Pretty poor examples, IMO. 3/4th's of the comparisons are too dark to notice any real difference.
I wasn't too impressed either, initially, until I hit the Sauroman (sp) pic, and saw how the detailing on his lower robes really popped in the HD transfer. Then I went back and looked at each of them more carefully, and started seeing more differences. Gandalf's cart, Aragorn's whiskers, the detailing in the faces and hair of the Hobbits at the party, the details of the building in Rivendell, the leaves in several of the shots, etc. Most of it's pretty subtle, but yeah, there's a big difference. And keep in mind that it's really being compromised a bit in order to be displayed on a computer monitor. If you were to see them together, in an A/B comparison on a large TV, you'd see a bigger difference than you did here.
does anyone else get the impression that Blu-Ray will do better, just because the packaging and presentation is more pleasing to the eye?
Aesthetically, no. It sticks out like a sore thumb, those blue cases. I hate slimcases too because the titles on the spines are virtually impossible to read any furthur than one foot away.
Blu-Ray will probably do better, but it's not gonna have anything to do with the aesthetics of the packaging.
