The Lord of the Rings (4k, Extended and Theatrical Cut)

Product detailed description

Package includes 9 discs

Extended Editions (6x 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)

• Feature films in 4k Ultra HD (3840 x 2160)
• HDR (HDR-10 + Dolby Vision)
• Aspect ratio 2.39:1
• Original audio in Dolby Atmos
• 6x BD-100 (triple-layer UHDBD)

Theatrical Version (3x 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray)

• Feature films in 4k Ultra HD (3840 x 2160)
• HDR (HDR-10 + Dolby Vision)
• Aspect ratio 2.39:1
• Original audio in Dolby Atmos
• 3x BD-100 (triple-layer UHDBD)

Will I get native 4k Ultra HD?

Yes.

First, a bit of history: All three films in The Lord of the Rings trilogy were shot on traditional 35mm motion picture film, with VFX shots rendered in 2k and film-out processed back to film. Each of the films was originally mastered and distributed in 2k. At the time of their theatrical release, The Lord of the Rings was projected from distribution materials sourced from a 2k Digital Intermediate (even for 35mm film projections).

For the 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray release, however, the studio returned to the original camera negatives, scanning both the pristine 35mm camera footage and the first-generation 35mm VFX film-outs in 4k. This process produced a brand-new 4k master handled by New Zealand's WETA Digital. This new 4k master offers not only higher resolution than the theatrical release prints (and, consequently, previous Blu-ray releases), but alongside sharper detail rendition, it also features a fresh color grading that leverages WCG and HDR on UHDBD, expanding both color gamut and dynamic range.

Since this is a full-fledged, ground-up 4k remaster, it is safe to say that The Lord of the Rings has never looked this good in any of its previous iterations — neither in theaters nor on Blu-ray. Furthermore, as is customary with remasters of this scale, it's fair to assume that the individual films in the trilogy will never look better than this.

You can read about how the studio created the new 4K masters and why the new transfers promise a massive upgrade over the Blu-ray editions on the Blu-space.cz blog.