StudioCanal

The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.

SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.

The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.

For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.

The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.

The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.

The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.

2011 Lionsgate Blu-ray slightly better

Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray slightly better

Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has best encoding. France Potemkine and Criterion UHDs slightly worse.

> Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray > Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has the 2.0 PCM mono audio

StudioCanal 2025 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray uses a new 4K restoration. Even though France release, they included EN subtitles.

For Blu-ray, StudioCanal 2025 Blu-ray > Kino Lorber > StudioCanal.

See DVDBeaver comparisons

2019 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (same as Optimum Blu-ray)

(StudioCanal has 5.1 and is slightly sharper and not low-pass filtered, both have differing extras) (capsule review)

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has the original 5.1 audio

both 4K Blu-rays have differing extras

The Atmos on the Sony release is reportedly better than StudioCanal's.

Disc info of the box set discs. This film have recieved multiple encode/versions in different regions over the years. The 2017 Germany4K Blu-ray is encoded differently than the 2017 Sony but not better. Also, the same can be said to 2024 France Gaumont 4K Blu-ray while comparing to the 2020 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray omits all the extras from previous releases, being barebones.

> StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. Older DVD or LaserDisc probably even better

All blu-ray releases so far is from the 2010 scan.