J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is in the running for Fan Edit of the Month on Fanedit.org! If you enjoyed this edit, please cast a vote in its favor! And while you're on the website, leave a nice review as well...it will help other people who are looking for alternate versions of the The Hobbit films. Thank you!

https://forums.fanedit.org/showthread.php?tid=14390

There have been a few requests to see some new box art that can fit an 8-disc case. This would be for those of you who want to have J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit AND the bonus feature discs from all three films in a single case! So visit the Downloads Page to check them out. You are of course on your own when it comes to buying the empty cases, but I've included links to both a Bluray and DVD case on Amazon you can buy.

Also, I've made a short video walkthrough of the menus on both discs, in case you're interested to see how they actually look and sound!

Empty 8-disc Bluray Case on Amazon (comes as a 2-pack)
Empty 8-disc DVD Case on Amazon (comes as a 10-pack)

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is officially listed on the Internet Fan Edit Database! This is THE main database collection for fan edits online. If you enjoyed this version of the Hobbit, please follow the link below and leave a nice review on the IFDB page! You'll probably need to create an account first however. It's quick and free, plus you can then access the forums and learn about all sorts of different edits for other films. The amount of fan edits for the Star Wars films alone is unreal. Thanks and please do leave a review- I'd greatly appreciate it!

The Internet Fanedit Database (IFDB) is a database of fanedits, allowing fans of fanediting a means to review edits that they have seen. Neither IFDB nor its parent site, Fanedit.org, host links or files for fanedits.

https://ifdb.fanedit.org/j-r-r-tolkiens-the-hobbit-maple-films-edit/

It's taken a bit of time, but J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is once again available via direct download! I've also managed to get Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery available for direct download as well. This should help those of you who maybe aren't comfortable with torrenting, or don't even know how to download a torrent file. Just head over to the Downloads Page to find what you're looking for!

I've received a lot of messages from people asking if I've submitted J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to Fanedit.org. For those of you who don't know, Fanedit.org is basically the "official" database for all of the major fan edits on the internet. Whether you are looking for an alternate version of the Star Wars prequels or some obscure horror film from the 1980s, Fanedit.org is bound to have it listed on their site. They also have forums where editors can discuss their works-in-progress and get feedback from other users.
For a first-time fan editor like myself, you have to submit your edit to the site admins for approval before they list it online. I submitted J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for approval back in December 2015 (over six months ago), and they STILL have not approved it. What makes this even more strange is that a number of other Hobbit projects have been accepted in that same stretch of time. Hmm.

SO! If you would like to see J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit have a home on Fanedit.org, follow the link below to their Contact Page and let them know just that! I'd greatly appreciate it!

http://www.fanedit.org/contact-us-2/

NEW SUBTITLE FILES AVAILABLE ON THE DOWNLOADS PAGE

This has taken quite a bit of time and effort from a lot of people around the world, but we now have a solid collection of subtitles for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit! They are available in multiple languages too. So far we have English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Finnish, Swedish, Portuguese, and Hebrew. I have not been able to test them for accuracy, so I'll leave that up to you viewers. If you notice any major issues, please let me know and we'll try to get them fixed.

You'll notice that not every language is offered for the disc-based versions of the film. It's not a simple matter of just splitting the full subtitle file in half...the timestamps which determine when a line appears onscreen have to be completely re-timed for the second disc. So if you want to see accurate disc subs in your language, step up and volunteer!

Now I am not sure how you can add subtitles to a video file, or to an ISO file. I know it can be done, but I have never done it. If someone here would like to offer some advice or link to a tutorial somewhere, that would be awesome.

Lastly, I'd like to thank ALL the volunteers that helped make these subtitles available: Chad Mosby, Eric Olson, Bobby Fitzsimmons, Benjamin Marechal, Sandro Algra, Reijo Nyberg, PiNokKiO, Eric Odmyr, Simon Lydell, Nicolas Clavijo, Scarlett Buse, and others that contributed semi-anonymously. THANK YOU!!

**UPDATE: Bluray ISO files are now available via direct download!

Well, this is it! After a LOT of trial and error (emphasis on error), I've finally finished the DVD and Bluray builds of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. I apologize for the wait, but a lot can and will go wrong when building a project with this much content! Anyways, the ISO files are now available on the Downloads Page!

They are extremely large files...15GB for the DVD and 60GB for the Bluray. If you choose to download via torrent, it is imperative that you seed the file in order to speed the downloads up! I recently managed to make the Bluray ISOs available for direct download, so you now have that option available too.

I did end up fixing the color correction for the earlier parts of the film, since many of you thought I desaturated things a bit too much. I also managed to de-bloom much of the footage from The Battle of Five Armies too. Other than that, the film is pretty much the same as the version released last month.

Now before you start asking a million questions about what an ISO is or how to burn it to a disc, visit the FAQ page. Everything is spelled out clearly there, but once again keep in mind that The two ISO files will need to be burned to separate discs. YOU WILL NEED DUAL-LAYER DISCS IN ORDER TO FIT THE CONTENT...THEY WILL NOT FIT ON
REGULAR SINGLE-LAYER DISCS.

I'd suggest downloading a program called ImgBurn to actually burn the ISO files to your blank DVDs or Bluray discs. Here's the link to their website for your convenience.

I am very happy to present this final version of my fan edit with all of you. This is how J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is meant to be experienced! Enjoy and of course, please make sure you already legally own the original Hobbit films before downloading this fan edit!

Merry (almost) Christmas! Things have been moving slowly but surely for me in terms of building the DVD/Bluray for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Never before have I encountered so many bugs and errors trying to put a project together. Each disc for each format requires a separate project, so that's 4 projects with 8 hours of content. 10 hours if you count Durin's Folk. A lot can (and will) go wrong with that much content. But it's coming soon, I promise! Here's a first look at the menus I've designed for the fan edit. They will look identical on both DVD and Bluray.

An unfortunate casualty of all of this is that I will not be able to include subtitles in the Bluray/DVD release. The software I use for disc authoring (Adobe Encore) continually crashes across multiple platforms and versions when importing subtitles. When I am able to get them imported, they have serious syncing issues. It's a known bug with larger projects like this and sadly the program is no longer supported by Adobe. The only comparable disc authoring program out there is Sonic Scenarist and it costs around $35,000, so that's not an option.

SO. I apologize to those of you that were hoping for subtitles, but I'm just not going to be able to include them in the DVD/Blurays. There may be ways to add subtitles to ISOs after the fact, so I will eventually make a page on my website where you can download the subtitle files and add them to the project yourselves. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hopefully many of you have been able to watch J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit by now. If you enjoyed that fan edit, then you may also enjoy Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery, a companion film that focuses on the backstory of the dwarves and how it ties into the White Council's investigation into Dol Guldur. Below is the link to watch the film on Vimeo, where you can also download it directly under the video box. Alternatively, you can visit the Downloads Page and retrieve it via MEGA.

Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery will be included on the special features of the DVD/Bluray release of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Coming soon!

After more than two years of work, I am very excited to have completed the final version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit!  Here is the link to the Downloads Page for your convenience.

This fan edit has been created using only the highest-quality media available...full HD Bluray and 5.1 surround sound. Working with 5.1 has given me far more options for audio editing than a simple stereo track. Here's just a sample of some of the work I've done on the film.

•  A 532 minute trilogy cut to a single 247 minute film
  
• Well over 600 actual edits and trims made
• An Intermission splits the film in half, at the exact point where Peter Jackson originally intended to split the Hobbit when it was still two films.
•  Overall, the film remains focused on Bilbo and the dwarves. Unnecessary subplots, characters, and CGI silliness have been jettisoned. That means no Tauriel.
• Color corrected in several sequences to match LOTR’s visuals more.
• Numerous digital alterations, including a new opening title, gold coating removed from Smaug, Radagast erased from an eagle flyover shot, etc.
• Orc subtitles altered to explain plot adjustments
• Several unused music cues by Howard Shore have been re-inserted in key scenes, including the famous Misty Mountains theme that was abandoned after AUJ.
• Various scenes from the Extended Editions have also been added where needed. Yes, Thorin’s funeral is in here.

SO. If you’d like to watch this fan edit, I only ask that you legally own all three films in advance. It’s only fair to the copyright holders, regardless of how you feel about the original films.

Right now you can enjoy the HD digital copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but in the next week or so you will be able choose from DVD or Bluray ISO files. They will both be 2-disc sets with custom artwork (available for free on my site). They will feature 5.1 digital surround sound, interactive menus, the whole shebang. Eventually I plan to add subtitles in multiple languages…several people have volunteered to help translate already! Finally, I’ll include a side quest film called Durin’s Folk and the Hill of Sorcery on the special features. It’s an hour-long film that follows the Dol Guldur subplot and how it ties into the dwarves’ backstory. This subplot actually works a lot better when it’s not distracting from the main story of the Hobbit!

Phew, long post. I’ve said it many times since I began working on this edit, but buried somewhere underneath the uneven, bloated Hobbit trilogy is a truly great film. For me at least, I have finally found that film. Hopefully you’ll think so too!