Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - 4K Dremastered (Released!)

This thread is dedicated to a 4K upscale and AI remastering of the 2009 theatrical bluray release of FOTR. While I generally like the new HDR color grade of the official 4K release, the excessive DNR has scrubbed away a lot of detail. So, this here is my attempt at creating a 4K version of FOTR (and the other two films) that does have the clarity, detail and fine layer of grain we come to expect from a 4K release. I chose to use the 2009 bluray, because it has the theatrical color grade, and it doesn’t suffer from black crush like the extended bluray release.

Also available: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - 4K-Dremastered & The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the Kings - 4K-Dremastered

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Two-Towers-4K-Dremastered-Released/id/99019

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Return-of-the-King-4K-Dremastered-Released/id/100445

Here are a number of screencaps from FOTR 4K Dremastered:

Do you have any plans to do this with the extended editions? Fellowship would be tricky for that with the green tint, though I know another project a few years ago used the chroma from the DVD release to help with scenes that were too tricky to simply regrade.

coreyatad said:

Do you have any plans to do this with the extended editions? Fellowship would be tricky for that with the green tint, though I know another project a few years ago used the chroma from the DVD release to help with scenes that were too tricky to simply regrade.

Not at the moment. The extended editions have a lot of issues, such as black crush and missing details due to flattening of the color curves aside from the issues you addressed.

Skimming through various scenes, this looks absolutely beautiful. Everything is so clear and sharp! I don’t usually watch the theatrical version of Fellowship, but when I do this will be my go-to.

Thanks! 😃

I wish the original film prints of the extended edition of the lord of the rings trilogy were out there and somebody could scan them in 4k and the cgi effects as well. so we’d get a release without digital tinkering and with a proper Dolby vision hdr grade. 😦

where can i download this

youngreezy921 said:

where can i download this

You can send me a PM.

how do i do that because i dont know cause im new here

Fullmetaled said:

I wish the original film prints of the extended edition of the lord of the rings trilogy were out there and somebody could scan them in 4k and the cgi effects as well. so we’d get a release without digital tinkering and with a proper Dolby vision hdr grade. 😦

Yeah I kind of wish for that but the extended edits of the films are not the true extended edition and not how they were originally conceived.

Whilst not wanting to take anything away from Dr Dre’s work here… To assemble the original extended cuts of the films would be the holy grail to fans I think yet there is nothing that can be done about this as the deleted scenes are suppressed and remain under tight lock and key.

This is my reconstruction of the original prologue with the original music… However Gil Gallad is not included as how could I do that? But aside from that it’s not a bad attempt at restoring how it could have went before they chopped it up.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/lganhntmh5if2k4/One_Prologue_to_rule_them_all.mp4/file

I would hope if Dr Dre attempted the extended editions he would put a bit of a different hat on although there is only so much that could be done to restore the Original extended versions never released but something could be done it’s just a very tricky impossible thing but you could get it some of the way there. And some of the way there might bring the film makers back again 😃

Please send a DM, I’d love to see this 😃

TLDR: If you want the absolute best version of FOTR visually, this is it I reckon and the best version to get overall if you’re not bothered about missing the extra content of the EE.

Watched the first half just now, and confirm this is probably the best that FOTR has ever looked, and likely ever will look for the foreseeable future!

The colors pop right out of the gate - it’s been so long since watching the theatrical cut that I didn’t actually remember a few of the small scene differences in the Shire, I only thought scenes had been cut, so it was a little jarring vs the Extended Edition and the film overall does feel a bit rushed 😃

Compared to the fantastic on-going work on DrDre’s 4k extended version (https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Fellowship-of-the-Ring-Extended-Edition-4K-Dremastered/id/101208/page/1) - this release definitely has noticeable further detail because of less black crush of the source Blu-Ray compared to the EE Blu-Ray, and I preferred the more original colour palette on this version for some scenes (e.g. Bree/Prancing Pony, escaping the top of Orthanc Tower)

It’s also still missing the perfect level of grain (not DrDre’s fault, a result of the Blu-Ray)

I thought I’d prefer the more original yellow colours and bloom/saturation of Rivendell in this one but actually I think it’s just too much overall and the other versions have a small edge for me on these scenes with the slight tone down of the colour palette/effects at the council.

Once the second half of DrDre’s 4k Fellowship extended is released, I’ll be interested to see how that compares to the second half of this version, I’ll be keeping an eye on the colour palette for Misty Mountains/Caradhras where Frodo drops the ring in the snow & Lothlórien when the Fellowship meet Galadriel - these scenes really stand out for me when the colours are not quite right!

I wish DrDre did this for 44rh1n’s theatrical regrade of the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring.

I made some screenshots of the 35mm, hd, 4k and hybrid versions to compare framing and colors.

As the hybrid shows, which overlays sources of BDRIP (2.35:1), DVDRIP (4:3) and WEBDL (16:9), a lot more area has been shot on original film.

So, does anyone know if a full scan of either the original camera negative, or the 35mm prints exists? I don’t have access to any private trackers or usenet newsgroups.

This looks perfect! Bravo! Can I get PM links to all three movies please?

undefined said:

I made some screenshots of the 35mm, hd, 4k and hybrid versions to compare framing and colors.

As the hybrid shows, which overlays sources of BDRIP (2.35:1), DVDRIP (4:3) and WEBDL (16:9), a lot more area has been shot on original film.

So, does anyone know if a full scan of either the original camera negative, or the 35mm prints exists? I don’t have access to any private trackers or usenet newsgroups.

Have you completed this hybrid or do you have access to the WEBDL/DVDRIP?
LOTR Open Matte essentially would be awesome.
Perhaps a project for DrDre one day

I would love to get a link to the movies as well. This project is just too good to be true!!

Wow—I’m truly impressed by the amount of detail recovered over the official 4k releases (and with far better color grading to boot). Thanks for the hard work @DrDre! I would also love to get the links to the movies—any chance someone could shoot me a PM?

I’d also like a link, please!

Looks so good! Would love a link.

Hey would also really love the links for all 3 please! Thanks so much

Can I get a link as well?
The Screencaps are phenomenal

I would like a link for all three, if anyone has them.

OMG these look amazing, how does one go about getting a link to these?