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I saw it twice in the theater, which is rare for me. I liked it better the second time, mainly because I wasn't looking for places where it departed from the book. Sign me up for the extended DVD; maybe I'll get it for Christmas 2003!

On a related subject, I got the FoTR extended DVD for Christmas 2002 and I've watched it three times so far. Now I need help from some computer guru out there. What I would like to do is make a collage of my favorite scenes for my office. (OK, I'm old enough to know better, but I have a wall where the previous occupant tore some things off that is in dire need of something to replace whatever was there before.) I have a program that I use to grab images off the screen and make bit maps or JPEG files. ("Capture Ez") But when I freeze frame the DVD on the scene I want and try to do a screen grab, for some reason the bit map or JPEG file doesn't show the whole frame. Worse, when I remove the DVD, the bit map or JPEG file shows only black. I've tried grabbing the whole screen, only the DVD window, a rectangular area, etc., but nothing seems to work. Where am I going wrong?

Worse, when I remove the DVD, the bit map or JPEG file shows only black. I've tried grabbing the whole screen, only the DVD window, a rectangular area, etc., but nothing seems to work. Where am I going wrong?

Windows uses a video overlay for DVD (and other video formats, too - you'd have the same problem trying screen caps of an .avi file, for example), and so the video image isn't in the frame buffer, and isn't really part of the image that's captured by screen caps. Sucks, doesn't it? ;)

Most DVD playback software has the ability to do frame captures, though. My first suggestion is to look over the documentation that came with your DVD player software, to find out how to do it. Or, if you post which program you use, someone might be able to tell you exactly how to do it.

In the book the Battle of Helms Deep took all of a page and a half and you knew who would win from the way it was told. The departures from the book make the movie an improvement over the book and more true to the story.

The movie shows how close to defeat they were and what would be the cost of defeat. When the king rode out to the enemy, it was a last ditch attack where he decided he would die attacking rather than die trying to bar a door shut. The futulity of that attack was not brought out in the book.

Because the movie correctly describes the battle, the moment when Gandolph arrives (the one who rose from the dead bringing light to the world) to turn the tide actually makes more sense.

Sorry I can't help you, I'm no techie, but since you've already asked a techie question I need to ask another.

Can anybody tell me of an application (preferrably free) that will allow me to pull audio from a DVD and make it into a .wav file?

I need to pull dialog from a movie for a Flash film I am putting together.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

I had the same problem trying to do a screen grab of the matrix. From what I remember it was a built in "prevention" that Microsoft put into their software. BUT...if you go here:

www.gocyberlink.com

You can download a trial version of a dvd player that has built in screen image saver. It works!