Movies for HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound

[flyclearjohn 0]

Having recently retired and having more time on my hands than I ever dreamed possible, I just bought an HDTV with a great sound system.

I'm going to rent some DVD's so my quest is, what to rent to really appreciate the new system?

Thanks,

John

[grega 0]

usually action movies have nice effects. Preferably science fiction with high technology.

well usually that's where you hear the surround effects the most... I think.

"George just lucky i guess!"

[Kris 0]

Hmm...movies to really show off both the TV and the sound system...here's what I like to show on my home theater when I'm feeling a bit froggy...


The Fifth Element (Great digital video, even better sound)

Armageddon (Criterion Edition)

Monsters, Inc.

I, Robot

Finding Nemo

Master and Commander.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[sid 1]

okay - in my opinion (for what that's worth) the movie sucked ass - but the surround sound effects were mind blowing - windtalkers with Nicholas Cage http://www.mgm.com/windtalkers/ and a much better movie - Black Hawk Down showcased the sound editors talents too

Pete Draper,

Just because my life plan is written on the back of a Hooter's Napkin, it's still a life plan.... right?

[CrazyIvan 0]

STAR WARS!!!

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[ianmdrennan 2]

I've always found that visually the "cartoon" movies (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, etc) look the best on my HDTV. As for all around packages, I'd have to go with the 5th Element as well, or Spiderman 2. Most action movies (new ones) will look and sound awesome on your system.

Blues,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[Kris 0]

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STAR WARS!!!

Eesh...Star Wars has to be one of the worst analog to digital botch jobs I've seen in awhile.

Whoever up there said Blackhawk Down and Windtalkers, I have to second those. Especially Blackhawk Down. Really well done.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[CrazyIvan 0]

Quote

Quote

STAR WARS!!!

Eesh...Star Wars has to be one of the worst analog to digital botch jobs I've seen in awhile.

Whoever up there said Blackhawk Down and Windtalkers, I have to second those. Especially Blackhawk Down. Really well done.

Ok..Lord Of The Rings, then.

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[Bouda 0]

Troy
LOTR
Matrix(for 5.1)
Spiderman 1 &2
bad boys II
SWAT
Pretty much and of the MARVEL Movies

Look what i made at work today mom!! Put it on the fridge
http://www.bouda.moonfruit.com

[justinb138 0]

Quote

Troy
LOTR
Matrix(for 5.1)
Spiderman 1 &2
bad boys II
SWAT
Pretty much and of the MARVEL Movies

I've got to add:

Terminator 2: for motorcycle chase scene with all of the explosions.

Jurassic Park: For the T-Rex chase scene. If you've got a good subwoofer, it can shake your entire house when the dinosaur takes each step.

[LouDiamond 1]

Although it's not the best movie, the Godzilla remake is incredible for sound on a good system. Volcano is another crappy movie but with good sound too. I thought the re-done Blade runner was pretty good as well.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[AggieDave 6]

I highly recommend you look into getting a Netflix account to get your movies and enjoy them without worry.

Anyways, as for movies...


If you want big explosions and such and not worried about acting or plot so much (and since a lot of the good ones have been named already)...

Triple-X
SWAT
TopGun
The Matrix


I'll think of some more later.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Master and Commander.

That is a great disc to show a system off with.

Fight Club and the original Matrix are two others that come to mind.

Also, a lot of the "Superbit" and "infifilm" series are just top notch stuff. I've read that Aliens v Predator is a terrible movie but one of the best to show off HDTV since the blacks and contrast in it are top notch.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

btw - do you have a progressive scan dvd player? I just saw something the other day that also ups the resolution of DVDs for HDTV sets.

If you want the best picture right now, you would do best with the over the air broadcasts in your area or HD Satellite (both will be higher res than DVD)

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[ianmdrennan 2]

Quote

do you have a progressive scan dvd player?

Yes, that is an absolute MUST have for HDTV owners.

Performance Designs Factory Team

[KrisFlyZ 0]

U-571(Depth Charged).
Behind Enemy lines(Missiles chasing the F-16).


The key to having a great Sound system is a subwoofer that can go really low(below 20Hz if possible...a lot of the DVDs now have sound that goes well below 20Hz....you can't hear this but you can feel it..if the sound system can handle it) without distortion and a room that does not have any loose vibrating things that will cause rogue noise.

I would suggest getting your hands on an Avia DVD(forget what its called) to setup your system carefully. The TVs from the factory are setup to look good in brightly lit showrooms. Adjust the settings for your home environment so that you can watch the movies with the settings that the film director intended the movie to be seen.



Check this site out....

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/main.html

Kris.

[BikerBabe 0]

Well, all those movies are grat, but the first mainstream movie to have a soundtrack written and produced specifically for 5.1 surround is "Monster", the downer starring Charlize Theron.

The soundtrack is absolutely stunning when you listen on a 5.1 system, because the composer (BT) made full use of the capabilities 5.1 offers. It sounds totally different than when you listen on a regular CD player...

Actually, if you buy the soundtrack, it comes with a DVD with just the music on it, so you can listen without being depressed. (The movie is definitely not light popcorn fare).

Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

[Peej 0]

Anything with explosions and gunfire! Black Hawk Down comes to mind, i think that holds the record for most bullets used in a Hollywood movie.

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[flyclearjohn 0]

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STAR WARS!!!

Ya know, when I was in the store, I was thinking "Wonder what Star Wars woul look/sound like on this system???

Thanks to all for the recommendations!

John

[flyclearjohn 0]

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btw - do you have a progressive scan dvd player? I just saw something the other day that also ups the resolution of DVDs for HDTV sets.

If you want the best picture right now, you would do best with the over the air broadcasts in your area or HD Satellite (both will be higher res than DVD)

Ahhh, I jst finished reading this. I had thought that DVD's would be the better quality. Silly me. At any rate, my new system arrives Monday. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas

Thanks,

John

[flyclearjohn 0]

Quote

Well, all those movies are grat, but the first mainstream movie to have a soundtrack written and produced specifically for 5.1 surround is "Monster", the downer starring Charlize Theron.

The soundtrack is absolutely stunning when you listen on a 5.1 system, because the composer (BT) made full use of the capabilities 5.1 offers. It sounds totally different than when you listen on a regular CD player...

Actually, if you buy the soundtrack, it comes with a DVD with just the music on it, so you can listen without being depressed. (The movie is definitely not light popcorn fare).

I might try the sound track. I saw the movie ...didn't enjoy it at all! Hard to develop any sympathy for the character.

Thanks for the recommendation.

John

[justinb138 0]

I just remembered another one. If you want something with a good soundtrack, lots of gunfire, and explosions, check out "The Rock" with Nick Cage and Sean Connery. It was a pretty decent movie.

[dorbie 0]

Most DVDs have 5.1 audio tracks (at least).

The key to getting the best video for your HDTV tv is to get a DVD player with progressive scan capability and good deinterlacing technology (like a Faroujda chip for example).

Then you want to make sure you get the widescreen editions of any movies you see. By widescreen I mean anamorphic widescreen rather than letterbox this is a key difference, letterbox will use fewer lines but anamorphic will stretch a full screen worth of lines wider.

You need to set your DVD to a 16:9 full screen output, and a progressive scan and feed your HDTV with either a digital video (best) or the 3 component Y cB cR connections.

Once you have done this I recommend getting any of the SUPERBIT collection DVDs, they use the space on the disk for more compressed video data instead of "special features". You get the movie at better quality for the DVD.

I also recommend Lord of the Rings special editions they have a lot of extra stuiff but the movie is spread over 2 DVDs and is great quality. The first movie intro will give your sound system a workout.

Make sure you set up for correct progressive anamorphic output and get the anamorphic vesrions of the widescreed DVDs. Sometimes they don't say anamorphic on them but instead say specially formatted for 19:6 televisions, these are good too. The difference is MASSIVE if you only get letterbox widescreen or don't set up your player correctly so it's important to get this right (to my great disappointment "The Abyss" has no anamorphic widescreen release for example).

Even then you won't be at HDTV resolution just progressive NTSC stretched to 16:9 but that's pretty good on a decent TV, for full HDTV you need some form of HDTV receiver & apropriate broadcast. The difference is incredible when you see this for the first time, things look so crisp it's hypnotic. There are a couple of competing HDTV format discs in the works right now, eventually you should be able to get a player for them to feed your TV with real HDTV content from rented discs.

[kelpdiver 2]

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Ahhh, I jst finished reading this. I had thought that DVD's would be the better quality. Silly me. At any rate, my new system arrives Monday. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas

DVDs only run at 720x480 resolution. HDTV broadcasts at either 1280x720 progressive or 1920x1080 interlaced, and your TV likely displays in one mode or the other.

The quality of HD broadcast movies varies considerably. The best DVDs look better than the marginal HD source material. Of course, the crappy DVD sources are really ugly. (I'm still ticked off that Adrenaline Risk was a 4:3 DVD, despite the label otherwise)

[ianmdrennan 2]

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Once you have done this I recommend getting any of the SUPERBIT collection DVDs, they use the space on the disk for more compressed video data instead of "special features". You get the movie at better quality for the DVD.

That's good to know, I didn't realize they did that now. I hate crappy encoding

Thanks.

Blues,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team