Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray Soon: Why you may not want it!

[admin]

Lord of the Rings is coming to Blu-ray. This eagerly awaited title will finally arrive on Blu-ray in April, but many fans are already planning to avoid it.

The problem is that the version released in April will only be the theatrical version. Those wanting the longer extended versions may have to wait until November. Those wanting both versions on Blu-ray will probably have to buy both versions, even though it's technically possible to fit both on the same disc(s), through seamless branching.

This "double dipping", as it is referred to by fans, has long been an annoyance of movie fans, and it is especially bad with certain titles that may see dozens or more versions being released, each with unique content that tempts users into buying. Terminator 2, is a prime example. Lord of the Rings, is another.

Personal opinion:

As someone who owns 6 version of Terminator 2 on 3 different formats (4 if you count the WMV-HD as a different format), double dipping can be annoying. I also own both the theatrical and the special extended editions of all three Lord of the Rings movies, and I do want the Blu-ray version.

However, I will too be skipping the April release and will wait for the Extended Blu-ray version if/when it gets released. The theatrical versions are fine, but you get the feeling that the extended version add more than it subtracts, and so is the one to watch.

There may even be two editions of the Extended version (one plain, one with collectibles and more content and stuff), but as the owner of the special extended DVD edition (the ones that look like big books), I shall only get the plain/budget extended Blu-ray edition, for the movie only really. If I want the theatrical version, I will refer to the upscaled DVD version, which is fine for me. If I want the bonus features, then I shall refer to my special extended edition DVDs. And if I want the HD version of the movie, then the extended Blu-ray version will give me that too.

More about the April theatrical version release on Blu-ray:

http://www.thewrap.com/article/lord-rings-trilogy-hits-blu-ray-14819

[UncasMS]

However, I will too be skipping the April release and will wait for the Extended Blu-ray version if/when it gets released.

same here

we were fooled once with lotr (SEE being released some time after theatrical version) but not again

[Budreaux]

Same here. Been waiting for this to hit Blu-ray, but I will wait till the extended version is released. I already have the same as you Admin, the ones that look like a set of books, but I really want this on BR.

[admin]

Haha, just had a look at Amazon's customer reviews for the Blu-ray set: 2045 one star votes versus 149 five star ones. The people have spoken.

[admin]

Another studio trick, although this one is a bit more understandable. The 3D version of Avatar won't be available on Blu-ray until 2011, you will only be able to get the 2D version in April.

It's understandable because not many people will have 3D capable equipment come next month, and it's hard to say if people actually want the 3D version at all. Of course, director James Cameron says that the 3D version is the version of the movie he intends audiences to see, but people had a chance to do that at the cinema already.

More:

http://www.i4u.com/article31977.html

[MilesAhead]

I'm kind of "Ring'd out" anyway since I read the books so many times. I was glad to see a good movie version made finally. Kind of gave me closure.

But on the "double dip" thing, it's the same with jazz music. First you'd get the CD. A few years later same CD but it's "digitally remastered" then a few more years and it's "super bit mapped 20 bit" then a couple years later it's "super bit mapped 24 bit" and that's not to mention all the ones recorded "directly from the master tapes" with gold plating on the optical surface etc..

I think I have at last 1/2 dozen versions of the Kind Of Blue CD.

[admin]

Blu-ray.com has the review up for Lord of the Rings Trilogy Blu-ray. They gave it 4 stars out of 5, which is pretty low for such a big ticket release.

Amongst their concerns was the fairly poor picture quality in the first movie, which they only gave 2.5 out of 5 - in comparison to another Warner trilogy on Blu-ray, The Matrix, which they gave 5 stars out of 5. The Two Towers and The Return of the King's video quality was better, but not perfect either, with 3.75 and 4 stars respectively.

The review also pointed out the lack of substantive extra features, in both quality and quantity. And made worse by the fact that most of the extra features are on standard definition DVD - at the very least, Warner could have saved customers the trouble, and also the environment, by putting the SD content on a single Blu-ray disc (so 4 Blu-ray discs, and 3 digital copy discs), but I guess a 7-disc set sounds less impressive than a 9-disc set.

More reason to wait for the version that contains the extended editions coming later this year, and hold on to your DVDs of the theatrical version if you ever need to refer back to them.

Read the full review here:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Motion-Picture-Trilogy-Blu-ray-Review/5174/

[UncasMS]

Especially "The Fellowship" has a very inconsistent video quality: sometimes sharpness and amount of details are spot on and then you have scenes that look hardly different on BD and DVD.

Let's hope they'll use a different transfer for the SSE version.