Lord of the Rings Limited Edition Blu-ray available for Pre-order on Amazon

Now there's something to look forward to...

You know, after all the whining and moaning about last year's theatrical edition trilogy, I assumed this release would be met with whoops of joy. Yet already the Amazon comments are full of 1 star reviews from the crybabies, who STILL aren't satisfied, despite this being EXACTLY what was promised last year (plus they are even adding the Costa Botes docus which were previously NOT in the EE boxes). 

I guess these yahoos won't be happy until WB/New Line travels several years into the future when the post-Hobbit uber mega box set of all 5 films in 4K 3D Blu-ray Plus with 40 days worth of extras is available, and sends that box back in time to their greedy little hands. For a $30 MSRP, of course, because anything higher than that is a rip-off.

As for me - my pre-order's in. Bring it on!

The price thing always baffles me.   Media right now is so cheap it's amazing to me.   I remember paying $100 for a single laserdisc.   My Beauty & The Beast CAV Laserdisc set was $150 if I was right, and that was a long time ago, when that meant a lot more then now.   The price seems fine.   People piss and moan about it, but if you go to iTunes you get Movie Only, nothing else for $20, and it's not even anywhere near full quality.     I guess it's just me.    The price seems perfectly fair in my mind.      There are times I will bitch about the price, like when the Star Trek box sets on DVD were $130, but this seems worth it for what they are.

Todays Bits

...It's been real, Theatrical Editions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattCR 

The price thing always baffles me.   Media right now is so cheap it's amazing to me.   I remember paying $100 for a single laserdisc.   My Beauty & The Beast CAV Laserdisc set was $150 if I was right, and that was a long time ago, when that meant a lot more then now.   The price seems fine.   People piss and moan about it, but if you go to iTunes you get Movie Only, nothing else for $20, and it's not even anywhere near full quality.     I guess it's just me.    The price seems perfectly fair in my mind.      There are times I will bitch about the price, like when the Star Trek box sets on DVD were $130, but this seems worth it for what they are.

Agreed ... I can remember paying $70 for "Star Wars: ANH" on VHS ... in P&S with linear audio stereo tracks ...!!

This Extended Edition LOTR Blu-ray box set is just what I want and at a very reasonable price.  I have *no* complaints!  (Well, except for the fact that Amazon can't ship it to me tomorrow!    ) 

WHOOP WHOOP OF JOY!

I skipped the theatrical blurays since I never plan on watching the theatrical versions again so my old DVDs are just fine for those. That they are carrying over all the features and adding those extra documentaries makes this the perfect set for me! I shall pre-order it toot sweet!

(Which means in about a month when it shows up on amazon.ca...)

Does this mean that each movie will only reside on one bluray disc? I was actually hoping that the EE would still be broken into 2 discs each to maximise the picture quality.

I'm happy to see this is being released for those who have been eagerly waiting for it.  I'm personally undecided about this one because I've actually come to prefer the theatrical cuts over the extended versions.  If they'd done this as a single release with both versions included via seamless branching, it would have been a no-brainer for me but, for now at least, I'm happy with my theatrical blu-rays, can watch my extended DVD's when I have 12 hours to kill and will patiently wait for the uber-set before buying this series again. 

That said, I reserve the right to change my mind if/when there is an impossible-to-refuse sale price.

Special features on DVDs....sigh

It's mine, my own... my... precioussss.

The greatest blu-ray announcement since that last great blu-ray announcement, in a galaxy far far away. :)

I already HAVE the DVD bonus discs in this set. I may hold off until they release the movies alone.

I bought the theatrical versions on Blu pretty cheap, or i would of passed on those as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattCR 

The price thing always baffles me.   Media right now is so cheap it's amazing to me.   I remember paying $100 for a single laserdisc.   My Beauty & The Beast CAV Laserdisc set was $150 if I was right, and that was a long time ago, when that meant a lot more then now.   The price seems fine.   People piss and moan about it, but if you go to iTunes you get Movie Only, nothing else for $20, and it's not even anywhere near full quality.     I guess it's just me.    The price seems perfectly fair in my mind.      There are times I will bitch about the price, like when the Star Trek box sets on DVD were $130, but this seems worth it for what they are.

I remember my wife and I going to our neighborhood Tower Records and trying to decide which ONE  of the new release LDs we were going to buy every month.  Usually between $40 and $60 a title for non-Criterion, non special edition titles.  Star Wars was $250 the first time we bought it on LD and $299 the second.  Even DVD was not cheap when it came out.  Weird Science was on of the first DVD releases from Image Ent and it was over $40.  I think Dotcoms competing against each other were the main reasons DVDs were as cheap as they were.  Reel.com had 40% off all pre-orders, 800.com had their 3 for $1 sale, etc.
 

That Digital Bits post says that each movie (including multiple commentary tracks) PLUS one of the Costa Botes documentaries will reside on a single Blu-ray disc.  Can that be right?  How long were those documentaries?

Given that Warner created new masters for the theatrical versions and still took endless amounts of crap about the picture quality (I think they look just fine), I'd be surprised if they even bothered with this release.  These will probably just reuse the existing masters created for the DVD.  Older transfers + 3 1/2 - 4 hour running times + lossless audio + the docs in standard def (around 2 hours each, I believe) all squeezed onto 1 BD-50 is probably going to result in WORSE PQ than the theatrical editions. 

Count me as one who dislikes having any DVDs included as part of a high-def boxset.  They could probably have squeezed all the Appendicies onto 1 BD-25, if they stayed standard def.

If my math is correct, max average bitrates of a single BD-50 for each movie, including BOTH audio and video would be the following:

Fellowship of the Ring - 33 Mbps

The Two Towers - 29 Mbps

Return of the King - 26 Mbps

While bitrate is not the be all end all, I think  Two Towers and Return of the King are pushing it for something that has no reason not to have reference audio and video.  I'd rather seen an average bitrate at at least 32 - 35 Mbps, but if the reviews are positive and they fix the DNR issues of the first release, it won't be a deal breaker.

Assuming the extras are straight SD ports of the previous extras, I'd rather just see a 6-disc set.  Give the movies additional room to breathe on 2 discs per film, still have room for all of the extras in the remaining space.

I guess they put the extras on DVDs for those who have not upgraded to blu-ray.       Wait...what?! 

I would definitely prefer to have each movie across 2 BD-50s. I actually dont mind the "intermission", particularly for ROTK. I also agree that having all the extras on standard DVD is pretty crap for a highly anticipated HD release. I was hoping this set would beat out the Alien Anthology, but I dont think that will happen.

I held out and did not purchase the theatrical releases on BD, as I prefer the extended editions of these films.. This is great news and a definite purchase for me!

Apart from one extra documentary (that holds little interest for me), the extras are the same as the DVD EEs (most of which I've yet to watch--the extras, I mean--years after getting the EE DVDs) AND they are on SD DVD? If true, then I will simply await the EE film only release that will come along later. It's not like my EE DVDs are unwatchable as it is.

Whoohoo!!  Preorder is in! :)   What Scott said a couple of posts ago is the same for me; I held out for the EE's on blu and passed on the theatricals. 

I could do without the Ent-poetry from The Two Towers, but otherwise I much prefer the extended cuts. Glad they're finally making their way to BD. Still can't believe they cut Saruman's death from Return of the King.

Such a great scene, a hugely-important one -- the death of a major villain -- and you could have cut a few minutes of Hobbit-hugging from the theatrical version, and still made room for it.

A very definite day one purchase for me.  I am not pre-ordering because I don't want to pay the price for day -of -release delivery--I'll hit the local Walmart.  I hope I don't get burned and have to pay a higher price there, but I've waited so long for this release that at that point it won't kill me.  I'm a happy camper--or camperess.

I'll be waiting for the inevitable price drop on this one. While the longer cuts are interesting, I have yet to rewatch the DVDs due to not having the time to sit through them.

Coincidentally, I just finished watching the first two EEs last week and am planning to watch the third this week.  The upconverted picture quality on the DVDs is pretty darn good, so in order for me to upgrade to BD and spend that kind of cash, these new transfers need to look nothing short of amazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AaronMK 

If my math is correct, max average bitrates of a single BD-50 for each movie, including BOTH audio and video would be the following:

 

Fellowship of the Ring - 33 Mbps

The Two Towers - 29 Mbps

Return of the King - 26 Mbps

 

While bitrate is not the be all end all, I think  Two Towers and Return of the King are pushing it for something that has no reason not to have reference audio and video.  I'd rather seen an average bitrate at at least 32 - 35 Mbps, but if the reviews are positive and they fix the DNR issues of the first release, it won't be a deal breaker.

 

Assuming the extras are straight SD ports of the previous extras, I'd rather just see a 6-disc set.  Give the movies additional room to breathe on 2 discs per film, still have room for all of the extras in the remaining space.

 

I guess they put the extras on DVDs for those who have not upgraded to blu-ray.       Wait...what?! 

Considering that the last two films are all but monochromatic for much of their running time, I think 26 mbps is probably more than enough to handle the information in the films. Add to that the black bars from the letterboxing, and I don’t see this being an issue.

As for the complaints by others about the documentaries being in standard def on a DVD, all the behind the scenes footage on these films were shot on standard def video. Putting them on a blu-ray would be superfluous.

Doug

Those bit rates don't seem too bad for a film that is 2.35:1 aspect ratio, since quite a bit of the screen is black bars which don't take up much bit space...

Am a little bummed if they're simply including the DVD extras discs (not quibbling with the extras, but with including the actual DVD extras discs from the EE DVD sets) since I already have those. Would have been nice to at minimum port them to BD so to save space--if they didn't present them in HD they all probably could have fit on one or two Blu-Ray discs. Of course the ideal would be to present them in HD, but apparently that isn't in the cards.

Still, the film is of paramount importance to me, and the cost isn't prohibitive, so if the A/V quality if great then I'm in. Now I'm trying to figure out if I ever watched the theatrical blu rays I bought...