LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY 4K ULTRAHD BLU-RAY REVIEW | THE BEST 4K MOVIES OF 2020? 

Yeah, I can see what happened now. Does end up being rather misleading as it stands.

@@leighhaynes yup that’s on me. Didn’t realize I cut that part out. Apologies

I want to buy the lord of the rings collection but I’m worried I will miss out on these fantastic steelbooks. I guess I can’t have everything thou. I’m going to wait for the middle earth collection

@@leohaddad9225 The Middle Earth collection will mostly repeat the extras which have been released previously. The Costa Botes docs were only shot in SD so not much can be done with them. There is a rumour that each film with get one new piece of bonus material.

@@leighhaynes I never actually got the lord of the rings on physical ever. Never owned the movies. So it’s ok if they repeat the special features. Btw I wish they had a massive 4k box set for Harry Potter

Nice

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone who grubbied them up with their dwarven ale and dick cheese

*exhales*

Lol you win sir

A chance for Disc, captain of formats, to show his quality

I'm in the vast minority of thinking the theatrical versions are better. I think it just flows a much nicer.

@couldn't think of a username I would say the reverse. The fellowship does not add a great deal in the extended edition. The two towers adds some very crucial scenes with Faramir, crucial for his character - they should not have been cut in my opinion. And there's some extra nice stuff too. And the return of the King adds almost an hour of scenes, including actually showing the conclusion of Saruman, which again, should not have been cut. So I suppose if the goal is a very short movie, the fellowship extended might be the best, but I would say the other two gain more from the extended versions.

Unless you're a die hard collector like I am, and feel like you must own EVERY format of LOTR. lol

I actually started with the extended. I've never seen the theatrical. And I'm okay with that lol. It's my favorite trilogy and I watch it at least once every year.

I've only ever seen the extended version since they were in theaters. Though I've found this trilogy has gotten to be a real slog to get through after having watched it so many times over the years. And every time the movie feels like it's starting to drag, I can tell it's always in one of those extended scenes. And so I may look at the theatrical version.

I got them on apple tv

I dunno, I prefer the theatrical.

@@thefilmrookie3099 really? Whys that? There are a lot of inconsistencies in the theatrical that bother me, not that the extended is perfect but at least better (imo)

I'm a huge LOTR fan, and I didn't care for the extended at all. It was drawn out, tiresome, and completely screwed with pace of the theatrical

@@Rapunzel879 if you’ve read the Silmarillion it’s really fun watching the extended editions with all the references put in

I don’t get it....

@@themaker2475 only way to watch this movie is LLLLLLOOOOOUUUUUDDDDDDD, to the point your neighbors hear it

Lol this guy gets it lol! My surround sound on max

Wonder why he didn't mention this

Lol cutting him was such a wise decision. Would have confused the hell out of the audience.

Sorry Tom. You're a great addition to the medium of books but had to be cut for the medium LOTR was being adapted to. If it helps, let's just say Peter Jackson is Tom.

Who was he?

@@Justusson Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow! Bright Blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow!

Well especially these days given Star Wars is essentially a nerfed franchise.... Well we can always go back and watch Empire in 4k (though sadly Disney couldn't even get that right!). Thankfully Warner and Peter Jackson scored a TD!

Both Star Wars and LOTR are magical movie experiences. I do not think one is better than the other.

@@bighands69 they shouldn't be compared as couldn't be more different both are great

@@bighands69 It's a matter of taste. To be fair the "acting" in the original Star Wars trilogy (and the prequel trilogy for that mater) ranged from bad to embarrassing. Let's just say that George Lucas can't really write compelling dialogue with layers. Star Wars is ultimately Lucas's tribute to the serials of the 30's and 40's he watched as a kid. He just made big-budget versions with incredible (for the time) special effects. As stories however they shouldn't be taken seriously and just seen as a "space sage/light entertainment".

But one it absolutely is: LOTR.

Well done

" I don't think he knows about Second Lord of the Rings Pippin " 😁 lol

We're pretty close to "Elevensies" aren't we? OG Theatrical DVD + OG Extended DVD + Blu- Ray for both, that's a lot of hobbits.

There must be some tools online that can add grain to any video

The DNR is honestly a dealbreaker for me. Such a shame for what could have been a perfect release.

I'm the same with my Series X. I've been waiting for this boxset for sooo long 😁

Gotta give Sony and Microsoft props. The fact that they managed to create such a frenzy of excitement without any games is crazy.

It doesnt have Dolby vision tho

@@newandroid14 oh shoot, I meant the ps5

@@thelegit969 ahh... that's a shame. Tbh even the Blu-ray player on the Series X doesn't support Dolby Vision. I use my 4K Blu-ray player for playback (Panasonic UB820... amazing player) 😁

She's never seen them? How old is she?!

@@rosstee shes 30 and has never seen them. like i said...if she dosent like them she can go to hell LOL

@@Insane247714 Slightly older than Jeff! Lol, yes if she somehow doesn't like these incredible films you would be left with no option...

When Return of the King ended and the first thing my girlfriend said was "Okay, so why did Frodo have to leave?"...I knew that we were not destined to be together.

Don't fall into cultish behavior for a movie lol. A really good set of movies but still separate from real life.

yep, the best one in the trilogy hands down imo

Agree.. it is my favourite of the books and also for me the film adaptation of Fellowship is the closest one to the book IMHO....

It's the only one that doesn't make me need rage hard at changes that didn't need to be made.

@@Chelios__ I tend to agree hard to beat the first film such a masterpiece and sets up the story perfectly. Although the Return of the King in terms of sheer epicenes may take the cake either way LOTR is the best trilogy ever it wont be beaten.

@quikgamer I wish I saw the trilogy in theaters but I was only a baby when fellowship came out

Those holes will be worth it

Awesome, congratz. I recommend giving Godzilla King of the Monsters and the 2 Bladerunner movies a whirl. Those are great atmos movies. Blackhawk down is also a thrill.

Perfect? Have you even read the books?

@@ttfidrat multiple times through but as far as movies go , imagine the movies we could have got had they been made at a different time by someone else

@@ttfidrat Can you live without trolling? Have a positive mind for heavens sake.

They're great movies and I'm super nostalgic about them (30+ years old so I was a kid when they came out at the cinema). But if you're an avid LotR fan, they're also far from "perfect". They miss out on a lot of what makes LotR special in the first place, like Tolkien's vivid depictions of nature. The journey through Woodhall to Crick Hollow and onwards to Tom Bombadil and the Old Forest is the best part of the entire book, but it's barely even in the movies.

@@gustav2867 I love that stuff but I also understand the limitations of the movie medium , the fact that Hollywood gave Peter 3 movies to make this story in is a miracle enough, cuts had to be made I suppose

Oh yeah! I’ll probably be doing a video on them as well! Come check it out!

It wasnt availabel in my country... Im so pissed

I'm waiting for them to be available on the UK Amazon but as somebody who doesn't live in the UK, I can't ever tell whether they're just not available to be exported or not available at all. For me it just shows it's not available for pre-order yet with no price set either. Hopefully it'll get sorted out soon, ordered normal versions locally but I keep refreshing the Amazon listing for the steelbooks daily, lol.

@@mr.rapter4517 Some shop in my country seems to sell them when they release on the 3th and 17th of dezember. I pray for all fans to get the steelbook. The normal version looks kind of cheap to be honest. It would be nice so see what the 2021 bundle looks like...

Mine is arriving tomorrow, the money came out for it about an hour ago from amazon. The amazon exclusive back to the future is coming in a week, and tremours on I think the 19th. And cyberpunk on the 10th and tenet on the 14th I think lol and at the start of the month my MCU 4k set came. Very fucking expensive few months for me.

i got john wick but wasn't able to get that or matrix trilogy steelbook damn

And going by the review on The Digital Bits...it seems that the brand new 4K HDR Color Grading was utilized to blend the CGI into the live action EVEN MORE than ever before, beyond just the matching film grain...the fine details of the color and contrast too. You would be surprised how often the 'color grade' of a CGI effect within a scene is the make-or-break on it looking real or not. Most CGI effects look 'real enough', but the biggest tells is when they don't look lit/colored properly to be fully integrated into the live action shot around them, they don't look properly part of their 'world'. That isn't something typically decided by JUST the CGI model and the quality of the render, but by all of the fine-tuning of the color grade and everything that goes with it. As soon as I heard "Brande new 4K DI with new HDR color grading"....I knew that even without altering/upgrading the CGI effects themselves....that every VFX shot in the films would just be kicked up a few notches in terms of overall integration into the live action.

So did they take the digital scenes and transfer them to 35mm film and then back again?

@@bighands69 yes 2K digital --> 35 mm --> 4K digital

Isn't LotR a 2K upscale in this case?

@@adriannn3720 lot of debate around this. I'm no expert, just regurgitating what I've read online. My best guess is that it's somewhere between 2K and 4K

Surely the revier would not not if they have been changed as he says hes such a fan

They did 4k scans of the VFX from the film, so they did not re-render it. Just scanned it in 4k. Should still look great though.

Not exactly. They didn't alter any of the CGI or do any upgrading....but they did go back as far into the process as possible, to find the earliest 'finished' material for the CGI, and they re-scanned THAT in 4K in order to have the highest quality source possible. They re-scanned all of the original footage and all of the original VFX shots in 4K, created a new 4K Digital Intermediate, and completely re-did the color grading in HDR 4K. They basically 're-finished' the movies after going back to the original material. Many 4K Discs just take whatever 'master' the original film currently exists in, whether it be a 35mm negative or for most modern films, a 2K master....and just do a 4K scan/upscale/upsample of it onto a 4K disc. For example, Endgame was finished as a 2K master. The 4K disc presentation is just that 2K master upsampled to 4K. It looks really good, but is not "True 4K" so to speak. Sonic was finished as a 4K master. The CGI within it was only rendered at 2K, but the final mastering of the film was done at 4K. By doing what they did with Lord of the Rings....re-finishing the movies in 4K resolution....it takes a 20 year old trilogy and puts it on a completely modern playing field in terms of the visual and audio presentation. Took a LONG time and plenty of money, but it literally results in the greatest trilogy of all time looking and sounding better than it ever has(and better than many modern films) for the next generation.

@@ChrisPeteG i was with you till the end and you remark about greatest trilogy of all time lol..first part a masterpiece but 2 and 3 dont come anywhere close..some of the worse cgi ever

All shot and produced to 35mm film. Resolution is greater than measly 4K.

Yeah, there seem to be different reviews. Doesn't the eventual experience depend a lot on your television, DVD player / console and sound equipment too? Screen shots will never show you the exact experience you will have at home...

@@AudioEpics Yes but in these screenshots you can tell the difference between bd and 4k and they removed grain, changed coloring of certain scenes and the missing detalis between the two are striking. Also the cgi and miniatures stand out a lot to the point of being distracting

2K transfer. 4K restoration can mean anything. It would cost too much and take too much time to do a 4K scan. All the post processing effects would have to be redone from scratch

No the theatrical versions are quite literally the "real" versions, and Peter Jackson agrees. The filmmakers spent years of their life flawlessly editing the scenes together into a perfect example of cinematic pacing. The extended editions crap all over it, all of those 40 minutes where cut for good reason. Almost all of the new scenes are narratively pointless, often they conflict with the atmosphere of what has come before or after and some of them are actually BAD. You need to hear Gimli taking about an orcs "nervous system" ?? You think that's a good line and not jarring at all? You think we need a scene on what Eowyns stew tastes like? Or Gandalf brainlessly illuminating a canyon of Mithril in Moria, 5 seconds after saying they would have to remain in darkness.

The Theatricals are indeed the better films. They are the films that won Oscar’s, and absolutely what I recommend for first time viewers. However, while the Extended editions are flawed in terms of pacing etc, that are some really great additions that really do a lot of world building and you just get to spend more time with these characters which to a lot of people makes these editions the preferred, which I understand. And while I have some gripes with the extended editions it’s the only way I can really watch these films. I heard someone put it like this: the theatricals are a perfect cinematic experience, while the extended’s are an incredible journey. Just depends which one you want to have. I think a cut of something somewhere in the middle would be nice, but that’s my opinion.

@@zechariahhall97 the extended versions have bad scenes, the real versions do not. it's not very complicated.

I’d say yes they do have some bad scenes, but also some really great ones in my opinion. It’s a more flawed experience but there’s also some good stuff you’re missing out on. The depth you get with Boromir and Faramir, the additional scenes between the fellowship, the additional moments in hobbiton, the action scenes have more time to breath (the elephant sequence in the extended is mind blowing), the death of Saurmon, and on and on. There’s great stuff. But on the other hand everything with the army of the dead that’s extended is pretty bad, as well as the mouth of Sauron. I’m 50/50 on that. The effects weren’t finished to put out in that state.

@@zechariahhall97 extended fellowship is still a good movie, but the extra scenes actually ruin two towers and return of the king. the whole epic tone is crapped on with pathetic cringe jokes

I just purchased the set myself and noticed this from the beginning. The soft, waxy look of most facial shots stands out like a sore thumb. Thank goodness I got this at a huge discount because it is definitely not worth paying full price.

This opinion is regarded as true. Why would you erase the grain, it doesn't make sense. I will have to review it myself but from the screenshot comparison it doesn't look good.. but it may still be a great experience due to great sound and the fact that Dolby vision is great.

Nice, and well done getting a PS5 early. Yeah blu-ray/4K discs really do have much higher AV quality than downloads/streams, enjoy collecting!

@@rosstee thanks. Just slowing adding in new titles for 4K that I think will look good. Got gladiator and parasite since I skipped the blu ray for some reason.

@@joshuastoll6808 Great choices.

It will be absolutely mind-blowing. This is almost like a 3rd version of the films. Not George Lucas Special Edition type of alterations happening....but the process of going back to all of the original material and re-scanning it at 4K, re-finishing the films in 4K with brand new HDR color grading....it basically gives the films a completely modern and pristine 2020 post-production process. The Trilogy was originally finished with film-scanning and Digital Color Grading technology of 2001-2003. State of the art at the time, but woefully outdated by modern standards. This would have been like....if after the Trilogy was filmed and all of the CGI was done, they put everything in an archive and said "Wait until 2020 to finish everything else" and then the movies got to be finished with completely modern tech. Avengers: Endgame exists as a 2K master. It was completely finished at 2K resolution. The 4K Disc is an upsample of that 2K Master. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy being newly color graded and finished at 4K resolution means it now exists as a 4K master that is better than almost every major modern blockbuster. Every MCU movie, every Harry Potter movie....all of them are always finished as 2K masters. You would have to go to a Nolan movie to find modern films that will surpass the new standards that LOTR has been raised to with this brand new 4K master.

When I heard Peter was overseeing everything, I knew we would get the best.

Oh grow up!

@@sneakyp1484 grow up? What did he say that was childish?

Uve allrdy seen the films 19 years ago

LOR, Hobbit, Total Recall, Leon the Professional, Tenet, Coming to America, and more.

fyi, BT already has 4k version of Total Recall.

@@jasonedwards5363 chernobyl

Akira

@@jasonedwards5363 what's new about Leon? I already own the 4k release, is there something new besides maybe a Steelbook?

They fell.

He is not honest in this video about 4K aspects of this collection, so its kind of biased in this review (fanboyish), people who tested it probably didn't liked it. Even I see that he used reference screens from 1080 BD in this video. That is an argument for a "dislike", from a perspective, don't you agree ?

@@mv28 So boutique has more of an informed insight to these things? His video definitely seemed to point out several flaws.

@@NYC_Goody IDK, Boutique seems like a nitpicker. Sure the lack of grain may be controversial, but it's not the end of the world. For LOTR, I think the smoother picture actually works pretty well. Except for that thing with Shadowfax's ear, I haven't noticed anything all that wrong with the image. Plus, I don't know why he doesn't take into account they may have scanned the negatives in 4K, and THEN smoothed it out.

@@adriannn3720 I can't remember what he said and am too lazy to scan the video again but he showed and made a strong case showing that the lotr trilogy actually isn't a legitimate 4k transfer.

@@NYC_Goody He says that it's a 2K upscale, because a native 4K scan of the original film negative would have far more film grain. Which is fair, but then why wouldn't they have scanned in 4K, and THEN DNR-ed it? It's perfectly possible,

@@adriannn3720 didn't he also show on imdb or something that it was confirmed an upscale?

Oh man another comment making me feel old lol....Aliens and Temple of Doom just came out when I was 12 😳

12 years old, that's the perfect age to watch the trilogy for the first time. I showed these films to my son for the first time when he was twelve and also during the christmas holidays. I specifically told him he was now at the perfect age for this and it was the right time of the year. I think he got that message very well. One day he'll have a son of his own and do the same thing. And grandpa will be there to watch it with them.

@@BlaBla-jj6sh that was the same age I was when I became a Lord of the Rings fan.

@@BlaBla-jj6sh I was 12 in 2001 now I’m 34 years old

Thicc?

Hah, pathetic. If you're going to binge them, binge them in a day ;)

Damn. .surround system too? Viewing party at your place

Aaron Proctor- Do it. You can pre-order at Best Buy... $150 for 4K set or $120 for 4K steelbook set.

Same. The Dolby Atmos really enhances the immersion.

Only down side is that the Series X doesn't support Dolby Vision. so your tv will end up using a different hdr type. If you still have a one x or one s. you're better off using that one.

Don't feel silly. Haha I'm considering the Hobbit one even tho I have two copies of each movie already. I had to grab LOTR

Yeah these are just the movies, no special features

I'm also looking for the link that was mentioned in the video, and I'm not seeing it.

LOL goes to show how he doesn't even actually check thoroughly on these discs. It was reported that other "reviewers" received their copies today. No way one can give a thorough review on these in a matter of couple hours.

You will see a huge difference!

Exactly what Ross said, you are in for quite an experience

Just watched your minimalism video. ☺️

@@valerieyoder oh thank you so much :)

@@ElliotCoen So did I

Disagreed. It is shit, worse than the DVD. Wasted my money.

This is definitely not a 2K upscale.

i came back here because of the same reason and wondering if someone has the same question like you. I watched this "review" a couple of weeks back and told my self to buy the two boxes. But then i did a bit of research and "Films at Home" is telling smth totally different then everybody else. LoR is 85% rubbish in the 4k version. No need for an upgrade from 1080p BluRays

@@kappy0405 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I3Z58uiwcME.html 5:30 says otherwise. This video also has screengrabs of how the 4k version looks like it loses some details and looks waxy. Seems like a informative video to me.

Agreed. Him saying "the grain is there, but you just can't see it" screams heavy DNR.

Im holding on to the old Blu-Rays because the Appendixes are something special even though they're on DVDs.

the special features wont be upgraded in quality- likely to still be standard definition. so if you have those extra discs already id say its fine to pick up just the 4k movies

Lol I did the same thing...now I’m thinking if I want to have these in the steel book package or wait for the “Middle Earth” Collection next year...

I know what you mean, but to be honest as someone who collects films I much prefer nice tight packaging over some big disc holding eye sore. They just store better and are far more practical

Yeah the packaging is abysmal. It was my first thought after opening.

As someone who had read the books several times in the years before these came out I was really worried they would ruin it in the adaptation. Up until then fantasy in film had rarely been taken seriously or captured the epic feel that such stories did in print form (with some exceptions such as the original Conan) and although interesting (and unfinished) the previous attempts at animated adaptations of Tolkien were not quite there. However the very moment the music kicked in 2001 watching Fellowship and the prologue begun I had goosebumps and was totally enthralled. And Sir Ian as Gandalf...I mean... Wow. He was EXACTLY as I'd imagined him from my readings of the books, as was Gimli. The others weren't far away either and the look and feel were spot on. Absolute masterpieces though I do recommend every fan of the film to also read the books as there is so much more there and I'd hate for the literary source material to get forgotten!

Best book adaptations EVER.

@@darrenblizzard3851 same here. I don't quite liked fantasy but still read the books and enjoyed them very much. Then I had my doubts in the cinema... up until the 2nd minute or so :D Excellent adaptation, I saw and heard exactly what I only imagined before.

Sounds like quite the project. I’m thinking about doing the same to my house down the road. Garage with a room over it to move my stuff out of a converted bedroom I’m using now

Same! I’ll probably do a video on it as well!

That makes two of us buddy, I was planning to buy both versions just because I need these transfers now to heal all my 2020 wounds. But here in Australia The Lord of the Rings 4K Blu-ray cannot be bought because the demand is so high (which never happens). So now I wait for the Middle Earth collection, the next few months are going to be hard. 😔

@@dineshrashid2766 We'll get through it! One way or another. lol

@@DeesNerds We most certainly will, around 10 years ago when the lotr trilogy first came out on regular Blu-ray. I didn’t buy it because it was just the theatrical cuts with no special features. It took a year and a bit but I did wait for the extended versions on Blu-ray, and they not only came with all the appendices. But also a replica of the ring, so I never looked back. Also given that next year is the 20th anniversary of Fellowship of the Ring, I’m very hopeful the new special features included in the 4K 6 film middle earth set will be to die for.

Absolutely! Good things come to those who wait!

Panasonic DP-UB820EB-K , if you're looking for something slightly less expensive then the Sony UBP-X700/Panasonic DP-UB450EB-K is a good choice to. If you have the spare 100 bucks lying about though I would go with the Panasonic DP-UB820EB-K.

Even with just BluRay, surround sound system or even good headphones A 4K tv... This movie will be a great at home experience

I mean...yes but actually no. CGI at the time(and MOST CGI effects to this day unless you are someone like Nolan or Villeneuve) was rendered at a 2K resolution. So the footage was scanned in at 2K resolution, the CGI was added in, and then that image was printed back 'out' onto a piece of 35mm film. For the LOTR trilogy, "Digital Color Grading" was becoming very popular at the time. That was the method of, instead of finishing the color photo-chemically on film, all of the footage was scanned and they did the color grading digitally. LOTR was digitally scanned and color graded with the top tech of the time, but that tech is now outdated. If the versions of the films originally finished in 2001-2003 were just scanned/upscaled/upsampled to 4K....you would get a 4K disc looking something like Van Helsing. Clearly shot on film, but also clearly handled with a Digital Intermediate representative of early 00s tech. TO GET TO THE POINT - What they've done here, for all of the footage, CGI and non-CGI, they went back to the earliest source in the 'process' possible, the highest quality source. The CGI is still rendered at 2K, but they are going back to the original film it was printed on to maintain maximum quality. ALL of the original footage and original material has been freshly SCANNED in 4K. The CGI is still a 2K resolution(as is almost all CGI)...but that footage being scanned at 4K will maintain as much quality as possible. Then they created a 4K Digital Intermediate from the ground up. They re-did ALL of the digital color grading in HDR at 4K resolution. They took all of the original footage and VFX work, and re-colored and "re-finished" the films in full 4K HDR. To put this into perspective: The Lord of the Rings now exists as a pristine, state of the art 4K Master. Avengers: Endgame has only ever existed as a 2K master. The 4K Disc is an upsampled scan of that 2K master. The Lord of the Rings will look better on 4K disc than the top blockbuster released nearly 20 years later.

This was my first thought too. Hopefully we'll get an answer.

Reviewers on the Bluray.com forum confirm that these new masters do not have the green tint! Fantastic

@@wormo88 Awesome! Happy to hear that!

Yes

Absolutely. The review in progress but up to read at thedigitalbits.com has also confirmed there is NO green tint or anything ugly in any of these presentations. This is the best that these films have ever looked or sounded, including their original theatrical presentations.

I compared scenes of gollum last night between bluray and 4k. 4k looks better with the upgrated color grading.