2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie Review

The Roses are wilted on Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 8, 2013

Everyone loves a good playoff game...except for the BCS, apparently. Every year the debate rages over the validity of the current college football postseason system and the fairly wide demand for an overhauled playoff seeding system. Sure, playing in the Rose Bowl is cool, but having the chance to hoist that National Championship trophy would be even sweeter, even if it meant going through several teams rather than one. But playoffs or no, the grandeur of these top-rated bowl games is undeniable, the pressure off the charts, the moment historic, and the possibilities endless. It's too bad that nearly none of that is captured in the 2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio Blu-ray release. This is a flat, bare-bones, no-effort football disc that's the game and nothing but the game. It's as if someone DVR'd the game, removed the commercials, dropped it onto Blu-ray, threw together a cover, purchased some blue cases, sealed it up, and called it "good to go." Fans just wanting to relive the game will be pleased on a basic level -- it's a better option than FF'ing through commercials or, as it was years ago, taping it onto a wavy VHS cassette -- but fans who demand something a little more than a straight replay of what was on television will be disappointed with the results, maybe even Stanford Cardinal fans who will otherwise be pleased with the outcome.

Game time.

The Wisconsin Badgers got the Rose Bowl under the leadership of Head Coach Bret Bielema, but lost the Rose Bowl under the guidance of former coach-turned-athletic director-turned-coach Barry Alvarez, the coach who previously led the Badgers to a 2000 Rose Bowl victory over the Stanford Cardinal and who, before the 2012 game, had never lost a Rose Bowl. The Badger squad, led by running back Montee Ball -- the 2012 Doak Walker Award winner -- finished the season as Big Ten Champions with an 8-6 record and an even 4-4 mark in division play. The team began the season ranked twelfth in the country but never ascended any higher, dropping to thirteen after losing a three-point squeaker to Oregon State in week two and finishing the year at twenty-three. The Badgers would continue an up-and-down season by reeling off two straight wins against Utah State and UTEP before falling to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in week five in another three-point defeat. They would win three more before falling to Michigan State in overtime and losing two more in extra time to both Ohio State and Penn State before clobbering Nebraska in the Big Ten Championship Game en route to the Rose Bowl defeat.

The Stanford Cardinal enjoyed a much more even-keeled season. Second-year Head Coach David Shaw led the team to a rock-solid 12-2 record, which included an 8-1 mark in division play. The Cardinal began the season ranked twenty-first in the nation, but three straight wins over San Jose State, Duke, and USC pushed them to eight. They would lose the fourth game of the season at Washington to fall back to eighteenth. They regrouped with a home win against Arizona before dropping another game, this time to Notre Dame, an overtime affair in South Bend. Now ranked twenty-second, the Cardinal wouldn't lose again, rising to eighth in the nation by the time they would play in the Rose Bowl. Shaw's team would reel off six straight victories against Cal, Washington State, Colorado, Oregon State, Oregon, and UCLA. They would play UCLA again only a week later in the Pac-12 Championship Game, this time at home rather than in Pasadena, and the team would return again to Pasadena more than a month later on January 1, 2013, to defeat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

Only the second half of the game was something of a low-scoring snoozer, but this entree Blu-ray is a low-scoring snoozer. As noted earlier, 2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio is nothing more than the game's broadcast transferred to Blu-ray. As such, there's really not a lot to say about it, and certainly nothing to praise, other than that the commercials are gone and it at least doesn't look any worse than the original broadcast. This is the game and, accessible from the menu, the post-game trophy presentation. That's it. There are no added interviews, no snazzy home video production values, no documentary style looks back at the team's seasons, no brief highlight reels, and not even text lists of scores and top performers (not that that's hard to find on the Internet, but it would have at least added something to the disc that would have required minimal effort on the part of the disc production team). Buyers are receiving the game and the case. It's a convenient way to re-experience exactly what aired on television, minus commercials of course, but fans hoping for something more in line with the documentary style of, say, the very good Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl release will be disappointed, maybe even disgusted, with this one.

2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Those who watched the game on television will be pleased (or probably saddened, really) to know that this release almost perfectly replicates a watchable but imperfect broadcast source. 2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio rushes onto Blu-ray with a meager MPEG-2 encoded, 1.78:1 high definition transfer that looks like it was pulled off the living room DVR. Unlike the usually excellent WWE releases that often improve, a bit, on the broadcast quality (whether new release or old standard definition material), this transfer is the video equivalent of barebones, offering a clear, watchable, satisfactory picture but absolutely nothing more. There's some unsightly shimmering on graphics and straight lines and some obvious compression eyesores. On the plus side, details are mostly satisfying in close-ups shots, revealing the texture of uniforms and the turf field. Distance shots, on the other hand, lack that decent detailing from the grass or uniforms, and some of the overhead aerial shots look downright awful. Colors are pleasing enough. Green turf and the sea of red (both teams sport red and white color schemes) on the field and in the stands look fine. This release will please fans who just want to relive the game without the chore of skipping commercials, but anyone expecting this to look like a movie will be disappointed.

2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio features a completely uninspired Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Again, it's simply no better than the broadcast sound. Ambient crowd noise is cramped up the middle and wholly unrealistic, featuring no range and only the most basic clarity. The same may be said of the band music: low-end clarity, no range, no sense of immersion. The good news is that the play-by-play is never forced to compete with the rest of the track, never lost in the shuffle of crowd cheers or music. Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit, calling the game up in the booth, and Heather Cox and Tom Rinaldi, commenting down on the sidelines, all come through clearly enough. Basic game sound effects -- blowing whistles, pad-on-pad hits -- are like the rest of the presentation, playing with an adequate sonic signature but nothing more. Compare this to the DVR'd copy of the game, chances are it'll be impossible to tell them apart.

2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

2013 Rose Bowl contains only the post-game trophy presentation ceremony (HD, 10:26). Unlike the National Championship game disc, it's only available through the main menu and is not tacked onto the end of the game. A DVD copy is also included.

2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio is a disappointing barebones college football home video presentation, but fans of the Stanford Cardinal will probably want to own it, anyway, but only if the game doesn't still reside on the living room DVR. For those who still have it, it's the same thing, minus commercials and with a basic quarter-by-quarter chapter select. Whether that's worth the cost of the disc is up to each viewer, especially considering the lackluster picture and sound and no bonus content. Recommended as a skip to anyone without the game already in some capacity or folks with the Stanford logo tattooed on their chest (i.e., "superfans").