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

[Witch King of Angmar]

Finished reading BOOK I of LOTR. I'm so happy ATM.

Now reading Book II (Chapter: Many Meetings)

[jonmoz]

Bronze-Dragonrider.

Yes it can be confusing,the all in ond box Dvd systems are very good it's just they are only designed to do one thing,which is to play your Dvd's through the system in 5.1 surround sound,and not have the hassle of a complicated set up.

As Dvd is only a lossy 5.1 system the Panasonic system has no method to decode the newer Blu-ray lossless sound formats,this is why it's single Hdmi is an output only as it's just one of the systems three ways of sending the picture to your t.v,the 5.1 sound connection is taken care of internally and then sent to the systems supplied 5.1 speakers.

The best method is to buy a new reciever with Dts Master Audio and Dolby Tru Hd internal decoding,as this will have an Hdmi input and outputs.So all you will do is connect your Ps3 to the Recievers Hdmi input making sure you set the Ps3's audio to bitstream,this will handle the picture and the new Hd surround codecs.Then connect any of the recievers Hdmi outputs to your T.v,of course you will need a seperate surround speaker package either a 5.1 or 6.1/7.1 system depending on your space.

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Originally Posted by jonmoz

Bronze-Dragonrider.

Yes it can be confusing,the all in ond box Dvd systems are very good it's just they are only designed to do one thing,which is to play your Dvd's through the system in 5.1 surround sound,and not have the hassle of a complicated set up.

As Dvd is only a lossy 5.1 system the Panasonic system has no method to decode the newer Blu-ray lossless sound formats,this is why it's single Hdmi is an output only as it's just one of the systems three ways of sending the picture to your t.v,the 5.1 sound connection is taken care of internally and then sent to the systems supplied 5.1 speakers.

The best method is to buy a new reciever with Dts Master Audio and Dolby Tru Hd internal decoding,as this will have an Hdmi input and outputs.So all you will do is connect your Ps3 to the Recievers Hdmi input making sure you set the Ps3's audio to bitstream,this will handle the picture and the new Hd surround codecs.Then connect any of the recievers Hdmi outputs to your T.v,of course you will need a seperate surround speaker package either a 5.1 or 6.1/7.1 system depending on your space.

*facepalm* and I just spent $300 on a new PS3 because my old one died... looks like I have to start saving yet again. But thank you for your help, at least now I know what direction to head in.



However, I am confused on another front here - I made sure that the optical connection was selected on my PS3 settings and that everything was switched over to bitstream, and now LotR will not play ANY sound whatsoever. I remember when I first got King Kong on blu ray the same thing happened, and I was advised to switch to PCM which solved it. But this also reduced the surround effects on some other movies like The Dark Knight - when the Joker starts shooting up Harvey Dent's protection truck in the tunnel, there's a lovely effect of the sound of bullets circling all around you, which is completely lost in PCM.

I went through the settings again, and under video settings I can switch things to bitstream, but under audio settings, it won't let me deselect PCM at all which I hadn't noticed before. How am I to solve the problem of completely missing audio, if I'm supposed to be running bitstream with optical? Yet if I set it to PCM, some surround effects and bass is lost...


Sorry for hijacking this thread for technical advice, I know it's really not the proper area for it

[Fighter]

Originally Posted by teracore

Finished reading BOOK I of LOTR. I'm so happy ATM.

Now reading Book II (Chapter: Many Meetings)

Great books....timeless!

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by teracore

Finished reading BOOK I of LOTR. I'm so happy ATM.

Now reading Book II (Chapter: Many Meetings)

Excellent!! I am doing the same thing....

I am reading Book IV (Chapter: Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit)

I forgot Book IV is really only about Frodo and Sam's trip to Mount Doom with Gollum....and as important as this book is, I do have to say it isn't the most interesting one of the 6.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Did anyone know that the Beatles planned to make a LOTR movie?
There are some interesting comparisons of J.R.R's vision and Jackson's movie here as well.

http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet....flattening.htm

What an altogether remarkable essay. It clearly states what I always felt was wrong with the movies, even the EEs. Tolkien would have had a stroke seeing Gandalf knocked off his horse by the Witch-King in ROTK.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

Denethor had his reasons, but he's still a dick.

I think the biggest stick Denethor had up his bum, is that he'd looked into the Palantir, and he already knew that no matter how the war turned out, he and his family would be among the things swept away with the passing of an age: the days of the Stewards were finished, and the-world-as he-knew-it was over. How he reacted to that information was not very noble. Just because you are not going to be a part of the future, does not justify an attitude of "let the world burn, what do I care? There's nothing left in it for me." I think he went quite a bit farther than just not being very gracious about accepting his own mortality.

That's not the way Denthor was portrayed in the books. He was a noble man whose mind was overthrown by looking into the palantir and seeing only what Sauron wanted him to see. He despaired of being able to stop Sauron's forces and on top of that lost his oldest son.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Bronze-Dragonrider

No can do. All of my devices only have one HDMI port, so if I feed it from the PS3 to the receiver, I can't get any HDMI to the TV. Unless I'm being extremely dense and missing something major here...

Doesn't your receiver have an HDMI out port to go to the TV? If not, can you get an HDMI splitter with one input and multiple outputs?

[radagast]

Originally Posted by teracore

Finished reading BOOK I of LOTR. I'm so happy ATM.

Now reading Book II (Chapter: Many Meetings)

Have you joined our reading group yet?

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Bronze-Dragonrider

However, I am confused on another front here - I made sure that the optical connection was selected on my PS3 settings and that everything was switched over to bitstream, and now LotR will not play ANY sound whatsoever. I remember when I first got King Kong on blu ray the same thing happened, and I was advised to switch to PCM which solved it. But this also reduced the surround effects on some other movies like The Dark Knight - when the Joker starts shooting up Harvey Dent's protection truck in the tunnel, there's a lovely effect of the sound of bullets circling all around you, which is completely lost in PCM.

What it "sounds" like is that your system doesn't support DTS. The PS3 will decode it to stereo PCM, so that's why you're missing out. Dolby TrueHD has a backwards compatible 5.1 Dolby Digital track that can be decoded by anything that supported DVD (even HDTVs). LOTR was supposed to be TrueHD but unfortunately when they remastered it they switched authoring suites they re-encoded it in DTS. So until you upgrade your system you're stuck.

[jonmoz]

You are correct Peter,the Panasonic will only accept Dolby digital 5.1 via the optical in.

The Dvd/reciever's Hdmi output will pass Dts or Dolby Digital through it,but as this is only an output it will not help.

[radagast]

Best buy can be pretty nutty at times. The regular LOTR blu-ray is now $84.99, but the special "letter-opener sword" edition is $74.99. So they are in essence "paying" people $10 to take the special edition.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstempl...=Movies&ks=960

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by radagast

Best buy can be pretty nutty at times. The regular LOTR blu-ray is now $84.99, but the special "letter-opener sword" edition is $74.99. So they are in essence "paying" people $10 to take the special edition.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstempl...=Movies&ks=960

Is the collectible sword just Anduril, or is there a set of them? Just curious......

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by easyrider

Here is a picture of the Australia releases in their individual cases. Now I can finally make my own judgement about their quality instead of reading about everyone else's thoughts

Fellowship rated 'M' partly for "supernatural themes" - that's one I haven't heard before.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

The tone in here has drifted into somewhat hostile territory (especially over the last two or three dozen pages). I don't think anyone is saying the release shouldn't or can't be enjoyed, just that they're personally distracted by some of the problems. Each person's viewing is subjective, as is yours. Your opinion may be in the majority, but it shouldn't be used to belittle another person's impressions anymore than theirs should be used to belittle yours.

Just to repeat myself ad nauseum, I felt 'FotR's transfer could be better, but I also think its flaws shouldn't prevent anyone from buying and enjoying this release. Suffice to say, not everyone has to devote themselves to one camp or the other.

Judging PQ and AQ isn't an exact science, and there is no absolute right and wrong answer in the debate (at least not with the facts anyone has on hand). I'll be viewing an original theatrical print of 'FotR' in two weeks, and I'll report back my findings then (and even update my review, if necessary).

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this ongoing discussion, but try and keep it civil, gentlemen. It's getting a bit unruly here and there

Can we all agree that we are so THANKFUL that Warner didn't try to cram LOTR onto hd-dvds? Do I hear an amen?

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

Fellowship rated 'M' partly for "supernatural themes" - that's one I haven't heard before.

Grand Bob, I'm interested in your reaction to the link to the essay a few posts back. Did you read it?

[HDPlasma]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

I don't think that was his point.
I think his point was that there are some supporters posting on this topic who have long since crossed the line between stating their opinion and trying to convince everyone into following their opinion, that those people have formed a loud, outspoken minority, and those people are making themselves look very bad.

Don't be one of them.

Fixed. It works both ways

[NYorker]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

After reading the last few pages of the thread I decided to put on my hockey mask and shin guards before posting.

I thought the QE2 was coming through the window when that horn blew.

Did anyone know that the Beatles planned to make a LOTR movie?
There are some interesting comparisons of J.R.R's vision and Jackson's movie here as well.

http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet....flattening.htm

Oh man, when someone has a negative agenda against a film, he or she will find every negative crumb and string them together...

I personally disagree with almost every point in the article, and I really think that Tolkien would have (if a bit grudgingly) approved of the films. Most of critics quoted in the article don't realize how difficult it is to translate a literary work to film, let alone a masterpiece like LOTR. Are the films as close to the books as possible? probably not, and Peter Jackson may be the first to say so. As someone who read the books, though, I really believe he took the best of it and translated it successfully. I certainly appreciated it far more than a mere "action spectacle."

Part of the reason these "Tolkien"-ists are upset with the film is that it made the material more accessible to a larger crowd, not one that is locked up in hushed reading rooms or literary forums. Before the first film, I read "The Hobbit", and I recently completed "The Children of Hurin" (very good). I'm certain there are many more who would not go near a Tolkien-related book without the hoopla of the films. I had to laugh at the "imposing alien visuals on the mind" quote at the end. Maybe he was thinking of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...?

Anyway, the nitpicking in the article is almost ridiculous.

[Witch King of Angmar]

Originally Posted by radagast

Have you joined our reading group yet?

Yes, I'm already a member there.

I wonder why gandalf stormcrow hasn't joined it yet.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by radagast

Can we all agree that we are so THANKFUL that Warner didn't try to cram LOTR onto hd-dvds? Do I hear an amen?

Yeah, I wonder what the BD's woud have looked like having to conform to "the lowest common denominator".