So there are frequently animals walking in front of the sun, or sunlight peeping through forest canopies and between rocks. If the series was just in 4K it would be enough but the addition of HDR and WCG adds another level to the images on display and the series takes full advantage of the added latitude in many of the shots chosen. The 4K and HDR images are simply stunning

The resolution is such that it's easy to spot shots that have been blown-up and cropped, presumably because the cameramen couldn't get as close as they would have liked or perhaps dared, however for the most part the images are pure demo quality The various aerial shots and landscapes are incredible, as is the detail in the cityscapes. You can see every tiny fur on the numerous shots of big cats or the millions of locus that make up the swarm in one episode or a murmuration of thousands of birds in the sky in another.

The 4K photography, much of which takes place in brightly lit conditions, is bursting with detail and really demonstrates just how much visual information 4K can display. The BBC has spread the six episodes evenly across two Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and from the opening shots the level of detail is quite simply stunning. We reviewed Planet Earth II using the Panasonic DMP-UB900 and Oppo UDP-203 Ultra HD Blu-ray players, along with the Sony KD-65A1 and Samsung QE65Q8C 4K HDR TVs. The series is presented at a resolution of 3840 x 2160p and in its correct 1.78:1 aspect ratio, the discs use 10-bit video depth, a Wider Colour Gamut (WCG) and High Dynamic Range (HDR), and are encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec. Planet Earth II was filmed digitally using various 4K cameras and was finished using a 4K Digital Intermediate (DI), which presumably formed the basis for this Ultra HD Blu-ray release.

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