I was just doing a search on foreign HD titles and realized that Pan's Laybrinth has been released to the European market http://amazon.fr/o/ASIN/B000Q35S6M/r...pf_rd_i=405320

I was wondering if anyone has seen the HD version of Pan's Labyrinth? What is the quality of it. Good buy or should i pass?

No English subtitles on that R2 Ultimate Edition unfortunately.

How about on the HD DVD itself. Is there any subtitles? There is some regular DVD's in the set but was wondering if the HD version has subtitles or is it no English subtitles whatsoever on the whole set

EDIT: Never mind it looks like the subtitles are in French

I've read reports that there are scenes where the contrast is messed up on that HD-DVD too.

what is it about the French-they generally dont put English subs on their discs, despite a large potential secondary market-ie: UK, US, Canada-and people who speak mainly english throughtout the EU.

Well, they are not allowed to! In Europe there are plenty of market limitations even between countries that may be using the same language.

Back to the topic...Optimum will have their Hi-Def versions coming in November.

Pro-B

For example the french speaking people in Belgium have to wait 3 months after the dutch release because of the french laws.
Funny that Optimum, which is a subsidiary company of Studio Canal, will release November 12 "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Host" in both formats HD-DVD and BD.
Studio Canal didn't mentioned they were HD-DVD only, but actually they didn't release any Blu-Ray disc.

I already commented on this elsewhere but Studio Canal went HD-DVD in a first place because they were under Universal's distro-umbrella and there is still some shared ownership between the two. In Eastern Europe for example Studio Canal's catalog is almost exclusively distributed by Universal sans a few exceptions. I used to even know the people who oversaw the market.

Pro-B

Perfect timing for me as that's probably when I'll be taking the plunge for a hd player. I'm (somewhat) patiently waiting to watch this in HD glory. It premeired on Cinemax recently so I'm hoping it'll be on HBOHD in the next two months. But then, maybe, just maybe Directv will have all their new HD stations running next week and I'll be able to see it sooner. I absolutely love this movie.

Nice, I didn't know that.

Hopefully the disc will have all the R1 extras as well as maybe some from other regions.