Demo DVDs

[JuJu]

Right, I'm going to see a demo of a Screenplay 4805 tomorrow morning and am wondering what DVDs to take to test it out.

I'm thinking I need something bright, so Monsters Inc.
And something dark, probably LOTR

Any other suggestions, or types of palette.

[Oakleyspatz]

Monsters Inc looks fantastic on the 4805, but then again it looks fantastic on most projectors. Go for something with more fleshtones and real life images so you can see just how close to reality the images look. I mean if Sully looks a little too green, you'd never notice, but if Will Smith looks pale pink in I, Robot, you'd notice that !!
I Robot is good for fast moving images, detail and colours. LOTR's is great for shadow, contrast, movement and if you're gonna notice the 'R' word, this will show them to you.

Oh go on, take Monster's Inc ! It looks like High Def on the 4805 !!!!!

[Bristol Pete]

I Robot, XXX, Swordfish, Too fast too furious, Matrix reloaded = chapter 20, Black Hawk Down.

Cap

[Atari]

I always use The Fifth Element Superbit for testing/demo. Great sound and great colours.

[juniper]

I think that the best thing to take to you for any demo is anything that you know well, and moreover know what it is suppposed to look like, and therefore you have some reference point. Monsters Inc. is of course great eye candy, but it actually is on just about any device IMHO.

Having said that, the things to look out for (for me anyway) are movement (both of images on screen and also panning shots), white/light background (for any panel structure visibility), contrast in dark scenes, and then overall depth of field/sheer filmicness (oops that's not a proper word ). For me, and as much as because they're discs that I've played many times before and have things I know what to look for, I'd say a combination of Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers (snow scenes in 'Bastogne' very good for showing a pj's ability to display white as it should be), Fast & the Furious for movement, Gangs of New York for panning, LOTR:ROTK (Frodo in Shelob's Lair) and Dances With Wolves (when they find the buffalo) for filmic images (another good scene to show this well which will really show the difference between good and bad projectors is 'Points' in Band of Brothers, where they are across the Lake in Austria.)

Just my 2p

[Decadence]

maybe worthwhile trying a footie DVD...fast camera panning and your eyes move over the screen often too.

[UrbanT]

My personal selection of demo discs at the moment include:

• Equilibrium - so much black, looks really nasty on lesser display's

• 2 Fast 2 Furious - the whole opening scene has deep blacks, strong colours and fast movement

• Moulin Rouge - 'Roxanne', for colours, contrast, detail

• LOTR ROTK EE - the Gondor battle, including Frodo and Sams battle with Shelob - for blacks, contrast, movement and colour

The worst possible thing to demo is cartoon films, Nemo, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. They look great on anything and won't really tell you anything useful about the display.