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My Olympic DVD Wish List


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After much reading the posts and researching about the then-upcoming and past Olympic DVD titles, even in closed forums, I decided to take it upon myself to resurrect the Olympic DVD saga. But with a variation. What do you guys would like to see featured in your Olympic DVDs? I will also include past Olympic video titles (VHS titles too) and what stuff should be on them should they get re-released in time for Beijing 2008. We must keep in mind of the future DVD formats--Bluray and HD-DVD, both of which would store far more capacity than regular ones--coming on the horizon and will establish themselves come 2008 (only a miracle will save us from a format war now).

For my part, there are many things I would like to see featured and structured for mine, which will be dealt with later on. I'll issue my own thoughts about negotiations and stuff like that. It still amazes me that several of the bigger nations have to release their own DVD sets, including Germany. I have yet to buy the official 4-DVD set of the 2004 Athens Olympics, but I plan to get 16 Days In September on eBay soon.

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My dream Olympic DVD set would be quite simple:

* A ceremonies disc(s) with the full opening and closing ceremonies;

* A "national" highlights disc _ ie _ Aussie highlights for the Australian release, US for the USA etc.

* An "international" highlights, or sport-by-sport rundown disc _ generally the highlights of a games without any focus on particular nations.

* I suppose mon a high-capacity system, bluray or whatever, a data disc with athletes lists, full medals table etc would be nice as well. Maybe even a music highlights disc.

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take a look :

IMG_268680.jpg

The History of Olympic Games in four DVDS

DVD 1 - Londres 1948; Melborne 1956; Roma 1960

DVD 2 - Tóquio 1964; México 1968; Montreal 1976

DVD 3 - Moscou 1980; Los Angeles 1984; Seoul 1988

DVD 4 - Barcelona 1992; Atlanta 1996; Sydney 2000

more informations here :

Four DVDs with the Olympic Games History

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take a look :

IMG_268680.jpg

The History of Olympic Games in four DVDS

DVD 1 - Londres 1948; Melborne 1956; Roma 1960

DVD 2 - Tóquio 1964; México 1968; Montreal 1976

DVD 3 - Moscou 1980; Los Angeles 1984; Seoul 1988

DVD 4 - Barcelona 1992; Atlanta 1996; Sydney 2000

more informations here :

Four DVDs with the Olympic Games History

That's a Brazilian product though.  (Funny, no Helsinki and Munich.)  What zone is Brazil's DVD system?

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take a look :

IMG_268680.jpg

The History of Olympic Games in four DVDS

DVD 1 - Londres 1948; Melborne 1956; Roma 1960

DVD 2 - Tóquio 1964; México 1968; Montreal 1976

DVD 3 - Moscou 1980; Los Angeles 1984; Seoul 1988

DVD 4 - Barcelona 1992; Atlanta 1996; Sydney 2000

more informations here :

Four DVDs with the Olympic Games History

I'm starting to get the impression that this collection is really made up of the Official films of those Olympic Games that were released four years ago primarily in Australia. Yeah, no Munich or Helsinki? I don't know. I need more info on it than what was offered on the site...

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OK, I promised that I would bring up my wishes for an Olympic DVD set for Olympic titles past, present, and future hopefully in time for Beijing. I would very much like for them to be modeled like the sports DVD titles released by Warner Home Video (or Warner Vision as it's known overseas) for the NBA, NFL, and NHL titles. They should also study the re-release of Warners' Ultimate Jordan 20th Anniversary DVD with a extra disc added. It should be around 4-6 discs much like the numerous TV series for a season. It should very much take advantage of the capacities of the next-generation of DVDs like Blu-Ray or HD-DVD; the decision to go about what format to use is imperative. For the purpose of this, let's go with Blu-Ray--50GB (still learning the details about HD-DVD). What I wish for is very ambitious and covers a lot of details, which I'll do in parts. You can certainly help me out with this on the finer points and what may work or not for this. I'll add and amend some stuff later on. I understand that, if it's true, the IOC isn't too keen about doing the sole work on the home video thing probrably not go for an international distribution. Anyway, IOC, TWI, OTAB, TV networks who own the national TV rights, Olympic Museum, and home video distributors, please read this:

1. Let's start with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The first disc should contain both ceremonies, and both should be full, uncensored, uncut, and commercial-free. The audio commentary from the host nation TV feed must be included with the option for subtitling or no commentary at all--just a clean feed. Make the chapters/sections complete, not spilling over to another aspect if possible. Not only that (clean feed with no commentary), it would nice to hear commentary from the TV broadcast hosts from other nation or see how other nations called it. There should also be shots, angles, and scenes that weren't used in one nation's showing like maybe the hosts but used for another. For example, if you want to see more of the Australians in the Parade of Nations than what was offered in the default (or a closeup head shop of Gianna at the end of the reciting of the Greek anthem like NBC did in its broadcast), there should be more shots of them to ID. Just click on the menu with a specific chapter shot on them or have it extended. You can also have the option to hear for example, English commentaries from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, Great Britain, Ireland, Malta, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Pakistan, and Fiji. Make sure you negotiate and get the home video rights usage of the copyrighted songs from both ceremonies with the singers, musicians, and songwriters well before the Olympics (preshow festivities included). That way, people won't get upset when they buy it, claiming that it is the complete when it's not and stuck with the Olympic protocol. Speaking of which, it's not too late, and in fact to get us in the mood for Beijing, do likewise for past Olympics' ceremonies.  We should also get the entire preshow stuff like with what Sydney did and should be for Athens (but that could be added for re-release if Victory Music so desires), popups, reactions from both ceremonies, and fun facts of them. We should have interviews and/or audio commentaries from the show producers, choreagraphers, extras, volunteers, those involved with the organizing committee, director, and broadcasters. There should also be a behind the scenes documentary as well.

2. As we all know and I have made known over and over, that this 92-minute documentary about Athens that has been popping up, that ain't gonna cut it. For all of its featuring the English language, the Official Athens DVD was rather British-centric, limited, disappointing, and not really accomdating the others nations. With thousands of hours of footage of every game match, and heat shown on TV (I'd say 2000+), it's impossible, even absurd, to show everything out the games. I think Greece's ERT channels, and to a lesser extent South Africa's Supersport channels, showing everything on the Athens Olympics. You can only show so much. Besides, people will balk at the price if all that turned up. Unless otherwise indicated, I'll focus on the Summer Games.  The sports portion should be international, sport-by-sport rundown highlights of the games without any focus on any particular nation. I think it should be at either 2 to 4 Blu-ray DVDs for that. Have it sectionalized from the opening heats/prelims to finals. On a 50GB DVD which can have 23+ hours, we can potentially have at least 4 hours each devoted to each Olympic sport for both genders from prelims/heats to finals. How about making it day to day? You may have better ideas as to how to organize it. I think the first disc should be devoted to at least swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, track and field, and rowing with chapter menus. We could have around 220 hours out of that part alone! :wwww: There can parts of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies on the discs but that should be it since we can get in their entirities on a separate disc.  How about Olympic stars interviews? Menu pages for each day featuring every sport. National anthems from all of the nations? For the computer part, there should be a datalist with athletes', coaches, trainers', and staff/liasons bios, medal table, box scores, rosters, medal roll, text overlay for every event and result, info on venues, results, stats, etc. like as if it's the Official Report of the Organizing Committee. Animated interactive menu and daily interactive selection with weblinks. We can have gold-medal comps in their entirities in individual sports with post match interviews and medal ceremonies. Team sports gold-matches should be on separate retail discs like Canada's double gold 2002 in both men's and women's ice hockey complete with CBC/SRC commentary and medal ceremonies. BTW, I would very much like to see a DVD of the Kookaburras' gold medal game against the Dutch, which has yet to exist.  Will we ever see it released Down Under?

That's Part One, which should give you somethings for you to chew on. I'll be back with Part Two.

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I would say it would be a massive collection, especially for the more recent Olympiads, where they could do a whole lot more. For earlier ones, they may have a lot more than it's assumed. But what do I know? Haven't asked. It would be very nice to see more special features and bonus footage for past Olympics to accomodate the Official Olympic Films for future re-release on next generation DVDs, now that DVD is firmly established in the media.
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I would say it would be a massive collection, especially for the more recent Olympiads, where they could do a whole lot more. For earlier ones, they may have a lot more than it's assumed. But what do I know? Haven't asked. It would be very nice to see more special features and bonus footage for past Olympics to accomodate the Official Olympic Films for future re-release on next generation DVDs, now that DVD is firmly established in the media.

I would love to see how the 1896 Athens Games were covered then. Man, I bet it was not easy to make visual records of it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It certainly won't be easy to nab all of the footage from the 1896 Olympics and beyond. I think what will happen is that we'll see a lot of still photos, if official videos of 1896 and those immediately after that ever come to frutition. I'm very certain that OTAB and the Olympic Museum took great pains and lengths to preserve them for posterity. I too would like to see how they covered it.

Back to my wishes after more than a week's absence:

3. Australia, and specifically Warner Vision Australia, have shown why it has such massive love for the Olympics on video. They're the best at it. Numerous titles have came out there since I think Australians at the Olympics: A Definite History 1896-1980. The cream of the crop is, without a doubt, the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony, 16 Days in September, Athens: 2004 Australian Olympic Highlights, and The Dream Series with Roy and HG (Sydney, Salt Lake City, and Athens). This also applies to the releases of the Official Films of past Olympics. I started collecting Australian Olympic videos on eBay Australia since last year like Australians At The Olympics and Australia '92: Guts, Determination, and Glory videotapes. Just about every recent Olympics, Australia has a video for, pertaining to their athletes. Because I have yet to see these videos, I can't critique on them and how they can apply effectively for my dream Olympic DVD set. How cool would it be to see them re-release these titles and more on Bluray or HD-DVD with far more capacity to sink its teeth into? I'm particularly curious about Australia's involvement in Moscow 1980 on video and to see more stuff from that, for example. We may have that aforementioned Kookaburras' gold medal game against the Dutch in it or the complete 2000 women's water polo gold medal match, along with more footage. I would like to see how the 2000 release of Australia and the Olympic Games would be like on those next generation DVDs. I like to see that emulated in almost every market for mass consumption. This certainly isn't the case everyweher in the West, even like Germany, which has a very rich Olympic tradition itself (GDR included) and has a dearth of Olympic titles on video. What Australia puts out for Olympic videos, which I admire them a lot for, certainly puts us here in the United States and Canada to shame. We should do just as well, if not more. Yes, focus on the national athletes in the nation in question for national release. Of course, the Greeks have their little own 16 Days in September DVD as part of the Athens 2004 DVD compilation as Disk 3. I think something like that should be at least three hours. For those who want to seek out DVDs involving athletes from other nations outside of the editions sold in one country should ask buy them. For example, if you're Swedish (or French) and living in New Zealand wanting to obtain an Olympic DVD of the Swedes in Athens and add it to your collection, you should do so particularly online. For someone like in the US, we should get something like that and we used to in the past up to Atlanta. It's just a shame that all we get these days is something like solely a gymnastics DVD instead of a more comprehensive look at all of the sports the US participated in.  :cry:

4. To keep with the international spirit of the Olympics, in next generation DVD technology there must be a multitude of languages/subtitles used. This should go hopefully all Olympic DVD titles. Considering this is the IOC, English and French must be included since they are the IOC's official languages. But there must also be included at least 42 (at least for subtitling):Greek, Swedish, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Danish, Hebrew, Hindi, Czech, Filipino, Farsi, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Serbian, Croatian, Turkish, Hungarian, Gaelic, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Latvian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Romanian, Maltese, Flemish, Swahili, Belarussian, Armenian, Malay, Indonesian, Tamil, Urdu, Bosnian, Albanian, Welsh, Zulu, Laotian, and Afrikaans, just to name those. Another thing that I wish that caught on is the option to record your own commentary for these discs. The only DVD that I know of where you record your own commentary is on the original Spider-Man DVD. On opening ceremonies you, ideally speaking, will comment on the pagentry and athletes in the Parade of Nations and the like. I say this becuase lots of people, including yours truly, will speak to the TV in the heat of moment and cheer on as if they're hearing us. This feature will add to the DVD set's interest value.

5.For the past Olympics titles like the Official Films, let me use the 1980 Moscow Olympic Film on Bluray as an example. Get it rereleased as a box set in time for Beijing, when the costs of Bluray and HD-DVD will be cheaper. Get the complete and uncut Opening and Closing Ceremonies with commentaries on one disc and various camera shot (if applicable) with maybe preshow and behind the scenes stuff. This will be great for those who live in nations that did not show the Olympics due to the boycott like the US, Argentina, Japan, Norway, and Canada. For the official film highlights disc, you can still have the option of playing the original version or a much more extended one. On the extended version, you can see far more footage of what occured during Moscow Olympics and more (and all of the) sports not making the cut on film, maybe up to a similar length to my wish of perhaps 180 hours(?). We can also have complete matches, events, and games included--like maybe the Yugoslavians beating Italy for gold in men's basketball, Vladimir Salkinov's 1500m win, Miruts Yifter's 10,000m, Pietro Mennea's 200m win, Steve Ovett's 800m, Sebastian Coe's 1500m win on the track, or the Australian men's 4x400m IM relay ("Three meters, two meters, one meter! Gold! Gold to Australia! Gold! Gold!" could be the call for that on the DVD audio from Norman May) with the post stuff and medal ceremony. Again here, since I never had watched something like this, I have no immediate way of knowing of how it's originally structured. There might be a nice video review or doc on the Soviet (or any of the Communist bloc) athletes in Moscow, the politics and the massive boycotts of how nations debated whether or not to go, the legacy of it, and any feature involving the Moscow Olympics. Interviews with some the notable athletes from those games (if still living). Olympic historians, researchers, journalists, and organizers giving their thoughts on the Olympics in question. Fun facts, national anthems, etc. There must also be a computer feature about the Olympic with a database, venues, records, medal tables, stats, reports, phots, stills, and the like (see #1 and #2 on those).

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  • 3 months later...

A few thoughts until I bring up the big Olympic DVD wishlist on my next post with some more thoughts:

Just a moment ago, I saw this very interesting 60 hour 30 DVD set involving all of the 87 Chinese gold medalists from 1984 to 2000. The downside is that there's no English subtitles for it. It's practically two hours in each and every disc. No 2004 Olympians like the men's 400m hurdler who later carried the Chinese flag at Athens' Closing Ceremony--Li Xiaosung, if I got that right? Surely, it'll be updated for Beijing. Why can't other nations do this?

Enjoying the 2000 Opening Ceremony 2-DVD set! :D

I recently got the 16 Days In September DVD, and I have to say that while I enjoy it, it was a little disappointing. Maybe I set my hopes and expectations a bit too high for something like this. I'll discuss this later.

I won the The Dream with Roy and HG DVD (the Sydney edition) on eBay and bought it. I'm awaiting its arrival from the Melbourne area. I hope to get the Ice Dream, the Dream In Athens, and the Australian Athens Review DVD later on. Also I got the rare 1988 Australians in Seoul video Hand in Hand from Virgin Video and Network Ten Australia (note the rare X logo for the channel from the 80s).

Was the 2000 Torch Relay video ever released on DVD like it was on VHS, since it was released from Warner Vision Australia?

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