Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems At last...a cracker on DVD-A!

Hi gents,

The entire extended version score of Lord of The Rings, "Fellowship of the Ring" is available in a CD/DVD-A box set. It's superbly presented (but at the price it should be) and contains the entire extended soundtrack on one DVD-A (24/48) and also RBCD across three CDs. It sounds gorgeous! I'm very familiar with the existing CD releases of the soundtracks, but they sound rather flat and lifeless by comparison. At last...the first DVD-A which has been a "must have" purchase for me, some 4 years after the format was launched...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&n=229816&s=gateway&v=glance

Roll on the next two soundtracks!

Cheers

George

The Fellowship set has been since last December. I'd been following its development for a good 18 months prior to its release, swapping many an e-mail with Doug Adams about it and pounced on the box when it finally came out like Smeagol to his precious. It is indeed a lovely release, and the DVD-A is the only DVD-A I own and I am very fond of its two-channel presentation in Trifield (it's offered in both 5.1 and 2 channel for those wondering and there are Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 presentations on there too for those without DVD-A compatible players).

I do wish they hadn't fu**ed up 'In Dreams' and cut off its ending on this set in accordance with the theatrical credits. It's the only time the set bows to an edit made to the music as heard in the film. I was really quite miffed about that since it ends so beautifully in its complete form on the original album, and in the live symphony too in fact.

The Two Towers set is out at the end of October.

Thanks for the info on the Two Towers...just in time for 'me birthday!

"Oi! Mrs M......"

Cheers

George

This was posted on April 5th...:

"Well, the killer app for me on DVD-A has recently been released! The entire soundtrack of Fellowship of the Ring, on 3 CDs, including the whole soundtrack on a DVD-A. At last! A DVD-A I really want to own!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...3/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/202-6793899-6772600

Cheers

George"

I see that the price on Amazon has gone down, now it's even �9 cheaper than the highest used price...

Hi Tommy

The price of this has been up and down on Amazon over recent months. The lowest point was �19.99, Mrs M paid �24.99 (I got it for Fathers Day from the kids, and have been meaning to "plug" it again ever since!) but it's back up to �37.99 on Amazon UK. Being ever the pedant, I bought another copy of it on holiday last month, as the box for the French release was much better quality! Having all three soundtracks on DVD-A wil pretty much secure a place for a DVD-A player in my system indefinitely. And here I was teasing Mark H recently about his "20 shelf high" rack of old format machines with half a dozen discs/tapes for each!

Cheers

George

I think it cost me �35 the day it came out last year. After 18 months of waiting I wasn't going to wait any longer as I am a chump like that you see, plus some of us had gone through the agony of it having its release date announced then delayed a few times last year due to legal complications.

It'll certainly be a lot more convenient to eventually be able to take all 3 DVD-As from each set and listen to them back to back* then it will to wade through nine CDs (though I have a feeling next year Return of the King may exceed three discs taking us beyond nine, plus there are plans for another disc of further unused and alternate material from all three scores, though whether any of that makes it onto King's DVD-A I don't know. I wouldn't expect so).

I wouldn't like to be without some sort of DVD-A player just for these however, I agree… although my 500 mkIII does do a nice job with the CDs themselves.

* denotes that yes, I am mad enough to do this on a rainy Sunday in the not too distant future.

This is fantastic- thank you for the heads up!

best regards,
Jerry

Daniel - I *almost* watched all three Extended Edition movies back to back and the week after I - also almost - managed to watch all the Extras from all the three Ex. Ed's. That's much more than the three movies (well, I have two Ex. Ed's and one Coll. Ed with the Gollum disc as well).

I have never seen extras for any movie been anything near as interesting as these...

A pity I missed the �19.99...

Oh I'd do that on a rainy day too, though not til' I have a front projection system and the films in HD. I sat through all six star wars films theatrically in London last May. All three LOTRs at home won't be an issue, especially since all of them are actually consistently good movies unlike the aforementioned space saga.

That's a serious butt killer!

I sat through the original trilogy in 1983 at the local Odeon, and vowed never to repeat the experience (from the discomfort, rather than theatrical merit, point of view).

Cheers

George
(where's 'me cushion...)

The Star Wars thing was a fun day. An insane, and I dare say possibly rather pathetic thing to have wasted an entire day on, but it was certainly memorable - aided by the fact Lucas himself and some of the cast came over from the Sith premiere happening across the road to introduce EpIII to us before we got to see it (the viewing order of the day went IV, V, VI, I, II, III which is actually the best way to watch them in my opinion). It was at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square which is a comfortable cinema to be in though the whole event kicked off at around 7am and we were not out of there until about 10:30pm. There were breaks of course.

It only became unbearable when Episode II began partly because most where by that point anxious for EpIII, but mostly because Clones really is a dreadful movie and watching it alongside the other five to me - really showed it up to be the worst of the bunch. That said, the prequels were far more tolerable amongst a mass of fans than they are with a quieter audience or at home. After so many horrible tweaks and changes to the classic trilogy and the insipid scripting of the more recent films I have to say the whole event did serve as a good opportunity to finally phase Star Wars from my life given the fact I'll probably never get to own the classic trilogy in their original form and view them in the quality they deserve at home.

In America before Return of the King opened they showed the extended editions of Fellowship and Towers back to back before showing King (theatrical cut, obviously). I know a few people who attended those events. I'll say one thing about the LOTR trilogy, Two Towers in both its theatrical and extended forms does become somewhat of a chore halfway through where they really lost a sense of what they should be focusing on. The editing and structure really gets a little sloppy. They do admit that on the commentary tracks mind you blaming themselves for getting too caught up in Fellowship promotion when they should have been smoothing out the second film. Still, it's amusing and testament to the film's astonishing achievement when one could perhaps dub Two Towers the “worst” of the trilogy when it is still a remarkable spectacle to behold in its own right.

From Mr Meridian: C'mon George! You're going soft! What you need is a good, healthy interest in Wagner. From LoR to the Ring Cycle isn't so big a step and it would only take half a weekend in Berlin to do the whole thing - non-stop of course!

Cheers,
Steve