Audio Visual test materials

[marcus]

I have a DVD Essentials disc which I use to calibrate my screen, it goes pretty in depth with it all. Costs around ?20-?25 quid.

[ThoseOfTheUnlight]

Marcus do you fancy "renting" out the disc at all?

[mid]

Oops, Digital Video Essentials is even cheaper than I remembered. ?9.99 at Movietyme. That even gets you the various colour filters for getting your temperature correct.

[RLench]

Agent L - buy a cheap amp (?130 or so...maybe go second hand and find a good Marantz amp), two pairs of Mission M30i speakers and a Mission M7c centre and you've got a great budget set up for well under ?500. Put the rest of the money on some good stands and speaker cable and you've got a great budget setup. If Mission speakers aren't musical, then I don't know what is!

Of course it won't sound as good as the best hifi systems but it'll sound infinitely better than any all-in-one at the same price point

Some more demo discs I'd recommend:

Broken Arrow
Face Off (R3 version...it has DTS)
Twister R1 (full rate DTS...sounds awesome )
Lion King R1
Biohazard 2 (region 3 - full rate DTS)
Any Tarantino film - not suitable for a shop But they have great sound mixes, IMO, with some superb mixing and atmosphere

[Crisp_Rapper]

Any suggestions, I doubt B&O will cater for my needs though eh Crisp!

all the b&o speakers have built in amps which makes more sense as the amp is then perfect for that particular speaker and removes the need to purchase extra (sometimes scandalously expensive) speaker wire... that said, out cheapest speakers start at ?1250, which will get you (in the real world) a superb little setup.

that said, if you ever want your head kicked off by sound, drop by and have a play with the kit

[Freddo]

I quite like black hawk down (region 1, though I guess R2 is the same) the picture on it is really really crisp (mastered from a high definition source I think) so its nice for showing off your tv, plus the soundtrack is 6.1EX just for added awesomeness.

[demon9k]

Or :

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1962

With :

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1311

?100 over budget though!

I have those speakers and the 1705 Denon amp and it rocks. I would recommend it to anyone.