The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

Finally got to watch this.
The sound mix in 5.1 is superb. I don’t remember hearing the Sackville baginses knocking on the door outside my room. I honestly thought that there was someone at the front door! The Balrog scene had my room pressurised from my humble XXLS400 leaving a big smile on my face, the dog was not impressed though!!

I must look into Atmos

I have been invested in this film from when it was discussed in Empire magazine 20 plus years ago, this is the best version yet.
I already have the DVD sets with the statues and the blu ray set with all the extras so a barebones release with PQ and AQ top of the list.

The picture looks better than the blu ray, from my seat with my eyes.
I look forward to watching the next 2 in the trilogy
Atmos will heighten the experience even further. Superb atmos discs!
 
The sound is amazing

however video quality for a 4K title I think it’s really variable. Colours are ok.. don’t think the hdr adds that much. This is from me just skipping through.
 
HDR is great with some twinkling light and magic effects. But in many scenes, light as such bleeds over other elements just to much. And that goes for all 3 movies, thing that ROTK is the biggest offender in that area. Just like with edges oversharpening. In some scenes it looks like B production effects. Those ships on the river......like watching a play in puppetry
 
Finally got to watch this.
The sound mix in 5.1 is superb. I don’t remember hearing the Sackville baginses knocking on the door outside my room. I honestly thought that there was someone at the front door! The Balrog scene had my room pressurised from my humble XXLS400 leaving a big smile on my face, the dog was not impressed though!!

I must look into Atmos

I have been invested in this film from when it was discussed in Empire magazine 20 plus years ago, this is the best version yet.
I already have the DVD sets with the statues and the blu ray set with all the extras so a barebones release with PQ and AQ top of the list.

The picture looks better than the blu ray, from my seat with my eyes.
I look forward to watching the next 2 in the trilogy
same here. I also have these DVD statue sets 🤣 in the attic still sealed. I was thinking they may be worth something one day. I love these films
 
same here. I also have these DVD statue sets 🤣 in the attic still sealed. I was thinking they may be worth something one day. I love these films
They are. Sealed with statues, maybe wait a little bit more, but they are definitely collectable
 
These discs are amazing! Especially Return of the king absolutely blown away, the image is really something on my jvc.
 
The Mines of Moria is stunning, visually, sound, directing and writing. The best part of the film, perfectly executed.
The sequence is prepared well, feeling dread and suspense, fighting several vicious enemies against all the odds and ending with the awesome dragon.

Unfortunately, a lot of the film doesn't quite work. Frodo rarely makes a decision in the first half of the film, and then is completely anonymous in Rivendell until the end of the sequence.

Also, it's unclear how the Orcs can get to the Fellowship in record time. Sometimes the birds act as spies, other times I have no idea how Sauron knows their position. Then there is the opening which features a ton of exposition and removes all the mystery of what is to come ahead. It might have been better to have held off on all the visuals of Mordor until later.
 
Last edited:
Am I one of the few not blown away by the picture quality? Admittedly I'm streaming "uhd" from Apple TV app instead of physical disc but I find the quality really hit and miss. Some scenes, like closeups are great but others, particularly landscapes are blurry to my eyes. Cabled 50Mbps connection in case anyone is thinking of asking 😊

eg below, the detail in Gandalfs beard is great. But the landscape in the following picture just appears very undefined
IMG_20210114_162300623.jpg

IMG_20210114_162243276.jpg
 
Am I one of the few not blown away by the picture quality? Admittedly I'm streaming "uhd" from Apple TV app instead of physical disc but I find the quality really hit and miss. Some scenes, like closeups are great but others, particularly landscapes are blurry to my eyes. Cabled 50Mbps connection in case anyone is thinking of asking 😊

eg below, the detail in Gandalfs beard is great. But the landscape in the following picture just appears very undefined
The Two Towers is the worst one for that. It's all over the place from sharp and detailed one minute to, at worst, a blurry mess the next. And that is with the UHD disc.
 
The Two Towers is the worst one for that. It's all over the place from sharp and detailed one minute to, at worst, a blurry mess the next. And that is with the UHD disc.
I had just watched Two Towers and thought the same (that's what actually made me post about it). Glad it's not just the stream as I was beginning to regret not going for the discs but if they suffer the same... Seems a shame as I particularly notice the jump from detailed to blur, almost like the camera was out of focus on some scenes
 
Anybody else think the deep bass is not there? At the beginning battle, the start of the movie, where sauron falls on the blu ray it feels a lot deeper, it was kind of my demo bass track, where as on the 4K it seems to be missing the impact? Maybe a need to do a side by side as it’s a couple of years since I’ve watched the BD.
 
tenor.gif


Yet another Atmos remix cut off at the 30Hz knees :rolleyes:

MZ6dXiI.jpg


Here it is compared to the Blu-Ray. The LFE data was there before, so where'd it go? :confused:

Qlm81lo.jpg
Maybe this is what i am noticing, I will have to dig my BD out and have a listen to see if it is definitely noticeable in my cinema room or if maybe me memory is causing tricks on me?
 
There is bass there no doubt, but I think most have identified that the ultra deep bass isn't there. Like you I remember the Sauron scene at the start which had a real deep bass impact. Even the original DVD was deep...in fact from memory that impacted me more than the bluray did.

However the Atmos mix on the 4K disc is still awesome for immersion.
 
This review (and a couple from other websites) talk about this being a 4K scan from the original camera negative (or VFX film-out). What is the source of this information? None of the press releases mention a rescan and Peter Jackson himself uses more generic phrases such as "remaster", "conversion", and "4K process".

There are mounting comparisons now which make it more likely that this is an upscale from the existing 2K DI. This video from Elliot Coen has some really compelling frame comparisons where you can see that in some cases there is actually less detail in the 4K release due to DNR. In the worst case, DNR has actually introduced some image artefacts!



Overall, the release is an improvement due to fixed colour grading and HDR. However, detailed analysis is doubting this is a full restoration from the original negative.
 
Reading all.the negative stuff on YouTube,, 1. What is the avforums review on about? 2. Will stick to the blu Ray extended versions.
 
I watched the 4K disc of this last night in HDR on the JVC N5. It’s quite frustrating as it has some absolutely beautiful detail in close-ups but then detail feels taken away in quite a few shots too, sometimes within the same scene. Lovely colour in it though and very nice Atmos speaker use.
 
Reading all.the negative stuff on YouTube,, 1. What is the avforums review on about? 2. Will stick to the blu Ray extended versions.

A lot of us are very impressed by the set , so it’s all subjective
 
A user (Pagey123) on another forum posted this email they say they received from Park Road Post.
We unfortunately don’t have any press materials that we can share, but understand why you asked. What I can confirm is that you were right in that non-filmed out 2K VFX were upscaled to 4K to create a new 4K Digital Intermediate. Most of the source data come from 2K data while some of the FOTR theatrical was a 4K scan.

Of course this has no provenance, but this does match what people are seeing in screencaps and also potentially explains how this was misreported in some reviews.
 
@Simon Crust Any reason why AVForums hasn't reviewed The Hobbit UHD trilogy yet?
 
I finally sat down and watched the extended edition of Fellowship. I was worried that the extended edition would be too long then it finished. It turns out there are 30 minutes of credits lol.

I know there are issues with the picture, and softness, I've seen the screenshots. But I still found the vast majority of the picture quality to be excellent. On some occasions the extra clarity showed some of the joins with painted backgrounds a little more apparent as was green screen. But overall this is a very nice restoration.

As for the audio, this is a pretty loud film. I know I watched with BEQ but there was a serious amount of LFE. I only have a single sub and I don't think my floor has rumbled so often. I found the non LFE audio a little midrange heavy at times and in the earlier parts of the film not quite as cohesive as the best audio tracks I've listened to. It did seem to get better as it went along though.

Great film with mostly great picture quality. The audio has great LFE with quite a few overhead effects. At its best it was an excellent Atmos sound bubble experience. Now I've got to find the time to watch the Two Towers. From what I remember the extended edition makes a huge difference for this part.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I finally sat down and watched the extended edition of Fellowship. I was worried that the extended edition would be too long then it finished. It turns out there are 30 minutes of credits lol.

I know there are issues with the picture, and softness, I've seen the screenshots. But I still found the vast majority of the picture quality to be excellent. On some occasions the extra clarity showed some of the joins with painted backgrounds a little more apparent as was green screen. But overall this is a very nice restoration.

As for the audio, this is a pretty loud film. I know I watched with BEQ but there was a serious amount of LFE. I only have a single sub and I don't think my floor has rumbled so often. I found the non LFE audio a little midrange heavy at times and in the earlier parts of the film not quite as cohesive as the best audio tracks I've listened to. It did seem to get better as it went along though.

Great film with mostly great picture quality. The audio has great LFE with quite a few overhead effects. At its best it was an excellent Atmos sound bubble experience. Now I've got to find the time to watch the Two Towers. From what I remember the extended edition makes a huge difference for this part.

I’ve just watched this over the last two nights and can only agree about the audio. I don’t fiddle with any eq stuff or have Atmos, so it’s just standard 5.1 for me, but this is the loudest film I can remember.

It was almost as if my sub couldn’t handle it and was shaking the doors and causing my missus and daughter upstairs to make several complaints 😁.

As for the PQ, I’m no expert, but although there were parts of the film which seemed to render a lot of detail ( especially close up shots), a great deal of the film did seem rather over smoothed out to me, with not a great deal of film like texture and looking more digital in nature.

I’ve read a lot that suggests this was the intention of Jackson to make them closer to the Hobbit trilogy and that would make sense having watched it. It’s a bit of a shame in a way, but it didn’t spoil it for me though as although I’m certainly not a grain hater, I don’t mind a little DNR and grain management. I just think they over did it in this case though, but I presume that has a lot to do with the special effects.

The HDR colour grading really makes the film shine though. It’s natural, rich and just pretty gorgeous all round really.
 
I’ve just watched this over the last two nights and can only agree about the audio. I don’t fiddle with any eq stuff or have Atmos, so it’s just standard 5.1 for me, but this is the loudest film I can remember.

It was almost as if my sub couldn’t handle it and was shaking the doors and causing my missus and daughter upstairs to make several complaints 😁.

As for the PQ, I’m no expert, but although there were parts of the film which seemed to render a lot of detail ( especially close up shots), a great deal of the film did seem rather over smoothed out to me, with not a great deal of film like texture and looking more digital in nature.

I’ve read a lot that suggests this was the intention of Jackson to make them closer to the Hobbit trilogy and that would make sense having watched it. It’s a bit of a shame in a way, but it didn’t spoil it for me though as although I’m certainly not a grain hater, I don’t mind a little DNR and grain management. I just think they over did it in this case though, but I presume that has a lot to do with the special effects.

The HDR colour grading really makes the film shine though. It’s natural, rich and just pretty gorgeous all round really.
A lot of the close ups were great, some were a little softer like a Blu-ray rather than a 4K. I regularly saw details in material and surroundings. I get what Peter Jackson wanted, the same as James Cameron with T2. Neither film particularly bothers me in terms of DNR but it might have been better to use DNR sparingly. But maybe on a 55" LED screen I don't see the same issues as those with larger screens or those with OLED TVs.

Thinking more about the audio, maybe I should have turned on Audyssey Cinema EQ. I think I will for Two Towers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There is bass there no doubt, but I think most have identified that the ultra deep bass isn't there. Like you I remember the Sauron scene at the start which had a real deep bass impact. Even the original DVD was deep...in fact from memory that impacted me more than the bluray did.

However the Atmos mix on the 4K disc is still awesome for immersion.
Agree - but I'm increasingly finding this with releases now - older ones seem to have more depth. I'm guessing they are edited more now for mass market sound bars rather than full on home cinema
 
Agree - but I'm increasingly finding this with releases now - older ones seem to have more depth. I'm guessing they are edited more now for mass market sound bars rather than full on home cinema
For TVs, small subs and sound bars this will probably sound decent enough. But looking at the graphs there is a major dip from 30Hz. So if you have a decent sub, then without BEQ you are losing around 10Hz of LFE. Those with sub 20Hz subs or transducers (I would love a transducer lol) are losing even more.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom