Thought I'd start a thread to track the slew of upcoming foreign David Lynch releases that aren't available in the USA. As far as I can tell we have:

Mulholland Drive: UK is out but is Region B LOCKED. French version just came out but I can't find any reviews to check Reigon coding. Can anyone confirm?

Lost Highway: Release in France on 11/11/10. No reviews or Region coding info yet.

Wild at Heart: Already out in France (as Sailor and Lula) but has forced french subs. Being re-released in France on 10/19 and in the UK on 10/25. No reviews or Region coding info yet.

I need to get a multi-region player just for Mulholland Dr.

There's also the Studio Canal release of The Elephant Man.

Dune is already available here in the US, but there are different editions in France and Germany. The US release has the superior transfer.

There's a UK or France Blu-ray release of "Fire Walk With Me" coming up, too, if it's not out already.

The rotten part about these is the potential audio pitch issues. I seem to remember that was a problem on the HD DVD releases of "Mulholland Dr." and "The Elephant Man" . . .

INLAND EMPIRE - UK release is Region B locked

I've got the French MK2 versions of Lost Highway and Fire Walk with Me on preorder, but I'm hoping there are reviews to confirm things such as forced-subtitles and PAL audio issues. If I recall the MK2 DVD of Lost Highway did not have forced French subtitles on English audio, but did suffer from a pitched audio.

no pitch issues with Mulholland Drive blu ray

All European DVDs have a pitch increase due to the nature of PAL video. That shouldn't affect a high-def release, ideally. However, Studio Canal has a history of screwing up the audio quality of its HD discs. So long as MK2 avoids making the same mistakes that Studio Canal has, pitch shouldn't be a concern. That seems to be specifically a Studio Canal quality control problem.

I will have to reserve judgment on that until I hear it myself. Many people have said that the Mulholland Drive HD DVD didn't have pitch problems, but it so glaringly does.

Please report back after you've had a chance to hear it, Josh. That'll be an instant purchase for me.

The German release of Wild at Heart has no forced subs and looks marvelous. Region B locked though.

Does anyone know if Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has any deleted scenes on the blu-ray?

I have the Aus release of Wild at Heart which has the german classification logo on the disc so I am guessing it is the same disc.

But there is a screwup with the sound on the Aus disc at least, even though it is listed as 5.1 DTS HD-MA and the player/receiver identifies it as the same, it is definitely 2 channel with dialogue coming from all front speakers.

hbilly, how is your german copy in this regard?

Josh, never got the HD-DVD but the blu ray sounds fine to me.

At some point over the last decade, Lynch decided that he hates surround sound. When he supervised the video and audio transfers for MGM's last DVD, the soundtrack was encoded as 5.1, but only the front three channels had activity (meaning, it was really 3.0). Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire were mixed similarly, as were the "5.1" remasters for The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet. So a lack of surround activity may not necessarily mean there's a technical fault with any of these discs. That's just Lynch's current preference.

However, dialogue shouldn't be coming from all three front speakers, just from the center. If that's happening, something is probably wrong.

Some people are more sensitive to pitch increase than others. Unfortunately, I am very sensitive to it. Have you watched many PAL DVDs and noticed the pitch there?

josh,

I've just got a hold of the r1 dvd of Wild at Heart and am going to do a comparison. But dialogue coming from all three front speakers is a bit of a giveaway I think that something is not right.

As for PAL speedup, I am in Australia so have about 50% of my collection in PAL. I'm not that sensitive to PAL speedup pitch issues, I do notice it but its not something that bothers me that much. But the pitch issue for SC BD's is different, its a further speedup of a 25fps source and I cant notice this on the MD BD. That said, I supposed you wont have confirmation until you hear it yourself Getting it soon?

For anyone interested Blu-Ray.com posted their review of the UK Mullholland Drive disc.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Mulhol.../11187/#Review

Did the Wild at Heart comparison, the 5.1 track on the r1 dvd doesnt exhibit the problem mentioned with the Universal blu ray (at least the Australia version but probably others if its the same disc in all european countries).

Have sent an email to universal australia, doubt I'd get a response though.

I bought the Nordic release of Wild at heart, the disc bears British, Irish, German, Dutch and Australian classification logos, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix definitely has surround activity.

K.O.P.,

sorry my mistake, I should have been clearer. The error is not that there is no surround activity, as you say there is.

But the dialogue comes from all three front speakers and is not confined to the centre speaker like a proper 5.1 mix, it is more akin to the way 2 channel sound would be output.

Can either of you confirm whether Wild at Heart is the American or international cut of the film? The difference is only one shot:

It's the American cut.

yes, not uncut.

Thanks. That's actually good news, as far as I'm concerned. I prefer the smoke effect. The gore looks really fake and cheesy without it.

Blu-ray.com forums say both the UK and French Mulholland Dr are region locked. We're never gonna see that damn movie on Blu.

BUZZKILL.

I can confirm that the UK Mulholland Drive BD doesn't have the audio pitch issue. I bought the HD DVD and I noticed it right away with that. The BD also has some solid extras.