Dueling "Life" Blu-ray discs: Attenborough vs. Winfrey

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010


They ruined “Planet Earth” with narration by Sigourney Weaver and James Earl Jones. They ruined “Life” with narration by Oprah Winfrey. At least on Blu-ray, though, you have the choice to choose the real versions, narrated by one of my personal heroes, Sir David Attenborough. There are, in fact, two versions on the shelves right now, and the Winfrey one, in addition to having an inferior narrator, also has inferior picture quality. Yes, incredibly, they released it in 1080i. High definition fail!

Yeah, the Attenborough version costs a couple bucks more, but what do you expect? It’s a superior product!

If you haven’t watched “Life” yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up. And actually buy it, for two reasons:

1. Supporting nature documentaries and the organizations that fund them like the Beeb
2. You want the best possible picture quality, and streaming or pirating generally will not give you that

So head on over to Amazon. Sure, it’s $50, but you’ll be glad you did it.

[via Crave]

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