2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie Review

This release doesn't come up roses.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 4, 2015

Team Marketing has released several college football games to Blu-ray, each covering the best and most important of the 2014 Bowl season. The games are presented without commercial interruption and are, essentially, the television broadcasts transferred onto Blu-ray. This one, the 2015 Rose Bowl, was the first-ever true college football playoff game that pitted the 12-1 Oregon Ducks, entering the playoffs as the second overall seed, against the third-seeded, and undefeated, Florida State Seminoles, sporting a record of 13-0. The game matched 2014 Heisman winning quarterback Marcus Mariota against the 2013 Heisman winner, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. From the 101st Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena, California, January 1, 2015.

"I know, I know...you wanted a better Blu-ray of this game. So did I."

No matter the stakes or the teams involved in the Rose Bowl game, it's always cause for celebration. Beyond the Super Bowl, there may not be a more celebrated sporting event or one with a greater mass appeal beyond the teams' fan base and the general sports universe. The day begins with the annual Rose Parade, the 2015 version celebrating "Inspiring Stories." Certainly, however, the biggest story of the day was to be written on the field of play in the coming game between Oregon and Florida State, the winner of which would advance to play in the National Championship game to be held on January 12, 2015, in Arlington, Texas.

The Seminoles, under Head Coach Jimbo Fisher, struck first with a field goal off the leg of Kicker Roberto Aguayo to take a 3-0 lead. It was the first and last time Florida State would hold a lead. The Ducks, under Head Coach Mark Helfrich, quickly responded with a touchdown run and a two point conversion to take an 8-2 lead, a score that would stand until the second quarter. Both teams exchanged field goals and touchdowns to end the half with Florida State still trailing by five, now with the score at 18-13. The third quarter again saw a back-and-forth in which both teams scored touchdowns to increase the score to 25-20 but leave the margin at five. From there, it was all Oregon. Two Marcus Mariota touchdowns and a lengthy fumble return for six pushed Oregon's lead to 45-20 entering the fourth. Oregon tacked on two more scores on runs from Marcus Mariota (the game's offensive MVP) and Thomas Tyner to secure a decisive 59-20 win and punch a ticket to play the winner of the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Ohio State in the National Championship game.

This release may limitedly appeal beyond the Oregon Ducks fan (and diehard college football fans) as the first-ever "true" playoff game in the new format. The 2014 season saw the addition of a four-team, three-game playoff bracket that would allow the top four teams, as ranked by experts and electronics, to decide the national championship strictly on the field, not by an end-season poll. As such, it's an historical milestone of sorts, along with the Sugar Bowl and National Championship games, also home to true "playoff" college football. Otherwise, and particularly considering the troubled video and audio and absence of supplemental materials (see below), there's no other reason for the casual fan to part with the money for this release.

2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

2015 Rose Bowl arrives on Blu-ray with a 720p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. It's not particularly attractive. Heavy blocking plagues a number of shots. Skies in particular are blocky messes. Aliasing and ringing often sour bits of the field. Graphics are poorly defined and softly presented. Colors are bright but not very well nuanced. The green field and the green and yellow Oregon jerseys dominate, each appearing sufficiently vibrant but failing to show any sort of tight, accurate crispness and definition. Details are moderately attractive. Helmet and fabric textures, the field, and faces offer decent attention to detail but can't match other sporting events shot on video, particularly most any of the significantly richer 1080i WWE releases. Background crowds are well defined to a point -- the first few rows -- but definition and clarity drop quickly thereafter. Far distant trees outside the stadium appear smeary and undefined. This is essentially a fairly cruddy HD broadcast image dropped onto Blu-ray. Fans shouldn't expect any improvement over what they saw on January 1. At least it's consistent.

2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

2015 Rose Bowl snaps onto Blu-ray with a disappointing DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Nothing is particularly well defined here. In-booth commentary occasionally plays with a fairly sharp edge and harshness about it. Sideline reports lack distinction and verbal nuance. Crowd noise isn't terribly muddy. Florida State Chants are fairly well defined. Band music is aggressive and presents with fair clarity out of the sides. Whistles and hits on the field rarely offer more than cursory sonic detail. There's at least a decent sense of front-end space, and dialogue does manage a center-focused feel. This one's ever so slightly better compared to the Sugar Bowl and National Championship yet still a fairly unimpressive outing.

2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

2015 Rose Bowl doesn't contain any supplements, per se, but it does include the post-game trophy presentation, which is listed as a special feature on the back of the box (which is a DVD case, not a Blu-ray case). It's simply an extension of the program beyond the game, beginning at about the 2:42:08 mark and lasting for about 11 minutes. The pre game program, which lasts just over 14 minutes, is also on the disc before kickoff. Of note is that it runs longer than either the Sugar Bowl or Championship release pre game program. It includes a lengthy discussion between Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, followed by coach interviews, the coin toss, and images of the teams warming up on the field. From the main menu, viewers may choose a "play all" option or jump to the start of any of the four quarters plus the aforementioned trophy presentation. A DVD copy of the game is also included in the case.

2015 Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No fluff, no filler, and strictly for fans. 2015 Rose Bowl is nothing but the original ESPN broadcast dropped onto Blu-ray with team entrances featured at the beginning and the post game celebration added on to the end. There's no halftime show, no extras recounting the story of how both teams got to the game, and, most disappointingly, no look at the revamped bowl season playoff structure. Fans who want to relive the game time and again without worrying about it getting lost on the DVR are the target audience here. Picture and sound suffice and reflect the original broadcast, but in terms of raw quality both score rather poorly. Recommended to fans who will watch it enough to warrant the buy which, at the end of the day, holds true for most every release but rings particularly accurate here.