The Hobbit Trilogy 4k | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey + The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug + The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Peter Jackson is something of a tech enthusiast, so when he was given a virtually unlimited budget to shoot The Hobbit, he decided to use it to secure the most advanced recording technology of the time. All three installments of The Hobbit were therefore captured through the lenses of Red Epic digital cameras, which recorded raw footage in 5k resolution.

Because the entire trilogy contains well over six thousand VFX shots—scenes with computer-generated effects—the master had to settle for 2k resolution, as rendering those effects in 4k would have been several times more expensive, technically demanding, and time-consuming. The final master therefore topped out at 2k as well, meaning The Hobbit is upsampled for its Ultra HD presentation. Even so, a substantial improvement in fine detail rendering can be expected over the original releases. First, the material takes advantage of the slight resolution bump between Full HD and 2k; second, a studio upscale is higher in quality than upsampling from Full HD; third, the films benefit from modern HEVC compression; and fourth, they can lean on the advantages of expanded color and luminance spaces via WCG and HDR. An extraordinary leap in quality can be expected from HDR in particular, as Peter Jackson is known for his emphasis on contrast, sharp specular highlights, dramatic skies, and striking lighting overall—elements that truly shine in HDR. Simply put, The Hobbit has never looked this good at home, and visually it actually surpasses most theatrical screenings from its original cinema run.

If you are wondering whether The Hobbit could also appear on UHDBD in HFR (High Frame Rate), the answer is no. The Hobbit was shot at 48fps, a frame rate that the UHDBD specification does not support—and worse still, consumer TVs wouldn't be able to display it either. The film is therefore presented at the standard 24fps.