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

[nick4Knight]

Originally Posted by Pagey123

What I am attempting to say, as calmly and as rationally as possible, is that for everyone screaming "it's obviously a native 4K scan with baked in DNR" that that is, by definition, not possible for the live action shots. IF, and I mean IF, the live action Super 35 mm OCNs were ingested, then by definition those are the RAW shots with NO baked in DNR/grading/grain management. Is it possible that EVERY single cap posted on CAH involves, without our knowledge, a VFX shot and therefore it is a 2K film out, DNRed/grain managed, and then scanned at 4K? Sure! That is in fact entirely possible. But there should be, somewhere, especially in Fellowship, a crap ton of non-VFX shots that would display said uptick in grain/fine detail resolution. Those shots may yet come forward. But, so far, no one has produced any (that I have seen).

I am MORE than happy with my purchase. I am gobsmacked by how good Fellowship looks compared to the EE BD release.

But I am not going to ignore objective evidence, either.

Fair enough. I will respond to the bolded part. To say that it does seem very unlikely fully practical shots wouldn't be in at least a couple comparison shots across the trilogy. I did have a moment where I tried to say maybe the 4K partial argument ignored composites and the snow scene with the ring in extreme closeup could be composite, but it's unlikely.

But I also happen to think that shot looks impressive. So, idk. Again I am not as sensitive to management as some. Thus is thus.

I just can't wait to enjoy these, now. All this circle jacking the arguments is just a bit tedious. My mind has already reverted to it's previous understanding we would be seeing a 2K upscale from these. That combined with the positive impressions ive seen from some I know i fall in line with often enough. I'll be happy. Sorry to others who won't.

[ThulsaMike88]

Originally Posted by Cook

The Two Towers shot of Gandalf and company looking at mordor has always looked like digital smooth dog shit. In every single release. Itd be an achievement if it somehow looks worse in this release.

That's definitely one of them! It's always looked...off...If I'm not mistaken, and it's been years since I listened to the commentary, it was one of the scenes where not all the actors were present and they had to digitally insert one or two of them and frankenstein it together.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Pagey123

Look, just to be clear, I am WITH you. I don't care if it was a 4K partial rebuild or not. The fact that Fellowship got fixed AND got a fabulous HDR grade is enough to right all other wrongs for me, personally!

I am not on any crusade, for sure. What I am attempting to say, as calmly and as rationally as possible, is that for everyone screaming "it's obviously a native 4K scan with baked in DNR" that that is, by definition, not possible for the live action shots. IF, and I mean IF, the live action Super 35 mm OCNs were ingested, then by definition those are the RAW shots with NO baked in DNR/grading/grain management. Those should, like every other example linked, show an objective uptick in both fine detail resolution and grain resolution. In the caps shown, that is never evident. Is it possible that EVERY single cap posted on CAH involves, without our knowledge, a VFX shot and therefore it is a 2K film out, DNRed/grain managed, and then scanned at 4K? Sure! That is in fact entirely possible. But there should be, somewhere, especially in Fellowship, a crap ton of non-VFX shots that would display said uptick in grain/fine detail resolution. Those shots may yet come forward. But, so far, no one has produced any (that I have seen).

I am MORE than happy with my purchase. I am gobsmacked by how good Fellowship looks compared to the EE BD release.

But I am not going to ignore objective evidence, either.

Aye. It could well be the case that, as with the Hobbitses, so much of LOTR ultimately involved some sort of digital tweakery and is thusly upscaled that the amount of 'native 4K' material is so puny it barely registers. That wouldn't make Bill Hunt a liar or a bungler in the broadest sense of what "appears" (his word) to have been done to these films re: 4K rebuilds, but it certainly makes a mockery of them having been painstakingly 'rebuilt' from camera negative. V for Vendetta feels the same way, and in that case Warners straight up said that it was newly transferred from the negative but it's so weird that the same DI masking and power windows appear in the same places.

[kemalettin]

Originally Posted by 3eccaTron

Lesnie even has said they graded things digitally then sent them for vex THEN graded them again in many cases. So much compression has been done to conform to old 2k video codecs. This is a digital movie series and should be compared more to attack of the clones than the matrix in terms of quality.

have you ever seen Matrix in 4K?

[kemalettin]

Originally Posted by 3eccaTron

If you have watched the extended edition extras you would know this. Look what they are doing at 6:55 in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCT...ature=youtu.be

Imagine this KEYFRAME based grading having been done on a hundred thousand + shots. And then them having to remember those creative choices to replicate it after rescanning the OCN.

ITS UNREALISTIC

There is huge difference between Scratch in 2001 and Scratch Baselight Resolve in 2020...Do you understand that?

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by morphinapg

It's not a bad thing to want these movies' restorations handled correctly in order to preserve these movies in as high quality as they possibly could be for the future. With the way these were handled, Perter Jackson is wrong, these movies are not "done". Someone else will need to remaster them yet again in the future to fix these mistakes.

It is what it is! Unless they release the films in 8K (which will never be) Peter Jackson and nobody else is going to do anything else to these movies, so this is it. This is all you're going to get so you and everybody else might as well go on and enjoy them like you all did before.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Gandolf:
You wouldn't part an old man from his walking stick, would you?

Peter Jackson:
Yes.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?https...1&l=0&i=2&go=1

[Geoff D]

Anyhoo, my steels arrived in perfick condition. What I want to know is who decided to put part 1 of the EEs on the left hub with disc 2 covering the theatrical cut disc on the right? They're a monster, a MONSTER I tells ya! I swapped them all over so the theatrical gets the left hub and disc 1 & 2 of the EE now overlap each other. Nerd, moi? Too ****in' right

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

Gandolf:
You wouldn't part an old man from his walking stick, would you?

Peter Jackson:
Yes.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?https...1&l=0&i=2&go=1

But don't you get it? That's just the 4K scan showing us what it *actually* looked like underneath all along and isn't additional DNR or dirt removal at all, what you see on the previous BD is just scanner noise. Including the top of his staff.

(Even though I'm taking the piss I feel dumber just for having written that, lol)

[captainjoe]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

Gandolf:
You wouldn't part an old man from his walking stick, would you?

Peter Jackson:
Yes.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?https...1&l=0&i=2&go=1

What's that other weird artefact near the horses head?

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...8&l=0&i=2&go=1

[Waboman]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Anyhoo, my steels arrived in perfick condition. What I want to know is who decided to put part 1 of the EEs on the left hub with disc 2 covering the theatrical cut disc on the right? They're a monster, a MONSTER I tells ya! I swapped them all over so the theatrical gets the left hub and disc 1 & 2 of the EE now overlap each other. Nerd, moi? Too ****in' right

We need a screen cap. I hear there’s way too much DNR and over sharpening on the right hub.

[tama]

Originally Posted by captainjoe

What's that other weird artefact near the horses head?

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...8&l=0&i=2&go=1

whats happening with Pippens left leg?

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Originally Posted by captainjoe

What's that other weird artefact near the horses head?

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...8&l=0&i=2&go=1

MOAR K!!!

Looks like part of its ear.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by tama

whats happening with Pippens left leg?

I'm more disturbed by his face:

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=3&x...8&l=0&i=2&go=1

[Waboman]

I see our friend Scottishguy got himself a vacation. What’d I miss?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by tama

whats happening with Pippens left leg?

Looks like it's being clipped by the bright highlights in the SDR while the HDR resolves it betterer. The Lord UHD giveth and it taketh away. A staff for a leg.

[androcell]

Originally Posted by captainjoe

What's that other weird artefact near the horses head?

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...8&l=0&i=2&go=1

Few moments later the horse turns it's head to the right and it's ears seems to match up with this

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Waboman

We need a screen cap. I hear there’s way too much DNR and over sharpening on the right hub.

I only do photos. Headshots available on request.

[nick4Knight]

Originally Posted by Waboman

I see our friend Scottishguy got himself a vacation. What’d I miss?

He sorta went off the reservation with this release. If I played any part in enabling his fervor to attack the DNR haters...

[DigitalDeluge24]

Hey guys, I just finished the Trilogy and I'm excited to share my thoughts! Haven't checked in in a while so sorry in advance if this the 500th review posted on this thread.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Middle Earth. The films still look beautiful on my 2020 Sony OLED KD55A8. The new HDR color grade is a sight to behold and the new Dolby Atmos mix sent chills down my spine.

My 4K collection consists mostly of modern blockbusters shot on 35mm (like the Amazing Spiderman 2, The Mummy, The Matrix etc.) because I think they are the ideal candidates for a 4K presentation. So there was no way I was going to miss out on LOTR.

FOTR: Easily the biggest improvement. The green tint is completely gone and the new color grade is very natural and reminiscent of the original 2002 DVD (although not as heavy on the magenta) Close-ups, in particular, look great and there is no visible banding or ringing. As for medium and wide shots, I expected that the 4K transfer would reveal a lot more new detail, as is the case with all my other 4K Blu-rays, but I couldn't see any. (3.5/5)

TTT: Just lovely. There is a healthy amount of contrast, blacks remain nice and inky and shadows are deep and crisp. The image is no longer windowboxed, as was the case with the EE BD, and the framing is now more accurate. Some moving shots (for example in 27:30) have been tweaked slightly to be a little more streaky. It gives the film a sort of post-impressionist look, like Van Gogh's "The Starry Night". Very artistic.
However, some issues stemming from primitive 2001 post processing, like the strong trailing artifacts (for example in 31:39) have not been addressed, even though the restoration team surely must have had some original unprocessed film elements at their disposal. Great overall (2.5/5)

ROTK: Excellent. Once again the image quality is remarkable, vastly superior to the 2010 VC-1 encoded Theatrical Blu-ray. Textures are rich, and highlights are very bright. VFX shots are very consistent with the live action shots, both in terms of grain and fine detail. This near-reference transfer exhibits some of the issues present in TTT, but to a lesser extent. (3/5)

A must-have for people who haven't had the chance to watch the films on home video before.