Winter Olympics

My wife and I watched the whole 4 1/2 hours of TV coverage for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. It started out slow but became quite interesting after it really got going. I thought the light show was awesome. The only problem they had was at the very end when the torch stand wouldn't rise out of the arena floor. But they finally got it up, manually most likely, and got it lit. The mood of the ceremony was darkened by the tragic death of a luger earlier in the day while practicing. How sad.

Was kinda odd that they used an SUV at the end ,to transport the flame,for what is being proudly touted as "The Green Olympics".

I was working and missed it but I'm still wondering why they had Arnie carry the torch earlier in the day. Nothing against him basically but I think he was the only non-Canadian to carry it. Surely if they really needed an ex-(sort of)athlete/politician/whatever to do it they could have found someone with more ties to Canada or the Olympics at least.. even one tie. (Although he did rid us of the Predator alien for which I'll always be grateful)

Wished I could have watched it on a Canadian station.

Does anyone know if there is any online video of the events anywhere? The television coverage from NBC is the worst ever. I'd like to be able to see the Alpine skiing events, but NBC's prime time coverage only includes the top 3 runs and the crashes, if that. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

http://vancouver-2010-live.com/ (you will have to ad block the stupid surveys)

http://watchvancouverolympics.com/

Thanks for the links. I'll try them out and let you know if they work. I've only been able to get one of NBC's own video links to work so far.

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

Thanks for the links. I'll try them out and let you know if they work. I've only been able to get one of NBC's own video links to work so far.

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you could also try http://www.ctvolympics.ca/ ,they are the Canadian network carrying the Olympics.

Thanks. I'll try that also.

The http://www.ctvolympics.ca/ link gets me to http://www.ctv.ca/ and after digging around for a few minutes, I finally discovered a hidden link back to the original link, which finally got me to here: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html Unfortunately, I couldn't find more than a handful of actual competition videos listed there. Almost all of those were only of the Canadian athletes, and even those wouldn't play.

The http://watchvancouverolympics.com/ site asks you to answer a question to see the videos. Unfortunately, the questions to choose from were ridiculous, and I didn't know the answers to any of them, so that didn't work either. The same list of questions appeared on the http://vancouver-2010-live.com/ site also.

In addition, most of the videos on the NBC site that I wanted to watch are no longer available. It looks like I am out of luck once again for Winter Olympics coverage. The coverage of the alpine skiing events on NBC has been the worst since Albertville (when Charles Kuralt wasted most of the 1 hour program on the men's downhill with a history lesson).

sorry jdc thought they might help .... and remember what I said you had to do to stop those question surveys ;)

My friends and I came up with the "Olympics Drinking Game" for Curling last Friday. That seemed like a way better idea at the time :)

Thanks for the info. I tried blocking the surveys, but then I couldn't access the videos.

Meanwhile, back an NBC, they allocated 5 minutes per run (3 skiers per run) for coverage of the men's GS races. However, you could watch more reruns of the USA curling teams ridiculous performances. Those teams couldn't hit the broad side of a barn this year. I wouldn't mind watching the coverage if they were doing anything worthwhile, but this year I think the alpine ski racing would be much more exciting.

NBC is selling the DVD's, so they didn't want to give away much for free on their site. As a non-cable subscriber (I use an antenna), I couldn't even watch those little clips. I suspect Canadian TV is selling DVD's too.

Clips have been removed very fast from Youtube. You can catch a few before they're pulled, but what they've left on is mostly trailers, previews, and interviews.

If NBC is selling DVD's that only contain the "coverage" that they broadcast, then those will be fairly worthless. Unless the price is REALLY low, I wouldn't be interested. If Canadian TV has DVDs at a reasonable price AND they have better coverage, I might be interested in those. Thanks for keeping me updated on this. If you find out any more info on DVD availablilty, I would be interested in hearing about it.

I don't know exactly what's in the NBC videos. Check their site . And I was at CATV.ca only briefly 2 weeks ago. Or maybe olympic.org? I don't know how they divide up the rights to these things.

I think there must have been pro photographers there who made films that they'll offer for sale. `

My Canadian friends will report back to me on what they're selling there. Meanwhile, I found figure skating videos I wanted on Youtube, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. ;) Of course downloading them from Youtube is illegal. ;) In fact, posting them on Youtube is illegal. :eek:

NBC is going to be selling 1 DVD with 4 hours of "highlights". This means 3 hours and 45 minutes of hype and worthless interviews, and 15 minutes of 5 second clips of the events.

Gotcha. Will wait for report of CTV,or you can check their site.

Here is the info on the CTV DVD set. Unfortunately, it is still nearly all hype. NOt worth the $60 price to me.

http://www.vancouver2010.com/store-u...rodDVDSET.html

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Bring the Olympic Games Home!

CTV proudly presents a limited edition commemorative box set of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games for you to own on DVD.

All the key moments of triumph are included, as Canada welcomes the world to compete for gold.

This special collection is comprised of 20 hours of Olympic Games stories and highlights, beautifully laid out on five discs in a deluxe box set.

Program highlights include:
•A feature-length documentary telling the story of the Games and how Canadian athletes faced the world’s best in their quest to be at the top of the podium.
•The story of each sport is unveiled for you to relive – just as the moments of excitement and emotion unfolded at Olympic Games venues in Vancouver.
•Extensive bonus features are built-in to every disc, including a “behind the scenes” look at the Games, extensive highlights of key sports including Men’s and Women’s Hockey, Figure Skating, Curling, Skiing, Speed Skating and all the Freestyle Sports.
•Opening and Closing Ceremonies in long-form feature entertainment and the lighting of Vancouver 2010 Olympic Cauldron.


This ‘must-have’ collection of Canada’s Olympic Games legacy will be a treasured box-set for everyone’s home video library and will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Your commemorative DVD box set will ship within six weeks of the completion of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

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Hi there! Hope you're all doing well.

Just thought that this might be what you're looking for.

http://www.olympic.org/en/Multimedia...entMediaPage=1

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Originally Posted by fink

I was working and missed it but I'm still wondering why they had Arnie carry the torch earlier in the day. Nothing against him basically but I think he was the only non-Canadian to carry it. Surely if they really needed an ex-(sort of)athlete/politician/whatever to do it they could have found someone with more ties to Canada or the Olympics at least.. even one tie. (Although he did rid us of the Predator alien for which I'll always be grateful)

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Few people realize the the Predator WAS Canadian...Arnie was just being apologetic....

Campbell and Swarzenager are very good friends. He was here to help Campbell bankrupt BC, Campbell allowed him to carry the torch as a bonus. :D

Marina,

Thanks for the link. That might have a few video clips of events I didn't get to see. I'll check it out and post some info.

I have been quite pleased with what I can see at this site.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/ass...b702d53e6.html
That URL centers on the ceremonies, but you should be able to access quite a few other events.

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Few people realize the the Predator WAS Canadian

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Yeah, they sent some mounties down to try and do the job but the horses didn't fare too well in the jungle. I imagine that their uniforms were also a bit of a problem.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2010/03/10.jpg