What do you use to demo your home theater?

[mysticdream]

i use those action scenes from terminator salvation and few movie trailers

 

[Nebor]

I point at the dusty 3d glasses on the shelf and say "See those? Used 'em once."

 

[exdeath]

Wall-E on BluRay. 1080p with 120 Hz frame creation on a 106" screen with a CGI movie is like a candy coated razor blade assault to the eyes. If you really want to demo something, CGI is the way to go. Real life FMV footage is bland even in 1080p and isn't going to express the full contrast and color range of your video setup, nor is it going to be anywhere near as sharp or smooth to demo the high resolution and frame rate.

It's my own setup and I'm still completely floored whenever I see that, esp the scene where he's holding onto the rocket and runs his hand through the blue glowy dust stuff against the pitch black backdrop of space.

Alternately, any colorful game on any game console that is producing native 1080p (true 1920x1080 framebuffer not just upscaled by the video converter chip) over HDMI with all scaling, processing, overscan, etc, turned off on the display (eg: 1 to 1 pixels from source to final display).

 

[queequeg99]

The following comments are all made in the context of blu-ray disks:

If you're talking visuals only, Wall-E and the Incredibles are both very good. But if you want visuals and audio, there are a few others. I like the scene in Avatar when the drop ship enters the atmosphere and lands for the first time (near the beginning of the film). The visuals against the interstellar space ship are impressive and this scene will really let you know if you've got your lower end frequencies covered. Avatar in general has excellent visuals, as does Return of the King.

Also, the scene in the Star Trek reboot when the ship comes out of warp behind Titan. Visuals are pretty good but again, the sound will be heavily stressed.

And if you really want to emphasize audio over video, use the opening battle sequence from Master and Commander. I cranked this scene when I got my new Hsu VTF-15H subwoofer and my neighbor could easily hear the cannon fire while he was working in his garden (we live on 6 acre lots). How to Train Your Dragon also has some great audio sequences (as well as good visuals).

 

[Aharami]

Avatar

 

[CubanlB]

Quantum of Solace intro lately. It's got great dynamic range imo. Tenacious D: POD rock off is always fun, the only DVD I own that is actually DTS 6.1 discrete.

 

[Oyeve]

Opening 10 mins of ROTJ. Darth Vader shuttle landing.

 

[queequeg99]

I should have also noted that the Master and Commander BD disk is a nice way to demonstrate good use of a properly set up surround sound system. There are couple of walkthroughs of the ship late at night and as the camera moves through the hold, you can hear the snoring sailors "move" past you (as well as the various creaks and groans of the ship itself). At a more intense level, hearing a cannon shot approach and then fly over you is pretty cool.

 

[vi edit]

Tron: Legacy was a pretty amazing eye & ear gasm.

 

[Gintaras]

Why do you need to demo your HT?

 

[Anubis]

Why do you need to demo your HT?

some of us have friends who are jealous of our stuff

 

[Tristicus]

I would use Ratatouille.

Like this guy:

 

[Anubis]

I would use Ratatouille.

Like this guy:

theres like 300k worth of just amps in that pic

 

[vi edit]

some of us have friends who are jealous of our stuff

I'm a value oriented guy and I like to show off what $4000 in equipment gets you. A lot of people think you need to spend 10's of thousands to get impressive results. You dont.

That 4k covers speakers, sub, screen, receiver, PJ, PS3 and treatments.

 

[velillen]

Tron: Legacy for me. Amazing visual and Picture. Wall-e is good picture wise but meh audio wise.

I also have Manchester United vs Chelsea Champions league Final from 2008/2009 season and picture wise its always amazed me for a football game. Just how the players look in the close ups and everything.

As for Master and Commander.....not so much for me. Its good but i know the bluray cut out LFE at 25hz so i feel gimped lol. (since i know my sub will play down into the low teens)


And its nice to show people what a modest budget can get you. 4-5k can get you a rather nice setup that for 90% of is all they would need (feature/quality wise i mean)

 

[JackBurton]

I'm a value oriented guy and I like to show off what $4000 in equipment gets you. A lot of people think you need to spend 10's of thousands to get impressive results. You dont.

That 4k covers speakers, sub, screen, receiver, PJ, PS3 and treatments.

You don't HAVE to, but it will certainly look and sound better.

 

[zerocool84]

Avatar

The movie isn't good but damn the visuals are awesome. I picked that blu-ray up the day I got my new tv.

 

[Tristicus]

theres like 300k worth of just amps in that pic

Yeah It's a $6 million setup. Lol. And the company that makes it, Klipsis or something, claims that is their midrange setup. Lol.

 

[blackangst1]

After setting the basic YPAO on my receiver, I use Master and Commander and Gladiator.

 

[Spicedaddy]

The Dark Knight Blu-Ray. The opening scene is shot in 16:9 IMAX.

 

[Gintaras]

some of us have friends who are jealous of our stuff

Just like little kids: "John has this toy that Steve does not have"...
US becoming like huge sandbox, especially when grown men compare their cellphones...

Bring your colourblind and deaf friends to demo your home theater - didn't you buy it for them instead for yourself?



If you can't post to the topic, stay out of the thread


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[Tristicus]

Just like little kids: "John has this toy that Steve does not have"...
US becoming like huge sandbox, especially when grown men compare their cellphones...

Bring your colourblind and deaf friends to demo your home theater - didn't you buy it for them instead for yourself?

You jelly of our HT setups?

 

[JSt0rm]

I would use Ratatouille.

Like this guy:

Looks like he is set up for sdds. 3 center speakers. Hard to see in the resolutions. Pretty extreme regardless.

 

[blackangst1]

Looks like he is set up for sdds. 3 center speakers. Hard to see in the resolutions. Pretty extreme regardless.

HERE is his setup. All $6 million of it.

Picture Elements:
Sony SRX-S110 Professional Video Projector (4,096-by-2,160)
Stewart 18-by-10-foot Snowmatte 1.0 Gain Laboratory-Grade Motion Picture Screen
Players and Sources:
Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Player
Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player
JVC HMDH-5U D-VHS Recorder
SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total)
Mark Levinson Reference N°33 and N°33H.
Pioneer HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE Laserdisc Player
Surround Processing and Decoding:
Theta Digital Generation VIII 32-bit 8x Oversampling Dual Processors (13)
Amplification:
Mark Levinson N° 33h Amplifiers (2)
McIntosh MC-2102 Amplifiers (30)
Crown Macro Reference Gold Amplifiers (3)
Speakers:
Snell 1800 THX Music & Cinema Reference Subwoofers (16)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers (8)
MuRata ES103A Super Tweeters (10)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800 Center-Channel Speakers (3)

 

[Gintaras]

You jelly of our HT setups?

Not at all....I like mine and it's only for $1140