Every since I got my Axioms and my projector, some guys from work have been bugging me about watching all three of the Lord of the Rings movies (Extended Editions of course) in one day. Well, that day is finally coming. Next Saturday (September 24th) the marathon begins.
It is amazing how long it is going to take to watch all three movies. We are planning on starting the first movie (Fellowship of the Ring) at 9:00 am, then 12:30 pm will be lunch, 1:00 pm we fire up Two Towers, 4:30 pm we get supper and play some arcade games, 5:30 pm we start Return of the King, and 9:30 pm we are all done.
I know that the breaks will end up going longer than 30 minutes and 60 minutes, but I needed to start a schedule, and with one of the guys driving almost an hour to get to my house, I didn't want it getting too late.
Has anyone else had a moive marathon at home before? What else can I expect?
I found out a while back that my wife had never seen any of the original star wars trilogy. That of course, needed to be remedied. We watched all 3 in one day. Suprisingly, I didn't feel overloaded by watching that much. I hadn't seen them in a while also, so that probably helped as well.
That's an awful lot of beer drinking.
Hope you have fun Nick
Have wanted to do that same thing with the Rings movies but felt it was just too long. All I would need is somebody else to go hey want to watch all three in one day and I would do it, but that hasn't happened as of yet.
(I think these are the best surround/LFE testers of any movie I have seen, and I've seen a lot) So have fun wish I could be there. . .
Hey... want to watch all three LoTR movies in one day?
Awesome nick. It will definitely take the whole day, and you might even need to put people up for the night. We had a LOTR EE marathon earlier this year, and, surprisingly, it didn't seem like a whole day went by. Other movie marathons we've had:
Star Wars EP I and II
Star Wars EP IV, V, and VI
Matrix Trilogy
Indy Trilogy
Aliens I, II, and III
and Harry Potter
Have fun!
Awesome. Another one I hear is a doozy is the "24" marathon weekend. 16 hours comprising the 24-hour day (minus commercials).
I went to a couple of marathons -- Star Wars (4-6) and Terminator (1-3) at one of the big movie theaters downtown (now demolished for condos).
Every time I go to one of those I end up getting my jacket stolen. Doing the marathon at home sounds like a much better idea, if only for the clean bathrooms and awesome sound
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Doing the marathon at home sounds like a much better idea, if only for the clean bathrooms and awesome sound
Not to mention keeping a closet full of jackets....
Thanks for the suggestion TNT. I'm definitely going to do a 24 marathon.
Still haven't done a Terminator, but now that it was mentioned.
Other's that friends were interested in were Back to the Future, the Jack Ryan series, and a weekend of Trek.
I've been longing to do a LOTR weekend - but never seem to have the time (and the house to myself such that my wife doesn't come in every 30 minutes or so and say either "turn it down" or "is it over yet, I have some errands I want you to run...."). It would also be nice to have a friend to do it with. It would be a sort of bondign experience, methinks... Maybe one day.
Anyway, speaking of trilogy marathons - the Matrix is not a bad one, especially since the 2nd and third installments are better watched as one movie anyway...
The Matrix Trilogy has been a favorite of the marathons I have done. I've done that marathon about three times now. The first was with my aunt and uncle, who hadn't seen any of the movies, and they wanted to see what all the fuss was about. They loved it. The first one had them "hooked," the Animatrix they thought was "neat," the second one was "breathtaking," and the third had them in "awe." They were just so into it.
Definitely share the experience because it's things like this that make sharing the experience worth it.
I just recently saw the LoTR trilogy EE versions over 3 work nights and even though I've seen the movies, they were still amazing. I haven't watched all of them with my Axioms so needless to say sound and visuals were phenomenal. Now I just bought an Oppo upconverting player so I might have to watch em again. Next up on the list is a Star Wars marathon (eps 4-6).
Matrix is an excellent choice as well...come to think of it I havent viewed, err i mean experienced it with my Axioms!!! I know a ton of people hated Matrix parts 2 and 3 but I really dug em.
No matter how the battle plays out with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, I'm probably gonna get LotR in HD one way or another...its a must have, then Matrix and Star Wars.
Ah.....this thread reminds me that life is good.
hashst,
Please report back on your observations of the Oppo player.
I would be interested in your review.
Regards,
WhatFurrer
I am gonna have to do this too...great excuse for a group of friends to enjoy the new house...
***BIG GRIN*** Finally, my title changed...I'm finally an "aficionado".
WhatFurrer
I hate to bring this up again, but if your screen is big enough, an upconverting DVD player makes, "in my opinion," a big difference. Of course, each player does a better or worse job than another on upconversion, so your milaeage with the Oppo may vary, but my Panasonic S97 is AWESOME. That is what we are using to play the movies on my Z3 projector at 720p (1080i doesn't look any better to me. Maybe when HD-DVD or Blu Ray are out) on a nice 104" screen. Throw in the awesome sound from the Axioms, and it will be a blast. My wife is taking the kids to the local amusement park for the day so I can have the volume nice and loud!!!!
Hi WF,
Just posted in the Oppo thread so we don't hijack this one. Subtle differences but nothing drastic. Law of diminishing returns definitely applies, but then again for audio/videophiles those subtle differences might be worth it.
that is great Nick, can't wait to hear about the results
By the way, just got done hanging my new DIY screen a few nights ago. It is 120"wide x 51" tall in a 2.35 aspect ratio. My Prismasonic anamorphic lens is in route from Finland and should be here in a couple of days. It will be great making use of the full panels of my Z2 and not having black bars
I would be interested in what you have found to be the best settings on your S97S and/or Z3 for contrast, brightness, etc...
I'm still playing around with the settings. I suppose I should invest in one of those calibration dvd's to adjust my settings.
Randy
Sirquack.... All I can say is....
SHOW ME THE PICTURES!!!
I know I know, I really wanted to take pictures when the basement was not such a mess
I'll get to them soon I promise, maybe a few sneak peeks soon..
Less than 9 hours until the marathon starts!!!! Woohoo! I guess I should go to bed since I need to get up in 6 horus to make sure that I have everything ready (breakfast, drinks, and so forth)... I just hope that I don't doze off during the movies. They are awesome, but I am running on low sleep for the past 2 nights, and I should have gone to bed a few hours ago to try to catch up...
Oh I forgot to mention that a bunch of my Star Wars buddies and I are crashing your party, hope you got some hot cakes, sausages, and some ice cold OJ ready
Just kidding, while your having fun, I'll be working in the basement today. It appears it is going to be a nice cool day, maybe I can open the windows and get some more polyurethane on the doors done.
I also have to build a new DIY mount to accomodate the projector and Prismasonic anamorphic lens.
ps: I assume your watching the movies over 720P HDMI? If you get a chance, can you cycle throught the screen settings on the Z3 (Full, Normal, ZOOM) and see if Zoom actual stretches the 2.35 movie to be full height (making the people look skinny). My Z2 will only stretch over 480p component, and anything over HDMI (480, 720 or 1080) will not stretch.
Thanks Man, and I hope you have fun, maybe some time I can join the party
Sirquack, send me a PM on your lens. Cost, setup, etc...
I will test out the zoom settings.
hmm Nick,
So I was looking over the boards and saw this thread and thought hey that would be a great idea. All my friends were at work so at 2pm I started my own little trilogy. First movie done about 5 pm started dinner and put on 2 towers about 6pm. Not 10 minutes into the movie there's a banging at my door. It's my neighbor from accross the hall!
He says" Sorry to bother you but don't you think thats..hey isn't that 2 towers?
I say" Sure is wanta watch it?" He scratches his head and says" I'll be right back!" Lol he comes back with his girl friend and we sit down to watch it from the start.
HMM about 15 minutes in BANG BANG on the door again. It's my neighbor from down strairs with his 5 year old. He's telling me how his wife is at work and he's trying to get the kid in bed ect ect. While he's talkin the kid goes into the living room then comes running out screamin about 2 towers being on. The guy looks at me with a "what am I supposed to do now look" and I say "Come on in".
We start the Movie all over again. The kid has taken my favorite seat. I end up draggin my desk chair into the living room.
Anyway with pausing for bathroom breaks and such we got thru it about time the kids wife came home. She gave me and Dad a dirty look when we started talking about Return of the King.
Had a great time but I wonder if I'll be able to watch a movie in peace ever again Hehehe wonder if I can watch Return when I get home?
leaf
PS Axiom may get some new customers!
Nick I see you on the "Who's Online" list, how are the movies going, you must be taking a break after the first two?
Grilling up some hamburgers on the grill
?
Whew... It is over. That old saying "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. We planned a 9:00AM start for a 9:30PM finish, well, at 11:25PM the last of the trilogy was complete. The movies themselves went smoothly, but it just took a LOT longer... We didn't get started until 9:30AM, and the guys wanted to get a quick sound demo before we started, so I popped in a demo dvd and played this 8 minute THX "WOW Demo" for them. Then we started the first of the trilogy at 9:40AM. Our plans were to stop between each movie in the trilogy, but the extended editions have the movie on 2 DVDs (plus 2 more with extras each) and we ended up taking a break after each DVD. That meant 5 breaks instead of 2. We played pinball, my arcade, a little air hockey, plus shot a paintball gun in the backyard (one of the guys brought his $750 hopped up paintball gun). Add in time to cook pizzas, buffalo wings, popcorn, etc, and it was easy to see how it could take so long.
In the end it was worth it. I feel exhausted though. I had never seen the extended edition of Return of the King even though I got it for Christmas last year. I didn't want to see it until I had my projector up and going, plus my Axiom speakers. I had to also get the basement done enough to have guest over, then came the hard time of scheduling it with everyone. The system has been ready for months, but getting people available on the same day couldn't happen until today. Anyway, the build up was eating away at me. I had a hard time sleeping last night, and as many of you know, the story of the Lord of the Rings is very good, and very involving. When it was over it was like being at the finish line of a long race. Not physically tiring as in aching muscles, but tiring none-the-less.
During the movies, I kept hearing people say, "Wow. Why would you ever go to a movie theater again?" and "This sounds awesome!" and so forth.
Congratulations and thank you to Axiom, SVS, Sanyo, Pioneer, Panasonic, Carada, and Blue Jeans Cables for making this type of experience possible for an average joe like me.
Oh, and thank you to my wife for letting me do it.
Leaf, very cool story. That's what makes this "audio" stuff good. Sharing one's obsession
so that others can experience the same.
Nick, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I'm definitely having my own LOTR Trilogy in the near future.
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Oh, and thank you to my wife for letting me do it.
For your punishment you will know have to watch "Beaches" with the wife for nine hours straight.
haha
Nick, I bow to your ability to watch all those movies in one day. I, too, have the extended editions and always feel exhausted after watching one. Great movies. Break times are a must though, especially for back to back to back viewings. Sounds like a fun day. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Sean what's up? I just checked out your profile and noticed if you dropped the letter "r" and changed the second "e" to an "a" from your last name and by golly your famous.
Wow i really flew over the cuckoos nest on that one.
hehe
Shh, don't tell anyone. . .
Sounds like you had a great time Nick, glad it worked out for you....Randy