Customer Reviews

The Official Review of the 2008 FIA Formula One Championship

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

 

 

After being very pleased with the 2007 Review, I purchased the 2008 Review. While the program material itself is good, I can not recommend the 2008 Review due to the poor video quality. The problem was video artifacts throughout, which showed up as a shimmering of the image or parts of the image. This happened on fast moving cars as well as slow moving people walking and stationary objects. It is very disappointing and distracting, especially since the 2007 Review had no such problems.

I was so disappointed with it that I wrote to the distributor, Kultur International Films. The following is from the reply I received from Kultur's DVD Coordinator:

"We are indeed aware of the problems that are on the 2008 Formula One Review DVD, and we apologize that the disc went out this way.

"The problems that you've seen were on the master tapes we received from the producers, and we more than likely caused by either the conversion from PAL to NTSC, or from High Definition to Standard Definition. The authoring house that worked with us on this program believes it was the latter, and their technicians say it is not uncommon for this to happen with the broadcast networks on footage of this type (lots of camera motion on fast objects).

"As you can imagine, given the time frame between the end of the season and the release date for Christmas, we were left with very little choice but to release this."

Clearly, in their own words, release speed took priority over quality. If you expect high quality video, you would be wise to pass on this one.

This was again released on 2 discs, and overall it looks great except when the camera moves to follow cars - some goofy panning artifacts appear and it's particularly distracting wherever there are white and red lines (such as the kerbs or the logo on the Ferrari rear wing). I don't remember seeing such problems on the 2007 review.

Content-wise it is surprisingly similar to watching the races on Speedtv - complete with their style of instant replays on some of the crash moments. There was some camera work that seemed original, but I was hoping for more. I didn't feel it was biased toward anyone in particular, but hey Lewis won the championship so it's only natural that we see a lot of him. One other thing I find annoying is the motion menus - they are pretty but slow and the disc prevents you from hurrying them up. Generally I find this sort of thing self-indulgent and irritating for people who watch their dvds more than once.

One thing I really would like to see more of is camera shots that are steady, not panning, complete with sound so we can have some sense of what it is like to be there, just standing next to the track as the cars scream by. This was the most impressive thing I remember about actually viewing a race in person - especially since I saw a practice day in Montreal and what I most remember is the delightful cacophony of engine notes surrounding me, and occasionally thundering past.

Good job overall for fans of the sport. It was a great year so of course this is nice to have.

This DVD provides a good review of the season with interesting background materials (drivers narrating a qualifying lap, behind the scenes clips, interviews, etc.) just like the overview of the previous seasons. The main problem is terrible video quality. On nearly every shot where the camera is panning to follow a car, the video quality goes to hell. It gets blocky and shows all kinds of tearing artifacts. I have the 2007 review DVD and it didn't have any of these issues. How can they take such a big step back in quality? It can't be that hard to encode the video correctly.

While the races are covered fairly well and there are a few bonus features, the video quality is very disappointing. Another viewer noted the same trouble I experienced and called it "panning artifacts." Namely, when the camera follows the cars moving quickly, there is a pronounced blurring/stuttering effect. It is very distracting and takes away from the race and commentary. I actually stopped watching about five races in because of it. Why can't these guys get it right? Be warned - this DVD is for you only if you are a hardcore fan and MUST have each year's review. Otherwise, those looking for a neat and effective wrap-up of last season will come away disappointed.

I would rate this disc set miles above the disaster of the '06 season review, and on par or better than last year's '07 review. I'm so glad they started putting this on two discs.

Would've given it five stars, but they're a bit too much over the top with Hamilton. Despite his moment in the limelight, I think most long time followers of F1 will almost cringe at some of the "gushing" presented here.

A great recount of an exciting season . . . that would've been a home run with more editorial balance.

The DVD has a spot on it where there is poor quality throughout the entire DVD. This is a problem on all DVDs, not just mine, based on other's reviews. There is a fluttering of sort that distorts the picture. I am very surprised that Formula 1 did not catch this problem during production.

After getting a "sneak preview" of the PAL version of this video from torrent, I decided to purchase this video of the exciting 2008 Formula One Championship. From a production standpoint, it is average and no where near the quality I am use to on SPEED though most of the same camera shots are used (of course). Personally, I felt some what letdown by the lack of excitement as the season progressed during the video. But then again, I did decide to purchase it after initially viewing for free so perhaps I am just nitpicking.

However, with this NTSC version , I was immediately put off by the terrible video quality during panning scenes. This was most evident when the camera locked-on (or panned) the cars going through turns or down the straights. The video of the car shifted and stuttered trying to keep pace with the cars. This is so distracting I felt compelled to write a poor review and advise others to skip purchasing this video.

At any rate, since I already had viewed the PAL version of this video off the web and it didn't have these flaws, I wanted to blame my new Samsung LCD. So I headed back to the computer to compare it to the DivX torrent I watched before. The verdict was easy to see; the PAL version was flawless while the problems persisted on the NTSC version. In other words, I paid $27 to watch an inferior encoding of the footage and no refund is possible on open material.

Bottom line on this one, if you live in N. America you are better of scouring the web for the PAL version and just watch it on your computer or re-encode it yourself for NTSC. This version is a major disappointment and I would suggest to anyone considering this to save their money and skip this year's installment.

This is a good quality production marred by a single technical flaw which practically ruins almost every action shot. Often when there is rapid action involving side-to-side motion on screen the image breaks up and I find it so distracting it is hard to watch; I keep on "watching the distortion" instead of watching the action.

Surveying the reviews on the Amazon.co.uk site for the UK/PAL version there is not one complaint about video quality, amongst 12 reviews, whereas most of the reviews for the US edition do mention it amongst a smaller overall number of reviews. Therefore I think this is a US-market flaw only and the original footage is all fine. I also noticed that the in-car footage does not generally have this problem even though it is inherently a little bit lower overall quality, and neither does most or all of the off-track footage. It seems to be limited to the track-mounted and/or hand-held broadcast cameras. Seems very much like a US-market-only technical glitch in format conversion (perhaps PAL to NTSC).

It is very disappointing for the US market to be treated to poor quality control when it is a market that the car manufacturers supporting Formula1 regard as critical. Previous year-end reviews suffered from excessive compression to fit all the footage onto one disc, but now with a double-disc set I am certain this could have been practically immaculate (2007's review was, for example).

Moving on, I still give this product three stars, still enjoyed watching it as it's the only NTSC record of another dramatic and exciting season of Formula 1 racing. Lewis Hamilton was a well-deserved world champion finally, congratulations to him. The last race of the season was one of the most exciting races I've ever seen.

Why are these DVD Reviews great then bad then great then bad again seemlingly from year to year? Buyers beware. F1 Reviews 2000,2003,2004,2007 Great! 2005,3006,2008 BAD! 2009 Review? Who knows. Someone in charge of these things being released needs to be canned.

I've been watching Formula 1 for 25 years, and the 2008 season was undoubtedly one of the most exciting I have ever seen. However, some folk here seem to have lost sight of the quality of the racing, and instead have got themselves all bent out of shape over the quality of this review DVD.

In my opinion, much of the criticism is overstated. The 2008 season review DVD is eminently watchable, despite some artifacts and ghosting on some of the race footage. How serious and prevelant is it? Not very. Should one expect a professionally produced DVD costing about $30.00 to be nigh on perfect? Absolutely. It is frustrating that this one is not quite there in terms of video quality? Only if you let it become so.

I wonder if the reviewers upset with the video quality are too young to remember what it was like to use VCR's. Those of us who struggled with videotape degredation, and the vagaries of using such a cumbersome system, still marvel at the convenience and overall reliability of DVD, and are perhaps a little more forgiving of the occasional artifact, etc.

The 2008 F1 season was incredible, and pretty much went down to the last corner of the last race. For those of you thinking about picking up this DVD, don't listen to the naysayers suggesting you save your money and pass it by. You can buy with confidence, safe in the knowledge that you will enjoy some incredible footage of a truly fantastic year of Formula 1 motor racing.