Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Best movies for show off your HT system!

Hi guys what are your favorite movies for showing off your system to friends and family? I have heard so many, but I wanna know a spectacular movie with awesome sound effects. I have heard of Pan's labyrinth have any of you guys watched it?

I would use "Master and Commander" or "The Dark Knight" as a demo movie. Some others that come up are "U571" and "War of the Worlds" but so far I have yet to see a better HT experience than the excellent sound effects in Master and Commander. I saw Pan's Labyrinth a few months back, I can't recall how the effects were in that one(I think they were quite good)...I'll have to watch it again!

There is along link on this topic somewhere here. Unfortunately, the Search function normally just makes me angry so I didn't go looking for it myself.

I agree with Adrian. Master and Commander has the most amazing surround effects I have ever heard. If your speakers are calibrated right, you literally hear sound from everywhere, even above your head. Great cannon fights too.

Also agree on War of the Worlds but I specifically go to it for the Tripod emerging from the sidewalk scene for the best subwoofer scene I have at my disposal. Pan's Laybrinth had amazing visuals as I recall but I can't think of where the sound amazed me except I recall it was pretty good.

The Lord of the Rings movies are another top pick for me and demos. Any one of the three contains sooo many great surround and LFE moments and the visuals are equally well done.

For music, I almost always draw out my old stand by, "The Eagles, Hell Freezes Over". Also now, "Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Live at Radio City". Just two guys, two guitars, one guitar per speaker but I don't think I have ever heard another recording so breathtakingly clear and lifelike.

Edit:
Oh and if they want something a bit more hard hitting, I'll play selected tracks from "Nine Inch Nails, Beside you in Time." On a big screen with some volume, you will feel like you are part of the very energized crowd. Complete with some LFE you will feel in your chest. Careful with your audience though, the language can get interesting.

I just watched the BR version of War of the Worlds last weekend. Absolutely amazing LFE effects throughout the movie. The DVD version was very good, but the BR is on a whole new level that surpasses anything I’ve heard to date (and I have close to 400 BR movies). Master and Commander has great surround, as mentioned already. I especially like the beginning scenes where you can hear sailors walking all around you on the deck above.

I just listened to the enhanced audio track (or whatever it's called) of Toy Story 2, and it impressed me; it really utilizes the side and rear speakers. Here's the first scene to give you an idea of the LFE/audio in the regular soundtrack.

Iron Man is also very impressive. Was reminded by Black Sabbath coming up on my iPod.

I am looking for some blue-ray suggestions to buy so I can test my new speakers. Master and commander will be the first I am gonna be ordering. Does any of you guys any good horror movie? I heard that The Grudge is nice, having some good effects.

I recall some pretty neat effects and an explosion that gave my subwoofer a good workout in Event Horizon and t's also one of the few horror movies I actually enjoyed.

I haven't seen it but the movie "Pulse" consistently comes up in discussions as having an LFE scene so powerful that legend has it it can lay waste to all but the best subwoofers. Unfortunately, the other consensus is that the movie sucks.

Actually I have seen this movie on the airplane, that was kinda of a good movie. I wouldn't give it 5 stars out of 5 but would give 3.5 or 3.75 out of 5. Well 3 stars from this rate is for Kristen Bell, lol! She is a one of a kind girl.

Don't expect a lot of it, but "The Others" makes great use of surround sound.

Mention of Pans Labyrinth here got my curiosity up, so I had to watch it again last night. LFE was used some for special effects use, but I wouldn't rate it as useful for an LFE demo. First time I watched it with a sub-woofer.

Belive it or not, I like to use Kung Fu Panda. I find the audio and video top notch and really shows off a system well.

I found the LOTR trilogy had some pretty serious LFE scenes.

My favorites right now are

Master and Commander, far side of the world.
Cars: from the intro of the final race
StarWars I Phantom Menace: Pod Race

I like to show off good surround effects. I'm not huge on the bass. Of course, I don't have a sub yet...

snazzed

v2 version of 'Flight of the Phoenix' has always been one of my favorites for great sound in a movie ... the part towards the beginning of the movie where Dennis Quaid is chocking the wheels after shutdown and when you can hear the hot metal of the engine cooling and contracting is dead on from what a radial engine sounds like after shutdown.

Master and Commander has awesome sound effects and is an equally awesome movie, LOTR, Iron Man or most any of the newer movies will do you right with the effects.

Just bought Master and Commander and Star Wars trilogy and 23 more movies. Do you guys think that there is so much difference between Blue Ray and Dvd comparing sounds and visuals?

IMHO there's a big difference in video quality between DVD and BluRay assuming you have a full 1080p display. I actually just watched part of LOTR on DVD yesterday and realised how much that difference is as I have been watching BR exclusively for the past several months. Of course a good upscaling DVD player will help, but it can't make it equal to BR.

On the audio front I find the difference is there, but not as obvious as with the video. A good DolbyDigital or DTS track sounds pretty close to their HD audio counterpart. At least from the discs I have, I can tell the difference if I switch between the tracks, but I don't sit down and immediately notice that it's not using the HD audio track.

Oh yeah, and about Pan's Labyrinth - I recall the audio really standing out for me as pretty special. Not for the LFE, but for the amazing use of the surround field. It's one of the few movies where I was literally looking over my shoulders as the surround effects were just so realistic and engaging - not over done, just well done.

That was on DVD, so now you've reminded me I need to go get the BR version! What else to do on a rainy Saturday?

Cheers,

I think that on a well mastered movie with a lossless soundtrack, that there is quite a lot of difference between the Blu-Ray and a standard DVD. The bigger the screen you are viewing and the better your sound system, the more difference the higher res audio and video make.

I have been slowly replacing many of my favorite movies on DVD with the Blu-Ray versions. All of them look and sound better

Keep in mind that the smaller the size of your display, the smaller the difference will be between Blu-ray and DVD. The bigger the display, the bigger the difference.

Oh, ok. I only have a 3.1 system so I didn't notice it.

El Orfanato, also has some of the most convincing surround effects I've heard in a movie. Wonder if they both had the same sound mixer.

A visit to IMDb later, and no. No one at all in common between the sound departments.

I do hate that they called El Laberinto del Fauno, Pan's Labyrinth in the US. The international title, The Labyrinth of the Faun, would have been much better. Pan is a vary specific faun, and not the name of the one in the movie. The movie studio just assumed Americans were too stupid, and would think the movie was about a young deer.

LOL! I also wondered about that title change. Definitely have to agree with you. The Labyrinth of the Faun sounds much more nicer!

LOL! I also wondered about that title change. Definitely have to agree with you. The Labyrinth of the Faun sounds much more nicer!