London 2012 Olympic Games BBC [Blu-ray]

For whatever reason NBC-Universal after the 2008 Bejing Olympics has not offered DVD collections as extensive as the ones of 2008. Indeed the DVD for London 2012 was much abbreviated and evidently there is nothing available for Sochi 2014, most displeasing to this reviewer at least. Is this an additional attempt to punish Russia? Most productions of the BBC in whatever genre are superior and this is no exception. Most importantly for the Olympics the opening ceremonies are virtually complete and the closing ceremonies equally so. Granted, the coverage of individual and team events focuses more on athletes of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and that is perfectly understandable. NBC did the same for Bejing and London by more attention to covering the competitors from the United States. But, overall even with this emphasis this BBC offering gives us much more than is otherwise available. This being available only in Region 2 or PAL compatibility is only a minor inconvenience as I discovered some years ago that if I wanted to have a varied DVD collection I needed to purchase a region free DVD player, and I did so, from Amazon.

Ok background is I bought this for my friend who was in London last year and since I won't give it to her till next week I watched much of it.1. I used it on a Toshiba Laptop with VLC player, absolutely no problem and I was prepared to convert my dvd drive to region 2 but didn't have to.2. Olympaholics will definitely appreciate the coverage, even though there are some smaller sports missing I don't feel I've been shortchanged.3. If you happen to be an Olympaholic with a touch of Anglophilia....... You might just be in love with this set.4. Makes me ashamed of NBC's American coverage, I actually wanted to see if there was a similar BBC production for Beijing 2008.5. The production attempts to have the viewer relive those sixteen days, this is impossible but it is as close as you'll get :)6. I honestly think I'll either burn this DVD set for myself before I give it to my friend or if that proves too much work, I would definitely buy.

While this emphasizes the British experience, as is to be expected, this 5 disk set is far superior to the rubbish the NBC has been putting out in America. It's sad that we are blocked from watching foreign coverage of the Olympic Games on the internet. The opening and closing ceremonies are complete. And there is an emphasis on many sports Americans don't even remember exist. And it's refreshing to see other folks winning medals besides Team USA. There are a few faults. In emphasizing British accomplishments the women's gymnastics were given a short shrift, check out US coverage for that. And even still more coverage could have been given to other countries. I have older VHS tapes, particularly those narrated by Bud Greenspan, that really seemed to emphasize the global nature of the competitions more than even these do. But having said that these are a substantial improvement over the tainted pablum that NBC spoons out so cynically in order to sell product and cater to the lowest common denominator. (Why did ABC ever drop the ball? And when will someone else pick it up again?) Yes these are Region 2. So get a region free player. They're cheap. It's not differential calculus.

This is apparently not playable on US blu-ray machines. I tried my Panasonic DMP-BD605 and a Pioneer blu-ray drive in my computer to no avail. According to some posts on the internet, these disks can be played on some Oppo models.I saw no indication of region restrictions in the online description or on the packaging. A comment to the vendor was not answered. I will probably keep the set, as I will probably upgrade to a region free machine at some point. This BBC set claims to have the complete opening and closing ceremonies, which was my main reason for buying it. (I had the closing ceremonies on my DVR, but although I had marked it "save until I delete" it was deleted when I recorded a high definition movie.)April 25, 2015: Playable on the Sony BDP-S5100, reviewed separately.

I had read that this would not show video on my Bluray player and in fact it did not. Not giving up easy, I went to the internet and downloaded the bios update for my Bluray player, put in on an SD Card and Installed it in my Bluray player from the SD Card. After rebooting, all is great, and my wife and I throughly enjoyed the Super Large opening ceremonies with it's Historical aspect, and the fact that the children were given such a big part to play in the story. I highly recommend this, and if you have it and cannot view the video, but have autdio. Don't give it up. Go to the internet, look up the Model of your Bluray player, and download the newest update for it and enjoy.

Works superbly on my Samsung Blu-ray player. Full opening and closing ceremonies. Highlights show many countries involved and not solely American winners and not just popular events. A great all around show as it should be. Bought for my sister who attended the games in London and she was well impressed. This truly is a well rounded summary of events of the games. Way to go BBC! I think I'm gonna have to buy another for myself and me mum. I am so pleased with this and think you should buy it too:)

The best opening and closing ceremonies ever. This Blu-ray is a great memory for those who remember the Games of the XXX Olympiad. Underworld and Danny Boyle teamed in a wonderful parade of British culture. Must have.

This was a great overview of the London Olympics. I should have realized, that since it was produced in England, it wouldn't show all the American events that I was looking for. It was really heavy on dressage, rowing and indoor fast track biking, but there was almost no gymnastics, which is what I love. Of course, it was all aimed at showcasing Team GBR.

Je me suis procuré ce coffret afin de conserver un souvenir des Jeux Olympiques de Londres

私が購入したものはリージョン2のPALでした（画像参照）。パソコンで視聴可能です。■ディスク1◎開会式（途中まで） 188分　音声1：BBCアナウンサーの実況中継入り　音声2：ダニー・ボイルの解説　音声3：現場の音のみ（5.1ch）■ディスク2◎開会式（残り） 41分　音声1：BBCアナウンサーの実況中継入り　音声2：ダニー・ボイルの解説　音声3：現場の音のみ（5.1ch）◎競技ハイライト（1～6日目） 119分■ディスク3◎競技ハイライト（7～10日目） 175分◎Extra Sporting Moments 10分■ディスク4◎競技ハイライト（11～16日目） 154分◎特典映像：Frank Turner 10分17秒／Nimrod 3分38秒／Isles Of Wonder Deconstruction 1分17秒／Thanks Tim Projection House 16分50秒■ディスク5◎閉会式 190分　音声はBBCアナウンサーの実況中継入りのみすべてのコンテンツに英語字幕付き（オン／オフ可能）開会式と閉会式については、ウィキペディアの「2012年ロンドンオリンピックの開会式」「2012年ロンドンオリンピックの閉会式」の項に詳しい内容が記載されています。

La moitié des Blu-ray de ce coffrets (2,5 /5) sont dévolus aux cérémonies d'ouverture et de clôture des jeux olympiques de 2012 à Londre.Le reste inclut de trop longues interviews de journalistes sportifs qui pérorent inutilement sur les qualités et les mérites des athlètes anglais.Le choix des séquences sportives présentées est très simple : ce sont, à peu de chose près, les disciplines où un anglais a obtenu une médaille.Ces séquences sont de plus souvent tronquées et centrées sur les sportifs anglais en lice - par exemple si un anglais obtient une médaille de bronze, il peut être totalement impossible de déterminer l'identité des bénéficiaires de l'or et de l'argent.En conclusion : des Blu-ray plus centrés sur le faste que le sport et très chauvins (à destination unique des anglais ?)

Intensive und zauberhafte Nachlese der besten Neuzeit-Spiele überhaupt. Die Engländer können's halt und rocken die Stadien. Sie zählen die einflussreichsten und besten Musiker als ihr eigen und haben mit dem Opening und der Abschlussfeier zwei brilliante, einmalige Shows abgeliefert. Gerade nach der Sotschi-Feier heute schnell noch mal die DVD eingelegt und genossen. Besser geht nicht! Die DVD Sammlung ist sehr reichhaltig, und besonders in HD und mit Bose-Box ein Feuerwerk für Augen- und Ohren. A big step and joy for all mankind.

L'idea di fare una raccolta con le cerimonie di apertura/chiusura includendo gli highlights è ottima e la realizzazione da parte della BBC è impeccabile, come ci si aspetta dagli inglesi. L'unica critica che faccio è che capisco che sia un prodotto inglese e che gli sport siano moti, ma negli highlights compaiono quasi soltanto atleti inglesi. Certo, i miti come Bolt, Phelps ecc. non possono mancare, ma in generale è tutto molto incentrato sugli atleti inglesi e quindi sugli sport dove loro vanno forte, cioè tutte le varie categorie di canottaggio, canoa/kayak, ciclismo su pista, equitazione. Altri sport dove gli inglesi non hanno ottenuto gradi risultati o dove non c'erano atleti particolarmente famosi sono visibilmente più tralasciati. Cionondimeno penso che sia un bel prodotto e sono molto contento di averlo acquistato, quindi a premesse fatte mi sento di consigliarlo.The idea of gathering opening/closure ceremonies including the highlights is awesome and the realization by BBC is flawless, as expected by the English. I only have the following critic to make. I understand that it's an english product and that there are lots of sports, but in the highlights you see almost only english athletes. Of course, champions such as Bolt, Phelps etc. can't miss, but in general it's all very focused on english athletes, thus on the sports they mostly practice, like all the categories of rowing, canoe/kayak, track cycling, equestrian. Other sports where the English didn't score much or where there wasn't any particular famous athlete are visibly more neglected. Nevertheless I still think it's a great product and I'm very happy to have it; so, assumptions made, I reccommend it.