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.