Weird. I can open the link just fine. On my PC and on my phone.
https://imgur.com/a/CtmUrs3
New Link. See if that works.
The link is the same? And unfortunately, it still shows a 404 error.
No, it was a new link. Don’t know what’s causing the issue.
Last try:
https://we.tl/t-9DdiVjpAQV
Wooow. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the final product of these! I’m definitely going to have to wait for this for my next marathon viewing. Is it just 35mm that is being used for colour reference, or is DVD also being used?
Curious. With the theatrical cut Blu-ray of FotR in particular not suffering from the overly green tinted regrading and black crush, why not use that video for all theatrical scenes, as less regrading would be necessary? I don’t recall, but is the main issue that the theatrical cut Blu-ray suffers from worse DNR than the extended cut Blu-ray?
Also, I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison, but are there shots/scenes from the latest 4K UHD release that are worth salvaging for better quality and/grading, despite the heavy DNR?
Thanks! 😃
The Theatrical BluRay is soft and has plenty of DNR in it.
DrDre already did an 4k-Upscale of the Theatrical Bluray. The Results are okayish imo. But it cannot compete with this 4k-Upscale of the Extended Cut.
I did a comparison of the 4k-Bluray and 4k-Dremaster. There are many shots where the Version from DrDre Looks sharper and more detailed, the rest is a tie imo. But I don’t think there is any benefit of using the 4k-Bluray as source.
The Main reason for the Remaster of the Extended BluRay is because the official 4k Release was dissapointing to say the least.
The Colorgrading is Personal preference.
The 4k-Bluray might look more neutral but I prefer the colors from DrDre’s release which as far as I understand is how people saw the movie in Cinema. Some scenes have stronger color tints but it all fits the narrative.
Especially the Shire scenes have a warmth and colorfulness that is not present in the official 4k Release.
And the Shire should be exactly that:
A place of comfort and warmth.
Thanks for the detailed response. Dre got back to me with his reasoning also. I skimmed through his 4K Dremaster and it is definitely going to be the go-to for many many long time fans of this series, no doubt. I will definitely be waiting for his trilogy to be complete before returning to Middle Earth. I couldn’t agree more about the Shire in particular being a place of comfort, warmth and peace.
I’m sure it’s been discussed before, but I’ve heard good and bad things about the Atmos remixes on the official 4K UHD releases. Outside of them obviously being revisionist, are there any pros/cons?
I just found out about this project and I couldn’t be more excited 😃 Finally somebody is doing what I thought might be the best chance to finally get the best of all worlds in terms of the LOTR, especially FOTR, official releases - each HD version of FOTR has it’s own flaws and it always annoyed me that whichever release I chose to watch, I had to choose between bad colors (EE BD), bad DNR (Theatrical BD, 4K BD), and/or bad resolution (Theatrical BD) - this project seems to be aiming to fix all of that and that’s amazing.
I just found out about this project and I couldn’t be more excited 😃 Finally somebody is doing what I thought might be the best chance to finally get the best of all worlds in terms of the LOTR, especially FOTR, official releases - each HD version of FOTR has it’s own flaws and it always annoyed me that whichever release I chose to watch, I had to choose between bad colors (EE BD), bad DNR (Theatrical BD, 4K BD), and/or bad resolution (Theatrical BD) - this project seems to be aiming to fix all of that and that’s amazing.
Now if someone could also edit out all the bad moments like with merry and pippin etc. it would be a perfect trilogy.
I just found out about this project and I couldn’t be more excited 😃 Finally somebody is doing what I thought might be the best chance to finally get the best of all worlds in terms of the LOTR, especially FOTR, official releases - each HD version of FOTR has it’s own flaws and it always annoyed me that whichever release I chose to watch, I had to choose between bad colors (EE BD), bad DNR (Theatrical BD, 4K BD), and/or bad resolution (Theatrical BD) - this project seems to be aiming to fix all of that and that’s amazing.
Now if someone could also edit out all the bad moments like with merry and pippin etc. it would be a perfect trilogy.
I would suggest you doing it yourself because you might hate scenes that others Like and vice versa.
Cut some scenes from the Extended Cut TTT and ROTK myself and it was easier than I thought it would be. Only Challenge is editing the music/sound.
I don’t find the extra scenes with Merry and Pippin that bad. They are not great but they don’t hurt either.
Find the scene with Eowyn and Aragorn (stew scene) more troubeling.
And all the extra Army-of-Dead-Scenes in ROTK ruin the movie for me.
Thats why I Cut those.
I don’t find the extra scenes with Merry and Pippin that bad. They are not great but they don’t hurt either.
Find the scene with Eowyn and Aragorn (stew scene) more troubling.
And all the extra Army-of-Dead-Scenes in ROTK ruin the movie for me.
Thats why I Cut those.
This guy actually edited that scene with Eowyn and Aragorn in a way that cuts around the out of place stew joke and keeps the mention of Aragorn’s age. It’s not a bad edit at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbV-97esNc
It’s funny, like half the EE scenes (while I loved them as a kid watching the movies), just don’t really justify themselves worth keeping. Army of the Dead scenes that remove all later suspense, the stew scene, drinking game scene, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf vs the Witch King (this is the worst). But of course it’s different for everyone. Hal9000’s extended edit of Kerr’s edit (while it does certain things I dislike to try and stay closer to the book) literally makes pelennor fields so much better by cutting it in a way that maintains tension and doesn’t let the dead army immediately win. I am nowhere near talented enough to do things like that on my own, so I hope someone can make a “less extended edition” of the 4K EE Dremasters when they’re all done.
I don’t find the extra scenes with Merry and Pippin that bad. They are not great but they don’t hurt either.
Find the scene with Eowyn and Aragorn (stew scene) more troubling.
And all the extra Army-of-Dead-Scenes in ROTK ruin the movie for me.
Thats why I Cut those.This guy actually edited that scene with Eowyn and Aragorn in a way that cuts around the out of place stew joke and keeps the mention of Aragorn’s age. It’s not a bad edit at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbV-97esNcIt’s funny, like half the EE scenes (while I loved them as a kid watching the movies), just don’t really justify themselves worth keeping. Army of the Dead scenes that remove all later suspense, the stew scene, drinking game scene, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf vs the Witch King (this is the worst). But of course it’s different for everyone. Hal9000’s extended edit of Kerr’s edit (while it does certain things I dislike to try and stay closer to the book) literally makes pelennor fields so much better by cutting it in a way that maintains tension and doesn’t let the dead army immediately win. I am nowhere near talented enough to do things like that on my own, so I hope someone can make a “less extended edition” of the 4K EE Dremasters when they’re all done.
First we would have to agree on which scenes to Cut and which to Leave because whoever makes the Edit has to know If its worth putting the extra time into a Project.
I doubt there will be someone who makes an Edit just for one single guy. There must be a larger interest into the Edit.
I’m fine with leaving scenes in the Movie if they don’t hurt. They don’t have to be Quality scenes.
The drinking scene is okay. Legolas and Gimli have no real character arcs anyway so the drinking Scene
cant destroy what is Not there 😅
Both characters are for Comic Relief and the drinking Scene Doubles down on that.
I agree that the Battle between Gandalf and the Witchking is poorly executed even though the Idea is fine. It happend in the book so I get why Peter Jackson created the scene. If you remove this Scene you also have to remove the scene between the Witchking and the General orc “What about the White Wizard?” “I will crush him”.
You really have to be careful in how you Edit the Scenes otherwise you have Plot holes.
The one EE scene that should have been part of the theatrical cut is Saruman’s death.
I personally love the EE more than the TE, but not FOTR as much. The only EE scenes I would keep is Sam and Frodo seeing the Elves travel to Valinor, and Galadriel’s gift giving. Maybe Isildor being shot full of arrows. All the rest mess with the pacing and are minor. scenes with no bearing on anything.
I personally love the EE more than the TE, but not FOTR as much. The only EE scenes I would keep is Sam and Frodo seeing the Elves travel to Valinor, and Galadriel’s gift giving. Maybe Isildor being shot full of arrows. All the rest mess with the pacing and are minor. scenes with no bearing on anything.
Funny because I would cut the Frodo/Sam/Woodelves Scene.
Later in the Movie Sam is so excited about going to Rivendell and seeing the elves. But it makes No Sense considering He has already Seen the elves.
I love how the Theatrical Cut slowly builds Up the introduction to other races.
The Hobbits don’t Encounter anything unusual until the First Nazgul arrives. And an innoncent mind who has never seen the Movies might think:
Its Just a Rider on a Horse. Whats so Special about that ?
But then you get the Feeling that something about the Black Rider is Strange and scary even though you cannot fully understand what it is.
When the Hobbits enter the town of Bree they meet the Men of Bree, but as a Viewer seeing the Race of Men is nothing special.
And the Hobbits even though they are far away from Home are Feeling welcomed because Bree is also a place that is used to hosting Hobbits. So its the Meeting Point between two Races that live peacefully together.
The elves are the weirdest and Most magical of all the races. Therefore I think its best to meet them Last.
I know that Gandalf mentioned the Elves to Frodo but hearing about them and seeing them in Person is just Not the same.
Concerning Gandalf:
Gandalf is a Wizard but to the Hobbits He is Just an old man who is good at Fireworks 😅
So He does Not Count as Well.
and if you guys want a 35mm extended 4k HDR vs Dremastered 4K comparison video let me know.
Do it!
I don’t find the extra scenes with Merry and Pippin that bad. They are not great but they don’t hurt either.
Find the scene with Eowyn and Aragorn (stew scene) more troubling.
And all the extra Army-of-Dead-Scenes in ROTK ruin the movie for me.
Thats why I Cut those.This guy actually edited that scene with Eowyn and Aragorn in a way that cuts around the out of place stew joke and keeps the mention of Aragorn’s age. It’s not a bad edit at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbV-97esNcIt’s funny, like half the EE scenes (while I loved them as a kid watching the movies), just don’t really justify themselves worth keeping. Army of the Dead scenes that remove all later suspense, the stew scene, drinking game scene, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf vs the Witch King (this is the worst). But of course it’s different for everyone. Hal9000’s extended edit of Kerr’s edit (while it does certain things I dislike to try and stay closer to the book) literally makes pelennor fields so much better by cutting it in a way that maintains tension and doesn’t let the dead army immediately win. I am nowhere near talented enough to do things like that on my own, so I hope someone can make a “less extended edition” of the 4K EE Dremasters when they’re all done.
FYI:
I tried to cut out the Gandalf vs Witchking scene. You have to use scenes from the Theatrical Cut to make it work. Sadly the encoding of the Theatrical Bluray is of lower quality which means that the grain structure and detail is not as consistent as in the Extended Cut. Will have to make some tests on my 65" OLED if I can spot a difference.
The Extended Cut also pushes green a little more but I cut on camera changes so you wont spot it. Gladly the music and sound blends over without any issues.
EDIT:
Did a run on my OLED. I would be lying if there was no difference. But the differences in picture quality between the Theatrical Scenes and Extended Scenes are so minor that only nit-picky nerds would care 😃
For those interested please send me a PM.
Considering the time it took to finish the first part, the second part will likely take weeks if not months. It also depends on some of my other activities.
DrDre, thank you for the work you’ve done. Really beautiful upscale. I’m looking forward to the completion of the second half however long that takes! What’s your opinion on the color grading of TTT and ROTK? They lean much more greenish/bluish at times not unlike color grading for many other modern releases.
I don’t find the extra scenes with Merry and Pippin that bad. They are not great but they don’t hurt either.
Find the scene with Eowyn and Aragorn (stew scene) more troubling.
And all the extra Army-of-Dead-Scenes in ROTK ruin the movie for me.
Thats why I Cut those.This guy actually edited that scene with Eowyn and Aragorn in a way that cuts around the out of place stew joke and keeps the mention of Aragorn’s age. It’s not a bad edit at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbV-97esNcIt’s funny, like half the EE scenes (while I loved them as a kid watching the movies), just don’t really justify themselves worth keeping. Army of the Dead scenes that remove all later suspense, the stew scene, drinking game scene, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf vs the Witch King (this is the worst). But of course it’s different for everyone. Hal9000’s extended edit of Kerr’s edit (while it does certain things I dislike to try and stay closer to the book) literally makes pelennor fields so much better by cutting it in a way that maintains tension and doesn’t let the dead army immediately win. I am nowhere near talented enough to do things like that on my own, so I hope someone can make a “less extended edition” of the 4K EE Dremasters when they’re all done.
It’s funny, because Gandalf vs the Witchking works absolutely fine in the movie. It’s being nitpicky to think it’s a bad call to make this moment slightly more cinematic. The fact that they never faced off in the books doesn’t mean Gandalf would have automatically won. I tried to edit it only to realise removing this is just petty. If gandalf can defeat the witchking it makes Eowyn’s moment less powerful. It’s good screenplay, honestly.
I did remove Saruman’s huge ugly fireball and Sam walking down the stairs, those moments annoy me on a cinematic level.
Anyway back on topic: can’t wait for this extended cut by Dre. Fellowship deserves it!
Will you also be regrading Two Towers and Return of the King, or are those deemed accurate color-wise?
I have your theatrical versions downloaded, but there is no sound
Download it once again. English DTS-HD MA ES XLL sound from the Blu-ray is definitely included. Probably something went wrong during the download process. I also had issues after the first Download attempt. But I had glitches in the video stream of the .mkv
After another attempt it worked.
Just wondering: Is it easily possible to mux the - so I’ve read - amazing Atmos audio mixes into this release? It would require scenes to be the same and no changes applied to the cut between the EE and the 4K release the Atmos mixes come with.
Also, it would be amazing to see an authored BD version of this awesome project to be able to basically replace the original discs in the EE box. Maybe there’s someone here capable of achieving this?
Just out of curiosity i was wondering as I want to show my family members the extended editions ideally, what is the best 4k HDR version put there? And if there is a better non extended set of the trilogy what would you all recommend? Sorry to jump on the thread but it seems a minefield and disappointing that we don’t live in a world where the best of the best just exists anyway without there either being colour issues, digital noise reduction, inferior soundtrack in the best version and best soundtrack in an inferior version etc.
If I had to settle on the best version being the theatrical , what is the go to with HDR and if a non HDR version really does look the best then I will honour that.
Just thought I would say that the samples posted by Dre for his dremaster are sublime 👌🏻
Just out of curiosity i was wondering as I want to show my family members the extended editions ideally, what is the best 4k HDR version put there? And if there is a better non extended set of the trilogy what would you all recommend? Sorry to jump on the thread but it seems a minefield and disappointing that we don’t live in a world where the best of the best just exists anyway without there either being colour issues, digital noise reduction, inferior soundtrack in the best version and best soundtrack in an inferior version etc.
If I had to settle on the best version being the theatrical , what is the go to with HDR and if a non HDR version really does look the best then I will honour that.
Just thought I would say that the samples posted by Dre for his dremaster are sublime 👌🏻
There’s only 2 HDR graded versions of LOTR which were created relatively recently for the EE and theatrical. It’s my understanding that the new standard blurays use the same master “restored” for the 4k release however it suffers from much less DNR compared to the 4k release. Someone with skill and time could in theory use DaVinci Resolve to create HDR grades. Many people already use it to generate superior DV & HDR10+ metadata (ie replacing static or “fake” DV) that they then inject back into the file.
The rendering is taking a little longer than expected, but we’re getting there. In the mean time here are five 4K sample frames:
Absolutely breathtaking work Dre! Any chance for an early Christmas present this year? 😛
Absolutely breathtaking work Dre! Any chance for an early Christmas present this year? 😛
He’s probably busy with family and other things considering it’s the holiday season. I’ll wait however long it takes for him to finish rendering the second half because the first half looks amazing.
For those interested please send me a PM.
Considering the time it took to finish the first part, the second part will likely take weeks if not months. It also depends on some of my other activities.
Hello ^ ^
PM sent
Very cool!
Absolutely breathtaking work Dre! Any chance for an early Christmas present this year? 😛
He’s probably busy with family and other things considering it’s the holiday season. I’ll wait however long it takes for him to finish rendering the second half because the first half looks amazing.
Asked DrDre myself. His response:
“I’ve made some progress, but sadly I will be going abroad for work until the end of the year, so all projects will be on hold until January.”
Guess we have to wait a little longer.
