NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers - Road to XLIII
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So you're a Steelers fan, but you want a review on the Super Bowl video before buying? Those don't reconcile for me. If I could get Blu-Rays of the '97 and '98 Broncos seasons, I would without caring what it looked like. NFL Films hasn't even put out a DVD of those seasons, let alone Blu.
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Warner hasn't been perfect when it comes to their Blu-ray releases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mezman /forum/post/16983663
So you're a Steelers fan, but you want a review on the Super Bowl video before buying? Those don't reconcile for me. If I could get Blu-Rays of the '97 and '98 Broncos seasons, I would without caring what it looked like. NFL Films hasn't even put out a DVD of those seasons, let alone Blu.![]()
Warner hasn't been perfect when it comes to their Blu-ray releases.
True, and that would be my first assumption, but I had to think twice cause the NFL may want region coding. Aren't they very careful with control of their content?
I might just order it anyway... I'm a Pats fan actually but this was an awesome game!
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To the OP, the user reviews on Amazon seem to indicate an awesome picture and sound IIRC.
True, and that would be my first assumption, but I had to think twice cause the NFL may want region coding. Aren't they very careful with control of their content?
I might just order it anyway... I'm a Pats fan actually but this was an awesome game!
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You don't have Prime? Shocking...!
Martin Liebman @ blu-ray.com has the only review I know of posted for this:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies...79&show=review
Their specs read 1080i but only DD 2.0, which is sort of disappointing on the audio front since the live broadcasts usually have surround for crowd noise (but I suppose it could be a 2-channel Dolby Surround encode). Anyway, these surely have to look better PQ-wise than the broadcasts (especially the macroblock-happy NBC games), and this release seems like a no-brainer for Steelers fans.
With that being said, Dolphins 2010!
You don't have Prime? Shocking...!
Martin Liebman @ blu-ray.com has the only review I know of posted for this:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies...79&show=review
Their specs read 1080i but only DD 2.0, which is sort of disappointing on the audio front since the live broadcasts usually have surround for crowd noise (but I suppose it could be a 2-channel Dolby Surround encode). Anyway, these surely have to look better PQ-wise than the broadcasts (especially the macroblock-happy NBC games), and this release seems like a no-brainer for Steelers fans.
With that being said, Dolphins 2010!
I had Prime, but it was a long time ago when I didn't order as much stuff (I did the trial then cancelled).
Now I kind of wish I had it.
That review must be very recent because I had been checking for reviews ever since it came out. The reason it has DD 2.0 is because you can listen to the radio commentary (WDVE), which is excellent here in the hometown, instead of the brain dead garbage you get on CBS.
I'm sure the picture will be much improved. I know these were shot on high definition cameras and ridiculous Canon zoom lenses, but there is only so much quality you can squeeze out of a broadcast versus a studio-controlled production. I expect it will be a lot better if the blocking artifacts are gone as well as the low pass filter effect that MPEG-2 has on live broadcasts (the Superbowl was a travesty in mostly the former regard; we begged the WPXI engineer in the Pittsburgh OTA thread to shut down the weather channel and RTN channel substations so there was more available bandwidth for the game).
I'm sure the Dolphins will have a decent year, but I'm not sure they can take the division with Brady back in the line-up.
I had Prime, but it was a long time ago when I didn't order as much stuff (I did the trial then cancelled).
Now I kind of wish I had it.
That review must be very recent because I had been checking for reviews ever since it came out. The reason it has DD 2.0 is because you can listen to the radio commentary (WDVE), which is excellent here in the hometown, instead of the brain dead garbage you get on CBS.
I'm sure the picture will be much improved. I know these were shot on high definition cameras and ridiculous Canon zoom lenses, but there is only so much quality you can squeeze out of a broadcast versus a studio-controlled production. I expect it will be a lot better if the blocking artifacts are gone as well as the low pass filter effect that MPEG-2 has on live broadcasts (the Superbowl was a travesty in mostly the former regard; we begged the WPXI engineer in the Pittsburgh OTA thread to shut down the weather channel and RTN channel substations so there was more available bandwidth for the game).
I'm sure the Dolphins will have a decent year, but I'm not sure they can take the division with Brady back in the line-up.
My son and I watched it this weekend. Looked great. Being a Chiefs fan (son is the Steelers fan), I wished I had bought the other Steelers edition, which contained the final four games (which includes the Super Bowl). I would have rather watched the play offs and SB is their near entirety, vs highlight reels of those games and the entire season.
That's this edition. I believe you have the two confused.
Check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Pittsburgh...dp/B001UNSZWG/
That's this edition. I believe you have the two confused.
Check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Pittsburgh...dp/B001UNSZWG/
That's the edition I wish I had purchased.
This is the edition I purchased and watched with my son last weekend
http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Super-Bowl...d_bxgy_d_img_b
That's the edition I wish I had purchased.
This is the edition I purchased and watched with my son last weekend
http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Super-Bowl...d_bxgy_d_img_b
There was definetly a more "film-like" image to the recap of the season vs the feeling you are watching a Live HD feed. I went into it expecting that, so wasn't disappointed. I need to watch all of the special features. The one I did watch on the defense was pretty average in terms of content.
Well I had a chance to watch it last night; I choose to re-live the Superbowl.
In terms of video quality, I'd say it gets a strong to very strong mark. Compression can be an issue at times considering they've crammed two 2-hour games on one disc and the content is interlaced. Static shots are flawless and in motion they is slight mosquito compression noise. I only saw blocking in a couple of shots and near the end of the game when all of the confetti fell. The level of detail varied from shot to shot. Most of the normal field of view shots were very sharp and had little or no video sensor noise. There was also a distinct lack of chromatic aberration at that focal length. The whites on helmets were clipped (unless it's my display settings; the contrast on my PRO-111FD is notched in around 37 in Pure mode), but dynamic range was still excellent. Close-ups on a sidelines were a toss-up. Some of the shots looked excellent, most likely due to the abundance of lighting centered on key figures like coaches Mike Tomlin and Ken Whisenhunt (we still miss ya, Ken). If personnel were standing in the "shadowy gaps" for lack of a better description, sensor noise would creep up. The sharpness of image was consistently strong for the on-field play. A handful of sideline shots were soft, however, and this is because the zoom lens on the cameras are at their limits; it can be difficult to focus at that length too since the depth of field is ridiculously small. All in all, I'd give this video presentation a solid 4 out of 5 stars. If I had a Blu-ray drive (still holding out for a cheap burner), I'd dump some screenshots in this thread, because there were definitely several stunners.
Also, I find it kind of ironic that Warner boasts that the video presentation is 1080p/VC-1 on the back cover and yet the only content on the disc that follows that technical specification is Warner Home Video's logo introduction before you get to the main menu! The rest of the disc is encoded in 1080i60/AVC (even the menu screen which is running film content in the background) and the bitrate hovered around 20 Mb/s. This is fine, but I was a little disappointed that it never peaked above 30 Mb/s IIRC. Some shots could have used a bit less compression and 40 Mb/s peaks, buffer notwithstanding (this was based on real-time viewing).
As for special features, you can turn on the WDVE commentary with Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and sideline reporter, Craig Wolfley. You can also activate a trivia feature that pops-up with facts on the screen from time to time about players and related events. The audio quality is way better than the radio broadcast. It still has that distinct radio soundstage (because it mixes only somewhat well with the on-field noise), but the dialogue is crisp and clear. The only thing difficult to understand is Tunch when he's speaking a mile-a-minute. As someone else alluded to, the radio broadcast is out of synch at the beginning. However, because of the editing, it's occasionally behind the action by a second or two or right on the mark. I think they should have done more quality control to better integrate both audio broadcasts with the video. Sometimes they just flat out cut the WDVE team off in midsentence to hurry along to the next play.
The Madden and Michaels commentary gets a little better treatment since the authoring house seemed to edit with them in mind. Both audio tracks can be switched seamlessly in real-time via the pop-up menu. The audio levels for both jump around a bit based on the crowd noise and the use of fade-in/out controls, but I never got the feeling I was "at the game."
Both commentaries are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a bitrate of 224 kb/s. I'm guessing this was done so these assets could be used on both the DVD and Blu-ray releases (224 + 224 = 448 which is the max Dolby Digital bitrate on DVD and is a nice "round" number for bit allocation calculations) and they didn't want to go through the effort of remixing the radio broadcast in 5.1 surround. It's best to settle on the lowest common denominator I suppose they were thinking.
I'll check out the other games later if you want my impressions then.
In terms of video quality, I'd say it gets a strong to very strong mark. Compression can be an issue at times considering they've crammed two 2-hour games on one disc and the content is interlaced. Static shots are flawless and in motion they is slight mosquito compression noise. I only saw blocking in a couple of shots and near the end of the game when all of the confetti fell. The level of detail varied from shot to shot. Most of the normal field of view shots were very sharp and had little or no video sensor noise. There was also a distinct lack of chromatic aberration at that focal length. The whites on helmets were clipped (unless it's my display settings; the contrast on my PRO-111FD is notched in around 37 in Pure mode), but dynamic range was still excellent. Close-ups on a sidelines were a toss-up. Some of the shots looked excellent, most likely due to the abundance of lighting centered on key figures like coaches Mike Tomlin and Ken Whisenhunt (we still miss ya, Ken). If personnel were standing in the "shadowy gaps" for lack of a better description, sensor noise would creep up. The sharpness of image was consistently strong for the on-field play. A handful of sideline shots were soft, however, and this is because the zoom lens on the cameras are at their limits; it can be difficult to focus at that length too since the depth of field is ridiculously small. All in all, I'd give this video presentation a solid 4 out of 5 stars. If I had a Blu-ray drive (still holding out for a cheap burner), I'd dump some screenshots in this thread, because there were definitely several stunners.
Also, I find it kind of ironic that Warner boasts that the video presentation is 1080p/VC-1 on the back cover and yet the only content on the disc that follows that technical specification is Warner Home Video's logo introduction before you get to the main menu! The rest of the disc is encoded in 1080i60/AVC (even the menu screen which is running film content in the background) and the bitrate hovered around 20 Mb/s. This is fine, but I was a little disappointed that it never peaked above 30 Mb/s IIRC. Some shots could have used a bit less compression and 40 Mb/s peaks, buffer notwithstanding (this was based on real-time viewing).
As for special features, you can turn on the WDVE commentary with Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and sideline reporter, Craig Wolfley. You can also activate a trivia feature that pops-up with facts on the screen from time to time about players and related events. The audio quality is way better than the radio broadcast. It still has that distinct radio soundstage (because it mixes only somewhat well with the on-field noise), but the dialogue is crisp and clear. The only thing difficult to understand is Tunch when he's speaking a mile-a-minute. As someone else alluded to, the radio broadcast is out of synch at the beginning. However, because of the editing, it's occasionally behind the action by a second or two or right on the mark. I think they should have done more quality control to better integrate both audio broadcasts with the video. Sometimes they just flat out cut the WDVE team off in midsentence to hurry along to the next play.
The Madden and Michaels commentary gets a little better treatment since the authoring house seemed to edit with them in mind. Both audio tracks can be switched seamlessly in real-time via the pop-up menu. The audio levels for both jump around a bit based on the crowd noise and the use of fade-in/out controls, but I never got the feeling I was "at the game."
Both commentaries are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a bitrate of 224 kb/s. I'm guessing this was done so these assets could be used on both the DVD and Blu-ray releases (224 + 224 = 448 which is the max Dolby Digital bitrate on DVD and is a nice "round" number for bit allocation calculations) and they didn't want to go through the effort of remixing the radio broadcast in 5.1 surround. It's best to settle on the lowest common denominator I suppose they were thinking.
I'll check out the other games later if you want my impressions then.
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