"Copying Beethoven" DVD

[Preston]

Sorry,Terry, but your player (like mine) will not play Region 1 DVDs and "Copying Beethoven" is a Region 1. Some NTSC discs will play on a PAl DVD player but these are nearly always Region O. Let's hope it comes out on Region 2 shortly.
"Immortal Beloved" has never been issued in Region 2 but I managed to get a Korean version on eBay. It sounds dodgy but it was absolutely perfect - the soundtrack was in English and the subtitles English and Korean (which, as you know, can be switched off). The DVD was NTSC encoded but played perfectly on my machine.

Michael

Some DVD players can be modified to play Region 1 discs - sometimes by means of a code transferred from the remote control, but Sony and Panasonic (control freaks!) require a physical
modification of the machine by a dealer or qualified person. Strangely enough, none of this is illegal.

Terry and Michael, y'all should just buy a Region 1 DVD player. I believe it would be worth it.

[Hollywood]

"Immortal Beloved" has never been issued in Region 2 but I managed to get a Korean version on eBay. It sounds dodgy but it was absolutely perfect - the soundtrack was in English and the subtitles English and Korean (which, as you know, can be switched off). The DVD was NTSC encoded but played perfectly on my machine.

Michael

Michael, the film "Immortal Beloved" is available in PAL, Region 2 format. I bought my copy here in Vienna under the title "Meine Unsterbliche Geliebte" and you can watch it in either german, english or french. You can also buy this film here on Amazon.de for €7.95:

http://www.amazon.de/Ludwig-van-B-un...4550410&sr=1-1

So for all of us living here in Europe you can purchase the film "Immortal Beloved" in PAL, Region 2 format. It is a damn shame that the dvd of "Copying Beethoven" ("Klang der Stille" for the german version) is not available on Amazon.de or even Amazon.co.uk so it looks like there will be no PAL Region 2 version available for us here in Europe. The only places that do have "Copying Beethoven" on dvd is Amazon.com ($19.59) and also at Barnes and Noble.com ($27.99) but these will be Region 1, NTSC. Thank god my Toshiba player plays NTSC dvds. My best friend back in Los Angeles is going to buy me "Copying Beethoven" and send it to me for my birthday. Then I'll finally be able to see this film since it is not being released in the Kinos here in Austria for 2007.

[Michael]

Michael, the film "Immortal Beloved" is available in PAL, Region 2 format. I bought my copy here in Vienna under the title "Meine Unsterbliche Geliebte" and you can watch it in either german, english or french. You can also buy this film here on Amazon.de for €7.95:

.

Thanks, Hollywood. That sounds like a great bargain. The version I got is not PAL but is Region 2 and I am very pleased with it, but a PAL version would be slightly better if anyone else is interested.

In answer to Preston's suggestion, I don't buy any Region 1 DVD's simply because of the NTSC quality which is lower than PAL. Of course, I made an exception for "Immortal Beloved".
However, the new High Definition DVD's may change all that but I'll be damned if I'm going to replace my substantial collection! I can't afford it anyway.

Michael

[Michael]

I would just like to mention here that the reason I was so interested in the DVD of "Immortal Beloved" was not because of the quality of the movie, but the fact that it had a commentary by the director and writer, Bernard Rose. I expected to hear some interesting reasons as to why he distorted the known facts about Beethoven. Unfortunately, the commentary was a dead loss. He rarely referred to what was actually on the screen at the time and at no stage did he clarify what was fact and what was his own imagination. However, one or two scenes in the movie are quite effective in widescreen and the soundtrack is much better on DVD. The guy who wrote the music for this movie obviously has a big future in store for him.

Michael