Wouldn’t it have been easier and better to take the already edited cinema version, which I think looks really good, and create an extended edition from it by inserting the missing scenes, etc.?
The 4k-dremastered theatrical edition looks good. But there are still many issues, like DNR, lack of detail and softness. Only so much DrDre can do with suboptimal source material. The extended cut looks sharper and more detailed. The only issue: the color grading.
Since the color grading of the theatrical cut and extended cut are massively different (colors and contrast) it would be painful work to insert the extended scenes and match them with the theatrical cut so that you don’t see the change. Plus I bet you can still see the changes in detail and sharpness.
Imo, for the extended cut for Fellowship the dwalin and 44hr1n color corrected edition is best. Picture quality and grain on that is perfect.
The theatrical editions are at issue though. Both the 2009 or so bluray and DrDre’s upscale of those have great color, but they are overly DNR’d and too smooth. Then there are the 35mm ones, which are pretty great but a bit too scratchy at times.
Anyone have an idea if there’s another theatrical edition that’s better than all these?
Imo the perfect theatrical edition would be the Extended HD Bluray color corrected by dwalin and 44hr1n but recut back to theatrical.My problem with the dwalin and 44hr1n color corrected edits is that they are low bitrate, they mustve either lowered the bitrate through the regrading process or used a low quality source and it is especially noticeably on a 4k screen which is a shame.
Yup, this is true for dwalin’s work (haven’t seen 44hr1n’s). The colors do look good of course, but unfortunately, the quality seems downgraded. The grain looks odd, rough. It’s probably the bitrate. I compared to this 4K Dremastered and wow the Dremastered looks amazing. The quality is the best, even better than the 4Ks. I don’t know what Dre did, but it looks as high quality as you can get. And I really like the colors he uses. If only he could finish this project, we’ll have the best available extended version of FOTR. PLEASE DR DRE, let’s finish this amazing project!
Oh and yes, some re-work of the colors on this Dremastered EE should be done. Some areas look a bit odd, but overall it looks really nice. I really think Dr Dre can make the best version if he gets time to work on it.