Disney's WOW: World of Wonder (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review - Page 3

I will trade you one for your Kuro...

I got the Blu-Ray WOW from Wal-Mart ship to store 11/30/10 for $31.31 tax included. Wal-Mart still has it in stock.

The disc was easy to use. I did have problems setting contrast as I could never get the white lines to blend even at maximum settings, I ended up using a lower value for a better picture.

Now I can check my settings quickly by going directly to the expert menu.

I had used the monster DVD and there is no comparison, the WOW is much more detailed and better explained. Worth the money. I got two Blue-Ray disk (no HDMI cable)

Only frustrating thing is that my TV requires individual settings for each input and I can only use the WOW for my BD player and then copy settings over.

Make sure you turn off ALL of your "Auto Yuck" settings as we call them.

Every TV should calibrate with this disc as it is in compliance with industry standards for calibration.

If your TV is NOT calibrating properly, the disc is telling you something is wrong with your TV or Settings.

You may want to turn off all Auto Yuck and possibly turn down your backlight setting a bit.

Rich

Please excuse my ignorance but as someone that knows nothing about calibrating a TV will this blu ray walk me through it? Is it as simple as step by step on screen directions or would it be a waste of time?

Just curious as someone who hasn't touched my Samsung LCD TV out of the box, can the picture quality really improve that much?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Great walk thru! You don't have to know anything.

If you do it correctly - it can look amazing!
My dad was about to throw his older (3 years) LCD out the door because he was never happy with the picture. Turns out it was still in "Torch mode" and was completely off on the colors and had every single terrible "picture enhancement" running.
We looked it up on this forum, found out which setting was closest to the standard (cinema, warm) - and ran the settings.
Contrast, brightness, color, tint, and sharpness - were set as close to standards as possible just with the disc and no expensive calibration instruments (not that I have any) - and it was like A NEW TV!
My dad has called a few times thanking me for saving him a bunch of money that would be needlessly spent on a newer TV that may be set the same way. (but we would have fixed that!)
With that in mind - I have noticed that a lot of newer models are thankfully set a lot closer to standards than they used to be. (I work at Sam's)
I recommend finding the forum post on here for your model and seeing what others have said about which settings are best.
But to answer your question - this disc is well worth the money! Especially for the Disney clips on it.
I also was upset that the Goofy cartoon I saw at the movies was not on there, but I understand now.
-Phil

Not sure about your Blu Ray player, but on my PS3, if I have Super White enabled and using RGB limited I could not adjust contrast properly on the advanced test screen with the stars. I could not get the whiter than white stars to ever disappear. Turn off Super White and I could not make them appear, which I am ok with. I could set it so the checkerboard pattern fades right at the edge of the 0 box. (TV is a Sony 46HX800)

Very nice disc. I like it a lot more than DVE.

Same here and with all the confirming, double checking the description, etc. mine arrived today and is NOT blu-ray. I am not a happy camper. I mean how hard is it to get a proper product description up on your website? That and someone called and actually confirmed itwas in fact the blu ray version with a CS Rep too??? Ridiculous...

Oh, Rich, so that was you??

Sorry for the mis-quote - I should have stated I was paraphrasing.

But how would a short about hooking up home theater equipment not seem appropriate for, well, a disc about hooking up home theater equipment? I still think you guys missed the boat on that call...

Regardless, the contents of the disc, at least what I saw at your demo, is quite impressive. I'll probably end up with a copy even though I'll have to get my Goofy "How To" fix hopefully from some other Disney release someday...

Jeff

Proper calibration can improve your picture & sound dramaticaly.

Disney WOW - World of Wonder has very easy detailed instructions. I recommend the "Advanced" Optimize section...it is easy enough for beginners to use.

No Worries...

We gave it serious thought. However, we decided not to include it in its original form in the end. The piece on the disc was actually built from that Goofy short. However, the Goofy short did not have the educational content or presentation we were looking for. I am not producing a new disc anytime soon...but will keep it in mind for the future. There were several people that asked about this clip...

I bought WOW to calibrate both my plasma and projector setups but after playing around with it first on the TV the question dawned on me if it was even necessary since I have a THX setting.

I "think" THX automatically adjusts the settings just right but perhaps there is also tweaking needed based on viewing conditions and thats where WOW comes in?

I haven't yet tried it on my projector but will hopefully have time this weekend however overall found it very easy to use so far. Anyway, any clarification would be very helpful

I will be using the PS3 for my calibration as well (as soon as the disc arrives)...I wonder if I'll have the same issues (although, I have a Samsung tv).

I'd like to hear what RBFilms thinks about the PS3's Super White and RGB settings.

Just because it has a THX setting doesn't mean that it's 100% correct. I would run through the test disc and see how well the factory did in setting up your display.

I had RGB issues with the PS3 a while back and found forum after forum about it with really no clear cut answers.

Apparently, in PS3 "YPBPR", you MUST have Super White ENABLED to see Whiter than Whites.

In PS3 "RGB" - no matter what you will ONLY see 16-235, AKA NO Blacker than Blacks and NO Whiter Than Whites.

And also it was stated that "FULL" was incorrect for movies and that the correct setting in the PS3 should be "Limited."

I will try and find these links.

If someone knows differently Please share as I can also benefit from it.

-Phil

No pre-set calibration can take in to account your room lighting / environment. Some presets can get close to the ballpark, but fine adjustments are required to "dial-in" perfect picture and sound.

I agree...I did the same thing....called...e-mailed to double check...received the DVD not the blu-ray. I did get a full refund plus refund for the shipping costs. Then I went ahead and ordered the blu-ray from them (this time the picture, description and price were correct)....I just hope it's right this time.

Ray

Agree with Ralph on the PQ side of the review.. It is a great disk for calibration.. In terms of the sound, I disagree with the ratings as it seems to be excellent....

Heads up for anyone in the Disney Movie Club.

You can pick up the WOW Blu-ray for $9.99 with the purchase of one regular priced Blu-ray $29.99 and above. The offer is good through 2/7/11.

I bit on the offer since I was planning on getting WOW anyways, it at least takes the sting out of paying $32 for Beauty and the Beast. (buying that combination on Amazon today will cost you $44 total)

I don't think that is entirely accurate. I have mine set at RGB Limited and when I turn on Super White I cannot make the whiter than white stars in the advanced contrast setting disappear. I think it did the same thing on RGB Full but would need to check to be sure. Might be a specific TV thing. When I turn off Super White I cannot see the whiter than white stars no matter the setting. The checkerboard blends to white at the correct spot, so I am ok with the setting. But have Super White on seems to be too much white.

People that use the PS3 for a BluRay player....do you think this disc was worth it? My disc hasn't arrived yet, so I don't even know what this "star" thing you're talking is....but did the rest of the tests help you out?

Yes, it is a great disc for calibrating. And the star test helped out fine. The only point I was making is that under certain settings on my tv, I could not see the whiter than white symbols, or the blacker than black. And under another setting I could not get rid of the whiter than white symbols. So the disc helped in telling me that was probably not the correct setting.

I have used DVE for years but I like the simplicity of using this disc better, and there is a lot of depth as well.

I have a quick question. I have a 42 inch Kuro plasma which I had professionally calibrated when I first got it. After getting a new blu ray player I had the same guy come out to recalibrate it and he saw some of the original settings drifted. I just got my WOW disc and am going to use it on my LCD in my bedroom. My question is can I use the disc to see if any of my Kuro settings have drifted again? I dont know how accurate the disc would check with gamma settings or black and white levels compared to the equipment the guy who did my calibration had. I just dont want to change anything if needed and mess it up.

MY Sony bluray player has a "theater" setting and a "standard" setting. WHich one should I use when calibrating with WOW??

Do you also have a Sony TV? If you do, I think the "Theater" button on your BD player remote shifts the "scene" selection on the TV to "movie". I don't think it changes the output of the BD player. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

And, if you have a Sony TV, I think you can calibrate all of the "scene" selections separately.

Disc came in today.....quick thoughts:
The beginner's stuff was sort of worthless (expected)
I don't know if it's my TV or the PS3, but I just can't get the Brightness or Contrast tests to ever work the way they should (I did my older Samsung tonight which I was using CNET's recommended specs on).
I found that most of my settings were pretty good, only with the Blue Filter did I notice that my tint and color needed some slight adjustments.
Sharpness was pretty good already.
I did the video settings on Advanced but not the Image (I think that's what it's labeled) part yet (which seems a little more advanced).

I definitely noticed a little improvement in the coloring so far....I am looking forward to testing this out on my main TV tomorrow.

I had the same problem with my TV and PS3. I had to turn on Super White on the PS3 in order to see some of the stars in the WOW disc. Try that and see if it works.

With Super White on could you get the whiter than white stars to disappear? No matter what I set the contrast at they would not disappear. Which tells me Super White should be off. You should not see those stars. The checkerboard should fade away right in the middle, and I could not get it to do that with Super White on. TV is a Sony HX800.

Does this come with an HDMI cable?

Does it also come with speaker wire?

lol, I had the opposite problem.....whether I have Super White on or off....I can NOT see the Whiter Than White Stars....and unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, I couldn't see the ideal white ones either
Same goes for the black star pattern before it.
The PS3 has quite a few settings that I don't know what they actually do....as does my TV (though I tried to simply turn them all off)

I will look up the model # of my TV...right now I'm not sure what one it is