in the early 2000s the lord of the rings extended editions were the shining example
of what dvds could be now nearly 20 years later the lord of the rings makes its way onto 4k
uhd and i can personally confirm the king of home media has returned
welcome to nerd of the rings if you're new to the channel please hit subscribe so you get a
dose of middle earth every week on december 1st the lord of the rings makes its much
anticipated 4k uhd debut i was fortunate enough to get a review copy and since friday i have been
spending my days in middle earth like i have never seen it before in short the results are incredible
4k oh so good in this review we'll cover what's included in the set the video quality
audio quality and my final recommendation the packaging itself features some beautiful
artwork which pairs perfectly with the hobbit trilogy 4k release in this set there are nine
discs the first three are the theatrical editions while the remaining six are the extended editions
each film being split over two discs as we've become accustomed to this is great news because
as the films are split onto two discs that means they've been compressed less which means there's
better quality also included is a digital copy code for the entire trilogy in both theatrical
and extended versions now onto the meat of the review the video how does it look in short the
video quality looks fantastic the reason for this is due to a huge restoration process which was
overseen by peter jackson himself now for a little background info here when the lord of the rings
was made it was mastered in 2k which was pretty standard at the time so this means every version
of lord of the rings that you've seen before whether it was in theaters or on dvd or blu-ray or
even that old fellowship of the ring vhs that you had they were all derived from this 2k master now
many 4k releases nowadays have simply taken their 2k master and upscaled it in order to get 4k at
least by definition but rather than take the easy path here warner brothers peter jackson and wetta
have gone through a complete restoration process involving a 4k scan of the camera negatives
and vfx film outs they've also done new color timing made possible by the new hdr technology
a notable result of this is that we no longer have the green tint on fellowship of the ring that we
got during the blu-ray releases now rather than get into all the nitty-gritty technical terms with
everything dealing with 4k and how impressive this restoration process is i'm going to put some links
in the description if you want to read more on those topics so the big question what did i think
of lord of the rings in 4k i can't tell you how many times that i caught myself just grinning ear
to ear while i was watching these films not only do those epic landscape helicopter shots look more
jaw-dropping than ever but i was amazed at how much detail i picked up on in the small things
there were things that i saw so clearly in this edition that i had never even noticed before
things like the pattern or stitches on people's clothes or the texture of swords and helmets these
things may have been there before but they were never so crystal clear i don't care what grading
scale you use but whatever it is 10 out of 10 5 stars the video quality gets all of it while the
improved video quality will no doubt get a lot of attention with this the improvements don't
stop there the entire trilogy has also received a new dolby atmos soundtrack remix specifically
for a home theater experience now i personally don't own surround sound but i do have a fairly
decent soundbar and even i could tell that this new mix was really good with previous releases
with my same sound equipment i had issues where i would have to turn the volume down during loud
parts because kids were sleeping and i'd have to turn it up when people were talking quietly and i
didn't have that issue this time now that's not to say that the audio was flat by any means the
loud parts were still loud the soft parts were still soft it was just that i could understand
it so much clearer i was able to make out quiet bits of dialogue that i probably would have only
noticed before if the subtitles had been on yet i felt adequately enveloped in those louder moments
like gandalf facing the balrog and helms deep and stuff like that this is not only the release that
made me take the plunge on 4k but it'll probably be what makes me upgrade to surround sound as well
just because i can't wait to hear what all this audio track has to offer now in an effort to not
be biased because of my love of lord of the rings i watched a few other 4k movies and
tv shows just to compare and i can honestly say lord of the rings goes toe to toe with anything
else that i've watched and we're talking movies that have been made within the last few years
and lord of the rings was made 20 years ago and it sticks right there with them in the summer of 2021
warner brothers will be releasing the middle earth ultimate collector's edition which will feature
new bonus content now we don't know for sure what that will be a lot of us speculate that that could
be deleted scenes that we've never seen before so the big question we're all asking ourselves
as fans is do we go ahead and pick this up or do we wait for the ultimate edition in the summer
and as recently as my last live stream i had said that my plan was to wait
for the collector's edition however after seeing this in 4k with my own eyes i can honestly say i'm
really glad that i'm not having to wait six months to watch these if you've followed my channel for
any period of time you know that i'm a lord of the rings super fan and that these are my absolute
favorite movies of all time and so when i say what i'm about to say i do not say this lightly
but the 4k uhd release of the lord of the rings is the greatest thing to happen to these movies since
the extended editions while i enjoyed having lure the rings on blu-ray because it was a bit sharper
a bit crisper and it made better use of my hdtv it wasn't the pinnacle of home viewing experience
like lord of the rings was back in the days of dvd now if you're one who decides to wait for
the collector's edition i totally get that i guess it's up to each person individually you know how
much are you gonna watch those deleted scenes or whatever it is that we get on those special
features if you have a 4k tv already this feels like a no-brainer unless you're just dead set
on waiting for the collector's edition the films aren't going to get any better than what they are
in this package for me this 4k release of lord of the rings it just puts the films back on top
where they belong and it just earns my absolute highest recommendation i can't say enough about
what a great experience it was watching these in 4k i want to say a huge thank you to warner
brothers they sent me both trilogies so that i could review and share my thoughts with you guys
um i honestly can't wait to go back to lord of the rings and watch it again
um but first i'm going to continue my middle earth journey through the hobbit trilogy
um i'll be having a review coming up very soon hopefully tomorrow on that um so be sure to hit
subscribe so you don't miss that review if you decide you're interested in purchasing this set
i have included links in the description if you purchase through that it does help out the channel
aside from that enjoy your time in 4k middle earth i can tell you it is glorious and feel free to hit
me up on social media and tell me how much you love it if you end up picking up this set i'm
very curious to hear your thoughts i absolutely loved it i can't say enough about it be sure to
subscribe so you don't miss the hobbit review and we'll see you next time on nerd of the rings