Customer Reviews

NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers - Road to XLIII [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first disc the NFL produced for this season teased us a little, but now we can watch the whole post-season + a great Baltimore-Pittsburgh late-season battle in high-definition. Hopefully the NFL will be putting out their "America's Game" for Superbowl XLIII and that will be when the players tell more of the story of the whole season, these discs only have the games, but what FANTASTIC games they are!

The first disc has Game 15 of the regular season-a hard-fought Steelers-Ravens game for the AFC North title in Baltimore as well as the Divisional Playoff game where the Steelers face off against the Chargers. The second disc has the absolutely brutal defensive fight for the AFC Championship-a grudge match of the Steelers vs. Ravens, followed by arguably the best superbowl, the Steelers vs. the Cardinals in Superbowl XLIII. The under-respected and unexpectedly great Cardinals fight tooth & claw against the Steelers from start to stop. The Steelers show why they are the #1 defense - watching Harrison's 100-yard interception return for a touchdown NEVER gets old. The Pittsburgh offense puts together the most memorable finish (maybe the Giants from the year before could lay claim to an equally-impressive run) as they move from deep in their own territory to make a huge last minute drive ending with a Roethlisburger-Holmes reception in the corner of the endzone.

There aren't too many extras (in fact there's only two) but I was really excited to to see that they have an alternate audio track for the Superbowl featuring the WDVE broadcast. So if you've ever enjoyed listening to the Pittsburgh guys calling the games, it might just warm your heart a little to hear the game called by the unashamedly partisan WDVE crew. The only other special feature is a trivia track that pops up during the superbowl. Watching these games in high-def is definitely an improvement and the Steelers look better and better each time I see these games.

I am a diehard Steelers fan through and through. For any Steeler fan this is a must have to your collection of Steeler DVDs. I went to the Steelers Sideline Stores which have it priced the same as Amazon for it. The DVD consists of....

Week 15 vs. Baltimore - Steelers clinch division
AFC Divisional Playoff - vs. San Diego
AFC Championship Playoff - vs. Baltimore
Super Bowl XLIII - vs. Arizona

This collection is a near perfect collection...what I don't like is

*You have 2/3 of the classic matchups with Baltimore this past season. EACH game was a classic. Why did they omit the Monday Night thriller against Baltimore? This series has done this before. For the Giants Road to XLII DVD which I have they added the Week 17 loss to the Patriots and the 4 playoff games so the 5th disc has happened and I would have added that game

*You have minor hesistations in the presentation of the Super Bowl and some minor skips in the other games but they are not big enough to complain about but you will notice them (esp. SB XLIII) but it should not disappoint

*There are no special features...which is terrible...what I loved about the Road to XL DVD was the featurettes about the Steelers, the Giants Road to XLII DVD for the Super Bowl had an option of Michael Strahan doing his commentary on the game..there are no Special Features on this DVD

What I like about this....

*Those Steeler fans that bought Road to XL remember the Steelers Radio Team of Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin, and Craig Wofley do the play by play well its not the case, you get the TV annoucers so you get John Madden's last game as an analyst, historic there. NFL Films started this with the Colts Road to XLI dvd

*These are the actual games...not NFL Films cutting material or NFL Films tapes like the "Road to XXXIX - Patriots"

Overall - If you love the Steelers, if you love football, if you love John Madden this is an absolute must and for $25 - $30 you get to relive in my eyes 2 great games with the Week 15 Baltimore and Super Bowl, and two ok games in the AFC Championship (which you can relive the Troy Polamalu touchdown return) and San Diego game.

I'm disappointed with this "Super Bowl XLIII" DVD set. Sure, it contains four football games as advertised, but that's about all the good I can say about it. In almost every way this set is inferior to the "Pittsburgh Steelers - Road to Super Bowl XL (Post-Season Collector's Edition)" DVD box set.

The video quality is quite similar and almost exact. However, the video presentation seems quite rushed on the XLIII set, as if the on-field action was cut even shorter than the XL set. (The DVD menus are "flashier" this time around, although you look at them for about three seconds.)

The XLIII audio track features the inferior television commentary as opposed to the superior radio commentary used for the XL set. The XLIII set also uses an audio track that seems to have been mixed in a studio with a four-year-old child constantly pushing buttons. The audio track is very uneven and distractingly so. (The crowd noise keeps rising and falling although nothing is happening on-screen and it occurs too often to be replays on the "Jumbotron".) BOTH sets, XL and XLIII, feature English-only subtitles. (But considering the target audience, I'm not surprised.)

The XLIII set is without any extras. NO extras. None. Zilch. Zip. Nada. This is a major disappointment. The XL set had one documentary per disc.

The packaging is different and less eco-friendly. However, I personally prefer the hard plastic XLIII packaging to the cardboard XL packaging for long-lasting presentation.

Here's the short version:

Super Bowl XL (40) set
VIDEO - DVD
AUDIO - Radio commentary
EXTRA - One documentary per disc
PACKG - Cardboard

Super Bowl XLIII (43) set
VIDEO - DVD
AUDIO - TV commentary
EXTRA - None
PACKG - Plastic

While I believe that the video quality of the XLIII set "MAY" be better due to the fact that a Blu-Ray version was produced, it's imperceptible on DVD. I also believe the extras were cut to make room on the discs for this imaginary "improved video quality". The audio commentary difference is one purely of preference and is obviously inferior to me. The omitted extras are a disappointment.

Aside from having four more football games on DVD, this set is almost a WASTE OF MONEY. (A DVR-version would be better, at least then I'd have the commercials.) The XL set is far superior. Buy that. (Pittsburgh Steelers - Road to Super Bowl XL (Post-Season Collector's Edition))

As a long time Steeler fan, and an owner of the Road to XL dvd set, I was looking forward to getting this set. The quality of the dvd's is great. The video and sound is fantastic. If all you want is the same old, tired commentary of Al Micheals and John Madden, then by all means, buy this set. However, if you have a dvd recorder, you could have done just as well, except for editing of commercials, of course, but I kinda like them
If, however, you are like me, and were looking forward to hearing the Steelers radio announcers, as in the Road to XL set, you will be VERY DISAPPOINTED, as I am. While the quality, as I said earlier, is great, the decision to include NO BONUS MATERIAL...NONE!!!, is a MAJOR disappointment. If you didn't record the games, these are worth having, if you did record them, save your money.
I hope the NFL corrects this mistake soon and releases another set of discs soon. I am sending them a request, and my opinion of this set, tonight.

this is exactly what i was looking for. four entire games, including the super bowl win. no commercials, just every minute of the games. the win against baltimore to win the division, the two playoff games and the super bowl. every steelers fan will love this.

I was really looking forward to having these game in Hi-defintion. When I watched the discs, the quality was just about perfect. However, the editing was poorly done to the point that it became distracting. The huddles are edited! I think it really detracts from the viewing experience. Overall, so-so. It could have been better.

I was very pleased with this product. The games are very well edited and the crispness and clarity of the recordings is excellent. The only drawbacks are, as mentioned by other commenters, that there are no extras and they are broadcast with the TV commentators instead of the local guys. Personally, I would have preferred the local announcers since I am not a big fan of Madden or some of the comments he made in the Superbowl (like saying Harrison should have been ejected- and this coming from a guy who used to coach the dirtiest team in the league, whose players would do things like clothes-line Lynn Swann in between plays [I wonder how often he called for his own players to be "thrown out" back then?]- end of rant).

All and all, I think the DVD sets are great and would recommend them to anyone who wants to be able to re-live these historic games again and again.

Watching the playoff run in high definition is a wonderful thing. When I saw Troy Polamalu intercept the pass in the AFC championship, James Harrison's 100 yard interception and Santonio Holmes' game winning TD in the Super Bowl, each play brought back chills seeing them again.

Not many extras, but the video quality is outstanding. If you are a Steeler fan, you must own this.

I just looked at the zoomed in back cover of the regular 4 disc standard dvd edition and it will be full screen versions of the four games just like the road to Super Bowl XL from a few years ago. They do not yet have the back cover of the blu-ray posted so hopefully this version will be the wide screen version for those like myself with wide screen TV's. Also the back cover for the regular standard dvd states that the total run time is 448 min and not 240 min. I am assuming that the Blu-ray will be closer to the 448 min mark than 240 min.

Some other notes to consider. The newly posted front covers show that the Blu-ray will just be 2 discs with two games on each one since Blu-Rays can hold more information. The standard edition will be 4 discs with one game on each disc.

For those of you that would like to know what the set contains:

From the WB product info page:

The Pittsburgh Steelers looked great throughout their 2008 championship run. Now, they look even better. For the first time on Blu-Ray, the original television broadcasts of four Steelers victories are available to own in high-definition in Road to Super Bowl XLIII. In this unforgettable four-disc set, relive the Steelers pursuit of their NFL-record sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy. Follow Pittsburgh from their exciting Week-15 clash against Baltimore - the game that decided the AFC North title - through their playoff victories over San Diego and Baltimore again, to their breathtaking victory over Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII. Over four games, the Pittsburgh Steelers became super once again. Now, those games are yours to own on Blu-Ray.

Sounds great to me.