LOTR extended blu rays...

[Paul Andrew]

Am I the only person slightly annoyed that the movies are still going to be two disc affairs? UGH. Granted, they're long, and getting up to switch discs isn't really much of a hassle, but when I watch a movie I like to watch a movie. Not **** with my player. Ya know?

 

[Rebabaluba]

Makes for a good intermission haha.

 

[Jedi2016]

It's a quality issue. I'll sacrifice ten seconds of my time to get the best possible image quality. You just can't fit all that on one disc, sorry.

Besides, who the hell actually sits down and watches the extended ROTK in one sitting, without getting up a single time? Bathroom? Sandwich? Refill? Anybody that says they do it every time is a bold-faced liar.

 

[Paul Andrew]

not every time... but I am very sedentary by nature

 

[Stinky Dragon]

Supposedly there's a new transfer of Fellowship, as well. It's really tempting, but I think I'm going to stick with my extended DVD's. The theatrical Blu-rays are enough until they redo the transfers for all of them.

 

[Jeyl]

Give me a choice, I'd go with a two-disc presentation of the extended versions of the film. No question. The quality is just too good to pass up. Even thedigitalbits.com calls this a very good thing.

"From the studio's press release: "Based on the length of each extended edition feature film and in order to present each film in the highest possible picture quality, each film is presented on 2 Blu-ray Discs." Let me just personally say, BRAVO! You will NEVER hear me complain about a decision that results in better quality. Period. My only complaint about the Avatar: Extended Edition Blu-ray was that the whole thing could have looked even better if Fox had spread the film over 2 discs to allow for less compression. That WHV has done this, and done it with Lord of the Rings of all titles, makes me incredibly happy."

And believe me, making Bill Hunt happy is no easy task. Although I'll still bang his head against the wall for worshipping Star Trek (2009), but that's for another time.

 

[Jedi2016]

I don't think they're going to remaster the other two. All of the ire at the theatrical BD's image quality was directed at FOTR. They probably did some test scenes from the other two and saw no noticeable improvement. If it ain't broke...

I knew the extended version was coming, so I passed on the theatrical BDs. I'll probably be picking this one up.

 

[micdavis]

When are these coming?

 

[Junk Pilot]

What about special features?

 

[Junk Pilot]

Never mind, seen.

 

[Solo4114]

Wasn't the whole point of BR that we're supposed to be able to cram movies like LOTR -- even the extended version -- onto ONE disc? I mean, will you REALLY be sacrificing anything NOTICEABLE by sticking them on one disc?!

 

[Westies14]

The whole point for me isn't cramming more running time onto a disc, the whole point is increasing resolution and image quality. You're compressing a LOT to squeeze a 3.5 hour movie onto a disc. Yes, noticeably!

 

[dualedge]

I guess I can understand if a movie is so long that it's got to be split... something like Gone With the Wind or whatever but, yeah, I too thought BluRays were going to be the end of switching discs.

With the LotR's extended DVDs, I thought they did a pretty good job of splitting the movies so I'm not sweating this too much. I don't like it for most things but I can suffer with the break I suppose. I have been waiting for the extended versions along with everybody else.

At least it can't be as bad as the way laserdiscs were... now that was a pain when practically EVERY movie was split - often more than once.

 

[Talisen]

Ah yes, Star Wars on Laserdisc, 4 sides per movie. I bought a player that would flip sides just to save a bit of the hassle.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Can't wait. I'm getting these. Insane the amount of features that are said to be on these... but I assume most of it is the same as on the extended DVDs.

 

[ihs]

When are these coming?

Amazon's showing June 28th:

Amazon.com: The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Peter Jackson: Movies & TV

 

[Solo4114]

I guess I can understand if a movie is so long that it's got to be split... something like Gone With the Wind or whatever but, yeah, I too thought BluRays were going to be the end of switching discs.

With the LotR's extended DVDs, I thought they did a pretty good job of splitting the movies so I'm not sweating this too much. I don't like it for most things but I can suffer with the break I suppose. I have been waiting for the extended versions along with everybody else.

At least it can't be as bad as the way laserdiscs were... now that was a pain when practically EVERY movie was split - often more than once.

They did. It's just that every time a new format comes out which promises "And you can finally watch Godfather II on one [tape/disc]," or whathaveyou, it turns out to be a load of crap because they'd rather try to up the resolution even higher.

As I said, how much of a sacrifice in resolution would it be to put the thing on one disc?

I suppose we'll have to wait for the completely digital version with NO disc before we'll get that. Even then they'll probably "split it into two files."

 

[Jeyl]

They did. It's just that every time a new format comes out which promises "And you can finally watch Godfather II on one [tape/disc]," or whathaveyou, it turns out to be a load of crap because they'd rather try to up the resolution even higher.

Uh, The Godfather Part II WAS PRESENTED IN FULL ON ONE BLURAY DISC.

I think this has more to do with the fact that Lord of the Rings movies have much higher audio tracks (6.1 DTS-HD MA instead of 5.1 True HD) and it includes four commentaries for each film.

 

[nickytea]

I think it should be a 3 disc set. One uber-quality 2 disc split version, and a compressed one disc option.

 

[Solo4114]

Uh, The Godfather Part II WAS PRESENTED IN FULL ON ONE BLURAY DISC.

I think this has more to do with the fact that Lord of the Rings movies have much higher audio tracks (6.1 DTS-HD MA instead of 5.1 True HD) and it includes four commentaries for each film.

Whatever. I don't own a BR player or an HDTV yet, so I haven't really looked into which specific movies are or aren't on a single disc. My point is that when the "Hi Def" discs were first being discussed, part of the appeal was how much space tehse discs had and how you could do branching films, how you could fit the entire run of Berlin Alexanderplatz onto a single disc, and blah blah blah, and they're still treating them as basically just hi-def DVDs. It's like when the first batch of DVDs came out and they treated them like hi-def VHS discs. Remember the first DVD release of Blade Runner's Director's Cut? Or The Road Warrior? No special features. Just the film and MAYBE a trailer.

It irks me. It also suggests to me a future quintuple-dip or whatever.