Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Theatrical Versions) - April 6, 2010

[Tok]

Warner softee syndrome strikes again.

Vote with your wallet people. This release is nothing but a money grab by WHV. Tell them they can keep them. They better not pull this sh!t with the EEs.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Stinky-Dinkins

Again, it's the old "good enough" argument.

"I don't have the HDTV broadcast version, so it's good enough for me." "Good enough" is not "good," and anything less than legitimately good is a disappointment for this release.

It's as simple as this: The fact that it isn't as good as the HDTV version is a huge disappointment.

People seem to love skirting around this over here.

Then don't buy it.

[Stinky-Dinkins]

Originally Posted by radagast

Then don't buy it.

I'm not, and I had it preordered. I love this trilogy, but Fellowship is my favorite of the 3 so I'm not going to pay for something that is essentially of lesser quality than the broadcast version.

I'm hoping enough people choose not to buy it and it motivates Warner to actually remaster it, or they remaster it and use it as a selling point for the EE's. I will buy a remastered version, either theatrical or EE, in a heartbeat.

The fact that they're using the old master is ridiculous, the fact that it looks the way it does is a huge disappointment.

And no, I don't know eric.exe personally - but he has posted thousands of screens and has never once been deceptive about any of them. Even his Gladiator screens with the missing arrows and horrid DNR proven to be 100% accurate, the same ones that were claimed to be misrepresentative or fake by this forum.
By the way, the Digital Bits reported that Paramount has since said that release was terrible and they are now remastering it for a new release.

I'm hoping Warner does the same with LotR, or Fellowship at the very least.

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by Fors*

I am working my way through FOTR again, but only slowly. I thought I would be further into it than I am.

My kids are 5 and 1 and have not been there yet, but they will I figure, as all kids go there. I am interested to see how long my 5 year old daughter is willing to sit next to me and watch FOTR on blu before she "wanders" off. I'll give it 20 minutes, tops.

Slow is the way to go - you must savor it as a fine wine . I only read one chapter a day to maximize the enjoyment (except RoTK, impatience can only be postponed for so long). Little kids should enjoy the Shire scenes, but I imagine later on in the movie they would get scared. We go to a Disney park every other year. Last year we had 16 family members from all over the country go to Disneyland, I even had my son fly in from his base in Europe (he is now on a repeat deployment to Iraq). It's hard to beat Disneyland/world for a family vacation!

[Goldengirl]

Bill Hunt gives the video quality for Fellowship a 17.5 out of 20 rating. Why wasn't work done on this, one of the best films of all time, to make it worthy of a 20 rating? Is it the fault of the original of the film or is it Warner's fault? If it's Warner's, I'll look forward with hope to the EE release. If Fellowship's look is always going to be problematic, I'm going to have to try to chalk it up to director/cinematographer intent in telling that part of the story and content myself with it.

Incidentally, to the poster who asked about the "Restoration" section, and wasn't, I don't think, given an answer, let me say that the person who wrote that was talking about the Restoration area (coming soon) on the official site, LordoftheRings.net . Hopefully more will be revealed when that part of the site goes live.

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

Slow is the way to go - you must savor it as a fine wine . I only read one chapter a day to maximize the enjoyment (except RoTK, impatience can only be postponed for so long). Little kids should enjoy the Shire scenes, but I imagine later on in the movie they would get scared. We go to a Disney park every other year. Last year we had 16 family members from all over the country go to Disneyland, I even had my son fly in from his base in Europe (he is now on a repeat deployment to Iraq). It's hard to beat Disneyland/world for a family vacation!

Sounds like a really good time. I try to expose my daughter to the "creatures" of Middle Earth through many Visual Companions I have. She will ask questions, and hopefully it won't be that scary when the Balrog appears! I am very thankful I took your advice and purchased the Atlas by the way. It has proven to be invaluable. Hec, it will even help to have it handy when watching these movies as well.

[un4gvn94538]

you know 17.5/18.5/18.5 really doesnt sound that bad.

from the bits review:

the A/V presentation quality is very, very good. The films are presented in full 1080p video (using the VC-1 codec), in the original 2.35:1 scope aspect ratio. To my eye, Fellowship isn't quite as crisp and detailed looking as the other two films, though I suspect this is less a BD mastering issue and has more to do with the film's actual post-production.

[El_Burro]

meanwhile The Hobbit starts In July in New Zealand and will take like one year
Gandalf himself is telling that HERE

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by Fors*

Sounds like a really good time. I try to expose my daughter to the "creatures" of Middle Earth through many Visual Companions I have. She will ask questions, and hopefully it won't be that scary when the Balrog appears! I am very thankful I took your advice and purchased the Atlas by the way. It has proven to be invaluable. Hec, it will even help to have it handy when watching these movies as well.

As the "big read" in our LoTR group starts on Thursday, I'm hoping you will post your comments. I am looking forward to it!

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

As the "big read" in our LoTR group starts on Thursday, I'm hoping you will post your comments. I am looking forward to it!

What exactly is mean by the "big read"? I'd be more than happy to converse freely with the waylanders of this site.

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by Fors*

What exactly is mean by the "big read"? I'd be more than happy to converse freely with the waylanders of this site.

In anticipation of the movie release, we are going to read Lord of the Rings as a group beginning on Thursday, March 25, which as fans know, is the anniversary of the day the Ring was destroyed (it was Radagast's idea). Here is the link to the group: https://forum.blu-ray.com/group.php?groupid=71

[jjh]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Heck, the Lowery Bond Blu-rays beat these and those movies are a heck of a lot older.

And that seems to be the problem. The BDs are better compressed than the HDTV streams (of course, how could they not be with higher bitrates and better codec) but they also have at times grain filtering applied, and not by Lowry, but a cruder kind that leaves (severe) artifacts behind. If they only had left the masters alone and given them to us with max bit rate.

[hurm]

Sorry to change the subject... Has anybody ordered this from DVDWorldUSA? And if so, has your order been shipped? Because I bought it from them las friday and it still says pending... I think they screwed me...

[newTV]

Originally Posted by hurm

Sorry to change the subject... Has anybody ordered this from DVDWorldUSA? And if so, has your order been shipped? Because I bought it from them las friday and it still says pending... I think they screwed me...

Recieved mine today from DVDWorldUSA, I would get onto them as they have allways been good with me

[Stinky-Dinkins]

I've never heard of them, but it isn't released until the 6th of April so it would make sense for it to still be pending.

The reason so many seem to have gotten their copies early is because of bunch of retailers broke the street date. Many didn't though, so I'm sure the company you ordered from is sticking to protocol and waiting for the official release date.

EDIT: Didn't see post above mine.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by Goldengirl

Bill Hunt gives the video quality for Fellowship a 17.5 out of 20 rating. Why wasn't work done on this, one of the best films of all time, to make it worthy of a 20 rating? Is it the fault of the original of the film or is it Warner's fault? If it's Warner's, I'll look forward with hope to the EE release. If Fellowship's look is always going to be problematic, I'm going to have to try to chalk it up to director/cinematographer intent in telling that part of the story and content myself with it.

Incidentally, to the poster who asked about the "Restoration" section, and wasn't, I don't think, given an answer, let me say that the person who wrote that was talking about the Restoration area (coming soon) on the official site, LordoftheRings.net . Hopefully more will be revealed when that part of the site goes live.

It is Warner's fault. Clearly DNR was applied post production and the DNR is present on the BD screenshots and not on the HDTV broadcast. So it was not "baked" into the master.

It does not appear that these movies, as a whole, are as bad as say "Gladiator" or "Patton", but as you mentioned these should have been meticulously encoded, and remastered if necessary. They also should have utilized as much of that 50GB space as possible and maxed out the bitrates as much as possible.

There are no excuses. This is not the type of movie where I ever want to wonder "what if"...

[Mike2060]

Originally Posted by radagast

And they have seen the real Blu-ray discs.

And I have seen the screen captures of those real Blu-ray discs.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by Mike2060

And I have seen the screen captures of those real Blu-ray discs.

And I have read the books.....

I am not sure why people keep complaining about the PQ in this thread, it's not going to change anything. Write a letter to WB and tell them you refuse to purchase these movies and give them your reasons. Arguing about it here in a Internet forum won't do anything at all. Unless all you want to do is argue and complaint? Then please carry on.

[Mike2060]

I guess we are trying to convince the non-believers.

[Stinky-Dinkins]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

And I have read the books.....

I am not sure why people keep complaining about the PQ in this thread, it's not going to change anything. Write a letter to WB and tell them you refuse to purchase these movies and give them your reasons. Arguing about it here in a Internet forum won't do anything at all. Unless all you want to do is argue and complaint? Then please carry on.

Then why post anything in this thread?

Should there only be positive things posted, even if the positive things aren't based on anything factual?

The negative aspects of this transfer are exactly what should be talked about in these kinds of threads - those are the things potential consumers want to know the most about.

The endless "I can't wait!," "I Love lotR's, yay!," or two people going back and forth about their families and how they're going to spend their vacations isn't really doing anything but taking up space. If I didn't know anything about it I think I'd rather know that this transfer uses the old master and is essentially the broadcast version with DNR applied more than I'd rather know that that one dude "only cares about audio" (something that he has to compulsively remind everyone every 35 seconds.)