SilverWook said:
Alas, a faded 16mm print was on Ebay recently.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-The-Hobbit-1977-Feature-Rankin-amp-Bass-/201254743018
A Betamax copy might be a good source for the soundtrack though.
Probably no better way around this than to downgrade the new added colors from the DVD (unless it gets the Blu treatment anytime soon......which seems unlikely as the Peter Jackson abominations would have been perfect cross selling aids for something like this...and they didn't do it), and take the audio from the VHS. So far with everything that's been made available, this is still my best option.