What is most useful for viewing a display's ability to render black and deep shadow detail are scenes which have a dark overall picture content. All too often one sees demos only with scenes which have a lot of bright objects or high overall light level. Under those conditions even a display with poor ability to reproduce black can look good. It's when a scene is overall dark and lacks bright objects that the true transparency vs fogginess due to poor black reproduction is most visible. If black reproduction is too light, darkly lit scenes look washed out, drop in color saturation, and look flat.
Autumn in New York is an excellent disk for checking black reproduction capability. It has a imagery with both low APL (average picture level) and color content.
Begin with Chapter 5. The overall APL of the opening street scene is moderately low and contains the colors of fall leaves. There should be a dimensionality and depth to the image down the street as the taxi approaches. The immediately following shots though a glass window into the cab roughly demonstrate what poor black renditon looks like. The following park scene after the cab has very dark greens behind the falling leaves. Coloration should be vivid autumnal and image depth tremendous and Ryder and Gere walk in the park.
Chapter 7 begins with a view of the Statue of Liberty. Very shortly thereafter one sees a Richard Gere reading a letter. The shots of him switch through a window and direct. You should clearly have a sense that the layer of fog caused by the window is lifted when the camera switches to a direct close up.
Chapter 8 is extremely difficult for a projector to display well. Almost the entire chapter is a tough challeng. The scenes are quite dark, but has shadow detail in the background and clothing. Watch and note if the image is like looking directly at something at night through clear air vs through a smokey veil. It should look like a view through clear air. At the end of Ch 8 one sees a night riverside view then Richard Gere walking up stairs next to the river. Pay particular attention to how vivid the colors of the dimming sunset appears. The sky should have a very definite blue blended to orange appearance as one might see two hours or so after sunset. That sunset should look even more saturate than skin. Look at the blueness of the water behind Gere and his facial color as he ascends the steps. The water should be definitely blue and his face fleshtoned even before he is lit by the street light.
Chapter 10 opens with a park scene with average APL but lots of vivid fall color. One is then taken to a dusk outdoor building shot. Transparency in the park scene should be staggering. The plane of your display should practically disappear if blacks is rendered well.
I think Autumn in New York is a more useful subjective test material than Sci Fi or animated films because it showcases material from real life rather than imagined. After all, when was the last time you looked out the viewport of a starship or saw talking bugs? The former doesn't have a real life referrant, and the latter is great for hiding display deficiencies behind bright images with exaggerated colors.
It's incredibly sad that cueing up this film has been made to remind us of unbearable losses so recent and yet to come.
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Guy Kuo
www.ovationsw.com
Ovation Software, the Home of AVIA DVD
[This message has been edited by Guy Kuo (edited 09-16-2001).]
