Monday, April 21, 2008

Sharkwater DVD and Blu-ray Review

Sharkwater Blu-ray and DVD

If you’re like me and your mother loves sharks and shark-related shows and movies, then you probably grew up watching a lot of stuff about sharks. The side effect of this is that I always love watching documentaries about sharks. Sharkwater is no exception and a great documentary about the myths and realities of sharks and how they live and interact with the world. It’s composed of some excellent and gorgeous footage of the ocean and obviously sharks.

DVD and Blu-ray Video: We tested both the Standard Definition and Blu-ray version of Sharkwatcher. Both version are anamorphic and look wonderful. The Blu-ray obviously features the better picture, but that has more to do with one being in High Definition and the other being Standard Definition. There is a change when the filming source does switch from an HD cam to a regular camera. However, these are materials inherent in the differences in the sources and not anything dealing with encoding. Both are anamorphically enhanced at 1:85:1 and the Blu-ray is encoded at 1080p.

Audio: Both BR and DVD use a Dolby Digital 5.1 track and sound great. Much like the BBC Natural History Collection and to an extent even more so you get to hear the deep seas and the creatures that inhabit it. Once again it helps to build an immersive experience.

Extras: The DVD and BR share the same extras including a making of, a vintage military shark defense video, a trailer and image gallery. The extras are not as extensive as say the BBC sets, but are still very nice additions given to us by Warner Brothers. Also some extras are in HD and others SD.

Overall: If you have any interest in sharks or nature documentaries, this is an easy must buy: a mixture of wonderful underwater footage and informative discussion about the plight and reality as opposed to Hollywood (or if you like Italian films Cruel Jaws and the Last Shark).

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