Customer Reviews

London 2012 Olympic Games [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Having got this today (the release day) along with the Paralympic dvd London 2012 Paralympic Games [DVD] i must say i am very happy with the purchase. the opening ceremony can be watched with BBC Commentary (Huw Edwards etc) or Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell ( director and writer). Both are worth listening to, especially the latter. also with the option of no commentary and just the stadium sound in 5.1. the day highlights are extremely well done and each day has an introduction from sue barker and each day contains the best sports of the day, including all 29 of GB's wins.

The extras such as nimrod and isle of wonder deconstructed are interesting but they aren't that long, (2-3 mins each) and two out of the 4 opening ceremony special features are just pre-cereomony stuff.

the closing ceremony is well done and edited. you can only watch it with BBC commentary though. you can't turn it off, which may be annoying for those of you who want to strangle the commentators when they speak over stuff you want to hear. Of course there are subtitles for highlights and both ceremony's for all options.

The only down side for me is the DVD Menu title screen looks like it's been made from something like iDVD. which makes the finished product look slightly lazy. which is a shame because the content is fantastic.

All in all this is a amazing buy for any olympic fanatic, sport fan, or for the person who just wants to treasure the memory of our olympic games in 2012. and i'm sure this dvd will be shown to the generations to come to relive the memory. Must buy DVD!!!!!!

I am in the US and I bought this disc. Although region free, it won't play on US PS3 players as it's encoded in 1080i/50hz. However, it played perfectly on my Oppo player. What a magnificent set compared to the POS that was the NBC Olympics highlights disc!

I have just watched the majority of this fantastic boxed set. The picture quality on the Blu-ray version is absolutely glorious. Congratulations to the BBC for creating such a comprehensive package of all the main highlights from all the sports. It's great to see the sports shown exactly as they were broadcast (i.e. no arty video editing and intercutting and overpowering music). It's also a nice touch that they include clips of the some of the key original post-event interviews and the odd medal ceremony (albeit brief). An interesting aspect is the day-by-day chronological presentation and the several introduction clips with Sue Barker which were obviously filmed especially for this boxed set. It's a truly superb record of an amazing 2 weeks.

I wasn't too bothered about the Olympics coming to London. The cost, the inconvenience, the thousands of people getting my way on the Tube. But in the end I absolutely loved it.

When I saw that the highlights were coming out there was no option, I had to order - and having now received five whole blu-ray discs I'm not disappointed. Last night we watched the whole opening ceremony again and it was fabulous, inspirational and wonderful all over again. Some parts were even better than before, no doubt due to the beautiful detail of HD (I watched the show live on Freeview). Can't wait to relive the drama of the actual events.

It's a memento that will last far longer than any overpriced T-shirt and essential for anyone who wants to remember this amazing summer.

This is a good buy and you get a good range of discs for your money. The sporting highlights are well selected with a nice balance of interviews and big names and newbies.

They managed to edit all the games footage into a pretty decent product here, and I really enjoyed reliving the summer.

My only criticism is that they showed Oscar Pistorius's historic first round 400m, but failed to show the semi final where Kirani James swapped bib numbers with him. For me, this was an emotional and meaningful moment that attracted a lot of attention and respect. Shame they didn't include it. However I know I can see that on Youtube still!

The footage of the Opening Ceremony came out better than when I watched it live. You could see more of the pixels with better aerial shots and continuity.

For me, the opening ceremony alone makes this worth the asking price. I didn't know what to expect when it started. I mean, how interesting can a series of scenes depicting pre-industrial Britain possibly be? Boy was I wrong. By the time the Olympic rings came together in a shower of sparks, my mouth was hanging open. I turned to my family. We all looked at each other in amazement. After the fourth viewing, we found the option to watch without commentary. Even better!

So why was I disappointed? Basically, some sports received the lion's share at the expense of many that were left out completely. For example, in the athletics there are almost no field events. I enjoy all of the athletics disciplines but, as usual, the BBC seems to equate "athletics" with "running". I realise that this is a highlights set and that tough decisions had to be made. I understand the need to showcase Team GB's amazing performance. But 50% of the content is devoid of sport. We have the awesome opening ceremony, and the FULL walkthrough of the athletes, but only 2.5 discs with actual sport content.

This set is called "London 2012 Olympic Games" but would be better named "London 2012 Olympic Games - Team GB and Selected Highlights". Please, BBC, release a disc set with decent coverage of all sports. The opening ceremony was great and watching the athletes enter the arena was fun, but please remember to cater for those who watch the Olympics for the sports.

Brought this and have already sat through the opening and closing ceremonies - superb stuff. It doesn't say on the Amazon details but the sound is DTS Lossless (HD) 5.1 with the option to switch off the BBC commentary for the opening. There is just the DTS-HD soundtrack for the closing ceremony but I am quite OK with the BBC commentary. Major shortage of chapters which is a shame - would have been good to have the option via the popup menu to go to the part you want to but, otherwise, really pleased the BBC did such a good job in presenting such a detailed set. They could have easily put out a shortened highlights package but what you have here is much, much more. Highly recommended.

It was a great Olympic Games, and this catches all the best parts and more. The sound quality on 5.1 stadium on the opening ceremony is fantastic.

My pre-order for this arrived today, and I started with the opening ceremony - the main reason for buying this.

It's great to have the option of no BBC commentary (Huw Edwards + co got on my nerves on the original). Also, it does seem to be a slightly different edit, with some of the bits we missed being shown. e.g. On TV we didn't see Brunel's photograph properly, the "photos" of the servicemen, etc. - or the re-enactment of the Suffragettes at the 1913 Derby, or the miners working underground that we didn't see. Some of these can just be seen in the corners of the original BBC broadcast if you squinted hard enough.

In other words, it's the same ceremony, but with some of the rough bits fixed - understandable, perhaps, with the live nature of the original massive event.

As far as I can tell, it's pretty much all of the opening and closing ceremonies, with some sporting highlights across the other three discs. This may take some time to watch.

Wonderful stuff. Pity the sport had to get in the way. :)

[And I can't upload a photo yet to prove this is real - must be because it's before release date!]

The BBC has delivered a comprehensive DVD package covering the greatest Modern Olympiad ever - London 2012. As well as being able to enjoy in full the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, there are literally hundreds of memorable highlights from 15 days of top-quality sport crammed into 15 hours of fabulous entertainment. This is the sort of thing the BBC can still do better than any other broadcaster in the world and I can thoroughly recommend this terrific box-set.