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Yellowstone AKA Yellowstone: Battle for Life (TV) (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - 2 entertain Video Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (23rd June 2013). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews of the show from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** A World Heritage site with an area of 3,400 square miles, Yellowstone boasts lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges, and is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. Set against a backdrop of stunning scenery and majestic panorama's, this series follows the lives of Yellowstone's wolves, grizzly bears, antelope and buffalo, as they try to survive three widely differing seasons. The single disc contains all three episodes.
Video
It should come as no surprise that 2 entertain Video release yet another BBC title at 1080i. Using an AVC encode, all three episodes are presented at 1.78:1, the same as they were during their original television broadcasts. The transfer is generally very pleasing indeed, but it is a little inconsistent and there are a couple of very minor issues. The first of these, is the occasional banding and haloing that generally takes place over the white snowy backgrounds, and the second is some sporadic light noise. Neither of these concerns are problematic enough to complain about though, and more worthy of a simple fleeting comment. Details are primarily very sharp, and the transfer really excels when it shows off the various environments, horizons and animal species. Some shots look better than others, but I would imagine that is down to the timing and locations of the shots, rather than being a problem with the transfer itself - after all, you can't get animals to do several takes for the camera! Colours show strong clarity throughout, and look natural, if a little soft at times. I was impressed with the strong black levels, and shadow detail was stronger than that found in similar doucmentary series.
Audio
There are two audio options available here: - English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 - English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo The inclusion of a lossless audio track is actually surprising to see, as many of the BBC's early blu-ray releases featured lossy audio only. The 5.1 track here is a good one, with Peter Firth's narration coming through the central speaker clearly. The footage of the animals and the noises they make is generally restrained to the front of the field, but the surrounds do great in capturing the subtle sounds of the surrounding environments, particularly with running water and wind. The score never really leaves the confines of the front speakers, which is a little bit of a shame, but this is a solid track. Optional subtitles have been provided in English HoH.
Extras
There's no extras menu, but don't fret! Each episode has a featurette that runs straight after, and the extras are available this way only. It's annoying as hell, but they're there. First up is a featurette entitled "Jeff Henry: The Snowman" which runs ten minutes and six seconds. It profiles park ranger Jeff Henry, who stays through the winter to become a 'roof shoveller', where he makes it his task to keep the roofs of buildings in Yellowstone free of snow. He spends as long as five months doing this task and this featurette shows how he does it. We learn a little about cornices and effects of the wind on how the snow lays. It's interesting to see how much work goes into keeping these buildings structurally sound. The next featurette, "Geyser Gazers", lasts for ten minutes and 51 seconds and is a closer look at those who get a lot of enjoyment from studying and viewing geysers. Each geyser has its own name, based around their eruption personalities. The geyser gazers also predict the activity and forward the information to the Yellowstone information centre so that visitors can try and view a geyser in action. Retired geologist Dick Powell is the most informative participant and is one of only three people trained to clean the geysers at Yellowstone. The final featurette is called "Mike Kasic: The Fishman" and runs ten minutes, 28 seconds. It follows Mike Kasic, who was the sound recordist for the show, swimming in the rivers of Yellowstone, something he does all the time being local to the area. This is a welcome little addition as the documentary itself never really focuses on the fish of the rivers in Yellowstone. When Kasic is covered in Caddis flies, I was a little taken aback, but then we hear a little about how the lakes were stocked with 310 million fish from Scotland and The Great Lakes. This rounds off some interesting extras.
Overall
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