The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K UHD Extended & Theatrical (2001-2003)

[Mierzwiak]

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by BatmanvJoker

Thank you. I haven’t seen terminator 2 on 4k uhd yet but that seems to be the standard in these forums of what not to do. And you basically said you noticed DNR clearly in motion in T2 where FOTR is just enjoyable watching in motion. That’s a HUGE difference to most people I would imagine. Thanks for breaking it down and let me know if I’m incorrect in my assessment of your thoughts. Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm not the best for spotting things, because I immerse myself when waching. I'd say the scenes with edge enhancement when the camera is zoomed out are the most obvious. But we're talking about a couple scenes here and there in a movie almost 4 hours long. I only spotted a couple scenes that looked smooth but nothing egregious...like I said, at its worst it just felt like a 20 year old movie. Nothing revisionist.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

After watching the first forty minutes of TTT, whatever processing been applied over the years in the production of this transfer there are some weird visual anomalies such as blurriness, various shots with the camera panning along vegetation like the grass exhibit this strange doubling effect 31:30, overall inconsistent fine detail stability resulting in smearing of fine details or curious skittish appearance.

Many of the wide shots of the plains frequently look ill defined due to the DNR. Same for the rocks or characters and costumes.

Amusingly there is a shot where Wormtongue is first introduced and walks towards the camera and some of the native less altered grain is visible before it filters away. Grain also kind of pops in and out as Eomer is accosted for banishment. Not entirely resolved but it can be seen before the processing kicks in.

I mentioned earlier that at mark 6:42 one can see some of the moderately unaltered grain structure in a band along Frodo's eyes for several shots during the scene, whilst the remainder of the shot and his face are filtered. One can see various hair strands disappearing and reappearing when they move about in the breeze.

This is no slam dunk and frankly they should have left the films alone on the grain management front. I am pleased with the FOTR grading for the most part and the jury is out on TTT but it looks mostly alright thus far. Bass misses out on the tactile octaves and that is a shame, definite downgrade for the Atmos mixes.


nick4knight, the vastly improved transfers rereleased on blu-rays are thanks to folks who scrutinized inferior products and did not settle for less, instead they advocated for something better.

Gladiator, Patton, Gangs of New York, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and several more sends their regards.

**PS At the 11:20 mark one can see the DNR being inconsistent and one can see the process haloing artifact around Sam's head. In fact one can actually see the original grain but also the extra fine details lost in the rocks due to the DNR within the bit of haloing.

[Pagey123]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

Sam goes from pristine to dirty/grimy pretty quickly, lol!

[Yaboi Miggs]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Eowyn was done dirty. She deserved to be Aragorn’s Queen of Gondor.

I don’t know how it is in the book, but Faramir comes off like a consolation prize that she accepts too easily.

Éowyn didn't love Aragorn the man. She was in love with the idea of Aragorn the returning king. She got to know Faramir and fell in love with the man.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

Yup, stays that way for several frames then the processing settles down.
Mark 11:36.

I observed this on my lowly 1080p display, IN MOTION no less and I alluded to in my earlier post. So...

A few shots later you can see the smear affect on Sam as he moves from left to right to address Frodo in front of the rocks.

At the 11:20 mark one can see the DNR being inconsistent and one can see the process haloing artifact around Sam's head. In fact one can actually see the original grain but also the extra fine details lost in the rocks due to the DNR within the bit of haloing.

Anyhow this stuff happens frequently in what I have seen in TTT, also occurs in FOTR, but damn so many shots in TTT just suffers from the processing.

[Tlen]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

Thank you SO much for posting this (and thanks to user misfit).

I was starting to think that the "inconsistences" were just a fairy tales.

This confirms even more how flawed this work is (in itself).

Moreover, i have to admit that this kind of flaw is new to me.

Never encountered a DNR that switch on and off by itself apparently with no reason (the frames are structurally identical).

But at last it's scientifically demostrated just with screencaps how this release is indeed a mixed bag with good quality shots too.

The definite proof would to take the same "good" frame and compare with the EE BD to see how the grain stands.

[James Freeman]

What in the world is going on here?
It's the lord of the rings dammit, not some cheap C movie.

[OutOfBoose]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

It doesn't even look like it was something intended. More like faulty software or someone incompetent behind controls. Because these random "max DNR" shots exist in many other 4Ks - Gladator, BB, TDK, 2001 etc.

[slumcat]

This is takes-you-out-of-the-movie bizarre.

Makes me wonder, is the post-processing just applied by a computer, by an algorithm.

Like maybe they created an algorithm by feeding in the 3 Hobbit movies. That algorithm then arrived at prescribed values for color, brightness, and sharpness/definition/detail.

And then they just ran the 3 LOTR movies through the algorithm, pressed the transfer to disks, and sold it to the market.

Did no one bother to check how it actually looks? Sure it is "consistent" with the Hobbit but at what cost?

[James Freeman]

Yeah, probably some error by the Smart/AI automatic DNR pass.

[Tlen]

This however is a very good news.

Because it could be lamented as defective disk.

And they could fix, and i could buy it

For some reason i feel hope eheh

[KMFDMvsEnya]

To be fair the original blu-ray transfers also exhibit processing but it seems as though the 4K versions applied a further pass on top of the original processing. FFS.

OG TTT Blu-ray EE


4K TTT MOAR Kaysss!!! EE



OG TTT Blu-ray EE


4K TTT MOAR Kaysss!!! EE


https://imgur.com/a/6RkBB4w

[NoFro]

The question is, how did the Gladiator Blu Ray get fixed? How did that change come about?

[Brahmzy]

Originally Posted by cavedoctor

Did you like 3:10 to Yuma and Oblivion in 4k?
Even though the 1080p versions look far sharper and outclass the 4k disks in detail in every way, but you’d defend paying twice as much for those titles because of the tint.

Speaking of Oblivion, WTH are we going to get a remaster of that botch job?

Coulda/woulda been the absolute best gold standard for the format if they didn't soften it.

[Tlen]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

To be fair the original blu-ray transfers also exhibit processing but it seems as though the 4K versions applied a further pass on top of the original processing. FFS.

The grain is practically intact!

Damn please we petition them...

[nick4Knight]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

nick4knight, the vastly improved transfers rereleased on blu-rays are thanks to folks who scrutinized inferior products and did not settle for less, instead they advocated for something better.

Gladiator, Patton, Gangs of New York, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and several more sends their regards.

Lots of these examples are nothing like what is happening from peoples experiences seeing the discs in motion. Sorry. That's a strawman argument. No matter how cherry picked you wanna get with screengrabs, most people know this isn't like Gladiator or Patton situation.

That you even mention those in the same breath is dumb. I hate hyperbole on the negative spectrum. It can only lead to people not buying when they would otherwise enjoy the discs if they saw.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Two Towers:



Few moments later:



(screenshots from UHD disc by user misfit from Polish forum)

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

To be fair the original blu-ray transfers also exhibit processing but it seems as though the 4K versions applied a further pass on top of the original processing. FFS.

Yup. And you were a tad faster. But since I had it written already anyway...


By no means supposed to be an excuse, but it's worth pointing out that the BD looks terribad in its own way in this shot, which I'm not sure/doubt is solely compression related (multiple frames to show that it's not isolated frames, but a general problem, which looks pretty bad in motion):

first mostly Sam:



Sam and Frodo:


Frodo:


So maybe, just maybe they at least didn't do it completely at random.


While I'm at it, there's nothing really wrong the Balrog shot IMO - took a look at that one earlier today:


The waxiness is the blurriness of the heat indeed here IMO and the 4K destroys the BD shadow detail wise.

[James Freeman]

We shouldn't even be scrutinizing the image after a decade of frigging complaint, this should have been perfect like the Matrix, and we trusted WB that it would.

2K Upscale, random DNR, EE, missing staff parts, horse ears popping out of nowhere, shorter arrows.
Mild green tint is nothing compared to this butchery.

[NoFro]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

To be fair the original blu-ray transfers also exhibit processing but it seems as though the 4K versions applied a further pass on top of the original processing. FFS.

Great stuff. Seems like something to send on the Twitters. People love a good outrage on there. A simple "WB why is the 1080p showing more detail than the 4K" with these screens could do wonders.

This is one of the clearest before/after examples yet. No pixel peeping required.

Would be interested in a comparison on the waxy Theoden shot as well (the main offender after Aragon falls though there are many iffy Theoden shots). Alas I no longer own the blu rays but I can't imagine it looking the same or worse.