Movies to test our systems

Dan.S posted:

Being constantly on the chase after audio nirvana I find myself testing audio equipment quite often and one thing I test is the rig's performance in movies. Any movie or just a particular difficult passage comes to mind that would reveal our systems strengths or weaknesses?

Here's a suggestion: Black Hawk Down. (first 5 minutes)

Saving Private Ryan in DTS, first 10 minutes beach storming.

For subwoofer testing, the 'splashes' section of U571

If you want ultimate bass, nothing beats the opening few minutes of "Event Horizon" when the large spacecraft heads towards Earth (we'll gloss over the fact that there's no sound in outer space). The latest bond, "Spectre", has a magnificent 7.1 channel soundtrack.

This is great! Keep them coming.

Guy007 posted:

Saving Private Ryan in DTS, first 10 minutes beach storming.

 

Very much agree with the beach assault scene from Saving Private Ryan. A couple of others:

(i) opening battle scene from Gladiator (the catapulted oil-filled pots crashing into the trees is excellent)

(ii) opening car chase in the tunnels from Quantum of Solace

Mike 

Master & Commander was one of my favourites for testing all aspects (picture and sound) of a home cinema set-up.  The opening 10 minutes were all you needed.  I'm guessing that the Blu-ray may be even better, but the DVD was SOA at the time and still looks and sounds great when played back on my BR player.

Richard Dane posted:

Master & Commander was one of my favourites for testing all aspects (picture and sound) of a home cinema set-up.  The opening 10 minutes were all you needed.  I'm guessing that the Blu-ray may be even better, but the DVD was SOA at the time and still looks and sounds great when played back on my BR player.

Good call Richard - beating to arms! Plus all the subtle little noises below decks. One of my favourite films.

Master & Commander +1

Edge of Tomorrow

Wrath of the Titans

Battleship (awful film!)

Star Wars The Phantom Menace. The pod racer sequence.

Oblivion will give your system a good workout, particularly in the bass department. Check out the cave scene for example

For the visuals... In Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, towards the start of the second half when they enter the mines is a good test of contrast.

Great suggestion about visual contrast, I have come across many great sounding home cinema setups with woeful picture contrast...perhaps not least because large high contrast devices including digital projectors are very expensive. However Sin City for me is an acid contrast test... There should be sharp contrast with deep black and almost bleached whites, with no bleed or blur.

Simon

MDS posted:

Guy007 posted:

Saving Private Ryan in DTS, first 10 minutes beach storming.

 

Very much agree with the beach assault scene from Saving Private Ryan. A couple of others:

(i) opening battle scene from Gladiator (the catapulted oil-filled pots crashing into the trees is excellent)

(ii) opening car chase in the tunnels from Quantum of Solace

Mike 

Funny you should bring Gladiator up and that particular scene because the son of one of my staff worked on it.

I know this might sound like a no brainer, but do go to the language settings/setup at the start of either a DVD or BR,.  They don't always default to full surround.  i.e. if you have a 7.1 setup, it might default to the 5.1, but as some folks here opt for 2.1, you might be able to set that option if available too for a better sound mix.  And if possible select the DTS soundtrack, I have found it has more detail than Dolby Digital - back in the day you had to go out of the way for the DTS or Superbit version of the DVD film for better sound.

tonym posted:

The latest bond, "Spectre", has a magnificent 7.1 channel soundtrack.

It sure has. The opening sequence in Mexico opens with a subterranean pulsing bass that accompanies the viewer through the journey into the crowd, wow.

1) Knowing....the plane crash and the train pile up.  2) War of the worlds...when the ground opens up near the beginning

13 odd years ago when I purchased my av2,175,150 the retailer was surprised at my choice of test movie - Steven Soderberg's remake of Solaris. From what I recall there are no bombastic explosions but what the Naim kit did that the other home theatres didn't was give an incredible spatial separation/dimensionality to the dialogue against the soundscape of the space ship and the soundscore.  The other film I like that other forum members have also mentioned is Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World. The ships bell against the background sounds also suggest that element of space  and there are the bombastic sounds of the cannon shells if that's what people are looking for.  Many lesser systems will do an impressive job with loud explosions.