PlanetEarthSpecialEdition
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Must See HDTV (October 3rd - 9th)
How can we still have fall premieres left? After the onslaught of the last two weeks it seems there's still a few to go, as old standbys like House join fresh faces like American Horror Story and Penn & Teller Tell a Lie on the premiere list. It's also a big week for Blu-ray discs, as seen above with a couple of classics showing up, some Disney favorites returning for the first time and special treats like Daft Punk's Interstella 5555 and Planet Earth Special Edition. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Pulp Fiction After waiting far too long for Quentin Tarantino's hit movie to debut on Blu-ray we got an early look at this one and it's worth the wait. Both the picture and audio quality are impressive, while we didn't have a copy of the imported version to compare them to the picture is clean and artifact free, while the 5.1 soundtrack gives equal time to the witty dialogue and occasional action. There's no audio commentary present, but there is about an hour or so of new HD extras included for the fans. If you've somehow avoided seeing this movie so far we don't even know what to say to you, but this is the best way to watch since it debuted in 1994. ($15.99 on Amazon, October 4th) House Everyone's favorite jerk of a doctor returns for an eighth and possibly final season tonight. With Cuddy gone and Dr. Gregory House locked in jail we're wondering if it can keep the medical procedural formula fresh for another year, but so far it's held up well despite cast rotations and the so often under-appreciated main-character-loses-his-mind plot twist. Don't have enough reasons to watch? Jaleel White is guest starring in tonight's season premiere episode, so there you go. (October 3rd, Fox, 9PM) The League If you've listened to our podcast or are participating in either of the official Engadget HD leagues, then you already know we're all in when it comes to fantasy football. The League returns this week for a third season and captures all of the insanity that happens when people stop being friends and start getting real... pretend. Despite its very intense focus on a group of friends and their over the top competition, as well as guest appearances by NFL stars, there's enough comedy there to keep watching whether you're watching tonight's game hoping a backup RB gets 75 yards and a touchdown or not. (October 6th, FX, 10:30PM)
Planet Earth Special Edition Blu-ray set coming to the US from BBC America
Last year, BBC revisited its acclaimed Planet Earth series of nature documentaries with a Special Edition Blu-ray set, and now BBC America shop has revealed the set will also be released on this side of the pond. While the discs shipped last fall in the UK and were region free, they were encoded in a 1080i50 format that most US Blu-ray players (most notably the PlayStation 3) don't support. The new special editions fix one of the quirks of the original releases by opting for two 50GB BD50 discs instead of four 25GB platters, and adding new high definition extras including audio commentaries and options to isolate either the music or sound effects. There's still more to see however, with content from Planet Earth's Greatest Moments, Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth and a sneak peek at the upcoming Frozen Planet project on the discs. The set also includes the standard def extras omitted from the original high definition releases, that consists of several Making Of featurettes and a three part Planet Earth - The Future documentary, and two new standard definition extras. There's no word on a release date or pricing, but if you've been drooling over the UK rereleases (which apparently suffered a problems on a couple of the discs in initial runs but have since been fixed) a little patience should pay off nicely -- if you've forgotten how amazing the footage is or somehow missed out the first time around, check out the original trailer after the break.
