New Line Cinema is the last major studio to enter the format war. They have close ties to Warner, and were expected to be format neutral. This was confirmed when they announced their first HD release of Hairspray on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD back in July.

However, when New Line announced the official details of the Hairspray release back in September, it was revealed that the Blu-Ray version would be released on November 20th alongside the DVD, yet the HD DVD version wouldn't be released until an undisclosed date sometime in 2008.

This by itself means nothing, however, New Line recently announced that it's second HD release, Rush Hour 3, would be released day-and-date on Blu-Ray and DVD on December 26th, yet the HD DVD version would, yet again, not be released until sometime in 2008.

Both these movies are coming out day one on Blu-Ray and DVD, with the HD DVD version coming "sometime in 2008." These are the only titles that New Line has announced for HDM thus far.

What does this mean for LotR? Could this be an ace up the sleeve for Blu-Ray in 2008? Or is this just a fluke that New LIne will soon rectify, making all future releases day-and-date Blu-Ray/HD DVD?

However, New Line attributes these staggered release dates to HDDVD's lack of region coding. Will this be an issue for an older catalogue title like LotR?

nah LOTR will go both ways for sure.

I WANT LoTR HD NOW, they have to be one of the greatest film series ever. I watched the extended editions again recently, just brilliant. I now have a sudden urge to play the games of the movie, which, although HS in length, were brilliant and really fun

The LotR: EEs are really the only movies I care about in HD. I'd gladly trade all the movies I own (PotC, Underworld, etc. etc.) for LotR: EE in Blu-Ray.

No, this was NOT a double post. >_>

I would imagine everyone who wants the LOTR films would already have them on DVD. I'm sure loads of people will then rebuy them in HD but I don't really get why, they look good enough in SD.

It seems like quite a lot of money to spend for bit of an improvement in picture quality.

The reason Rush Hour 3 is released later on HD-DVD is because there is no region codes implemented on HD-DVD.

Having Hairspray and Rush Hour 3 being released on Blu-Ray is proof they are supporting HD-DVD in my mind!

Man both of those movies are just.... ugh.

When LOTR:EE are released in Blu Ray I will pick them up .THe DVD already look brilliant (2 DVD for each movie mind you ) but its one of the few movies I would pay the price just to receive a visual upgrade .

 I assure you, it's more thanjust a bit.  We fimnally got a 52" XBR4.  The first thing I did was pop in FotR EE to see how it looked in 480p, then upscaled to 1080p.  Their was a pretty noticeable diferent, but not much.  After that I put in PotC1 on Blu-Ray, and I was completely shocked at how amazing it looked. Upscaled LotR had nothing on PotC, so I know an HD version of LotR will easily put the DVD version to shame.