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85-516: Natural World is a strand of British wildlife documentary programmes broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. It is the longest-running documentary in its genre on British television, with nearly 500 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World programmes are typically one-off films that take an in-depth look at particular natural history events, stories or subjects from around

170-474: A 5:3 (1.67:1) aspect ratio and 60 Hz refresh rate. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), headed by Charles Ginsburg, became the testing and study authority for HDTV technology in the international theater. SMPTE would test HDTV systems from different companies from every conceivable perspective, but the problem of combining the different formats plagued the technology for many years. There were four major HDTV systems tested by SMPTE in

255-625: A clearer, more detailed picture. In addition, progressive scan and higher frame rates result in a picture with less flicker and better rendering of fast motion. Modern HDTV began broadcasting in 1989 in Japan, under the MUSE /Hi-Vision analog system. HDTV was widely adopted worldwide in the late 2000s. All modern high-definition broadcasts utilize digital television standards. The major digital television broadcast standards used for terrestrial, cable, satellite, and mobile devices are: These standards use

340-420: A comprehensive HDTV standard was not in the end established, agreement on the aspect ratio was achieved. Initially the existing 5:3 aspect ratio had been the main candidate but, due to the influence of widescreen cinema, the aspect ratio 16:9 (1.78) eventually emerged as being a reasonable compromise between 5:3 (1.67) and the common 1.85 widescreen cinema format. An aspect ratio of 16:9 was duly agreed upon at

425-743: A digital format from DVB. The first regular broadcasts began on January 1, 2004, when the Belgian company Euro1080 launched the HD1 channel with the traditional Vienna New Year's Concert . Test transmissions had been active since the IBC exhibition in September 2003, but the New Year's Day broadcast marked the official launch of the HD1 channel, and the official start of direct-to-home HDTV in Europe. Euro1080,

510-404: A division of the later defunct Belgian TV services company Alfacam, broadcast HDTV channels to break the pan-European stalemate of "no HD broadcasts mean no HD TVs bought means no HD broadcasts ..." and kick-start HDTV interest in Europe. The HD1 channel was initially free-to-air and mainly comprised sporting, dramatic, musical and other cultural events broadcast with a multi-lingual soundtrack on

595-645: A famous example, Walt Disney 's White Wilderness (1958), lemmings were herded to their deaths from a cliff by the filmmakers. Examples also occur in modern nature documentaries, such as Hidden Kingdoms (2014) and Blue Planet II (2017), indicating that such practices are still routine. Due to the difficulties of recording sounds on locations, it is common for nature documentary makers to record sounds in post-production using Foley and to use sound effect libraries. Compositing and computer-generated imagery are also sometimes used to construct shots. Wild animals are often filmed over weeks or months, so

680-572: A frequent producer and narrator during its first two decades, as "a series designed to sell colour television sets". Due to the difficulty of sourcing colour films at the time, The World About Us started out with a broad remit of geography , anthropology and natural history as subject matter. Gradually, the contributions from the Travel and Exploration Unit diminished and the Natural History Unit's programmes grew in prominence. This

765-536: A generous budget, courtesy of a co-production partnership with the US broadcaster WNET . The American channel was keen to commission material for its recently launched Nature strand on PBS. The first programme to benefit from the partnership was the 1982 mini-series The Flight of the Condor . At the same time, researchers and field biologists were publishing many new discoveries about wildlife in scientific journals, providing

850-559: A global recommendation for Analog HDTV. These recommendations, however, did not fit in the broadcasting bands which could reach home users. The standardization of MPEG-1 in 1993 led to the acceptance of recommendations ITU-R BT.709 . In anticipation of these standards, the DVB organization was formed. It was alliance of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers and regulatory bodies. The DVB develops and agrees upon specifications which are formally standardised by ETSI . DVB created first

935-538: A human presenter, the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory voice-overs to extensive interaction or even confrontation with animals. Most nature documentaries are made for television and are usually of 45 to 50 minutes duration, but some are made as full-length cinematic presentations. Such films include: In addition, the BBC 's The Blue Planet and Planet Earth series have both been adapted by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media for theatrical release. In some cases, nature documentaries are produced in

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1020-581: A jungle within a few minutes, so that the places seem to be teeming with life. You distort size by using close-up lenses. And you distort sound. What the filmmaker is trying to do is to convey a particular experience. … The viewer has to trust in the good faith of the filmmaker. Nature documentaries have been criticized for leaving viewers with the impression that wild animals survived and thrived after encounters with predators, even when they sustain potentially life-threatening injuries. They also cut away from particularly violent encounters, or attempt to downplay

1105-400: A much wider set of frame rates: 59.94i, 60i, 23.976p, 24p, 29.97p, 30p, 59.94p and 60p. In the days of standard-definition television, the fractional rates were often rounded up to whole numbers, e.g. 23.976p was often called 24p, or 59.94i was often called 60i. Sixty Hertz high definition television supports both fractional and slightly different integer rates, therefore strict usage of notation

1190-434: A rolling schedule of four or five hours per day. These first European HDTV broadcasts used the 1080i format with MPEG-2 compression on a DVB-S signal from SES 's Astra 1H satellite. Euro1080 transmissions later changed to MPEG-4/AVC compression on a DVB-S2 signal in line with subsequent broadcast channels in Europe. Despite delays in some countries, the number of European HD channels and viewers has risen steadily since

1275-618: A scientific and educational approach, some anthropomorphise their subjects or present animals purely for the viewer's pleasure. In a few instances, they are in presented in ethnographic film formats and contain stories that involve humans and their relationships with the natural world, as in Nanook of the North (1922), The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003), and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925). Although almost all have

1360-495: A similar manner to other nature documentaries. The shows ( Walking with Dinosaurs , Walking with Beasts , and Walking with Monsters ) had three spinoffs, two of which featured Nigel Marven : Chased by Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy . Robert Winston presented Walking with Cavemen . Most nature documentary films or television series focus on a particular species , ecosystem , or scientific idea (such as evolution ). Although most take

1445-652: A studio-based BBC magazine-program with filmed inserts, hosted by Sir Peter Scott from 1955 to 1981. The first 50-minute weekly documentary series, The World About Us , began on BBC2 in 1967 with a color installment from the French filmmaker Haroun Tazieff, called "Volcano". Around 1982, the series changed its title to The Natural World , which the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol continued to produce as of 2023 . In 1961, Anglia Television produced

1530-606: A three-time winner at IWFF in 2012, "My Life As A Turkey", recipient of the Golden Panda at the Wildscreen Festival in 2012 and "Kangaroo Dundee", a prize-winner at Jackson Hole and IWFF in 2013. Nature documentary Robert J. Flaherty 's 1922 film Nanook of the North is typically cited as the first feature-length documentary. Decades later, Walt Disney Productions pioneered the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries with its production of

1615-551: A top broadcasting administrator in Japan admitted failure of its analog-based HDTV system, saying the U.S. digital format would be more likely a worldwide standard. However this announcement drew angry protests from broadcasters and electronic companies who invested heavily into the analog system. As a result, he took back his statement the next day saying that the government will continue to promote Hi-Vision/MUSE. That year NHK started development of digital television in an attempt to catch back up to America and Europe. This resulted in

1700-511: A variety of video codecs , some of which are also used for internet video . The term high definition once described a series of television systems first announced in 1933 and launched starting in August 1936; however, these systems were only high definition when compared to earlier systems that were based on mechanical systems with as few as 30 lines of resolution. The ongoing competition between companies and nations to create true HDTV spanned

1785-491: Is no single standard for HDTV color support. Colors are typically broadcast using a (10-bits per channel) YUV color space but, depending on the underlying image generating technologies of the receiver, are then subsequently converted to a RGB color space using standardized algorithms. When transmitted directly through the Internet, the colors are typically pre-converted to 8-bit RGB channels for additional storage savings with

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1870-495: Is not the first HDTV service over digital terrestrial television in Europe; Italy's RAI started broadcasting in 1080i on April 24, 2008, using the DVB-T transmission standard. In October 2008, France deployed five high definition channels using DVB-T transmission standard on digital terrestrial distribution. HDTV broadcast systems are identified with three major parameters: If all three parameters are used, they are specified in

1955-437: Is required to avoid ambiguity. Nevertheless, 29.97p/59.94i is almost universally called 60i, likewise 23.976p is called 24p. For the commercial naming of a product, the frame rate is often dropped and is implied from context (e.g., a 1080i television set ). A frame rate can also be specified without a resolution. For example, 24p means 24 progressive scan frames per second, and 50i means 25 interlaced frames per second. There

2040-514: Is the use of highly efficient modulation techniques for further reducing bandwidth, and foremost for reducing receiver-hardware and antenna requirements. In 1983, the International Telecommunication Union's radio telecommunications sector (ITU-R) set up a working party (IWP11/6) with the aim of setting a single international HDTV standard. One of the thornier issues concerned a suitable frame/field refresh rate,

2125-468: Is used in all digital HDTV storage and transmission systems will distort the received picture when compared to the uncompressed source. ATSC and DVB define the following frame rates for use with the various broadcast standards: The optimum format for a broadcast depends upon the type of videographic recording medium used and the image's characteristics. For best fidelity to the source, the transmitted field ratio, lines, and frame rate should match those of

2210-483: The BBC HD channel and following its closure are now simulcast on BBC Two HD. The World About Us helped to popularize the long-form documentary on British television thanks to its generous 50-minute length, a step up from the half-hour programmes which were more common at the time. Filmmakers were able to take advantage of this format to delve into a particular story in more detail, or cover broader themes. More recently,

2295-615: The Echo of the Elephants films, which followed scientist Cynthia Moss and cameraman Martyn Colbeck on their lengthy study of an elephant herd in Kenya. In "Attenborough in Paradise" (1996), he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to observe and film the courtship displays of birds of paradise , whilst "The Amber Time Machine" (2004) saw him trace the origins of a piece of amber from the time of

2380-519: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because of their higher bandwidth requirements. At this time, the number of television channels was growing rapidly and bandwidth was already a problem. A new standard had to be more efficient, needing less bandwidth for HDTV than the existing NTSC. The limited standardization of analog HDTV in the 1990s did not lead to global HDTV adoption as technical and economic constraints at

2465-544: The ISDB format. Japan started digital satellite and HDTV broadcasting in December 2000. High-definition digital television was not possible with uncompressed video , which requires a bandwidth exceeding 1   Gbit/s for studio-quality HD digital video . Digital HDTV was made possible by the development of discrete cosine transform (DCT) video compression . DCT coding is a lossy image compression technique that

2550-554: The True-Life Adventures series, a collection of fourteen full length and short subject nature films from 1948 to 1960. Prominent among those were The Living Desert (1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), both written and directed by James Algar . The first full-length nature-documentary films pioneering colour underwater cinematography were the Italian film Sesto Continente ( The Sixth Continent ) and

2635-470: The organic farming methods used on his Highgrove House estate. For many years, the series regularly included documentaries on British wildlife, but the commissioning editors no longer consider such programmes. The last programme with a British theme was "An Unnatural History of London" in 2012, which featured the capital's urban wildlife. Another programme set in Britain, 2003's "My Halcyon River", became

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2720-719: The short subject form and are subsequently screened in theaters or broadcast on television. Often they are about the relationship between humans and nature. Notable examples include: Every two years the Wildscreen Trust, of Bristol in the UK presents the Panda Awards for nature documentaries. The "naturalness" of nature documentaries has been disputed. Some, particularly those involving animals, have included footage of staged events that appear "natural" while actually contrived by filmmakers or occurring in captivity. In

2805-401: The suffering endured by the individual animal, by appealing to concepts such as the " balance of nature " and "the good of the herd". Among the many notable filmmakers, scientists, and presenters who have contributed to the medium include: Sir David Attenborough 's contributions to conservation are widely regarded, and his television programs have been seen by millions of people throughout

2890-462: The 240-line with its 25 Hz frame rate. The 240-line system could have doubled its frame rate but this would have meant that the transmitted signal would have doubled in bandwidth, an unacceptable option as the video baseband bandwidth was required to be not more than 3 MHz. Color broadcasts started at similar line counts, first with the US NTSC color system in 1953, which was compatible with

2975-632: The BBC with plentiful material for new programme ideas. As a result, the strand quickly expanded from 10 to 20 slots by 1985 and a number of special programmes were commissioned, helped by additional funding from BBC Enterprises (now BBC Worldwide ). Among them were the award-winning mini-series Kingdom of the Ice Bear (1985) and Vanishing Earth (1986). David Attenborough maintained a close association with Natural World throughout its long history, narrating or presenting around 50 episodes to date. In 2008, on

3060-885: The Best Documentary Strand in 1999 and photography prizes to the episodes "Mississippi, Tales of the Last River Rat" in 2005 and "Wye, Voices from the Valley" in 2007. "Mississippi, Tales of the Last River Rat" was also recognised at the Grierson Trust 's British Documentary Awards in 2005. Other later award-winning episodes include "A Tiger Called Broken Tail", overall winner at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 2011 and Missoula's International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF) in 2012, "Madagascar, Lemurs and Spies",

3145-452: The CMTT and ETSI, along with research by Italian broadcaster RAI , developed a DCT video codec that broadcast near-studio-quality HDTV transmission at about 70–140 Mbit/s. The first HDTV transmissions in Europe, albeit not direct-to-home, began in 1990, when RAI broadcast the 1990 FIFA World Cup using several experimental HDTV technologies, including the digital DCT-based EU 256 codec,

3230-511: The French film Le Monde du silence ( The Silent World ). Directed by Folco Quilici Sesto Continente was shot in 1952 and first exhibited to Italian audiences in 1954. The Silent World , shot in 1954 and 1955 by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle , was first released in 1956. In 1954, the BBC started airing Zoo Quest , featuring David Attenborough . Other early nature documentaries include Fur and Feathers shown on CBC from 1955 to 1956 and hosted by Ian McTaggart-Cowan ., and Look ,

3315-526: The Japanese public broadcaster NHK first developed consumer high-definition television with a 5:3 display aspect ratio. The system, known as Hi-Vision or MUSE after its multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding (MUSE) for encoding the signal, required about twice the bandwidth of the existing NTSC system but provided about four times the resolution (1035i/1125 lines). In 1981, the MUSE system was demonstrated for

3400-478: The US series Nature , broadcast by PBS . The last episode was broadcast on 20 March 2020 with no new upcoming episodes currently listed. Natural World was initiated in 1983 as a wildlife-specific spin-off to The World About Us , itself a long-running documentary strand on BBC Two. The World About Us was commissioned in 1967 by David Attenborough , at that time the Controller of BBC Two, to promote

3485-696: The United Kingdom became the first European country to deploy high-definition content using the new DVB-T2 transmission standard, as specified in the Digital TV Group (DTG) D-book , on digital terrestrial television. The Freeview HD service contains 13 HD channels (as of April 2016 ) and was rolled out region by region across the UK in accordance with the digital switchover process, finally being completed in October 2012. However, Freeview HD

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3570-768: The United States occurred on July 23, 1996, when the Raleigh, North Carolina television station WRAL-HD began broadcasting from the existing tower of WRAL-TV southeast of Raleigh, winning a race to be first with the HD Model Station in Washington, D.C. , which began broadcasting July 31, 1996 with the callsign WHD-TV, based out of the facilities of NBC owned and operated station WRC-TV . The American Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) HDTV system had its public launch on October 29, 1998, during

3655-465: The United States saw Hi-Vision/MUSE as an outdated system and had already made it clear that it would develop an all-digital system. Experts thought the commercial Hi-Vision system in 1992 was already eclipsed by digital technology developed in the U.S. since 1990. This was an American victory against the Japanese in terms of technological dominance. By mid-1993 prices of receivers were still as high as 1.5 million yen (US$ 15,000). On February 23, 1994,

3740-521: The assumption that it will only be viewed only on a ( sRGB ) computer screen. As an added benefit to the original broadcasters, the losses of the pre-conversion essentially make these files unsuitable for professional TV re-broadcasting. Most HDTV systems support resolutions and frame rates defined either in the ATSC table 3, or in EBU specification. The most common are noted below. At a minimum, HDTV has twice

3825-441: The audience to form an emotional connection with the subject and to root for their survival when they encounter a predator . In 1984, David Attenborough stated: There is precious little that is natural … in any film. You distort speed if you want to show things like plants growing, or look in detail at the way an animal moves. You distort light levels. You distort distribution, in the sense that you see dozens of different species in

3910-406: The dinosaurs. For "Attenborough's Ark", a 2012 special, he selected his 10 personal favourite species to save on an imaginary ark. The programme drew 3.2 million viewers, the strand's highest audience for eight years. Natural World' s most-watched episode also featured Attenborough, this time as the narrator of "Highgrove, A Prince's Legacy" (2003). 4.8 million viewers watched Prince Charles explain

3995-712: The earlier monochrome systems and therefore had the same 525 lines per frame. European standards did not follow until the 1960s, when the PAL and SECAM color systems were added to the monochrome 625-line broadcasts. The NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) began researching to "unlock the fundamental mechanism of video and sound interactions with the five human senses" in 1964, after the Tokyo Olympics. NHK set out to create an HDTV system that scored much higher in subjective tests than NTSC's previously dubbed HDTV . This new system, NHK Color, created in 1972, included 1125 lines,

4080-457: The entire 20th century, as each new system became higher definition than the last. In the early 21st century, this race has continued with 4K , 5K and 8K systems. The British high-definition TV service started trials in August 1936 and a regular service on 2 November 1936 using both the (mechanical) Baird 240 line sequential scan (later referred to as progressive ) and the (electronic) Marconi-EMI 405 line interlaced systems. The Baird system

4165-456: The first HDTV broadcasts, with SES's annual Satellite Monitor market survey for 2010 reporting more than 200 commercial channels broadcasting in HD from Astra satellites, 185 million HD capable TVs sold in Europe (£60 million in 2010 alone), and 20 million households (27% of all European digital satellite TV homes) watching HD satellite broadcasts (16 million via Astra satellites). In December 2009,

4250-498: The first daily high-definition programs in the world, with regular testing starting on November 25, 1991, or "Hi-Vision Day" – dated exactly to refer to its 1,125-lines resolution. Regular broadcasting of BS -9ch commenced on November 25, 1994, which featured commercial and NHK programming. Several systems were proposed as the new standard for the US, including the Japanese MUSE system, but all were rejected by

4335-413: The first full evening of colour television in Britain, with Attenborough himself acting as series editor. The first programme was "Volcano", a film by the French vulcanologist Haroun Tazieff ; the Natural History Unit's first contribution was "Forest and Firebird" featuring the brilliantly coloured scarlet ibis . Programmes such as these were no accident: The World About Us was described by Barry Paine,

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4420-598: The first meeting of the IWP11/6 working party at the BBC's Research and Development establishment in Kingswood Warren. The resulting ITU-R Recommendation ITU-R BT.709-2 (" Rec. 709 ") includes the 16:9 aspect ratio, a specified colorimetry , and the scan modes 1080i (1,080 actively interlaced lines of resolution) and 1080p (1,080 progressively scanned lines). The British Freeview HD trials used MBAFF , which contains both progressive and interlaced content in

4505-506: The first of the award-winning Survival series. Between 1974 and 1980, the Spanish nature documentary television series El Hombre y la Tierra (The Man and the Earth), produced by TVE and presented by naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente used 35 mm film, which posed significant logistic and technical challenges at the time. The show gained international recognition. During

4590-471: The first time in the United States, using the same 5:3 aspect ratio as the Japanese system. Upon visiting a demonstration of MUSE in Washington, US President Ronald Reagan was impressed and officially declared it "a matter of national interest" to introduce HDTV to the US. NHK taped the 1984 Summer Olympics with a Hi-Vision camera, weighing 40 kg. Satellite test broadcasts started June 4, 1989,

4675-1084: The following form: [frame size][scanning system][frame or field rate] or [frame size]/[frame or field rate][scanning system] . Often, frame size or frame rate can be dropped if its value is implied from context. In this case, the remaining numeric parameter is specified first, followed by the scanning system. For example, 1920×1080p25 identifies progressive scanning format with 25 frames per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 1080i25 or 1080i50 notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 25 frames (50 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 1080i30 or 1080i60 notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 30 frames (60 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 720p60 notation identifies progressive scanning format with 60 frames per second, each frame being 720 pixels high; 1,280 pixels horizontally are implied. Systems using 50 Hz support three scanning rates: 50i, 25p and 50p, while 60 Hz systems support

4760-448: The footage must be condensed to form a narrative that appears to take place over a short space of time. Such narratives are also constructed to be as compelling as possible—rather than necessarily as a reflection of reality—and make frequent use of voice-overs, combined with emotional and intense music to maximise the audience's engagement with the content. One common technique is to follow the "story" of one particular animal, encouraging

4845-516: The globe. Natural World was produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol under the stewardship of the series editor, who was responsible for commissioning or acquiring content. Programmes are a mixture of in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or acquisitions from independent producers. There was 10 programmes broadcast each year, of which approximately half are produced in-house. The series has close ties with

4930-411: The intended definition. All of these systems used interlacing and a 4:3 aspect ratio except the 240-line system which was progressive (actually described at the time by the technically correct term sequential ) and the 405-line system which started as 5:4 and later changed to 4:3. The 405-line system adopted the (at that time) revolutionary idea of interlaced scanning to overcome the flicker problem of

5015-634: The late 1970s and early 1980s, several other television companies round the world set up their own specialized natural-history departments, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne , Australia and TVNZ 's unit in Dunedin , New Zealand — both still in existence, the latter having changed its name to " NHNZ ". ITV 's contribution to the genre, Survival , became a prolific series of single films. It

5100-512: The late 1970s, and in 1979 an SMPTE study group released A Study of High Definition Television Systems : Since the formal adoption of Digital Video Broadcasting's (DVB) widescreen HDTV transmission modes in the mid to late 2000s; the 525-line NTSC (and PAL-M ) systems, as well as the European 625-line PAL and SECAM systems, have been regarded as standard definition television systems. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog technology that

5185-491: The linear resolution of standard-definition television (SDTV), thus showing greater detail than either analog television or regular DVD . The technical standards for broadcasting HDTV also handle the 16:9 aspect ratio images without using letterboxing or anamorphic stretching, thus increasing the effective image resolution. A very high-resolution source may require more bandwidth than available in order to be transmitted without loss of fidelity. The lossy compression that

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5270-553: The live coverage of astronaut John Glenn 's return mission to space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery . The signal was transmitted coast-to-coast, and was seen by the public in science centers, and other public theaters specially equipped to receive and display the broadcast. Between 1988 and 1991, several European organizations were working on discrete cosine transform (DCT) based digital video coding standards for both SDTV and HDTV. The EU 256 project by

5355-592: The mixed analog-digital HD-MAC technology, and the analog MUSE technology. The matches were shown in 8 cinemas in Italy, where the tournament was played, and 2 in Spain. The connection with Spain was made via the Olympus satellite link from Rome to Barcelona and then with a fiber optic connection from Barcelona to Madrid . After some HDTV transmissions in Europe, the standard was abandoned in 1993, to be replaced by

5440-436: The most requested repeat by readers of Radio Times in the days following its transmission. Natural World programmes were regularly nominated at television industry awards and wildlife film festivals. Notable award-winners from the early years of the series include the 1986 Prix Italia for Vanishing Earth and an Emmy for cinematography for Kingdom of the Ice Bear . The Royal Television Society awarded Natural World

5525-526: The new colour television service to British audiences. As the former head of the BBC's Travel and Exploration Unit in London, Attenborough realised that many of its telecine films had been shot in colour and would make ideal subjects for a documentary series, along with natural history content from the Bristol Unit and overseas broadcasters. The World About Us launched on 3 December 1967 to coincide with

5610-541: The previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it refers to the generation following standard-definition television (SDTV). It is the standard video format used in most broadcasts: terrestrial broadcast television , cable television , satellite television . HDTV may be transmitted in various formats: When transmitted at two megapixels per frame, HDTV provides about five times as many pixels as SD (standard-definition television). The increased resolution provides for

5695-547: The programmes they wanted. As Natural World quickly established itself in the schedules, the series editors were able to take risks with unusual subjects which may otherwise have been avoided by broadcasters. According to Jones, "the idea was to give the audience a surprise each week. It was as far from the contemporary concept of formatted television as you could get." Some of the more unusual subjects have included plankton , wasps , cephalopods and manure ("The Wonderful World of Dung", 1991). Jones's successors have maintained

5780-426: The running time has been extended to 60 minutes. The tone of the strand was set by its first series editor, Peter Jones, who gave his film-makers the time and budget to explore their subjects in more detail. He also decided to avoid a house style in favour of a flexible approach where the style was chosen to match the subject of the documentary. This freedom from stylistic constraints gave film-makers autonomy to make

5865-494: The same encoding. It also includes the alternative 1440×1152 HDMAC scan format. (According to some reports, a mooted 750-line (720p) format (720 progressively scanned lines) was viewed by some at the ITU as an enhanced television format rather than a true HDTV format, and so was not included, although 1920×1080i and 1280×720p systems for a range of frame and field rates were defined by several US SMPTE standards.) HDTV technology

5950-399: The same ethos, mixing traditional "blue-chip" natural history with different approaches to storytelling. Mike Gunton, series editor from 2001 to 2004, introduced more human elements into the programmes, granted filmmakers additional time in the field to get the shots they needed and continued to experiment with style. "Cats Under Serengeti Stars" was filmed entirely in black and white and "Dune"

6035-584: The standard for DVB-S digital satellite TV, DVB-C digital cable TV and DVB-T digital terrestrial TV. These broadcasting systems can be used for both SDTV and HDTV. In the US the Grand Alliance proposed ATSC as the new standard for SDTV and HDTV. Both ATSC and DVB were based on the MPEG-2 standard, although DVB systems may also be used to transmit video using the newer and more efficient H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression standards. Common for all DVB standards

6120-512: The strand's 25th anniversary, he commented "I have no doubt that Natural World is not only the doyen and founding member of the 50-minute natural history genre but is still the one with the best and most distinguished record." In 2010s, the number of Natural World programmes reduced to 10 per series, and the strand no longer occupied a regular place in BBC Two's schedule. High-definition broadcasts of Natural World programmes started in 2008 on

6205-543: The time did not permit HDTV to use bandwidths greater than normal television. Early HDTV commercial experiments, such as NHK's MUSE, required over four times the bandwidth of a standard-definition broadcast. Despite efforts made to reduce analog HDTV to about twice the bandwidth of SDTV, these television formats were still distributable only by satellite. In Europe too, the HD-MAC standard was considered not technically viable. In addition, recording and reproducing an HDTV signal

6290-424: The world already having split into two camps, 25/50 Hz and 30/60 Hz, largely due to the differences in mains frequency. The IWP11/6 working party considered many views and throughout the 1980s served to encourage development in a number of video digital processing areas, not least conversion between the two main frame/field rates using motion vectors , which led to further developments in other areas. While

6375-401: The world. Series narrated and/or presented by him include: Steve Irwin 's documentaries, based on wildlife conservation and environmentalism, aired on Discovery Channel , and Animal Planet . The series comprises: High-definition television High-definition television ( HDTV ) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than

6460-545: Was a research project and the system was never deployed by either the military or consumer broadcasting. In 1986, the European Community proposed HD-MAC , an analog HDTV system with 1,152 lines. A public demonstration took place for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. However HD-MAC was scrapped in 1993 and the DVB project was formed, which would foresee development of a digital HDTV standard. In 1979,

6545-684: Was a significant technical challenge in the early years of HDTV ( Sony HDVS ). Japan remained the only country with successful public broadcasting of analog HDTV, with seven broadcasters sharing a single channel. However, the Hi-Vision/MUSE system also faced commercial issues when it launched on November 25, 1991. Only 2,000 HDTV sets were sold by that day, rather than the enthusiastic 1.32 million estimation. Hi-Vision sets were very expensive, up to US$ 30,000 each, which contributed to its low consumer adaption. A Hi-Vision VCR from NEC released at Christmas time retailed for US$ 115,000. In addition,

6630-526: Was acknowledged by the BBC when the series was re-launched as The Natural World in 1983; the title subsequently shortened to its current form in 2003. The first episode under the new title was "Save the Panda", broadcast on 30 October 1983 in what would become a regular time slot on Sunday evenings (where series editor Peter Jones claimed audiences were "hungry for natural history"). The World About Us continued until 1986. The early series editors benefited from

6715-494: Was discontinued in February 1937. In 1938 France followed with its own 441-line system, variants of which were also used by a number of other countries. The US NTSC 525-line system joined in 1941. In 1949 France introduced an even higher-resolution standard at 819 lines , a system that would have been high definition even by modern standards, but was monochrome only and had technical limitations that prevented it from achieving

6800-537: Was eventually axed when the network introduced a controversial new schedule which many commentators have criticized as " dumbing down ". Wildlife and natural history films have boomed in popularity and have become one of modern society's most important sources of information about the natural world. Yet film and television critics and scholars have largely ignored them. The BBC television series Walking With , narrated by Kenneth Branagh , used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and animatronics to film prehistoric life in

6885-582: Was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972, and was later adapted into a motion-compensated DCT algorithm for video coding standards such as the H.26x formats from 1988 onwards and the MPEG formats from 1993 onwards. Motion-compensated DCT compression significantly reduces the amount of bandwidth required for a digital TV signal. By 1991, it had achieved data compression ratios from 8:1 to 14:1 for near-studio-quality HDTV transmission, down to 70–140  Mbit/s . Between 1988 and 1991, DCT video compression

6970-615: Was introduced in the United States in the early 1990s and made official in 1993 by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance , a group of television, electronic equipment, communications companies consisting of AT&T Bell Labs , General Instrument , Philips , Sarnoff , Thomson , Zenith and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Field testing of HDTV at 199 sites in the United States was completed August 14, 1994. The first public HDTV broadcast in

7055-636: Was later converted to digital television with video compression . In 1949, France started its transmissions with an 819 lines system (with 737 active lines). The system was monochrome only and was used only on VHF for the first French TV channel. It was discontinued in 1983. In 1958, the Soviet Union developed Тransformator ( Russian : Трансформатор , meaning Transformer ), the first high-resolution (definition) television system capable of producing an image composed of 1,125 lines of resolution aimed at providing teleconferencing for military command. It

7140-425: Was told from the point of view of a grain of sand. In its current guise, Natural World programmes typically fall into three categories: strong, emotional stories; popular or unusual but interesting animal subjects; and films offering a different, personal perspective. Filmmakers are granted up to 100 days in the field, depending on how much archive material can be used. David Attenborough's notable episodes include

7225-534: Was widely adopted as the video coding standard for HDTV implementations, enabling the development of practical digital HDTV. Dynamic random-access memory ( DRAM ) was also adopted as framebuffer semiconductor memory, with the DRAM semiconductor industry 's increased manufacturing and reducing prices important to the commercialization of HDTV. Since 1972, International Telecommunication Union 's radio telecommunications sector ( ITU-R ) had been working on creating

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