country would even think about doing this - if they can't be taken a mile or so by car, they moan!! This series should be compulsory watching in ALL schools, both primary and secondary, so that all children can see how other people live and survive in sometimes very hostile environments.

Most of the BBC nature programs are much cheaper for us in the United States when bought from the UK. We also don't have to pay VAT, so the price can work out cheaper than even what the Brits pay.This is the first time that I tried ordering a blu-ray from the UK, and I made sure to check that it's region-free so it would play on my Playstation 3. I was thus disappointed when it did not work.It turns out that the program was recorded at 50Hz, and only some US players can play this frequency. There's more information about this at [...] - search for the UK edition of Human Planet and check the forum discussion. They even give a list of which players are compatible. Note that this isn't a NTSC vs. PAL issue as this isn't relevant for blu-rays.

I was set up to be disappointed by this DVD because I bought it thinking it was a lesser-known series by David Attenborough - due to a combination of the box packaging being identical to the "Attenborough branding" of his DVDs (also BBC) and the way it came up on the Amazon search for Attenborough/was compared to two of his series in the Amazon text.On realising that it wasn't what I had expected I decided to watch it anyway, as it still looked interesting, but I found it quite superficial (it would describe one very isolated thing quite well, but gave no context). I was also surprised to find that every single scene/'story' was about hunting and killing animals in some way - "Ways people kill stuff" being a reasonable premise for an anthropological series but not one that I'd have bought, and not what I was expecting from the info available before viewing.It also irritated me disproportionately that every episode starts off by claiming that humans live in every habitat on Earth - no, they live in every *land* habitat, and can enter the sea/live on the surface of it, but there aren't any deep-sea underwater cities yet!