Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Movies that make your home theatre pop?!

This is topic Movies that make your home theatre pop?! in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 01-18-2011, 08:42 AM:

I know we were kind of doing this with movies in general in another thread...
But what movies are great at home? I don't mean movies that are good, but movies that show off your audio and video gear.

I liked the new Sherlock Holmes blu-ray because it was 16x9 which used all the light coming from my projector, and the movie was fairly bright.
It also used the surround channels a fair bit and was overall well mixed.

What movies are you eager to show for getting the most out of your gear?

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 01-18-2011, 09:31 AM:

I love showing classic films on Blu because most people are so used to seeing them at home on video tape or on television. Once they see them on Blu, it's usually a revelation.

That being said, I love using Goldfinger and the Sound of Music.

AJG

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-18-2011, 10:25 AM:

The Blu-ray of Baraka is an outstanding demo disc for showing off video quality. For live action material that disc is about as good as it gets, thanks in large part to the original 65mm photography and 8K scans. The audio on Baraka (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 96kHz) is really good too. It's mainly music, but has a few scenes with aggressive audio -such as a giant tree falling in the Amazon.

Pixar's movies are great on Blu-ray, both in terms of sight and sound. You can see some of the technological limitations in the studio's earliest movies (Toy Story, A Bug's Life) but the latest ones (such as Up, Wall•E, Ratatouille, etc.) look outstanding.

On the sound thing, there's quite a few movies that have great, bombastic surround sound sequences. The ones that tend to stick in my mind are ones that had unique audio details to them rather than the usual gunshots and explosions that sound like so many other movies.

Heat has a couple of action sequences with outstanding audio. The bank heist and shootout in downtown L.A. sounded very realistic for how it incorporated the tone and echo of how gunfire really sounds around large buildings. Near the film's end a foot chase goes through airport runways at night. That sequence has some awesome plane-by surround pans and thunderous levels of deep bass.

I like to cue up certain parts of The Matrix from time to time. Pretty much from the point where Trinity and Neo enter the skyscraper to where that helicopter crashes into a building and explodes, it's all good. The "Dodge This" scene has great bullet-by surround pans; the whole sound field rotates 360° for the bullet time sight gag. I like the sound of the helicopter mini-gun; it puts out some healthy bass. If that doesn't have your subwoofer pounding the walls the helicopter explosion certainly will.

Saving Private Ryan is an ultimate sound system punishing disc, be it on DVD or the new Blu-ray. Not a feel good movie to watch though.

U-571 isn't a very good movie, but it has one hell of a sound mix. You can buy the Blu-ray for like $7 or $8 at places like Amazon.com.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-18-2011, 12:26 PM:

Bobby,

You and I seem to have the same taste for movies because I have all of the titles you had mentioned in your post on Blu-Ray and I agree with you. Another movie with great sound and picture is MASTER & COMMANDER and I have that too.

-Claude

Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 01-18-2011, 01:18 PM:

The opening of Master and Commander on DVD with the DTS track selected blew out one of my speakers on my first cheapy surround sound setup. That is a good film, I wonder when we will (if ever) see a sequel.

I have U-571 on HD-DVD, it is pretty tense with the sound track when they reach "crush depth".

I find most pixar stuff looks great. I figure that the cartoon like solid colours remove and hide disc compression very well.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-19-2011, 11:41 AM:

I haven't played it yet, but just got the Blu-ray of Disney's "Earth" and am looking forward to that picture quality. We played the trailer for the movie in the theater a few times (but never played the film). I think this is the first movie that I've ever bought solely because of the cinematography.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-19-2011, 01:21 PM:

A lot of "Earth" was shot on HD video at 1080i for some BBC documentary.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-20-2011, 02:35 AM:

The best movies for my sound system are usually the ones that won the Academy Award for best sound.

For Laserdiscs:
Titanic
Speed (Dolby Surround)
and the holy grail IMO is The English Patient.

other LDs include: Shine,

There are some that say that the Phantom Menace is the best sounding laserdisc ever! Not sure if that really holds true.

Blu-ray
Avatar

DVD:
Saving Ryans Privates
Armageddon

As for image, almost any THX certified laserdisc, dvd or blu-ray is almost always good.

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 01-20-2011, 01:49 PM:

Armageddon. Deal with it!

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-20-2011, 04:22 PM:

While I agree AVATAR is fantastic on Blu-Ray, it does not come even close to matching the picture and sound quality of BARAKA which was photographed in 65mm, The BD was mastered in 8k

-Claude

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-24-2011, 05:04 AM:

Claude- I will have to check out Baraka on blu-ray. I have it on ld but I'll pic it up eventually on blu-ray.

BTW, do you happen to have any experience with 2001 on bluray?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-27-2011, 02:00 PM:

Tom,

Yes, I do have 2001, A SPACE ODDESSY on Blu-Ray but I am not too impressed with it. I have a feeling it was made from a 35mm source instead of the original 65mm elements. While others have praised the picture quality especially it's color, it looks faded and not as vibrant as i remember seeing during it's original 70mm Cinerama Road show presentation. This is a title Warners should spend more time and do a full restoration of the original large format negative like Fox did with THE SOUND OF MUSIC and release it again as a special edition.

-Claude

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 01-28-2011, 11:28 AM:

Every time I see the title of this thread, I keep thinking that making one's home theater "pop" can't really be a good thing...

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-28-2011, 01:08 PM:

Laserdiscs:
Blown Away (DTS)
Jurassic Park (DTS)
Speed (Dolby Digital)

DVD:
Gladiator

Bluray:
Rambo 4 7.1 sound

Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 01-29-2011, 08:42 AM:

Speed has turned up twice. I think I remember renting it on VHS back when it was new. I remember it being a 'meh' movie. (I thought the sequel was painful).

Should I give this movie another shot on blu?

Will it make my setup 'pop' like it should for the cool catz?

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-29-2011, 12:45 PM:

Jaret- I would give Speed another try. The sound mix of Speed is good, it also helps that it won the Oscar for sound that year.

My reference is to the PCM track, the above poster mention Dolby Digital which I have not heard.

Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 02-11-2011, 09:30 PM:

I checked out NINE on blu-ray last night. It looked great. Some darker scenes really stood out as looking amazing. The musical numbers were mixed into the 5.1 soundtrack incredibly well too.

It's not everyones thing, but it was a great experience. I thought the movie was entertaining too.