Customer Reviews

2006 FIA Formula One / F1 / Formula 1 Championship Review

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have every FIA season review available on DVD since 2000 (there's a jump over 2001, '02, then the series picks up again with '03)

The great coverage and quantity of content presented in this '06 review is severely compromised by the horrible picture quality. If it was going to look this bad, they might as well have released it on VHS. When one compares this to the '04 DVD, for example, . . . there's simply no excuse.

This really should've been released as a two disc set.

BTW, there's a new company logo on this year's disc . . . which makes me wonder whether the FIA and FOM switched vendors and are as disappointed with the results as I am. I don't know who to blame, but only hope they put out a better product next year

This is called a DVD. It looks like a DVD when you open its case. It looks like a DVD when you place it into your DVD Player. That's where it ends though. You've been robbed. This is what a DVD becomes when a multi million dollar corperation seeks to make just a little bit more money from its fans and in the process sells out its own soul. Stop compressing the video to the point of destruction and just make 2 discs! PLEASE, PLEASE! This DVD has by far, (so far it's not even funny)THE worst picture quality I have ever seen in something trying to pass itself off as a DVD. How about this F1, just release vhs tapes from now on. Please stop embarrassing yourselves and torturing your audience with half hearted and cruel releases such as this. Your F1! You take our millions of dollars and give us back excrement. Every year you feed us this mediocre garbage the closer we get to giving up on you. There are other sports out there you know. Learn from NFL Films, PLEASE! These should be historic records of the most advanced form of motor racing on earth, not something resembling some idiot with a cam corder taping a country drag race on beta max. When I press PAUSE watching this it looks like Surrealist Art. Yeah, I just saw the blue blur pass the red blur! Isn't that an exceptionally beautiful and well engineered blur? I want to see the Formula One car's suspension and aerodynamics when I press pause but I get to see a multi colored blur that I THINK is a... car? Yeah a car. Give us a break! You could do so much for F1's image and popularity with quality DVD reviews that contained, 2, YES 2 Disc DVD reviews. What a concept! I've been a diehard F1 nut for over a decade now and I thought by now you would've adapted with the times. We have what they call High Definition now. Have you heard of it? Stop compressing the video and stop giving your loyal fans the shaft! Charge 30 to 40 bucks for a 2 disc DVD set with sharp picture quality and watch them sell out. We'd buy them! I know I would. All F1 fans want it and you better start listening cause it's been 2 years of compressed and pixelated garbage. If you only got it. Well, you've lost this and many customers because for years now your DVDs have been laughable. To anyone interested, this trash isn't even worth a rental. 2000, 2003, 2004 F1 Reviews are great and show what the DVD was made for. The 2005 and 2006 Reviews are horrible unless you like to see what damaged vision looks like. It's like a fine novel with a great story, only the pages have been dipped in water and the ink has run all over. We hope you enjoy the book! Don't waste your time or money. Get an older review if you want to enjoy some F1 action. 2 disc DVD sets are the answer to all our prayers F1. Do it or lose it! If 2007 is the same I'm starting a boycott.

At least this year, they used a DVD9 instead of DVD5. That said, the image quality on this DVD is worse than the broadcast you watched on TV. 220+ minutes on one DVD. If they went to two DVDs, this would be the kind of thing you'd want for the rest of your life. You can do better D/Ling the individual races.

Picture quality trumps content. Rent it.

As others have mentioned, the video compression artefacts are unforgivable on this disc. I get better quality recording from my standard definition cable box to my Mac and burning to DVD.

In the USA the most popular motorsport is Nascar and the image quality on some of the Nascar broadcasts is noticeably superior to F1 broadcasts to start with (it is clearly much more than just a PAL-NTSC conversion issue), so then to allow further degradation in the season review is insulting. It is bad for the image of F1, which bills itself as the technological pinnacle of motor racing, to have a cheap and nasty "official season review". Since I'm a photographer and film maker myself I find the flaws noticeably distracting. It takes me "out" of the event, the opposite of the effect intended.

Then we get to the content. This was a vintage year for Formula 1 fans, featuring Michael Schumacher's last season, an epic fight between him and Fernando, Williams' coming apart at the seams, McLaren embarrassed to not win a single race, Montoya and Villeneuve throwing in the towel, Michael's parking problem in Monaco etc etc. So in some ways the producers can't lose... but it was still disappointing.

I found the commentary bland and poorly written with some odd turns of phrase. For example at one point Fernando is "taking on more tires". Sorry, you don't take on more tires, there's no room. You change tires, or you take on more fuel. Further, moments that were incredibly dramatic at the time are glossed over with all the passion of a computer speaking your weight. If this is the official review, then I would prefer to buy an unofficial review, were it available.

In my opinion, the guys who do the US broadcast commentary on Speed Channel would do a vastly better job than this disc. Their season ending tribute to Michael Schumacher was much better then the one on this disc. For example they actually tell the viewer what the events on-screen were (the famous deliberate collisions with Hill and Villeneuve, the incident in Monaco) and why they were pivotal events in forming Michael Schumacher's reputation and legacy as an icomparable racer, an all-time great, but with a few severe lapses in judgement here and there. They would probably also have explained the significance of a few other things that the video editors included, but failed to capitalise on. For example the story behind why Mikka Hakkinen turned up for the final race in Brazil. Michael let it be known that Mikka was one of his most feared and respected adversaries in his entire career. When Mikka heard that he made a special trip out to Brazil just to see Michael's final race.

I understand that space is limited on any production, but for the year that Michael Schumacher retired, I feel a dual-disc Deluxe Edition as a more upmarket option would have made sense. With better image quality and more room to go in-depth it could have been a vastly superior product, leaving this single disc production as an entry-level affordable choice for those on a limited budget.

I do appreciate one aspect of this DVD that salvaged a 3 star rating for it - the extra candid (non-race) footage was varied and well-chosen. The interview with Chris Dyer, the demo of an F1 refuelling rig, the driver-narrated qualifying laps and numerous other bit and pieces here and there were very interesting. The slow lap of Monaco narrated by Tiago Monteiro on a scooter, intercut with frantic full-speed race footage of the same route was fantastic, it really heightened the sensation of F1's crazy speed on such a tight road course. A lot of the extra footage was not seen on the US broadcasts, so for those sections alone this disc is something of a must-have for US F1 fans.

In an age when improved video quality is a must, this DVD release takes a HUGE step backwards. The lack of quality is so annoying in parts that it's almost unwatchable. As other reviews have stated, there is a major problem with the compression. I like that F1 wants to give us as much on a disk as possible...why not put it on 2 disks so the quality doesn't suffer? The disk is worth viewing once. I'm glad I rented this first and I don't plan on owning it based on quality and not the content. I own the 2000, '03, '04 and '05 disks and the quality dropped after the 2004 disk. Hopefully they get it right for the 2007 disk.

First of all, English is not my native tongue, so sorry for anything.
The 2006 season was a very emotional one for me. On one hand I'm Spanish, so Alonso was and will be always the racer I love more. On the other hand, despite his talents, I'm not a Schumacher fan. Almost every season he won at Ferrari was so boring... Not only, I tought he just couldn't win another championship: if he won in the year of his retirement, every year that follows everybody would be talking about him, that he left the circus as a champion, that the rest of the pack was just never-beens or has-beens, etc.
Because of that it was very painful to watch the races of 2006. From USA onwards, as everybody knows, Schumacher went uphill and Alonso downhill. This review from FIA was very important to me because I finally could remember the races with a clear mind (I mean, not suffering). It's amazing how many great moments happened. Both Schumacher and Alonso showed how great they were, with Raikonnen, Button and Massa giving some good perfomances along the way. I think the races got a good coverage - boring races (always had and always will) were short, but amazing ones like Hungary received a lot of attention.
What makes me gives a 5 star are the bonus features that the producers places between the races. I also have the 2005 review, and I must say this one is a lot, lot better. First of all, almost every pole gives a corner by corner review of the respective circuit (in Monaco Monteiro cruises in a scooter explaning the circuit, not a pole but it's very nice). Second, some miniutes about pitstops, and interview with Gerhard Berger, Massa, the message Button sent to his team after his first winning, all of these and more are good addition to the usual review.
Well, that's it, let's wait for the 2007 season.

Pros: The 2006 Championship Review has added considerably more content over previous years. Along with a separate "extra features" section, the format includes in-car footage of qualifying, usually by the pole-setting driver, as part of the running order for each race. The rest of the coverage is comparable to previous years, meaning it is excellent. Absolute must-have for any Formula 1 fan.

Cons: Minus one star due to one defect - with a single-disc running time that has reached 225 minutes, the video quality (compression) appears to have been compromised throughout and is rather poor in the high-speed sections. The pixelization can get huge and the frame rate and sound are both prone to stuttering. This should have been released as a 2-dvd set.

Another great look at a Formula One season featuring Michael Schumacher's last season, although he hardly goes gently into that good night with a late season charge against season winner Fernando Alonso. Lot's of other highlights and news stories like Massa's first season with Ferrari, Montoya's exit from the series, and the USA's Scott Speed stepping up to bring an American presence to Formula One. The show looks fantastic, with tons of footage not on the regular world feed. Will definitely appeal to F1 lovers (and F1 fans who like to sleep in on Sunday mornings!). Pop it in, turn it up, and enjoy!

2006 was one of the most exciting seasons ever for Formula 1. Fernando Alonso makes it 2 in a row and is still making history as the youngest driver to win 2x championships. Michael Schumacher announced his retirement at Monza but kept on fighting till the final round to win his 8th title.

This DVD is packed with great footage and great commentary. So far every year the quality of these DVDs have been excellent. You get a lot in this review especially since there are so many races in the calendar year.

One of the biggest issues with the footage is that it is highly compressed. The company tried to fit so much onto one disc that the footage is compressed to probabaly 65% quality. That means that whenever there is high speed movement, or quick movements, the footage gets all pixelated and blurry. It isn't too bad, but those who know and understand why will totally notice it. If they had fit this or any of their recent editions onto maybe 2 disc sets, the quality could have been much better.

Now if only the controllers of Formula 1 would allow for HD broadcasting......

In the past I purchased one of the Disney DVDs which had a very poor resolution. Once I sent it in for replacement, I was told that the copy I sent out was bootlegged. I must confess that the footage on this DVD is on par with the bootlegged version I purchased in the past.

The video is highly compressed, so that any time video changes, the images are incredibly pixilated and it takes some time for frames to settle to show a crisp, static imagine. I am viewing this DVD on a standard CRT TV and it can not even be compared to the DirecTV broadcast I saw last year. I can only imagine how bad it will show it self on an HD screen.

So, if you are interested in the Formula 1 and want to have a memorable 2006 season, I can only say that SRO Entertainment has given us a very poor version to enjoy.