Who's going to buy the trilogy out Tuesday?

[RoboDad]

Robodad - Have you seen any reviews yet that have graphed out the bitrates? I'm curious to see what they're at - esp ROTK. I know DVDBeaver does this, but they usually just compare various international versions.

I haven't, but I would really like to (but I sure don't want to take the time to do it myself ). Even though I do trust HT Spot, it would be very interesting to see the complete graph. My thought is that if there is enough room on the disc to accomodate a higher bitrate on even some areas, then to me that implies that there should be NO areas where the bitrate is sacrificed, i.e., lower than the previous release.

 

[Gruson]

Care to elaborate about the HD versions? Did you get them off HBO or something?

They are on my HTPC. Ripped from Starz HD.

Simply amazing. Let's hope they give us an official release sometime next year because 480p just does not cut it anymore.

 

[wampachow]

They are on my HTPC. Ripped from Starz HD.

Simply amazing. Let's hope they give us an official release sometime next year because 480p just does not cut it anymore.

Did Starz air it 2.35 to 1? I know TNT HD cropped and zoomed to fill the 16:9 screen.

 

[Khev]

Check out this thread over at www.hometheaterforum.com

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=239692

Read the replies after the initial mini-review. The consensus seems to be that the picture quality of the new DVD's seems pretty equal to prior sets at first glance, but further scrutiny actually indicates that the new DVD's look worse than the originals.

The wait for HD continues.

 

[Wetanut]

No Josh....nothing telling you that you've picked up a random gift card. As an experiment, I went to Best Buy to pick up TTT and to Target to get ROTK. Neither of them had the gift card. My son also picked up 1 from each place and he bombed out. So it IS random.

Ok well at least I know what to look for. I wonder if there is any kind of a label on them then? Saying inside is a gift card or something like that.

 

[wampachow]

Ahh - I missed the part about the movie discs being DVD-18. I thought they were cramming each movie onto a single-sided DVD-9. A double-sided DVD would hold ROTK:EE no problem. And here I thought I'd be able to watch the whole movie without switching or flipping discs...

 

[LOTRFan]

No Josh....nothing telling you that you've picked up a random gift card. As an experiment, I went to Best Buy to pick up TTT and to Target to get ROTK. Neither of them had the gift card. My son also picked up 1 from each place and he bombed out. So it IS random.

The gift cards are only in FOTR discs.

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

Ahh - I missed the part about the movie discs being DVD-18. I thought they were cramming each movie onto a single-sided DVD-9. A double-sided DVD would hold ROTK:EE no problem. And here I thought I'd be able to watch the whole movie without switching or flipping discs...

I hate DVD-18. Reminds me too much of the very early days of DVDs. I am still glad I got my copy of Terminator 2 with the two DVD-9 discs.

 

[The Josh]

No Josh....nothing telling you that you've picked up a random gift card. As an experiment, I went to Best Buy to pick up TTT and to Target to get ROTK. Neither of them had the gift card. My son also picked up 1 from each place and he bombed out. So it IS random.

Bummer. Guess I'll just totally have to leave it to chance.

 

[RoboDad]

Check out this thread over at www.hometheaterforum.com

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=239692

Read the replies after the initial mini-review. The consensus seems to be that the picture quality of the new DVD's seems pretty equal to prior sets at first glance, but further scrutiny actually indicates that the new DVD's look worse than the originals.

The wait for HD continues.

I've seen that thread before, and frankly, I don't see any consensus, but rather people who haven't seen the DVDs parroting what one person wrote, and basing their opinions on one pathetically bad screen capture. I've captured the same from from the new DVD, and wither the person who posted that one has some really bad software, or they deliberately made it look bad, because mine looks absolutely nothing like it.

Here's the capture from HTF:

and here's mine:

Bear in mind that these are both zoomed to 200% of the original DVD resolution, so they will look somewhat pixelated. But I hope you can see the difference. I am very pleased with the quality of these DVDs.

 

[RoboDad]

Bummer. Guess I'll just totally have to leave it to chance.

The GC is a hard plastic card, so maybe you could shake the package to try to hear whether it contains one? I can't remember whether there was enough room in the sealed package for the card to rattle around or not.

 

[The Josh]

The GC is a hard plastic card, so maybe you could shake the package to try to hear whether it contains one? I can't remember whether there was enough room in the sealed package for the card to rattle around or not.

Yeah, could do that. If not no biggie. I'm a total junkie for LOTR and the more I hear about it the more I'm likely to break.

 

[Khev]

Your screen capture definitely looks better than the first one RD. Glad you're enjoying the discs. I'm still going to wait for 1080i/p.

 

[RoboDad]

Nothing wrong with that strategy at all. I admit I was torn myself, but being the Tolkien junkie that I am, I caved. It's funny, because my wife usually really gets after me if I "double dip" on DVDs, but for this one, she didn't even say a word.

Of course, I'll be first in line for the HD versions as well.

 

[tomandshell]

The exciting prospect of picking up a Sideshow gift card has caused me to cave and get my third copy of LOTR on DVD. I liked the look of the packaging and wanted to see the documentary and so I picked it up, since I heard a noise when I shook the package!


(Would anybody like to trade me my advertising insert about the "Battle for Middle Earth II" video game for their Sideshow gift card?)

 

[Customikey]

I hand't gotten the original cuts, so that was a selling point, as was having back-ups of the extendeds. I've now gotten through the 1st and 2nd docs, and they're pretty good, if a bit directionless. It's the same sort of style as "THe Beginning" TPM doc, which is still the standard bearer for great film docs for me.

Not quite as entertaining, but still very good. There hasn't been that much repeat photage, although what is repeated really sticks out, like the little back-stabbing skit between three of the hobbit actors. There have been smidgens of deleted scenes sprinkled in, which are interesting, but you can see why they were left out.

Looking forward to the third doc tomorrow.

 

[GrueSam]

Well, I'm caving in as I read all this...

Plus, I have a $25 coupon to Amazon anyway!

 

[mannix DLS]

Nope won't be buying it, will wait for the HD version.

Me too.... I'll be waiting for the 3D version

 

[goliath]

Me too.... I'll be waiting for the 3D version

Now that could be a long wait...

 

[LOTRFan]

I watched TTT documentary last night, for me anyway it was much better than FOTR. It still very much had that "home movie" feel to it, and lacked any type of navigation, however; it seemed to be even more involved in the process --- wait for the Edoras stuff . There were also many more deleted scenes that you get to see, namely a very cool one with Eowyn.