Customer Reviews

London 2012 Paralympic Games [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The main reason for buying this DVD was for the sport and not the ceremonies. I watched the games every day and despised C4's coverage due to the constant advert breaks, annoying studio chat and the lack of sports available to watch. I was dissapointed to see that C4 were doing a DVD but I still bought it to relieve the excellent sporting achievements.

The discs are presented inside a normal DVD case, with pictures of different GB athletes on the front and back. Disc 1 contains the Opening Ceremony, Disc 2 the highlights, and Disc 3 the Closing Ceremony.

The sporting highlights are presented on a day by day basis, with Clare Balding summing up the day's events at the start. The highlights mainly consist of GB medal winning performances, but there is some coverage of athletes from other nations winning medals such as Oscar Pistorius. Usually most events are not the full length. Athletics events up to 400m and small distance swimming events are usually the full race, but otherwise you only see the last few moments and in the case of silver or bronze medal winners, only a few seconds. The commentary however is very good.

The main problem with the highlights is the fact that, like the TV coverage, you only see a few seconds of some sports. These include archery, boccia, road cycling, goalball, judo, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting and wheelchair fencing. These account for over half of all Paralympic sports and not including them is unacceptable This is why I have given it 3 stars.
Overall, I would say that, for only £9 the DVD is a good buy.

I purchased this blu ray as a souvenir of the wonderful sporting achievements of the paralympians. It is a shame that so little sport is featured on these three discs, with only brief highlights of the action from each day, while the opening and closing ceremonies are featured in full.

As a whole, the set represents reasonable value for money, but the makers have got their priorities all wrong. The sporting achievements are the most important thing, but feel like an adjunct to the ceremonies. It should be the other way round.

After being one of the people who bought tickets the the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic games which I can only describe as the most amazing and inspirational concert/events I have been too. I am sad to say that I am quite disappointed in the quality of the DVD opening ceremony. While I appreciate that nothing beats the real thing and I wanted to get the memories and see parts that weren't easy to understand or see form in the stadium. However it feels grainy to watch like someones recorded of their I-phone or a pirate copy. The pre-recored parts look fine in quality just the live ceremonies both look grainy with the opening looking worse than the closing. The quality of all the live ceremony is just a bit poor for the national broadcaster of the London 2012 Paralympic games.

### Spoiler warning###
However after one of the most amazing and inspirational moments of the ceremony - (the flypast linked in with the story of 4 peoples journeys) was completely missed on broadcast night. As John Snow's studio coverage cut away too late and only barely caught the last few seconds of the countdown. Channel 4 have at least shown the peoples journey was explained and some coverage of the flypast shown although it does appear to look like a rehearsal VT and not the live flypast. Either that or bad channel 4 coverage and editing again as a better live version can be watched on Youtube with paraylmpictv.org.

A few strange things like loud clapping on the DVD menu playing in loop until you press play - I would have rather the C4 Paralympic credits on loop.

Overall the music/mood and the event is captured well but just needed that bit of polishing that you get with a BBC coverage event and some disappoints like I said.

The highlights Dvd is very good with athletes stories/highlights/good commentaries and some of the atmospheres in the venues captured.

Bought this as a gift for a friend. Very nice, with opening ceremony and highlights from the Games, plus a whole lot more. Worth watching as it's nice to see things you missed the first time.

I purchased the Blu Ray version of this as I was a Gamesmaker at the Paralympics and didn't get to see any of the ceremonies and very little of the sporting action (although I did hear it all as I was based around the stadium).

I was very impressed with the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies; I was also glad that the decision was taken to 'highlight' the athletes parade as this went on for ever on the night!

Like others, I would have liked it if there was some more coverage of non stadium based events such as the boccia but overall I think it's a good souvenir of the occasion and well worth purchasing in my opinion.

I got this today on the day of release with the BBC Olympic DVD London 2012 Olympic Games [DVD] and this is very fun and well worth purchase.

3 DVD's are the game highlights and then the opening and closing ceremony's in full. The ceremony's are very good quality and have been slightly re-edited from the broadcast on Channel 4. they have no options on commentary, you get the Channel 4 Commentary and that's it. There are no options to turn it off or have other commentary, however they don't seem to have as much commentary as the original broadcast so i think that they have removed some of it which is nice. The best thing is there are no breaks unlike the original broadcast! meaning you can watch it in full without missing anything such as some countries were missed and such and have no interruptions, meaning you don't want to jump out of the sofa and punch channel 4 in the face, which is good. Also you have no pre ceremony stuff with john snow which is nice, because of course he knows everything about Paralympic sport and was the best person to chose to lead the team on the ceremony days (groan). So both ceremonies are a good watch. 0f course there are subtitles if needs be.

the games highlights are well covered on disc 1 with subtitles option again. With an intro and outro from Claire Baulding. It has a few events from each day including all of our gold medal wins. However the whole highlights are only 2 hours compared to the 7 hours of highlights on the BBC olympic dvd. However i think considering what you get (the ceremonies as well) the price for the dvd is extremely generous. if it was more then i might have been annoyed at the length of the highlights, but actually it more than you usually get for that kind of priced dvd. and of course £1 goes to Paralympic GB which makes you feel good.

it's funny how when you load the DVD up and public enemy plays with the intro that it all comes flooding back. All in all this is an amazing dvd which will be shown to lots of people to keep the games alive and this is just part of keeping that. the look of the dvd is great and it is just one of those dvd's where you get it to relieve tho moments over and over again. Well worth buying!!.

Haven't actually played it yet but the box is nicely wrapped in cellophane. Do you think these review requests are sent out too soon at times?

!st class set of DVDs.Very good coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies[1 DVD each].Very good coverage of the events on the 3rd DVD.My only criticism would be at least another DVD could have been made to give further coverage of the events.

having worked in the athletes village for the paralympics this was a must buy...and it did just what I wanted...memories

Two discs contain the opening and closing ceremonies which you may have liked or disliked. There are mercifully no ad breaks and I don't remember any ridiculous remarks such as the question "When do the GB team enter?" which set the general standard at the opening ceremony of what was to follow from some quarters. So I suspect commentary was edited and certainly some parts are cut out completely. Other than that, you get what it says on the tin.

Just one disc contains the sport and it brings back some good memories : the wonderful atmosphere and achievements. And some bad: the incessant C4 jingles and total lack of some sports. However, it is a momento and I don't think there anything else available. It is organised quite well day by day and it is certainly entertaining.

I loved the Paras and the Olympics and for me there was no difference between them. It was just a pity the broadcasting of both was not of equal standard. I suspect the DVDS issued by C4 and the BBC reflect this inequality too (although have yet to see the Olympics issued version).