Mike O,

Regarding FotR, you're probably right. The problem with that new transfer isn't so much the coloration as the lack of contrast in the image. A big piece of evidence is the dissolve to white when Arwen saves Frodo: on all other transfers it's bright white whereas it's just a pale shade of green on the extended blu-ray. It's the same problem with any other scenes that should exhibit "peak white," such as the letters in the title shot and end credits. When you consider that a recall would've involved exchanging not just one, but two whole discs, you can see why everyone involved would've agreed to just keep saying "it looks exactly as we intended." Pretty frustrating when - aside from that one significant problem that affects the entire transfer - it's actually a pretty big step up from the theatrical blu-ray in terms of detail. All previous transfers of FotR were telecines of filmouts. The extended blu-ray was the first time they made a transfer directly from the DI files.

The new transfer of Raiders is really more of a head-scratcher than a frustration. When you consider that they'd already done newer transfers of the three movies in 2008 (it's those transfers that were used for the Temple and Crusade blu-rays, in fact) and even struck new 35mm prints from them, you wonder what decisions led to them giving Raiders a radically different color-timing in 2012 from how they made it look in 2008.