[Tonto Yoder]

I'm much more familiar with audio than video and know there are some audio tracks that are overused to audition gear: I once took Jennifer Warnes' "Blue Raincoat" to listen to a TT, and it became clear the dealer had heard this WAY too many times.

Are there certain videos that have been similarly overused???? I seem to remember "Casper" being mentioned as a great demo disc, but how many times does a person want to see the Friendly Ghost even in ultra high-fidelity???

[michael w]

Rule of thumb is crappier the movie, the more stunning the presentation.

Some of the chronically over-exposed:

The Matrix
Gladiator
Finding Nemo plus other Pixar stuff
Terminator 2 & 3
The Fifth Element
LOTR: FOTR, TTT
Star Wars Episode 1 & 2
Swordfish

and heaps more...


cheers

[Tonto Yoder]

michael,
you're gonna get death threats with posts like that!!
I'm a bit of a cinema snob myself, but I DO enjoy three of the movies you mention--Matrix, Gladiator & Fifth Element. I wouldn't call them "crappy," they're just fluff.

[Marbles]

WOW!  I use all of them but Swordfish for demo's!  I must be the one overusing them

[Tonto Yoder]

WOW!  I use all of them but Swordfish for demo's!  I must be the one overusing them

As long as they work for you, keep using 'em.  But the A/V dealer must get tired of seeing the same stuff, no matter how well it shows off his systems--kinda like hearing Patricia Barber or Jazz at the Pawnshop one more time.

[Rob Babcock]

I really like some of those movies, but they are drastically overused as demo pieces (I've used half of them, too! ).  Phantom Menace & The Fifth Element are particularly overused.

The most overused discs in my demo library used to be Blade and Spawn, in a dead heat.  Coming in at #2 was Saving Private Ryan.  These have now been permanently retired as demo discs!

For a bass extravaganza demo, you might try "Titan AE", especially the ice field scene.  Wow!  This also has the advantage of being a movie that sorta flew under the radar (okay, it was a bomb commercially), so probably not everyone's sick of it yet.

[michael w]

michael,
you're gonna get death threats with posts like that!!
I'm a bit of a cinema snob myself, but I DO enjoy three of the movies you mention--Matrix, Gladiator & Fifth Element. I wouldn't call them "crappy," they're just fluff.

Threatz, smreatz...it's only HT

 

The crappy comment wasn't necessarily pertaining to the list of over-exposed flicks.

 

Titan AE is indeed a sonic treat, especially in DTS.
Amazon has this disc for $7.99.

With Swordfish a lot of downunder demos used the bomb scene with all the ballbearings flying about.


cheers

[Mathew_M]

People love to show off those THX bumpers all the time.  I for one am tired of the whole HT demo thing.  When I first got my HD set and HT receiver I bought so many stupid movies just because someone over on the HomeTheater forum recommended them for demo purposes.  I watched most of them maybe once and many others only for certain scenes.  To be honest I rarely buy dvds anymore.  Only those films that I missed at the theater and really wanted to see.   I rarely buy a movie I've already seen.  Even ones I liked.  Most films nowadays are so disposable that there is hardly anything to be gleamed from them upon a second viewing.  With that said I am a classic movie buff and tend to buy those films when they are released in super deluxe special additions.

[Rob Babcock]

I still buy tons of DVDs- but I'm over the "demo phase," too.  Occasionally someone who's never been to my place will want to check out my system, and then I may have to dig into the demo stuff.  But not all that often anymore.

[michael w]

People love to show off those THX bumpers all the time.

Love the Simpsons one with old man Simpson yelling

" Turn it UP !  TURN IT UP ! "