What is a good film to test a DVD player?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809/

I think that the soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi will give your player a workout.

Here's a list of great soundtracks:

http://www.filmsite.org/100soundtracks.html

The track to 2001 A Space Odyssey will really test out your player's low end.

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy -- a great musical score (which won not one, but two Oscars) and astounding surround effects. I'm assuming you are set up for Dolby Digital or DTS? I purchased a Yamaha THX certified receiver with all the bells and whistles. It has 9 channels, including two front left and right presence effects speakers. It's called DSP -- Digital Spatial Presence. The two speakers are about four feet above and about two feet to the right and left of the main stereo speakers. It gives depth to the front sound stage placing the front effects behind the speaking voices and expanding the sound panorama. It also lets one "lift" the speaking voices to the level of the screen if one has floor speakers. Actually the film that has the most amazing Dolby Digital surround effects is "Jurassic Park III."

Unfortunately, the soundtrack to "Koyaaanisqatsi" is not Dolby Digital but may have been transferred from Dolby Surround to digital tracks. I wasn't really impressed by the quality of the transfer (sorry, Phoenix). Ditto "2001," which sounds pretty good in a theater like the Hollywood Cinerama but on home DVD is rather dissapointing. Sound technology and especially film sound has advanced dramatically in the digital era. I was impressed recently by the Dolby Digitizing of the analog soundtrack of "The Music Man." The final brass band tracks come alive. Of course, with DSP one can improve on old soundtracks and give the new soundtracks even better focus than what one hears in the theaters. know I always try to see recent films like "The Aviator" in a THX certified theater but in this case the projectionist must have been hard of hearing and cranked up the sound to ear shattering levels.

BTW, "2001" is going through the process of being adapted for IMAX and the soundtrack from the original analog tapes is being once again reprocessed for digital. The trick is to take the encoded rear channels and assign them to the digital rear effects tracks.

BTW, movies have what is called a LFE, Low Frequency Effects, which is essentially a boost to the very low end relegated to a sub-woofer. This can annoy the neighbors and I have it somewhat attenuated on the configuration on my Yamaha.

Good, thanks, the LOTR films and Jurassic Park III are of course available locally. I am not sure about 2001 and sure that Koyaanisquatsi (or the other two in the series) is not to be had in our video store, really a shame.

And now the only cinema in my town is going to close for lack of clientele (well, I would have frequented the place more, if they would have shown something more interesting than the absolute middle of the road Hollywood blockbusters). Living in a none-cinema town really gives one the impression of living out in the sticks!

I would think "2001" will always be available in any good DVD rental store but "Koyaanisquatsi" may not be. It's basically a documentary with stunning visuals using such cinematic techniques as time lapse cinematography. I agree with Phoenix on the quality of the score -- Philip Glass has done many film scores incudling "Kundun," "Mishima" and "The Hours," and "Mishima" is my favorite. The spatial depth of a full symphony orchestra is a good test of any surround system -- I have on DVD audio the Holst "The Planets" with Andre Previn conducting and it is a knockout. The Glass music from "The Hours" is from two of his opera overtures.

This does depend on whether you're looking for great soundtracks or the special sound effects contained in movies, or both. Phoenix's link is a very good source but some of my favorites (pre-digital and analog but still great):

"Krull"
"The Blue Max"
"The Egyptian"

I do believe the newest DVD of "2001: A Space Oddysey" has a digitized soundtrack from the originally analog sound. It may be a lot better as I do not have the DVD edition but the older videotape with the best hi fi tracks. The performance of the opening Strauss "Also Sprach Zarathrustra" is not the best performance of the piece. Likely the best one is the San Francisco Symphony latest CD and I believe it is Dolby Pro Logic Surround. The Telarc recording is definitely Dolby Surround but one would have to buy the DVD sound edition. Dolby Pro Logic is a compromise -- I watch the Discovery channel every Friday night for their BBC concerts of such fare as "Carmen" and it's shown both in Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro-Logic in some of the repeats through the night into the next morning for some strange reason. The difference is remarkable -- the soundstage while processing both signals through my DSP channels has a significant improvement in depth and dynamic range. The opening deep end of the "Carmen" overature has the full orchestra punch in the lower end with the digital and is noticably less powerful in the Dolby Pro-Logic.

The interesting thing would be if the score to "2001" is updated with new performances in true digital or if they will opt for digitizing the analog source in the new IMAX version.

There is a DVD specifically designed for calibration.
It's called DVD Essentials.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005PJ70/qid=1111533422/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-0158171-8446515?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

My Yamaha home entertainment THX amp has a mike calibration program. In other words, I set up the mike in a central listening area and it goes through various tests for level, equalization, phazing et al. It's indispensible.

The Matrix.

"The Matrix" is a great demo movie but two and three contain so many sound effects like trash barrels being dumped in the street that they could easily cause a migrane.

Another great movie for the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is "Master and Commander" -- the first battle sequence where the enemy ship slips through the fog and begins bombarding Russell Crowe's vessel is incredible. The LFE sound places the low base into the sub-woofer which is non-directional but the explosions are coming from all around you. It made me duck!

Saving Private Ryan. the opening fight sequence on the beaches of normandy should be really good.

Ben Hur

Ben-Hur? that movies from 1960. does that even have surround sound?

Quote- "Ben-Hur? that movies from 1960. does that even have surround sound? "
-Bobby Shutup

How big is the Tv?

No surround sound for "Ben Hur" but you'd have to check if the latest released DVD has processed the old soundtrack but I still wouldn't pick that film for demonstrating the capability of a surround system. As far as sword-and-sandal I would pick "Gladiator" for its uniquely exotic scoring and some very realistic sound effects. A big screen hi-def set would help as the sound is designed for a wide screen image. This all depends on what genre of film one is attracted to. The surround in "Chicago" has a you-are-there stage ambience which hightens the intimacy of the songs, especially "Cellophane."

Oh, I was just kidding with "Ben Hur" as it is such a long
movie, well over 3 hours I think.

I watched The Perfect Storm when I first got my DVD player and it was an AWESOME movie to watch to test out the system. That's my recommendation! :-)

I still belive "Ben Hur" is the best of the Bible epics, certainly over "The Passion of the Chainsaw Massacre" which also has a fine soundtrack and cinematography but can't compare. I would be interested to see it in a good hi def version with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround and they are now restoring soundtracks of many fine classics with this added great feature.

Indeed, "The Perfect Storm" is a definite winner in the sound department. If the violent stormy sea visuals aren't enough, the sound effects will toss one around until they've gone beyond seasickness. I love it. Now that I've added the far rear THX speakers, I need to try it out again but the neighbors may call the police.

Glad I live in the boonies, LW - I get to excersize my Yamaha's coolin' fans quite a bit, and I never engage Dynamic Range Limitin'

For all around Home Theater setup and calibration, I think it'd be hard to beat the Avia Guide To Home Theater DVD and a decent dB meter - even RadioShack's $40 model will do, though I use a slightly spendier, no-longer made unit from Shure ... mostly 'cause thats the one I have, I've had it a long time, and it works fine.

A good "Show off your system" movie, if you've got a real good system, is The Fifth Element. Another is the recently restored-and-re-released Lawrence of Arabia ... a real stunner, both for visuals and for audio.