What is the best 5 minutes to show when showing off your Home Theater?  

I use the opening of "Ice Age". It has the merits of being colorful and starting off with "small" sounds like the wind and tinkling snow and ice, then moves up to earth rattling and rumbling glaciers.

It's also very funny.

If there's time, I also show "Bridge of Khazad-dûm" from LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. Darker, more intense, but blow your hair back sound!

Randy

The Diva scene from 5th Element (available in Superbit) is still a good one. It shows off black levels (audience scene...see the folds in black suits), good musical qualities and the fight scene provides some bass.
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For three dimensionality of the picture, good sound playback the first two chapters of LOTR - Fellowship of the ring.

LotR, or the first five minutes of the Matrix Reloaded.

I try and judge my audience. The most common is Gladiator or U-571. I have used Saving Private Ryan but it went longer than 5min obviously. For my mom I went with the Bourne Identity chase scene w/ the Mini since she likes the movie and its a good scene.

I like the opening sequence of Toy Story II.

I like to show off a concert first, most people are familiar with Eric Clapton and his music. The DVD, one more car, one more rider, just sounds flat out awesome in 5.1. Cocaine, Sunshine of your love, get's the job done every time.

I'm a CRT fan so there are a few some with specific things which show what only CRT can do others are probably great for demo across the board.

1) Crash scene from DTheater Cast Away ( for video dynamic range and immersion you can't touch this).

2) Gorilla reversion scene from Hollow Man SB ( there is no better looking DVD period)

3) Beginning of U 571 , again DTheater( HD doesn't get any better )


4) AOTC assassin chase from the point of the centipedes in the bedroom ( a real test of blacks.( HD version if you have one but DVD still very good)

5) Road to Perdition (street scene where Hanks mows all the bad guys down with his Thompson)

6) DTheater Daredevil (when Daredevil gets Justice right after the trial) this has video that again has blacks fixed pixel devices can not get close but also incredible surround effects, extremely engaging.

7) The Matrix Revolutions ( Dock scene )

8) The Matrix Revolutions (The night Club break in scene )

9) Lost in Space ( first five minutes)

10) AOTC ( asteroid chases scene)

I'll think of others I'm sure.


Art

The pod race scene from the THX ultimate demo disc in DTS.

For sound I like to use 2 scenes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets... The whomping willow scene(it looks terrible on my LCD proj but it sound great), and the quiddich match with the runaway blodger.

For color and picture quality in a non-animated film, I like Peter Pan. I know the colors are not real and are enhanced, but I consider it eye candy.

I use alot of the demo's listed in the posts in this thread too, I just thought I would throw these out since they are not that common.

DVD
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Fifth Element
D-Theater
X2: XMen United
Independence Day

2nd that vote for the intro to Toy Story 2.

I also dig the hovercraft chase from the latest bond flick. Great 6.1 soundtrack.

For really good quality home theaters that have a low noise floor try the sudtleness of the sounds around you in Bram Stokers Dracula. Especially the scenes where Keanu Reeves first enters the castle and meets the Count. It sounds as if the rats are all around you, talking about you and closing in on you. Then, watch when he travels the halls at night, really creepy. Listen for the castle sounds from different parts of the room as they direct him where to go. Again this will spotlight how well you have isolated your theater from the outside noises and how well you have balanced the frequency response in the room as well as how sensitive your equipment is at conveying the finer details of sound. If any of the three elements are not adequate, you quickly lose the sensation and the whole affect is non-existent and it becomes just a scary movie. But, when it's all working for you, man, It's downright eerie. I have not heard nor seen anything as creepy or as sudtley compelling (in a creepy and strange kind of way).

I like using the chapter from 'Driven' where Stallone does a test lap early in the movie. Colors are vivid with the racing car, also the flesh tones on the faces of the team monitoring his driving are very different from each other. I like that it shows very realistic skin differences. The gal in that scene has black hair and black glasses that show nice contrast. The backdrop to them is a brilliant red. Good Subwoofer also as the car approaches a quarter on the ground before the tire swipes it up.
For good picture and surround sound submersion, I like one of the opening scenes to 'Rock Star'. It's the concert scene where Whalberg and his cronies are at the edge of the stage and Whalberg's singing is heard by the surprised lead singer. It then kicks into the concert briefly, but the sensation of feeling like you're actually in the concert hall is very cool.

Countdown and launch scene from Apollo 13.
Breakout of high rise and helicopter crash scene from the Matrix - with bass shakers it's mind blowing.

I really wish I could say the first ship attack in the Master and Commander DVD because it sounds SO GOOD, but damn that grainy video!!! Grrr!!! This is a title I'd expect would benefit greatly on D Theater due to the foggy scenes that seem to give compression programs such headaches...

Armageddon's dual space shuttle launch and the bank robbery shootout in Heat...

Finding Nemo is my current favorite at this moment..Darla tapping scene.Or the sharks .take your pic.Also the scenes in the aquarium should make just about anybodies mouth drop to the floor!!The colors and such are mind boggling.

brickie

I've got a demo DVD+R with my favorite demo chapters from 20 different DVDs. Use DVDShrink with no compression.

I alternate action, animation, and concerts.

Like potato chips... with these demo clips I've yet to find anyone that can stop after just one.

I've got a similar demo series of HDTV from my Fusion card too.

Air Force One is pretty good for surround sound effects. Das Boot can be pretty good for exercising the sub, though it's a hard movie to show just 5 minutes of.

I'm in agreement with about every post in the thread!

I usually do the opening of Toy Story 2, which is in 1.85.

Then I pull back the curtains to full width, put the Panamorph in place and show the asteroid chase scene from Attack of the Clones, which is in 2.35.

Every time, my guests get wowed by the 2.35 screen.

Lately, I have been showing the Death Star attack run instead of the AOTC scene.

I mean, who doesn't love that sequence?

The Haunting on D-VHS. Great bottom end.
I agree that the Ice Age opening sequence is a great demo. When the ice first cracks it just rips through the room. Outstanding!

And the land mine scene from Behind Enemy Lines!

Adding to this long and fruitful list -

The Roller coaster door scene in Monsters Inc.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is excellent demo material. The "Matrix" fight scene or the opening chase scene are but two that come to mind. Much like The Fifth Element, there are numerous worthy five minute demos in the movie.I read somewhere that the Canadian release, which defaults to French, is the version to own of this movie.

Clarence, I have done the same thing with DVD-Shrink and the results were not bad. The picture quality is still very good but I can't get the transitions very smooth. Is there a way to have each clip kind of fade in and out? I usually end up with a half frozen frame at the end of each clip and a second or so pause before the next clip picks up. I would like to do more of these if I could make them look a little better. Any suggestions?

For demoing my system for friends, I use a scene for Starship Troopers (Superbit), where the troops are deployed from the starships while under heavy fire from the planet below and the planet battle that ensues. The detail is incredible and the sound shakes the room!

If there're no children in the room, I show the scene "Irene" from "Blackhawk Down". Nice helicopter sounds and a bit of action but also some cussing.

When there are children there, I show "The Chub Chubs" animated short feature from "The Men in Black II" DVD. It's a pretty funny piece for both kids and adults.

A common theme is running through all these examples, that is, the way to demo is loud and louder. It seems that the deeper the bass and the louder the action then that shows a quality system. I used to think that way too, until, I turned the volume down, isolated the environment and upgraded my equipment. Then, the most awesome demo's became those that extracted you out of the room and into the movie with the subtlest of audio/video cues. Another DVD that does this well is the Jurasic Park III DVD. The scenes in the bird cage, the ending scene when the group is surrounded by the Raptors and the scene when the group is dispersed into the forest while the Raptors are chasing them provide excellent subtle and some not so subtle audio cues. There are other DVDs and scenes that aspire to "put you there" in the movie. One that comes to mind is the first Indiana Jones movie. In the opening scene when Indy's group is going through the jungles of South America.

I'm curious. Does anyone show a demo scene that does not go above 85 dB? If not, why not? Do you realize that you lose the female audience when you get to 90, 95 and 100 dB? :confused: Anyone?

I think the Fight Club "dream" plane crash is excellent for it's well recorded voice narrative, and quiet followed by extreme mayhem and then quiet again. It's always a great heart-stopper.