Author Topic: AWESOME BUT OBSCURE DVD DEMO DISKS FOR HIGH-QUALITY HT TESTING!  (Read 1792 times)

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Offline ALICE GO

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OVERLOOKED, OBSCURE DVDs WITH REFERENCE QUALITY PICTURES FOR AUDIO-VIDEO DEMO & SHOWCASES!

AUDIO-VIDEO and Home Theater enthusiasts will always have those perennial standbye DVD disks to turned to when the occasion calls for it. These are films whose picture resolution and DVD mastering/pressing is qualifiably superb and fully maximizes the potential of the DVD video format to render pictures which no analog formats (VHS & laserdisc) can compare. Right now, DVD is the certified medium to view pictures with full 540 lines of crispness, high contrast and cleaned-up images. It’s the reference standard in the visual side of home theater. Since its commercial introduction in 1998, I have bought several hundreds but I would distinguished only a handful which in my view is truly excellent choices to test how a TV set or a front projector unit is any good. Most of the fellows in here would assent to my citing (and promptly so) both the earliest and the subsequent editions of STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FIFTH ELEMENT. But of course, you do indeed knew that those two films seemed to have been made unwittingly to showcased how laudable DVD picture performs. Hence, I would skipped listing them because practically everybody knew and possesses both, and both films have enjoyed unquantifiable exposures as THE demo disks all over the planet.

In listing these works, my context is that of showcasing picture quality for the purpose of persuading a customer to buy a large-screen TV set, but more importantly that he would see the light on the virtues of GIANT SCREEN PROJECTION. Hence, if I am labouring hard to convince you that front projection is the home theater wave of the future, these are the disks I’d used to open your eyes to the MAGIC of giant screen entertainment. And when I state giant, I do not think nor  include those ultra-expensive plasma and LCD televisions. These “technologies” are unproven, they’re imposed very high tariffs by the government that’s why their selling price is prohibitive, and their picture quality and size when evaluated with projectors – becomes laughable and puny.

1.   THE WIZARD OF OZ – Preferably the 2005 double-disk edition which was remastered once again. Unbelievable how a 1938 picture could be preserved by Warner to such an archival provenance. When selling your TV or projector to the customer, switch promptly to the Technicolor chapters when Dorothy found the Scarecrow, and then the Tin Man. This is very good if you could tell that the customer has young children. Countless editions of American calendars in the last 60 years have perennially used the still images from those chapters to evoked childhood nostalgia and the tale’s timelessness. DVD has given it a new lease of razor-sharp digital life!

2.   THE BACHELOR – This very-much forgotten, very obscure (by now) modern film has a fine story about a billiard factory proprietor who would be forfeited of his newly-deceased uncle’s huge fortune if he defers from getting a wife within two weeks. But he’s not convinced of his readiness for matrimony. The picture by Warner is top-notch crisp, truly brilliant all over. Look over Renee Zelweggers’ skin tone, and highlight to the customer the one of a kind scene when Chris the Bachelor runs for his life chased by thousands of hopeful brides. Look over the gorgeous lakeside boating scene, the same scene was used by Hitchcock before in Vertigo.

3.   BLAST FROM THE PAST - Closed to the heels, even the releasing period of The Bachelor, is this obscure atomic radiation retro-fantasy starring Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone. The picture quality is one-notch inferior to that of the Bachelor but over-all image evaluation would still render this disk an impressive showcase, particularly the 50s-inspired and evoked warm colors of the underground atomic bunker which Brendan and his parents were sadly locked-up for 25 years. Both films are also free from adult-oriented images which is disorienting for youngsters.

4.   EAST IS EAST – This highly obscure inter-cultural/racial prejudiced-theme gem comes from England and as I could evaluate is a work partly funded by the BBC. The leading stars are Om Puri and Jimi Mistry. If you don’t know Bollywood or Hindu cinema, you would not have an immediate idea who these guys are. Anyhow, Puri’s first Western exposure is a short but dramatic scene on the 1980’s GANDHI biopic, when Hindus & Muslim began rioting. I have a paltry seven of Puri’s films or those he took part. The story is about a Pakistani immigrant who married a British woman and has lived in the UK for 30 years. Their pleasant marriage produced seven half-breed children, the eldest rejected forever by Puri the father because he became a homosexual. He wanted to raised the children as faithful Muslims, but as they’re growing and began to reason, he bitterly realizes that they don’t want to have anything to do with the “old country” where the father hails. It is when he presumed that his eligible children would agree to exclusively pre-arranged Islamic marriages that the home exploded. This may sound like a hard drama, but it is more than that. This is a very rare amalgam of drama and comedy within the context of inter-cultural marriages. I cannot tell exactly the film stock it has used but this British production doesn’t have a comparable picture quality than that of the usual Hollywood crap. The tone is warmer, even the adobe blocks that appears seemed gorgeous looking. When testing a projector’s finer points like its contrast and detail, it is most apt to freeze those scenes where the characters’ jackets are shown. That is where you could point the texture of the clothing and how it comes out on the giant screen. Most excellent too in highlighting contrast is in looking over the skin textures of the “minority” or colored characters. Colored peoples look superb when demo’ing any visual medium. Negroes most especially.

5.   BILLY ELLIOT – This recent film the best I could evaluate is definitely using the same film stock like East Is East. Its no coincidence because it is also funded partially as a BBC production. This DVD or the film itself would not set well with most PinoyDVD fans because it talks about Billy who is an effeminate youngster who ended up pursuing a career in ballet. The germseed of his “artistic” personality and heart has been evidenced when he was floored by a boxing punch and his hurting eyes, instead of seeing stars – has gazed towards a practicing class of ballet girls. The girls are pre-pubescents, and the skin tones are heavenly, they’re British Anglo-Saxons with very sharp, very Teutonic features. They’re like small Nicole Kidmans but more bubbly. The colors are likewise warm, its sharp but the degree of  it is just subtly different from, say, the details of Starship Troopers. Its just different. When showing off through this DVD, both TV and projector would render a few gorgeous scenes, which could truly help sell off your merchandise. The main highlight for this purpose would be the brief portion of Chapter 1 when Billy found his absent-minded grandmother straying in a forested area. Freeze that scene when he hold the old woman’s shoulder and appeal to her to come home. Look at the crocheted jacket of the grandma, look over all the digital glory of that sequence – ITS LIKE LOOKING AT A WINDOW!


6.   ROBIN HOOD (1938),  SINGING IN THE RAIN (1950s) – The restored disks of these classics truly shows off the glory of the Technicolor film process. This film processing method was abandoned during the 1970s because Hollywood thought it is already passe’ and the crop of filmmakers at that time wanted a more gritty look over their creations. No wonder that if I am a DVD collector, I would not keep a single film from the 1970s, the film stock (mostly Eastman Kolor) is horrible, and the colours are murky, the film texture grainy. The forsaking of the Technicolor process makes that era a bad era for film. I contend that no amount of restoration could truly make a film from that era looked ever good even on DVD. The first and second Superman are both bad films, but they’re even terrible because they’re not Technicolors. The Technicolor process is actually applying dye on the celluloid, it’s a “primitive” coloration method, its been created during the 1920s. But for me there is no better color films than the products from the Technicolor era, its not just warm but full of “warmth,” its mellifluous, more elegant, more friendly towards the image’s impact on our physiological sight. And both Robinhood and Singing would deliver an awesome classique showcase for your home theater demo. When choosing a Technicolor DVD, the fundamental rule is to check if it was dyed under the hands of NATALIE KALMUS. Kalmus has been coloring during the 1940s and early 50s and her creations over many pictures are truly astounding, as if every frame comes out like an old gorgeous postcard.

7.      GOOD NEWS – This Technicolor musical from 1947 is my reference standard for showing off musical productions. This is a Warner DVD and my fondest digital wish is that it would be upgraded by its maker towards a remastered edition. But that’s definitely day-dreaming because nobody really cares or knows about this DVD except the hardcore Technicolor archivist.

7.   BARRY MANILOW LIVE – This concert DVD has remained a reference standard in showcasing a modern live performance. Others would argue that there are others far better, like JAMES TAYLOR’s BEACON THEATER, or that Eagle’s concert. But Taylor’s is not as enjoyable, its overly long and he is past his primed. The Eagles, on the other hand, are unrepentant Satanists, and I am a Bible-believer – if I “welcomed” those demon-worshippers even through my TV tubes, that’s like opening my home too from “intruders” – and possessing demon-infested records and DVDs would also wrought curses upon my home. No way, Jose.  Manilow’s repertoire is consists of all his signature tunes and even his subsequent DVD concerts could not at all compare to the picture quality of this one, its truly superior. When you think the customer is flip-flopping on his verdict, promptly go to song number three “Can’t Smile without You.” That chapter is glorious, truly gorgeous, Manilow’s guest duet is devastatingly cute and so fine-skinned – we assure you this is the segment that would CLINCHED the sale! The way it was masterfully pressed on DVD could be appreciated by playing it through either S-Video or Component cable, its superior on both connection modes.

And there you have it, gentlemen and ladies, my short, opinionated take on that specialized interest called the Demo Disk, as utilized in Home Theater showcases. Forget about FOTR and Matrix and Master-Commander and X-Men. Those are nauseatingly pedestrian by now,  I don’t even possess them. Gratefull for listening. ALICE GO

Offline Boy Torotot

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Re: AWESOME BUT OBSCURE DVD DEMO DISKS FOR HIGH-QUALITY HT TESTING!
« Reply #1 on: Aug 01, 2006 at 12:01 PM »
so ano, nagbebenta ka ba nito o naghahanap? or mali lang kung saan ni-post?

Offline Movie_Geek_Tom

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Re: AWESOME BUT OBSCURE DVD DEMO DISKS FOR HIGH-QUALITY HT TESTING!
« Reply #2 on: Aug 11, 2006 at 11:59 PM »
For sale nga ba or misposting?
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Offline frootloops

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Re: AWESOME BUT OBSCURE DVD DEMO DISKS FOR HIGH-QUALITY HT TESTING!
« Reply #3 on: Aug 12, 2006 at 12:40 AM »
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And there you have it, gentlemen and ladies, my short, opinionated take on that specialized interest called the Demo Disk, as utilized in Home Theater showcases

Mga Sir,

I guess Ms Alice Go went into the wrong thread, she might just want to share her opinion's on the said film's. It's good that her opinions are still "short" , and yet informative to some.


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Forget about FOTR and Matrix and Master-Commander and X-Men. Those are nauseatingly pedestrian by now,  I don’t even possess them. Gratefull for listening. ALICE GO

Interesting......... ::)