Who Can Stop Him? 2013 F1 season Blu-ray reviewed

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Although the official 2013 F1 season review DVD made it onto shelves in time for Christmas the Blu-Ray was not slated to. Production of the high definition disc was then further delayed by a series of niggling problems, and it has only recently appeared.

But if you’ve been eagerly awaiting the high definition video review of last season your patience has not been well-rewarded: the Blu-ray version offers little more than the DVD.

While the last Blu-Ray review weighed in at a whopping seven hours over two discs, the disc 2013 edition is almost three hours shorter – and just 35 minutes longer than the corresponding DVD edition, reviewed here earlier.

Pop in the single Blu-Ray disc and you find exactly the same review as you’ll find on the DVD, albeit rendered in bright, crisp high definition.

The only additional extra is one onboard camera lap per race. And these are exactly the same as the ones you can watch for free on the official Formula One website.

I’ve never found the ‘extras’ add much to the review anyway, but this perfunctory inclusion of material you’ve probably already seen is symptomatic of the entire product. There’s very little new content of interest here. You think they might have found some revealing new radio messages or a few more surprising camera angles.

Within the review itself, tangentially relevant material such as Mark Webber’s career retrospective and John Surtees talking about the history of Monza, though interesting in their own right, would work better lifted from the main review and offered as extras.

Perhaps the real challenge of producing these reviews is that the live coverage F1 offers is now so comprehensive it’s become ever more difficult to offer something new and interesting at the end of the season.

But as far as this product is concerned, it costs more than the DVD version and all you really get for that is slightly better picture quality. It’s considerably worse value than last year’s review. A cheaper downloadable version would be easier to recommend, but as usual FOM are lagging well behind the times in this respect.

F1 Fanatic rating

Buy Who Can Stop Him? – F1 2013 Official Review (Blu-Ray)

Buy Who Can Stop Him? – F1 2013 Official Review (DVD)

Who Can Stop Him? 2013 F1 season Blu-ray

Publisher: Duke Video
Published: February 2013
Price: £25.00

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Who Can Stop Him? 2013 F1 season Blu-ray reviewed”

  1. Thanks for the review. Unlike the 2012 season I found last year not particularly exciting, neither the races nor the championship. So I decided not to buy this one and it seems to be the right decision. 2012 extras were great, 2013 extras are poor. Disappointing.

  2. Wait, so no Will Buxton at all? Wow. Was expecting him to show up on the Blu Ray just like last year.

  3. Perhaps the real challenge of producing these reviews is that the live coverage F1 offers is now so comprehensive it’s become ever more difficult to offer something new and interesting at the end of the season.

    I think that is indeed the problem now.

    In the past with the VHS reviews through the 80s/90s when the coverage for each race was produced by the local host broadcaster’s who tended to miss a lot there was a lot of extra footage to show ranging from not broadcast in-car material, Previously not shown spins/accidents & footage taken from the FOM (Then FOCA) cameras recording around the circuit/paddock getting some additional footage.

    From 1997-2002 we had the extra content produced via the f1 digital ppv service, Footage which most hadn’t seen. Plus we had a lot more cameras around the tracks as there were out cameras as well as the local host’s cameras.
    When that service closed & we went back to the local host broadcasters the reviews went back to how it was before between 2003-2007 although DVD’s gave us the chance for some extra in-car laps.

    From 2007 onwards with FOM producing the world-feed for most of the races the quality of the live broadcast’s went up & a lot less was missed compared to when the local hosts were doing the world-feed.
    Then along the way broadcaster’s began to pick up the extra in-car feeds (Sky have 4 in-car feeds + the Mix during races now) & used stuff from those in there pre/post race coverage which hadn’t shown up on the world-feed so there’s now a lot less ‘never before seen’ material out there.

    Even when it comes to team radio there’s now a lot broadcast on the pit lane channel which was launched in 2012 so now much of the interesting bits of that has been heard before.

  4. This review may contain spoilers

    Good graphics, nice production values, some of the dialogues could have been better scripted but their were some funny moments. Ultimately the story line fails to pick up and carry us to the end. Loads of people walked out half way through the original screening.

    This one is for serious collectors and VHS nerds only. They’ll probably never even take the cellophane of the package.

  5. “But if you’ve been eagerly awaiting the high definition video review of last season your patience has not been well-rewarded: the Blu-ray version offers little more than the DVD.”

    Oh dear, mine is in the post. :( Oh well, F1 in nice crisp quality is all I was ever really after with this, so it at least seems to do that.

  6. They’ll probably release the missing 3 hours in a few months as paid-for DLC.

    1. Hang on, are Turn 10 making the season reviews now?! ;)

  7. Well at least the cover art isn’t cropped really badly, cutting half of the champion’s car off.

  8. What I don’t like about the Blu Ray reviews is that they’re region blocked and in PAL format, I always need some dubious methods (some might say illegal) to actually be able to view it, a shame that this year’s edition is not great but is good for the collection at least.

  9. the only “extra” i have ever liked on this series was – i think – on the ’06 review when there was a “season preview/testing wrap”. watching that made you want to watch the review itself.
    the ’97 ’98 etc VHS series had intro clips with highlights of the season in a 2-3minute music video before and after the review. perhaps this would work as an ‘extra’ in these recent editions. the “FIA Gala” clip (if they still show them at the gala) would be also a great edition.

  10. The good: picture quality is stunning, and reminds me how strangled Sky’s “HD” really is. It’s not about the resolution (1920×1080 in each case), it’s the way progressive scan on the bluray and a much higher bit rate brings the pictures to life and shows you so much more detail.
    The bad: is it just me, or does this disc just not work right? The main “start programme” link from the menu seems to skip the first five seconds or so of the feature, so you have to rewind to get the start of the introduction, and pressing stop on the player doesn’t allow you to resume from where you left off. I have to remember which race I’m up to, as each time I stop it I can’t resume unless I choose that race from the individual race selection menu ?!!
    The downright ugly: no extra material to justify the higher price than the DVD and the release date?? COME ON! How can it take until the start of the 2014 season to release a review of 2013?
    Not for the first time the feeling of being an F1 fan is that of being treated like **** and having the maximum money extracted from you by the commercial rights holders. How long will the sport survive this way?

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