These look phenomenal!
If anyone has a link to all three, it would be much appreciated if you could send them my way!
I’ve been waiting and hoping for something like this. So thanks for doing it, and I can’t wait to watch?
That said, as vranir suggested above, do you have an alternative download site from MEGA?
Per the WordPress site,
“Remove Yub Nub & Victory Celebration”That must have been written waaaay back, during the briefest of times i was thinking of ending it on the funeral pyre. The ending is going to be pretty much the theatrical ending. NO planets, no Hayden, no Victory Celebration. I hate the SE planet celebrations and victory celebration music. Victory celebration sounds so out of place musically. Williams just basically ripped off the original animatic guide track ( and didn’t even bother to try and hide the fact) and it sounds so out of place in the OT. The guide track was for a Native American mini series and you can tell it still has that theme.
I don’t know mate. Just panning up from the funeral pyre and cutting to the credits would be epic. I always wanted to see that ending. And given that the galaxy falls back into darkness in the ST, it would be a little foreboding ending on that note. Sort of takes it from “the Empire has been destroyed” to “Darth Vader is destroyed”, and suggests the Empire will still be a threat in some form.
For years these threads have been full of comments like “Ady is isolating the OT from the prequels and his edits don’t have to adjust to them, it should be the other way around” or a variation of that.
So why does the OT have to keep the sequels in mind whatsoever now? I don’t mind at all if Ady wants to make the ending of ROTJ feel like an actual ending, with no hint one way or another toward the sequels.
Hey man, I’m not telling anyone what to do, just throwing some ideas out there. Clearly, Ady is free to do as he wishes, and will.
Per the WordPress site,
“Remove Yub Nub & Victory Celebration”That must have been written waaaay back, during the briefest of times i was thinking of ending it on the funeral pyre. The ending is going to be pretty much the theatrical ending. NO planets, no Hayden, no Victory Celebration. I hate the SE planet celebrations and victory celebration music. Victory celebration sounds so out of place musically. Williams just basically ripped off the original animatic guide track ( and didn’t even bother to try and hide the fact) and it sounds so out of place in the OT. The guide track was for a Native American mini series and you can tell it still has that theme.
I don’t know mate. Just panning up from the funeral pyre and cutting to the credits would be epic. I always wanted to see that ending. And given that the galaxy falls back into darkness in the ST, it would be a little foreboding ending on that note. Sort of takes it from “the Empire has been destroyed” to “Darth Vader is destroyed”, and suggests the Empire will still be a threat in some form.
Hey mate, I know your goal is to add, not subtract, but would you ever consider doing a quick edit and releasing the combined Deathly Hallows w/o the much-maligned epilogue?
Love your work, and they’re all my go-to versions of the Potter films. Just hate the epilogue!
Sincerely, it would be way quicker and ‘easier’ for you, to just cut the end of the last movie with any free video editing software 😃
I know, I thought of that. But sadly I lack even the rudimentary skills for such a task.
Or hit the stop button.
Now that’s something I had NOT thought of. Genius. Do you just fast forward through the bits in the Special Edition you don’t like?
Hey mate, I know your goal is to add, not subtract, but would you ever consider doing a quick edit and releasing the combined Deathly Hallows w/o the much-maligned epilogue?
Love your work, and they’re all my go-to versions of the Potter films. Just hate the epilogue!
Anyone know if there any Engish subtitles synced to the original “Renegade” ESB Grindhouse release (not the Dreammaster GOUT version)? Cheers!
Yes indeed! The regular Project Threepio subtitles can be run through the “resync-subs” script using the NEG1 frame reference. See the section of the readme titled “How to synchronize subtitles to a different video frame reference”. You can do this for both SUP and SRT format.
PM me if you need a link.
👍
You have no idea how satisfying it is when I discover someone actually using one of the obscure little utilities I spend my time tinkering with!
You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.
Anyone know if there any Engish subtitles synced to the original “Renegade” ESB Grindhouse release (not the Dreammaster GOUT version)? Cheers!
Yes indeed! The regular Project Threepio subtitles can be run through the “resync-subs” script using the NEG1 frame reference. See the section of the readme titled “How to synchronize subtitles to a different video frame reference”. You can do this for both SUP and SRT format.
PM me if you need a link.
👍
Anyone know if there any Engish subtitles synced to the original “Renegade” ESB Grindhouse release (not the Dreammaster GOUT version)? Cheers!
Thanks much for the detailed explanation! Still think your FOTR looks better. 😃
So I’m curious about something. When you stream the new master from iTunes/Apple TV on an 1080p SDR monitor, what are you actually watching? I get that the 4K would just be downscaled to 1080p, but what about the HDR? Is there some kind of tone mapping being done, or does Apple already have a 1080p SDR version of the new master that automatically streams if they detect you’re using a non-HDR screen?
I’d assume all streaming services have an HDR and SDR version of films, and just give you what your monitor supports.
That’s what I’d assume also. But the 1080p/SDR version of the new LOTR masters hasn’t officially been released yet (a release is scheduled for this summer), so if Apple does indeed have the SDR versions, we’re getting a preview of what those are going to look like.
stwd4nder2 said:
Tone mapping HDR to SDR is very resource intensive and not very accurate, while storage is cheap.
Perhaps. But my Nvidia Shield does HDR to SDR tone mapping on the fly, as does Plex, and the results are actually pretty impressive.
44rh1n said:
WOW, you’re right! I just checked my iTunes copy, and it looks REALLY good! It’s still only HD for me (hopefully it upgrades to 4K for me eventually – iTunes usually does!), but it’s definitely the new master. It looks WAY better than the old green extended Blu-ray master!
So I’m curious about something. When you stream the new master from iTunes/Apple TV on an 1080p SDR monitor, what are you actually watching? I get that the 4K would just be downscaled to 1080p, but what about the HDR? Is there some kind of tone mapping being done, or does Apple already have a 1080p SDR version of the new master that automatically streams if they detect you’re using a non-HDR screen?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it looks like from Jackson’s comments (see video below) that his intention with these remasters from the start is to make the films “look as if they’d all been shot at the same time”, including creating a uniform colour grade throughout the six films. Which for the LOTR, basically means making them look like The Hobbit, given that the colours on that trilogy, while tweaked, more or less remain the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn21u6j6Ywc
Frankly, I never really expected him to even consider sticking with the theatrical color grade, that was unrealistic and not Jackson’s priority. And all this is fine I suppose if you’re Peter Jackson and, in a Lucas type way, are concerned about how audiences will see these films for years and decades to come, and want to create a uniform look. But if you’re someone like me who loves the theatrical look of LOTR (and rarely revisits The Hobbit), it’s disappointing. It’s not a Star Wars level disaster, and this will probably be the way I watch them from here on out. The new colours after all aren’t displeasing, and mostly look fine in their own right (in fact the HDR is often stunning), but when coupled with the DNR/EE, the seemingly permanent loss of the theatrical grading for 4K HDR make this set a minor letdown.
Given the mixed reaction (among enthusiasts, the mainstream reviews are effusive with praise), I’d think we’ll see a number of new fan projects based on this release once the 1080p BD’s are released next year.
I was looking in the blu-ray.com forum thread about the 4k release
That thread is a cesspool.
Damn. Look at those bitrates.
Ha Ha! True about the avatar. Hmmmmm…
Yeah, it’s not the same grade as the DVD, or even theatrical blu-ray, but those probably aren’t exactly true to the original theatrical version either (if anyone can remember what that looks like). Like you said, it just needed to be good, and it sounds like it’s great. Honestly, it’s a relief.
Overall, most of the daylight exteriors look VERY close to the original release, though! It looks SO GOOD! I can’t verify this, but I would almost bet money that Peter Doyle returned to do this new color grade. It definitely looks like his handiwork!
You should have made that bet! Initial review is up at TheDigitalBits (spoiler: he likes it), and indeed, Doyle did the re-grade. Lots of good technical info and sounds like the 4K HDR on BD is going to be nothing short of spectacular.
https://thedigitalbits.com/item/lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-2020-4k-uhd
44rh1n said:
Thanks for letting me know, Nick66! This is FANTASTIC NEWS!
Agree that it looks fantastic. Love your enthusiasm and your incredibly knowledgable comments. All I’ve ever wanted is something that closely matches the colours on the theatrical, but against all hope I almost think this in some ways looks…better.
Thanks for providing us with the light of your version during the dark (i.e. green) times. It was my go-to for a long time.
The new master of FOTR has already hit iTunes in both 4K HDR and 1080p. Not to purchase, but if you already own the HD versions and stream them it’s the new version that plays. Looks as if someone just may have put them up early.
In any event, the green tint is GONE!
I’m wondering what the UHD LOTR will be sourced from. While it was shot on 35mm,it was finished digitally as a 2K DI,so going back to film would mean redoing the entire post production and believe me, it would not be as simple as rerendering CGI in 4K - even if they still had all the assets and project files, which is ridiculously unlikely, CGI is rendered in layers, so the compositing would have to be redone as well - basically it would take pretty much the full cost of doing post production on a very high budget movie,so more than likely, they will go to the original 2K DIs, upscale them and give them an HDR grade.
I’ve been wondering about this myself. Since LOTR is so VFX heavy, redoing visual effects in 4K is probably out of the realm of possibility. Honestly, I just hope it’s sourced from the original 2K DI, and upscaled. No monkey business, no green tint, no DNR, no artificial sharpening, no scanning of a print — just the original file that got rendered out as the master, before it got printed back onto film. That would be the best source IMO.
Then again, Warner may be trying to capitalize off of the new Amazon series, so maybe they will release it later and do a full 4K remaster. It’s hard to say. That would be a very Peter Jackson-y thing to do.
All I want is for the film to look exactly like it looks on the EE DVD, but at the highest resolution and bitrate available.
This. Barring them redoing the SFX completely, which is not going to happen, this is exactly what I want as well.
My guess is that they’ll remove the green tint, but I’m not confident the colours with match the EE DVD’s for any of the films either.
Maybe I’ll go revisit some select scenes for a newer release, but I’m holding out hope that the new official 4K version coming this June will finally be a good version.
Are you sure about this? I think this was just a rumour, and that we’d have heard something by now if this was coming next month. My guess is that they’ll wait until the 20th anniversary of FOTR next year to put this out.
The theatrical version has never had the green tint. It was only ever on the extended HD release. But I agree —- here’s hoping the 4K release this year will fix the problems!
Probably next year. 😉
Dwalin! Any ETA when this might be done? Been waiting for it anxioously and LOVE your progress!
For those interested, forum user Dwalin has used my restoration as one of the sources in his own new restoration of the film. He used my grades of the extended scenes, but went even further by completing a shot-for-shot regrade of the rest of the theatrical footage from the extended Blu-ray as well (unlike my release, which uses the theatrical Blu-ray for those scenes).
I haven’t watched it yet, and I haven’t done a side by side comparison with the DVD yet either. So I can’t yet verify the integrity and consistency across all of its shots. But a quick scrub through of the film looked pretty good to me! (There are a few shots that I noticed have some banding and other compression artifacts though. It’s unfortunately only available in a 24GB version).
Anyway, feel free to go check his out his version too! I think it’s really cool that there are multiple restorations out there now! Hopefully Warner/New Line will see our demand for a proper release!
Here’s Dwalin’s thread:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/LOTR-EE-color-re-grade/id/61304
The Digital Bits is reporting what they describe as very reliable information that the 4K UHD release is coming perhaps next year but more likely 2021, the 20th anniversary of FOTR. If this is true (and I suspect it is), let’s hope that Warner & Jackson have been listening and thy quietly correct the “intentional” green mess on Fellowship.
For now, your FOTR is my go-to version since you released it. I’ve shown it to many people on my 70" screen, and they’re blown away. I’m really excited to see what Dwalin comes up with.