Ask Engadget HD: What's the best demo material to show off my new home theater?
By Richard Lawler 
posted May 13th 2009 12:00PM
posted May 13th 2009 12:00PM
"I've finally finished piecing together the best home theater (my) money can buy. Plasma display, Denon receiver, brand new 5.1 speaker setup and even some new furniture. My friends want to come by and see the new setup, but even with my satellite DVR, a large DVD library and a few Blu-ray discs I don't know what to show 'em to put my system to the test properly."
We've got you Thomas, one of the greatest pleasures of getting new equipment is blowing the minds of friends / neighbors / random people off the street. We're sure you have a disc, favorite channel or one DVR program stored away just for that purpose - let us in on the secret.
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Iron Man is one of my favorites. I completely forgot about the Akira Blu-ray, I may have to go pick that up.
Wheres the Love for Planet Earth for visual effects? Some of the best I have ever seen
Sigourney Weaver aint to shabby either!
Dark Knight, iron man, planet earth, band of brothers are all great ones
I still love the scene from Predator 1 when Jesse Ventura starts unloading the mini gun into the forest. Everybody else runs up behind him, they ask no questions and just unload round after round. Rumble rumble rumble=)
My vote goes to V for Vendetta. Cannot believe it hasnt been mentioned. Second vote would go to The Dark Knight.
As for 300. Liked the movie - but I was not impressed at all with the picture on that one.
I agree with Chris W, I cant beleive no one else mentionned Planet Earth before now.
On of the episodes with the great plains or something...
Plasma is definitely the way to go. I put on "I, Robot" "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" or "Dark Knight" (IMAX scenes) to show off my Kuro.
the best for me will be when the LOTR trilogy is released. Nothing better than that to show off my 72" Samsung DLP and my 6.1 channel home theater
I'm not really sure about showing off booming sound but for video, definitely Baraka and Planet Earth.
By far, for me it's the car chase scene through San Francisco in "The Rock." The surround sound is great, and the bold colors (yellow sports car, blue water bottles, red trolley) are a perfect demo.
That said, any PIXAR movie does the trick nicely, too.
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The Transformers Blu-ray - all scenes previously mentioned - is very good demo material indeed.
The opening of The Fellowship of the Ring (extended edition, in DTS ES discrete 6.1) is fantastic too. The shock wave when Sauron implodes really goes through my room and makes superb use of all speakers.
I didn't replay my Serenity HD DVD since I upgraded my setup. My sub might just demolish the room. The end of The Return of the King should be pretty sweet too... When will we have the trilogy on Blu-ray ?
Top Demo Scenes for me are 1) Cloverfield when debris from the explosion falls down on the roof like asteroids while they're all watching 2) First scene in the desert in Transformers 3) F-22 Scene from Live Free or Die hard 4) The scene where Neo dodges bullets while falling back in the Matrix (it will truly test your surround left speaker)
I'll add another for audio that I don't think I saw mentioned:
Audio especially - Star Wars Episode 1 during the rod race scene. Lots of explosions, engine sounds, funky wizzing, you get the idea.
On video I agree with most of what people have said. Transformers, U571, Planet Earth, are all great choices.
IronMan, Transformers, PIXAR's "films"…all great choices.
Also: Black Hawk Down (bullets wizzing by from all directions)
Flight of the Phoenix…the sandstorm & crash sequences (the creaking of the airframe turning upside down is great on the subwoofer, and the sandstorm still hitting the outside of the fuselage after the crash is cool)
U-571…depthcharges (subwoofer workout and the visual blurring of the set when the submarine shudders adds to the realism)
Autos:
Oldie…Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer directed, wonderfully edited visuals and sound); racing footage from on the cars.
also: Super Speedway (IMAX) and most of the "Victory by Design" DVD's (wonderful real vintage car sounds from outside and inside the $$$$ speeding cars!)
First-person shooter games, like Halo 3 on the 360…the player stays fixed and the environment (and hence the sound) move around the room; helicopters overhead switch sides, for example, when you spin around
Offbeat: PAIN (PS3)…as the player flies through the air, the sound changes nicely with the local environment…even better to replay and more slowly move the camera all over and see the visual details and the accompanying aural details, as well.
Not really my cup of tea, but the Missus has been watching the BBC drama, "The Tudors" on Blu-Ray, and it's probably up there with the best picture I've ever seen.
I'm also a big fan of the Imax scenes in the Dark Knight. I've only got a 42" plasma, so having a full 16:9 picture makes a difference.
O.K. folks. Here are the 4 definitive DVD/Blu-Ray scenes used to benchmark HT, including Dolby/DTS quality, codec comparison, upscaling, smooth motion scene transition, color rendering, banding, etc.
1. Terminator 2 - Canal Chase. From entry point until John Connor is sitting on Arnold's motocycle and says "OK, OK, Time Out!"
2. Fifth Element - DNA creation of Leeloo / Milla Jovovich. From entry point until she falls into the taxi and says to Bruce Willis: "Big Bada-Boom".
3. Fifth Element - The blue diva sings the techno opera. From entry point until both Leeloo (in her fight with dog-faced aliens) and the opera singer both hold out their arms to applause.
4. Toy Story 2 - Opening Scene. Buzz lightyear zooms onto earth from space, bounces laser off of crystal to destroy thousands of robots and fights Zorg to the death (Buzz is blown apart). From very beginning of DVD until the dinosaur complains that his hand is too small to control the video game and fire at the same time.
These are the 4 scenes that were used for years in the Sony projector forum and are still used in Mitsubushi and Sanyo forums. They are particulary good at helping the layperson accurately judge blue rendering, compression artifacts, audio drop outs, decoding speed, etc, etc.
Finally, don't forget to play the opening THX splash very loud. After hearing this on a few combinations of equipment and speakers, you will very readily discern if your audio system is configured and balanced properly. With a little practice, you will know immediately where your sweet spot is or how to reposition it within you room.
Ellery Davies, [ Ellery (at) starbus (dot) com ]
Transporter 2
Transformers
Things We Lost in the Fire
007 Casino Royale
Speed Racer
Transformers
The Spirit
The Fountain (HD DVD)
Dreamgirls (HD DVD)
Chronicles of Riddick (HD DVD)
The Matrix Trilogy
Kung Fu Panda
Ratatouille
Cars
Meet the Robinsons
I, Robot
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End
Chicken Little
Open Season
The Wild
Man on Fire
Bee Movie
Tinker Bell
Baraka
Domino
Red Cliff (H.K. Import)
The Host
Live Free or Die Hard
Corpse Bride
Becoming Jane
Transporter 3
Bolt
TMNT
Youth Without Youth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Wall-E
Transporter 2
Chronicles of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian Video
Sleeping Beauty
Vexille
Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk (IMAX)
Happy Feet
Just as finding the appropriate demo material for a music-based system requires a broad spectrum of content that can show your gear has flexibility, hone theater demo material must be broken down by the particulart aspects you are trying to showcase. On a HT system, the main breakdown would be:
1) films with incredible visual detail (including proper black level detail, though movies that showcase black level delineation can be very different from those that are particularly visually eye-popping). And let's not pretend people -- The Dark Knight's edge enhancement is far too obvious to consider it demo material.
2) Films with outstanding surround sound content.
3) Films with LFE that will shake your molars (not just that 'kick in the chest' mid-bass, but the trolling of the absolute depths that makes you stir in the places you don't speak about at parties)
4) Music demo material -- nothing in the land of home theater is as stressful and revealing as a music soundtrack. Now, as this is supposed to be a home-theater-based collection rather than an audiophile collection, I will limit myself to music selections that are available on Blu-ray, rather than SACD or DVD-A.
My selections would be:
1) Visual detail: I will agree with the majority of the above posts that, due to the nature of the digital beast, the Pixar films are exquisite for showing jaw-dropping visual detail. By the way, the recent BR releases of 'A Bug's Life' and 'Monsters, Inc' (which is unfortunately only available for sale from Japan right now) are formidable additions to this collection. In the live-action genre, personal preference (including like or dislike for film grain) figures prominently in the decison-making process. For example, 'Black Snake Moan' has some great visual detail, but its grain may disappoint some.
From the live-action realm, I think that pretty much all 3 of the Pirates movies, both Bond films, Apocalypto, I Robot, both Hellboys, Kill Bills 1 and 2, The Island, and (one for which I have a particular softspot) Sunshine are all great choices.
Now, as for black level detail -- not quite as much from which to choose. The Underworld series really shines here, as do some scenes from the Pirates trilogy.
2) Surround sound content -- yeah, some of these will come from the oldies but goodies category, and lots of them are, to be frank, explosion- and shooting-fests, but they're outstanding.
For my money, Master and Commander, Band of Brothers, Blackhawk Down, the DVD of Saving Private Ryan (when oh when will this finally come out on BR?), 3:10 to Yuma, Band of Brothers, Batman Begins, The Matrix and its sequels, and Transformers will all wow the audience, particularly in a well-designed surround sound system.
3) The LFE category -- now, I must confess that I'm a bit of a HT bass-head, and I've spent many thousands of dollars so as to maximize my HT LFE content. So, I will be biased here. But my top 10 would be, in no particular order (as it's like choosing amongst my children):
* Cloverfield -- from the moment of the opening credits, this will shake you non-stop
* the DTS soundtrack of War of the Worlds -- be prepared to wake the neighbors with the Pods emerging scene or a couple of subsequent scnes, even if you live in your own house
* Pulse -- BE FOREWARNED, IF YOU RUN YOUR SUBS A LITTLE HOT OR IF YOUR SUBS ARE OVERMATCHED, YOU MAY OVERSTRESS THEM IN THE LAST SCENE.
* Incredible Hulk -- just an incredible LFE mix
* Live Free or Die Hard -- this is a non-stop LFE fest
* The Dark Knight -- for all the ribbing I give TDK about its video, the LFE in this movie is unbelievable
* Iron Man -- in the same family as Incredible Hulk for LFE content
* The Incredibles -- some real hidden gems in this one
* Finding Nemo -- a whole lotta nothing, but the submarine scene and Darla scene are prodigious enough that this movie needs to be on the list
* Lord of the Rings series -- I really can't wait for the BR's to come out on these titles, b/c the SD DVD's have exemplary LFE tracks
4) Music -- yeah, this will be a half-hearted list b/c we can't include DVD-A's and SACD's, but Blu-ray has provided the opportunity for incredible audio for the masses as well as the audiophile community.
My top 5 (again, in no particular order):
* Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City -- I almost cry when I listen to this. Just exquisite.
* NIN Live: Beside You In Time
* Across the Universe -- now I readily acknowledge that this is actually a movie rather than a music concert, but the audio track is enveloping.
* The Police Certifiable Live in Buenos Aires
* Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis: Showcase -- nothing is more revealing or more glorious than a good audio system's treatment of jazz, and this disc gives any such system its bet opportunity.
Hope this helps. It's a great time to have a great home theater!!
Speed Racer. I know, the movie isn't the best, but the visuals are sharper than knives and almost the entire thing is in focus most of the time. Vibrant colors, good sound, too.
Germany: I put on regular TV to show my friends how good it can look and sound! Most of them don't know sports events come in 5.1.
Then, I switch to one of the very few high def channels, and everyone's blown away. Afterwards, Dark Knight IMAX scenes or The Sound Of High Definition BD Demo.
Superman Returns' airline rescue attempt is ,for me, the PERFECT demo! It's bright and it has a happy ending! And the music is just as spectacular as the visuals.
But there are a few others that are pretty awesome onto themselves.
1. X-Men 3 - The Bridge scene and fight sequence with the Phoenix and Xavier.
2. Wall-E - The arrival of E.V.E.
3. Cloverfield - The hole damn thing!
4. Iron Man - When stark gets revenge on some of his tortmentors. In his new suit that is.
5. The Matrix: Reloaded - The highway chase scene!
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre - THE TRAILOR!!! Try it.
Pirates: At World's End - Chapter 27(?) - When the British ship gets demolished passing inbetween both Pirate ships
iRobot - "You are experiencing an accident"
M:I 3 - Bridge attack scene
Flight of the Phoenix - Initial Plane crash scene, Night espionage to Gypsy camp scene
Swordfish - Infamous 360 degree explosion scene
Master and Commander - "Ghost" ship attack scene
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix - the last 15 minutes Good V. Evil battle
Transformers - Ironhide flip over the hot chick scene
Full movies:
Sunshine
Iron Man
Transformers
The Dark Knight
Any PIXAR
Band OF Brothers (HBO miniseries)
First of all, any of you who are using Transformers to show off your system, I hope its only for audio. I love the movie, but unfortunately the compression that they use makes for a lot of grain in the picture. Even on higher end systems, (pioneer elite plasma blu-ray and reciever) there is a lot of noise in the picture, especially the close ups.
Visually, the opening scenes to either Daniel Craig bond film is amazing, to this day Casino Royale is still my favorite Blu-ray visual wise.
master and commander is good in the battle scene,(chapter 11 i think, but not sure anymore) for an audio demo. Pixar stuff is the easy stuff, and while it looks nice, they arent going to see that big a difference that they will from something live action. Lastly for audio demos, any Blu-ray recorded music/concerts are extremely good.
Hairspray was the killer app that got me into the format and my demo disc. Period piece musical set in the 60's with a super-saturated color palette via the wardrobe and the most dancing in a film since - ever. HD really shines when it's used to make out rail thin dancers in tight clothes on a 2.39:1 full of them.
I'd actually say that Meet the Robinsons is a good demo movie. It's clean and crisp and you have a few opportunities to really show off the surround sound, especially when bowler hat guy is echoing the dark before appearing to Cornelius with the time machine. What's more, the movie is completely family friendly!