BBC Rerunning Radio Lord of the Rings

Motor writes "I'm not sure if I'm doing the BBC website a favour by mentioning this, but BBC Radio 4 is, from Saturday the 5th of January, running their excellent radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings in thirteen, one hour weekly episodes. I'm not sure how much load the streaming system can handle though :)" Make a note of it, and save 'em. The LotR radio show is very acclaimed.

You can get them on CD from ZBS

[Pretender R*S]

ZBS and American/Canadian Radio drama company also resells the LotR CDs in the US. So you can watch it anytime you want and at $70 for 13 CDs is a pretty decent deal.

http://216.122.251.79/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Scre en =PROD&Store_Code=ZF&Product_Code=LORD&Category_Cod e=KFCD

They also have the Hobbit and their orignal productions of Jack Flanders and Ruby the Galatic Gumshoe.

Ogg Vorbis streams

[AirLace]

For those Free Software enthusiasts of you out there who don't want to install RealPlayer, the BBC is trialling [bbc.co.uk] Ogg Vorbis [vorbis.com] live audio streams. The BBC Radio 4 stream can be found here [bbc.co.uk].
If you use this service, please take the time [mailto] to tell them that you appreciate their support of open standards as the service is still tentative.

It's good, buy it

[nivelo9]

My dad just picked it up through a mail order catalog, and it's really well done.
If you want to buy it, there are two versions on Amazon:
this is the more expensive (US$56) "library edition" [amazon.com] which i suspect is no different from this US$49 version [amazon.com].

Full LOTR mp3s here, ALL OF IT

[cb0y]

http://www.saiyajinfury.com/lotr/

download now.

Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS - wrong URL

[Pretender R*S]

well just go to http://www.zbs.org [zbs.org] select Childrens Favourites, CDs and it will be listed there. The URL didn't seem to work correctly.

If you get the CD's be sure to get the BBC version

[Kevinv]

There's also a set of CD's from an American dramatization that isn't nearly as good.

The BBC version is awesome.

Kevin

Re:Ogg Vorbis streams

[Fweeky]

I use http://www.freeamp.org/ [freeamp.org]

Re:Ogg Vorbis streams

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the instructions on the page. Vorbis is supported natively by XMMS, and with plugins by Windows Media player and Winamp.

Closest to the books I've found..

[Restil]

Between the two LOTR Movies and this radio adaption, the radio plays by far stick to the story line, almost to the letter. Obviously they have to abridge it somewhat, but the most important parts of the story are maintained in excellent detail.

While not disappointed with the new movie, I was somewhat dismayed by their attempt to rush more important aspects of the story and drag out those parts that play little role. LOTR is, more than anything, about the growth of the characters. How these small, fat, lazy hobbits go on an adventure and when they return they run the evil out of their homeland. How a dirty rugged old ranger ends up becoming king, and how a dwarf and an elf, both with much inbred conflict with each other, manage to become lifelong friends.

The cave troll did not take 3 minutes to dispatch in the book. It was an orc chieftan who skewered frodo, not a troll. Frantically, the party ran from that room, carrying Frodo (whom they believed to be dead) with them. Gandalf attempts to seal the door with a spell, only the Balrog fights him back with magic and almost destroys him. All this was missed. Instead they have to spend precious time on the character development of Arwen, who doesn't get more than 5 minutes in the books anyways.

And at the end, we don't have the troublesome Aragorn. In the books, he was distraught because he didn't know what path to follow, and then everybody gets separated, Boromir dies, all the hobbits disappear, and the fate of frodo and sam is unknown. Aragorn is forced to make a decision on who they follow and choose to pursue Merry and Pippin.

Galadriel warned against betrayal in the party. Yet there was no such warning. Oh, the book hinted about Boromir's desire for the ring, but up until the very minute he tried to steal it, Frodo only thought that Boromir wanted them to keep it safe at Minas Tirith, and not to walk it into the enemy's hand. However, the rest of the party did not desire it so, and none of the rest of them were a risk. This is shown most prominantly in the "Samwise the Strong" segue in the third novel when Sam is tempted by the power of the ring while he holds it for a while, and yet manages to overcome it with barely any thought on the matter.

But anyways.. No need to overanalyze this. The radio plays are GOOD. Listen to them if you can.

-Restil

Play with my webcams and turn on my lights at http://206.54.177.105" [206.54.177.105]

Radio

[Aztech]

If you want to listen over the net make sure you listen to the Ogg [bbc.co.uk] stream because it's higher quality than their Real streams, and Linux friendly.

As a nice Christmas gesture the BBC cut the bitrates down across the board on their terrestrial Digital Radio (DAB [bbc.co.uk]) service a couple of days ago, LoTR's will be on Radio 4 [bbc.co.uk] which is often found at 80kbps Mono MP2 now, instead of 192kbps stereo, the FM signal is now of superior quality.

A note to all those people who are interested in buying a DAB tuner (all 3 of you!), don't bother, unless they resurrect the bitrates you might as well just get a decent FM tuner, the quality will be better. Another decent technology ruined.

Re:Ogg Vorbis streams

[goul]

Try JOrbis [jcraft.com], its pure java, will run from within a web browser (I've tested the BBC streams from within Mozilla) and works with proxy servers.

Re:Radio

[DSTA]

Perhaps interesting for folks in Europe: Radio 4 is also available via Astra satellite, details here [bbc.co.uk].

ISBN 0-553-47228-3

[Mike_L]

A few years ago my parents bought this audio series for me on cassette. It is excellent. I've listened to it a few times and it kept me awake on the long drive home for the holidays. I must say that this radio-series is a lot truer to Tolkien's books than the new movie. Also all voices have authentic British accents. =)

Amazon has it for $41.96
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553472283/ qid%3D/103-3685064-5132664 [amazon.com]

-Mike_L

Christmas Gift

[GweeDo]

I got this Radio Show set (13 CD's) for Christmas and must say it is very well done. If you can listen to it, I highly recommend it. It is interesting to see how it differeces from the movie at moments which differs from the book at times. Over all it is a very well done presentation and great for long road trips :)

Or you can find it. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

at www.jezner.com/lord_of_the_rings/ [jezner.com].

They are doing something like 3 mp3 files a week.