We've felt an odd void for nature programming on our HDTV, so National Geographic's Earth: The Biography series comes at an excellent time. As usual, high definition makes the seven continent journey pop, starting off tonight with an episode on volcanoes, followed immediately by a second focusing on ice. We don't have to tell you how great an experience Planet Earth was (and the real sequel isn't due til 2012), so we don't recommend missing any part of this three night event.

[Via HeraldNet]

Ruh roh. Seems you can't use the "it's good for my health" excuse to watch just one more hour of Sunrise Earth, as a recent study has shown that watching serene scenes on HDTV just doesn't have the same calming effect as does watching a similar scene in nature. The University of Washington-based study discovered that heart recovery rates in people exposed to minor stress were the same when viewing peaceful imagery on a plasma or starting directly at a blank wall. Yeah, a blank wall. It was also noted that heart rates dropped more quickly when these same folks viewed a calming scene through a window, suggesting that technology may not be ready to replace reality just yet in this particular case. We just have to wonder if they were using true HD signals on the display -- nothing gets our heart racing like a bad episode of Pool Watchers in SD.

[Thanks, Ben]

Ready for a new nature series coming to your HDTV? Courtesy of a specially equipped EarthRoamer expedition vehicle, Keith Neuman promises a new look at adventure travel this fall on HDNet. American Explorer has been filmed completely in 1080i, bringing to life his 60+ day, six country journey. As much as we'd enjoy setting up base camp in some jungle on the back of a Jeep, letting him take the point and then just catching the (commercial-free) show in prime time this fall was probably the best choice for all involved.

Can't get enough Sunrise Earth? Fantastic. Discovery has just announced that it will be bringing its Sunrise Earth: Seaside Collection to both DVD and Blu-ray on June 11th, and judging by the sound of things, it looks to be a real winner for showing off the capabilities of your setup. Focusing on sunrises above crystal clear bodies of water, you'll find scenes from Maine's Acadia National Park, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Polynesia, Costa Rica, Turkey's coastline, California's Point Reyes National Seashore, Ninagiak Island and a couple more locales for good measure. Of course, submersing yourself in such grandeur won't run you cheap, as the BD version will ring up at $59.95, while the lowly four-disc DVD set can be had for $10 less.

There's simply no question that the beauty of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (above) can only truly be appreciated after a winding drive down from Kailua Kona (or Hilo, for those who love the rain), but for folks without weeks on end to spare waiting to see lava flow from some of those majestic creations, a forthcoming film should give you the next best look. Volcanographer Mick Kalber has assembled an hour-long movie entitled Kilauea's Flow to Waikupanaha, and while we'd generally brush something like this off, a recent writeup about it most definitely caught our eye. We thought we had already seen HD DVD's last hurrah back in March, but if KHNL-8 is to be believed, the forthcoming flick will be available on Blu-ray and HD DVD. Granted, there's no release date mentioned, but given that red has been decomposing for months now, we're tempted to believe someone was simply misinformed.

Like peanut butter and chocolate, nature shows and HD are two great tastes that taste great together. And judging by the frequent appearance of "Planet Earth" on the VideoScan charts, the couple makes good business sense, too. As much as we love "Planet Earth," though, adding more titles to the genre is a good thing. Take heart, PBS is doing its part by bringing "Nature" to Blu-ray. With 26 seasons under its belt, it's safe to assume there's plenty of good footage; hopefully they've gathered up the best HD bits for the releases. Come May 20th, indie distributor Questar will be bringing out four titles: "Desert Lions" (originally aired 2008 in HD), "In the Valley of the Wolves" (originally aired 2007, shot in HD), "Under Antarctic Ice" and "Shark Mountain" (both originally aired 2003, fingers crossed on picture quality). Yeah, we can't guarantee those last two won't be a little "soft" looking, but we can guarantee that for your $25 retail, you can watch without any pledge drive interruptions!