If you've just bought a sizable new flat panel display, projector, or just built a new home theater with surround sound, inevitably you want to demo it for your friends and neighbors and you want to, you know, blow them away.
Now, some sites will rank and list demo blu-rays based only on picture quality. There are some supremely crappy movies out there that no one would watch except a videophile and only because the technical quality in some cases or the "eye candy quotient" in others is so frikken awesome.
But, here's what I think based on my experience.
Outside of a serious geek or two, few of your guests are going to sit and watch a craptastic movie for two hours just because you can make out every pore in every actor's face in pristine 1080 Hi-def.
And few of us have videophile geeks for friends, relatives, or neighbors.
So, I believe, what you really want is a movie or sometimes even just a five minute sequence that looks great, sounds awesome, and will hold your audience's attention like a mothafuggah.
Personally, if I only have 5 minutes to demo my theater, I use a sequence from Live Free or Die Hard. It takes place early in the film. It starts when Willis, as McClain, arrives at the kid's apartment goes through the ensuing melee and ends with a huge explosion.
The video quality, IMO, is excellent. For the videophiles, the grain is intact, no sign of DNR or EE, not a hint of a halo anywhere and -- yes -- you can make out pores and imperfections, single strands of stubble, all of the hi-def goodies.
The sound is reference quality with gun-shots whizzing and clanging all around your room with you are there palpability. If you have an excellent sub-woofer, your guests will feel the rat-a-tat of the bullets and this will show off not only the power of your sub-woofer, but IMO more importantly it's quickness.
The suspense is incredible and the sequence just builds and builds until BOOM, it ends with an exploding crescendo. Guests are left sitting there with their mouths open.
What do you use?
Now, some sites will rank and list demo blu-rays based only on picture quality. There are some supremely crappy movies out there that no one would watch except a videophile and only because the technical quality in some cases or the "eye candy quotient" in others is so frikken awesome.
But, here's what I think based on my experience.
Outside of a serious geek or two, few of your guests are going to sit and watch a craptastic movie for two hours just because you can make out every pore in every actor's face in pristine 1080 Hi-def.
And few of us have videophile geeks for friends, relatives, or neighbors.
So, I believe, what you really want is a movie or sometimes even just a five minute sequence that looks great, sounds awesome, and will hold your audience's attention like a mothafuggah.
Personally, if I only have 5 minutes to demo my theater, I use a sequence from Live Free or Die Hard. It takes place early in the film. It starts when Willis, as McClain, arrives at the kid's apartment goes through the ensuing melee and ends with a huge explosion.
The video quality, IMO, is excellent. For the videophiles, the grain is intact, no sign of DNR or EE, not a hint of a halo anywhere and -- yes -- you can make out pores and imperfections, single strands of stubble, all of the hi-def goodies.
The sound is reference quality with gun-shots whizzing and clanging all around your room with you are there palpability. If you have an excellent sub-woofer, your guests will feel the rat-a-tat of the bullets and this will show off not only the power of your sub-woofer, but IMO more importantly it's quickness.
The suspense is incredible and the sequence just builds and builds until BOOM, it ends with an exploding crescendo. Guests are left sitting there with their mouths open.
What do you use?
