The Hobbit Trilogy 4K UHD Extended & Theatrical (2012-2014)

[philthehip]

Originally Posted by rayeknor

If I'm not mistaken crazed gold lust was what hit the dwarf lords with one of Sauron's seven rings. They didn't turn into ringwraiths to be controlled like men, they were more resilient then humans but the greed spurred on from the rings didn't do the dwarves any favors. This is what I think PJ drew inspiration from with Thror and Thorins gold lust.

Spot on...

The only power over them that the Rings wielded was to inflame their hearts with a greed of gold and precious things, so that if they lacked them all other good things seemed profitless, and they were filled with wrath and desire for vengeance on all who deprived them.

From "Durin's Folk", in The Lord of the Rings Appendices

[Zombie Dude]

Originally Posted by mpls1981

The giant Middle Earth package is up for pre-order.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Middl.../297743/#Forum

That outer box looks truly awful. The inner packaging looks pretty nice though.

[Mierzwiak]

I don't want to make an offtopic in the LOTR thread so I will reply here:

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The Hobbitses, hmmmm. The HDR is a tick in the plus column there too, but the oversharpened look that they have on 4K is mightily distracting to me. I'll still default to them in the future just for dat HDR.

I won't buy the filthy little Hobbitses so I don't care that much, but I really can't understand all those color changes. It's not like these are some old movies from decades ago that were timed photochemically and now their director or DP can make more or less revisionistic changes; they're modern productions, digitally shot and graded scene by scene with the help of basically unlimited digital tools. I'm sure Andrew Lesnie knew what he was doing and the look of every scene was not a coincidence. Now Jackson said "F*ck it". Yes, I know he's a director and yes, he can do whatever he wants with these films, just like Lucas can, but I think it's disrespectful to Lesnie's work.

As much as I hate the look of the third movie, I'm sure the whole trilogy would look lovely simply upscaled from their pristine (!!!) source but with 10-bit colors & HDR pass. The same with King Kong which looked fantastic on the 35mm print I watched in 2005 and could look even better on UHD if only Jackson didn't buried it under tons and tons of horrible processing, degraining, sharpening and unnecessary color changes.

[lgans316]

There are so many scenes that has this sharpened look besides the moderate DNR. It's really off-putting. Wondering if I am alone here?

[Schwartzy]

Was the hobbit 4k set always thinner than lotr one? Or is it just new and improved (space saving). hobbit set has fewer discs atleast so it might explain it..

[Smovies]

I just bought the 3D versions on Amazon for $36 combined. I think i'd prefer them in 3D or even that converted to 2D over the 4K release, considering they're overly sharpened.

[Lotr_is_Soft]

Hey. I have the Hobbit movie on Blu-Ray. Is the 4K version worth it or not really? I have heard it's actually worse?

[Zombie Dude]

Originally Posted by Lotr_is_Soft

Hey. I have the Hobbit movie on Blu-Ray. Is the 4K version worth it or not really? I have heard it's actually worse?

Personally I enjoyed watching them more on 4k.i find the new colours very pleasing.

[supervij]

Originally Posted by Zombie Dude

Personally I enjoyed watching them more on 4k.i find the new colours very pleasing.

Agreed. The Dolby Vision on these movies makes the already beautiful images absolutely gorgeous.

[lokie56]

We still have no news on if WB will ever release versions of the HFR version right?

[TheDarkBlueNight]

Originally Posted by lokie56

We still have no news on if WB will ever release versions of the HFR version right?

Yep. Highly unlikely, there’s no real expectation of that happening.

4K UHD Blu-Ray spec doesn’t even support 48 fps, only 60 fps HFR. I think this was brought up quite a few times in this thread.

It wouldn’t be easy (or even feasible) to transfer the HFR version without having compatibility for a multiple of 48 fps. And as we all know by now, WB is all about doing things the easy and cheap way…

[morphinapg]

I hate HFR, and I think most people tend not to like it either, so I don't expect a release, but if they wanted to do it, this is the best way:

Duplicate each frame so that you have a 96fps sequence with duplicated frames.

Then frame blend that down to 60fps.


What you're doing here is essentially anti-aliasing, but across time instead of space. It looks a lot more natural than doing optical flow or frame blend UP to 60fps.

I once used the same effect to transfer a 25fps Doctor Who episode into a 60fps source for US display without slowing it down. For that I tripled each frame to 75fps first, then blended down to 60fps.

[rexcrk]

Just turn the motion-smoothing setting on on your TV if you want that HFR look

(Only half joking, but that IS what I remember the first Hobbit looking like when I saw it in HFR in theaters… and I hated the effect lol).

[#Darren]

Originally Posted by Smovies

I just bought the 3D versions on Amazon for $36 combined. I think i'd prefer them in 3D or even that converted to 2D over the 4K release, considering they're overly sharpened.

can u link me to the two 3D editions u bought?

[d3nt0n]

With most high-end TVs now supporting VRR it would be nice to see the 48 frame version. I know it will never happen, but it's fun to dream every once in awhile.

[lokie56]

Im not expecting it to look better, I just think it's a shame they spent all that time and effort mastering it in HFR and then no one will every get to see it again.
I think I only saw one of them in HFR 3D, i was just hoping I could get a chance to see the real thing again at home in 4K and 2D just out of an idly curiosity. I doubt I will watch it like that all the time, but it would be amusing visual test to be sure.

TL;DR if they ever do sell HFR (even digitally only) I will wait till it's like $10/movie and grab them just for fun.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by lokie56

Im not expecting it to look better, I just think it's a shame they spent all that time and effort mastering it in HFR and then no one will every get to see it again.
I think I only saw one of them in HFR 3D, i was just hoping I could get a chance to see the real thing again at home in 4K and 2D just out of an idly curiosity. I doubt I will watch it like that all the time, but it would be amusing visual test to be sure.

TL;DR if they ever do sell HFR (even digitally only) I will wait till it's like $10/movie and grab them just for fun.

I’m with you. I saw the first one with HFR and would be interested in watching all of them with it. Even for just a curiosity.

[StrayButler91]

Sorry to give this thread a bit of a bumpity bump, but I finally started giving these 4K discs a spin... And, man, it's the inconsistency which really f*cks with me here. You get some shots that look real nice, sharp and detailed (some scenes even have some nice film-like digital noise), while others look disgustingly oversharpened and smeary. Urgh. It's most ridiculous to see that the CGI assets themselves have been sharpened. I mean, look at the trolls' campfire; it's so obviously sharpened within an inch of its life that it looks even more like CGI than before.

For movies released in 2012, 2013 and 2014, it's simply preposterous that Jackson and co decided they needed to do additional remastering work on these flicks to bring them to 4K. All the sharpening and DNR is extra work...for an inferior picture. If they weren't going to go back to the digital files and re-compose everything and make it true 4K (like The Martian), they shoulda just given the existing DIs a nice HDR pass and called it a day. Errybody would've been happier.

On a more positive note, though, the colours are frakking glorious. Well, for the most part, that is - the revisionist desaturated look for them flashbacks is just cringe.

[HDMan72]

These transfers are still better than LotR transfers though, correct? Still trying to decide to add these in 4K or just purchase the regular blu extended editions from before.

[James Freeman]

No. Grab the old extended blurays, they are still reference quality.