BLU-RAY: Lord of the Rings Extended Trilogy £49.95 plus delivery

Klingon Hamlet

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Availability: Pre-order now for delivery on 28 June 2011

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Box Set Features:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring feature, Extended Edition – Part 1 (BD)

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story Trailer
Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring feature, Extended Edition – Part 2 (BD)

Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
3. The Appendices Part 1 From Book to Vision (DVD)

Peter Jackson Introduction
J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle-earth
From Book to Script
Visualizing the Story
Designing and Building Middle-earth
Middle-earth Atlas Interactive
New Zealand and Middle-earth Interactive
4. The Appendices Part Two From Vision to Reality (DVD)

Elijah Wood Introduction
Filming The Fellowship of the Ring
Visual Effects
Post Production: Putting It All Together
Digital Grading
Sound and Music
The Road Goes Ever On…
5. Behind-the-scenes documentary created by filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD)

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers feature, Extended Edition – Part 1 (BD)

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story Trailer
Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers feature, Extended Edition – Part 2 (BD)

Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
8. The Appendices Part 3: The Journey Continues (DVD)

Peter Jackson Introduction
JRR Tolkien: Origin of Middle-earth
From Book to Script: Finding the Story
Designing and Building Middle-earth
Gollum
Middle-earth Atlas Interactive
New Zealand as Middle-earth
9. The Appendices Part 4: The Battle for Middle-earth (DVD)

Elijah Wood Introduction
Filming The Two Towers
Visual Effects
Editorial: Refining the Story
Music and Sound
The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over…
10. Behind-the-scenes documentary created by filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (DVD)

11. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King feature, Extended Edition – Part 1 (BD)

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story Trailer
Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King feature, Extended Edition – Part 2 (BD)

Commentaries: (Director and writers, Design team, Production and post production teams, Cast)
BD-Live
13. The Appendices Part 5: The War of the Ring (DVD)

Peter Jackson Introduction
JRR Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth
From Book to Script
Designing and Building Middle-earth
Home of the Horse Lords
Middle-earth Atlas
New Zealand as Middle-earth
14. The Appendices Part 6: The Passing of an Age (DVD)

Introduction
Filming The Return of the King
Visual Effects
Post-Production: Journey´s End
The Passing of an Age
Cameron Duncan: The Inspiration for Into the West
15. Behind-the-scenes documentary created by filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (DVD)

Dades

Finally!

Still need a blue ray player though...

SickBoy

All I want to know is do I need to flip or swap discs half way through each movie?

Sad Professor

SickBoy wrote: »

All I want to know is do I need to flip or swap discs half way through each movie?

Yes, each film is spread across two discs. This is a good thing as it means better picture quality, but obviously not everyone is happy about it.

SickBoy

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yes, each film is spread across two discs. This is a good thing as it means better picture quality, but obviously not everyone is happy about it.

And because of that, I'm out.

byte

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yes, each film is spread across two discs. This is a good thing as it means better picture quality, but obviously not everyone is happy about it.

Really? Surely a BD would have enough capacity to show the whole film?

Soarer

So glad I got off the Bluray train, or else I'd be all over this.

Movies across 2 discs do suck ass though!

Sad Professor

We've been debating this in Films. Yeah, it would be possible to put each film on a single disc, but the EEs are like 4 hours long each. They also have soundtracks and audio commentaries that take up space. Blu-ray is meant to be about providing the best quality possible. If they squeezed each film onto a single disc it would mean a lower video bitrate then if they split them. And a lower bitrate can mean more DNR.

Rsaeire

byte wrote: »

Really? Surely a BD would have enough capacity to show the whole film?

It surely does, but no doubt this makes for a better marketing campaign as they get to boast about the 15 disc Limited Extended Edition boxset containing all three Lord of the Rings movies for the first time on Blu-ray; you know how these companies love bigging up their product to the masses. :rolleyes:

I for one am disappointed that they couldn't fit each movie on one disc. Before someone mentions the DVD extended editions, they could've fit on one disc but for some reason, probably marketing again, they weren't. I guess these movie studios assume that customers will think they're getting a better deal if there are more discs in their boxset, even if they're still only receiving the same amount of content.

Basq

To the people complaining that they couldn't fit the movie on one disc..

.. they could have easily done it at a reduced video bitrate / picture quality and lower quality audio.

The extended edition of 'Return Of The King' is 4 hours, 11 minutes... putting this on a 50GB Blu-ray disc at the highest possible bitrate of video / audio possible would really not be the best quality available.

I, for one, bought the theatrical editions.. but I understand the reasoning behind splitting movies to 2 discs. To be honest, I'd be less likely to buy them if they didn't.

---

Let's break it down, 50GB (51200MB) / 251 (length of ROTK:EE in minutes) = ~ 204MB a minute or a measly 3.4MB a second.

Try and encode a second of truly HD video and 5.1 channel uncompressed audio... let me know if it comes out close to 3.4MB.

Sad Professor

Rsaeire wrote: »

Before someone mentions the DVD extended editions, they could've fit on one disc but for some reason, probably marketing again, they weren't.

You wanted the extended editions on a single DVD? Do you have any idea how terrible they would have looked?

Rsaeire

Sad Professor wrote: »

You wanted the extended editions on a single DVD? Do you have any idea how terrible they would have looked?

They each could have fit on a DVD-9 disc, with any extraneous features moved to separate discs, and they still would have looked great.

grimm2005

In the end of the day it's a very slight inconvenience that ultimately leads to better picture/sound quality. I'd gladly take the 10second disc swap over poorer quality tbh

Voodu Child

The extended DVDs were some of the best DVDs ever released, primarily because they split them across two discs. Gave them room for plenty of video bitrate, and it also gave them room to put a 755kbps DTS track in additional to the usual AC3 and all the commentaries.

They would have looked pure crap on a single disc and you definitely wouldn't have got that DTS audio.

SickBoy

I guess we'll just have to wait for BluRay 3.0 to become the standard before we can enjoy single disc extended versions in full HD glory.... Although by then "full HD" could be considered twice the resolution of current full HD standards...... My head hurts.
:eek:

Klingon Hamlet

People are never happy. Countless reviews berated the LOTR standard blu ray trilogy for less-than-perfect quality, and now that the full cuts are being spread for maximum quality, people are unhappy. Meh.:rolleyes:

Rsaeire

Klingon Hamlet wrote: »

People are never happy. Countless reviews berated the LOTR standard blu ray trilogy for less-than-perfect quality, and now that the full cuts are being spread for maximum quality, people are unhappy. Meh.:rolleyes:

The main problem wasn't low bitrate, it was the excessive DNR that was done, especially on LOTR 1, that people had issue with. I'll most likely pick this boxset up when it's released as I love the LOTR movies but, as I mentioned, I would've preferred each movie to be on one disc.

Soarer

grimm2005 wrote: »

In the end of the day it's a very slight inconvenience that ultimately leads to better picture/sound quality. I'd gladly take the 10second disc swap over poorer quality tbh

You must let me know what Bluray player you have, 'cause I'd love one that was capable of starting a movie 10 seconds after closing the tray.
In my experience, the biggest drawback of Bluray is its load times.

tman

grimm2005 wrote: »

In the end of the day it's a very slight inconvenience that ultimately leads to better picture/sound quality. I'd gladly take the 10second disc swap over poorer quality tbh

Amen to that... When watching them all back to back on DVD last year I was extremely thankful for the intermissions anyway, so don't see it as a biggy personally.

slave1

Makes zero difference to me as all my stuff is ripped 1:1 onto hard drives anyhow.
Back on topic ABOUT TIME, and what's that crap about 'limited'

Hogzy

slave1 wrote: »

Makes zero difference to me as all my stuff is ripped 1:1 onto hard drives anyhow.
Back on topic ABOUT TIME, and what's that crap about 'limited'

You would probably need a whole new hard drive JUST for this set.

Tipsy McSwagger

Soarer wrote: »

So glad I got off the Bluray train, or else I'd be all over this.

Movies across 2 discs do suck ass though!

Don't know how anyone can go back to crappy DVD after experiencing blu ray.

slave1

With the proper equipment a well mastered DVD can be surprisingly good quality, I'm still amazed at the Star Wars DVD on a 10' screen and I've rakes of 1080p native stuff to compare it to

Skerries

is there any new features over the dvd extended editions?

noodler

My concerns are actually different to most in this thread:

1) Not what I would consider a bargain (70e for three movies)

2) Is the picture quality in the EE any better than on the theatrical releases?

Basq

noodler wrote: »

1) Not what I would consider a bargain (70e for three movies)

To be fair, you might not consider it a bargain but it is good value. It's 3 movies - but 16 discs - plus you can bet bricks and mortars will be pricing it around the €100.

noodler wrote: »

2) Is the picture quality in the EE any better than on the theatrical releases?

You would certainly hope so given the fact they're splitting it over 2 discs.

noodler

Basq wrote: »

To be fair, you might not consider it a bargain but it is good value. It's 3 movies - but 16 discs - plus you can bet bricks and mortars will be pricing it around the €100.

Meh.

It depends if you place anywhere near the same value on the extras/commentaries as you do on the actual extended editions. Most don't I would wager.

Perhaps if you want it now then this is your best bet but again defo not a bargain.

Basq wrote: »

You would certainly hope so given the fact they're splitting it over 2 discs.

Must check out a Blu Ray review.

Basq

noodler wrote: »

Meh.

It depends if you place anywhere near the same value on the extras/commentaries as you do on the actual extended editions. Most don't I would wager.

Perhaps if you want it now then this is your best bet but again defo not a bargain.

Must check out a Blu Ray review.

Well, it is worth mentioning this is a pre-order.... pre-order prices are typically closer to the RRP and are priced for the people waiting for this to snap this up.

And this is the best pre-order price.

Minstrel27

noodler wrote: »

1) Not what I would consider a bargain (70e for three movies)

I would have to agree with this but the price will fall over time just like any other blu-ray release.

notahappycamper

noodler wrote: »

My concerns are actually different to most in this thread:

1) Not what I would consider a bargain (70e for three movies)

2) Is the picture quality in the EE any better than on the theatrical releases?

I believe that the picture quality of the Fellowship of the Ring has been improved over the theatrical release.

TrustedApple

I got the box set the normal ones at X-mess and I only got around to watching them there when I got my new tv

I will say they look something else on TMX mode on my tv because the blu rays supports this mode and really what else do you need in your blu ray

Also the way for blu ray will work all comes down to if you have a Good tv because the tv in the siting room in my house is a full hd 100hz tv and it looks good in hd but my new tv in my bedroom is something else and yes plasmas are better then LCDs to me but you a high end one to get the must put of a blu ray

Anyway i will add after seeing any film on blu ray then looking at the DVD on the same tv Its 100 times the film on blu ray

Also with is it with girls who think blu ray look the same as a DVD

horslips

Notwithstanding the merits of Blu-ray and/or putting one film on two discs, let's not take our eye off the important issue of the cost.

Zavvi are now up to €69.95 - best price I can see is sendit.com at €57.99 with free postage.

Klingon Hamlet

Soarer wrote: »

You must let me know what Bluray player you have, 'cause I'd love one that was capable of starting a movie 10 seconds after closing the tray.
In my experience, the biggest drawback of Bluray is its load times.

Load times suck, especially on Terminator 2!

But on a 4 hour film, it's more than welcome iMHO:)

Klingon Hamlet

Gone up to £59.95!!!:eek:

byte

Basq wrote: »

To the people complaining that they couldn't fit the movie on one disc..

.. they could have easily done it at a reduced video bitrate / picture quality and lower quality audio.

The extended edition of 'Return Of The King' is 4 hours, 11 minutes... putting this on a 50GB Blu-ray disc at the highest possible bitrate of video / audio possible would really not be the best quality available.

I, for one, bought the theatrical editions.. but I understand the reasoning behind splitting movies to 2 discs. To be honest, I'd be less likely to buy them if they didn't.

---

Let's break it down, 50GB (51200MB) / 251 (length of ROTK:EE in minutes) = ~ 204MB a minute or a measly 3.4MB a second.

Try and encode a second of truly HD video and 5.1 channel uncompressed audio... let me know if it comes out close to 3.4MB.

OK. I wasn't complaining, just surprised that a BD couldn't fit it all in.

But after your detailed post (thanks), I now understand why it was split across two discs.

I will probably end up getting them anyway and getting my lazy ass off the couch to change the disc halfway would probably be beneficial to my blood circulation!

Basq

byte wrote: »

and getting my lazy ass off the couch to change the disc halfway would probably be beneficial to my blood circulation!

While we're on the subject.. and not to get too far off-topic.. but is there any 2 Disc Blu-ray Players available?

I own (well, it's with RicherSounds for repair) a Philips MCD988.. it's fantastic in that you can pop it two DVD's and change to the second when the first is finished (it's great for those TV series boxsets).

Sad Professor

^ Cool!

It would definitely be good for the boxsets alright. I hate having to change them over and have ripped most of my television DVDs for convenience.

byte

Basq wrote: »

While we're on the subject.. and not to get too far off-topic.. but is there any 2 Disc Blu-ray Players available?

I own (well, it's with RicherSounds for repair) a Philips MCD988.. it's fantastic in that you can pop it two DVD's and change to the second when the first is finished (it's great for those TV series boxsets).

Hah, deadly!

I remember Panasonic had a 5 disc DVD carousel surround sound system some years ago.

A similar BD system would be neat, though I'd probably never be able to afford such luxury!

Worst case anyway, one could rip the BD to HDD or something.

johndoe99

just reading online, that the set will be 6 BD's and 9 DVDs, am i missing something, why are they putting special features on DVDs, obviously there Standard Definition, but surely they can put them on bluray and cut down on amount of discs.

Sad Professor

johndoe99 wrote: »

just reading online, that the set will be 6 BD's and 9 DVDs, am i missing something, why are they putting special features on DVDs, obviously there Standard Definition, but surely they can put them on bluray and cut down on amount of discs.

It's cheaper, I guess. They can just re-use the old masters. It may also be due to a shortage of Blu-ray discs. Apparently production is nearing maximum capacity.

johndoe99

Sad Professor wrote: »

It's cheaper, I guess. They can just re-use the old masters. It may also be due to a shortage of Blu-ray discs. Apparently production is nearing maximum capacity.

that's a shame, i was really looking forward to this collection, will probbaly wait a month or so and wait to see what others think after they've bought them.

Boxset looks good though.

Antar Bolaeisk

While it may be a bargain I'd be wary pre-ordering this considering the rumours about the picture quality not being up to scratch.

Sad Professor

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

While it may be a bargain I'd be wary pre-ordering this considering the rumours about the picture quality not being up to scratch.

Do you have a link? Everyone keeps saying this but I can't find the source.

Snake Plisken

I'm going to wait for reviews of this I'm not convinced that Warner are going to do anything more then use the Master prints they used for the EE DVD's and put them on Blu-Ray, Warner have form on doing this. Also I really don't want to go back to DVD for the extra's they could have easily put all the extra's on 3 or 4 Blu-Ray's. 1 other point I can see after the Hobbit films come out that there will be another complete boxset containing all 5 films and we'll probably see a Peter Jackson approved remaster of the trilogy.

grimm2005

I for one will be waiting a few months for the inevitable price drop. The theatrical set was €13 recently on play if I remember correctly. granted, this was about a year after release but when I see the extended trilogy for €20 i'll be p!ssed off looking at my barely touched €70 copy I got a few months earlier

tman

grimm2005 wrote: »

I for one will be waiting a few months for the inevitable price drop. The theatrical set was €13 recently on play if I remember correctly. granted, this was about a year after release but when I see the extended trilogy for €20 i'll be p!ssed off looking at my barely touched €70 copy I got a few months earlier

Very good point! I'm not in a major rush to re-watch them all, so I think I'll sit on this nice comfy fence until they drop to a reasonable price (hell, I got the DVD extended edition box set for something silly like £15 iirc when that was a similar price to this at launch...)

slave1

They will drop but don't forget a major reason for the DVD price drops was the advent of BR, not likely for BR to be superceded for quite a while so wouldn't be expecting the EE BR box set for anywhere near €13.

Soarer

Basq wrote: »

While we're on the subject.. and not to get too far off-topic.. but is there any 2 Disc Blu-ray Players available?

Could you not buy two similar bd players, stack on on top of the other, and voila?
Could have both hooked up to your amp at the same time, and load both discs at the same time. Then when the first is finished, the second is already loaded and ready to go.
Might need an HDMI switcher, but shur they're only a few quid.

Antar Bolaeisk

Sad Professor wrote: »

Do you have a link? Everyone keeps saying this but I can't find the source.

Just rumours, no source, sorry.

Basq

Soarer wrote: »

Could you not buy two similar bd players, stack on on top of the other, and voila?
Could have both hooked up to your amp at the same time, and load both discs at the same time. Then when the first is finished, the second is already loaded and ready to go.
Might need an HDMI switcher, but shur they're only a few quid.

Ah yeah.. what's a few quid when I can afford two BD players and an amp?

Ah sure.. why not just get a second TV while I'm at it?! :pac:

Sad Professor

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Just rumours, no source, sorry.

Yeah, but I assume you read the rumours somewhere?