The announcement above simply says "Dolby Digital". It doesn't mention 2.0 or 5.1.

I have to assume that it will have a full 5.1 track. The movie was mixed for 5.1 originally, and is one of the last films where Lynch allowed the usage of surround activity. In recent years, he's decided that he hates surround sound. The "5.1" mixes on Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire only actually have activity from the front channels.

Chalk me up as another person who will only be buying this if Uni ponys up for HD DVD. I have the Aussie and French import discs already (and originally owned the Widescreen VHS from Polygram!).

When Universal HD aired this earlier in the year it looked quite stunning, but I won't be buying another version of this on regular dvd.

Finally. I never got into the multi-region players, so I've been waiting for this to come to R1. It's my favorite Lynch movie.

Me to, I own a multi-region DVD player, it's kinda cool to have, but I live in the USA and I prefer all my DVD's to be NTSC/R1. So this is exciting news.

same here. already have the beautiful French 2-disc set, and very happy with it.

We need HD to show very single detials of Patricia Arquette...

It will be nice to see this again.

Thank God this is finally coming out, really looking forward to it!

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/FILM/DVDRev...thighwayr4.htm

leave it to Universal to screw up the colors and release the film with absolutely no extras, not even a trailer! Don't buy it.

I gotta say the video looks to be fantastic but without any extras I am not buying this. F*** you Universal. Wasnt there supposed to be a 10-part interview with lynch?

Thanks for the info!

I'm not region locked but I wanted to wait on the R1 release in hopes it would be as good as either of the R2 releases.

I've waited long enough for this film, I'll probably go ahead and order the French MK2 release in a couple weeks.

i think the screencaps look best on the new R1 DVD.

What a disappointment...

...more like Lost Opportunity.

Universal never ceases to amaze me how much of a bunch of ass clowns they are.

Wow, the R1 looks like shit.

It still beats the Canadian FF version I have. How do the colors compare between those two?

Also, to piss off more consumers who were waiting for the Region 1 comparison, the French and UK releases are out of print....

Is it just me or does the image not look THAT bad?

A shame, but I'll still buy it.

Another Universal swing and miss...

Anyone who thinks the caps look fine on this release didn't see the film theatrically, as the color palette is completely different. Judged purely on image alone, the mk2 or Cinema Club disc (which uses the same transfer) best it hands down. Too bad they're now OOP.

At least they're offering it cheap.

A little darker than the mk2, but it looks better than.....say... nothing at all. My preorder already shipped and I will be happy no matter what. Unless they sent me the Canadian Pan & Scan release.

Also, what do you expect from Universal when they have done nothing with the film until now. It's hard to base a video transfer on screencaps, but it looks satisfying enough to me for R1.

I saw this film theatrically a few times and to me, the new R1 caps look vastly superior and far more faithful than the rest.

Having said that, I'm not sure that DVD Beaver is the best source to base on educated opinion on, given the controversially unscientific approach they employed in comparing various versions of BLADE RUNNER (using a digital camera to shoot images off a TV set for their HD caps?!) After that revelation, I doubt I will ever trust any of their caps again. Plus they complain about there being no commentary on the disc, which any Lynch fan knows would never, ever happen given Lynch's well-known distaste for audio commentaries. So I wouldn't put too much stock in that review.

Furthermore, I agree that Universal sucks and their mishandling of several cult favorites, such as THE BIG LEBOWSKI and FLASH GORDON, proves once again that they simply have no interest in pleasing fans or honoring the filmmakers. But I'm just happy to finally have this film in what (so far) seems to be the best picture and sound quality it's ever had on home video.

But yes, thankfully it's cheap.

I've been waiting for this for a long time - passed up the foreign versions in anticipation of a 'proper' release. Yes!

Based on those screen caps, the Universal disc is much more faithful to the theatrical release than any of the PAL editions. The movie is very dark and heavily color tinted by design. Those PAL screen caps look like the telecine operator tried pump up the brightness and dial the flesh tones back to "normal", which is not how the movie is supposed to look at all.

Universal


MK2


In every one of the comparisons on that page, the Universal disc looks better.

i saw this for the first time on VHS, so i can't compare those to what it was like theatrically. does anyone know if David Lynch was involved in this new transfer?

I'm just glad I can buy it in the US, Picture quality may not be the best but with the history of this movie, I'll take what I can get.

I thought Lynch was involved in the transfer years ago and it's been sitting on the shelf. I think the R1 caps look great... much better than the MK2 set I sold a few months ago in anticipation.