Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Im an dedicated reader of "Home Theater" magazine and they wrote an article for this BD. So being the enthusiast I am, I purchased this BD with in minutes of reading the article. I'm glad it did! Spears & Munsil have definitely set the standard for HDTV calibration. I have used other cal BD's and they were great, but none come close to this one. The BD offers a array of test patterns to calibrate/adjust your TV. It even prove that my TV "Cine-motion" feature was better turn "off". They are also video in 7.1 Dolby HD and DSP HD to test your surround speakers. They dont offer test tones, thats my only complaint. But don't let that stop you from getting this BD. I'm still a fan of ISF calibrations, but if you don't have $400.00 to invest in a full "ISF" cal, then I would highly suggest you buy this BD.
Sony XBR6 52" is perfect after Spears & Munsil.

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Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, who created the highly-regarded DVD Player BenchmarkTM and Progressive Scan Shootout at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity®, have applied all their technical wizardry to this Blu-ray test and evaluation disc. "The static test patterns represent the current state-of-the-art. They are more accurate than the test patterns found on previous discs. There are a lot of subtle details that go into making them as mathematically accurate as possible, especially since you are dealing with lossy encoding. We have built propriety tools to generate the synthetic patterns. We use a custom encoder that will preserve as much detail as possible. Even the simple color bars have unique traits that make them cleaner. - Stacey Spears, author of the disc" [Picture Quality Calibration and Evaluation Tool for Displays, Blu-ray Players and Video Processors] (IMPORTANT NOTICE: This disc is a high-definition disc and is compatible only with Blu-ray players. It will not play on a standard DVD player.)

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Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have both Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up and the Avia Guide To Home Theater. If you're a serious video/audiophile, you will want to get the Avia Guide To Home Theater which has far more comprehensive video/audio calibration tests and procedures.
Then again, I suspect the S&V disc is more aimed at the 'mass market' and as such, it does an excellent job. The explanations are very well (and occasionally humorously) explained by two highly appealing presenters. The audio/video tune-ups are a subset of what's available on the Avia Guide disc, though the S&V disc also includes some test patterns from Avia Pro which I hadn't seen before.
I very much like the 'Extras' section of the disc which has some great demo clips from Dolby, DTS, and THX. These are not available on Avia Guide to Home Theater. Also, the DTS tune-up is not available on the Avia Guide, and is most welcome though it didn't result in any changes to my audio settings.
I experienced a strange glitch with the video on the speaker balance tune-up - the wrong speaker was highlighted or the previous menu would be displayed. Weird. I have had no problems with the Avia Guide.
Overall, at the MSRP ...I highly recommend the Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up. It's informative and entertaining, and I think it will help novice users better understand and make the most of their home theaters.

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Sound & Vision, the world's largest audio/video magazine, has teamed with Ovation Software, the leading authority on A/V equipment calibration, to bring you this comprehensive, entertaining, and simple-to-use guide to hooking up, operating, and adjusting your home theater for the absolute best performance! Whether you're a novice or enthusiast, you'll find step-by-step instructions, exclusive video patterns and audio tests, and helpful tips for hooking up, adjusting, and operating your system! Exclusive, user-friendly video test patterns, Audio Tune-up with exclusive test signals designed by Sound & Vision Technical Editor David Ranada, including speaker ID/balance for 5.1-channel and 6.1-channel systems, speaker phase, and subwoofer level S-Video/ composite video test, DVD aspect-ratios explained, Jack-by-jack set-up & installation advice. 90 minutes.

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Disney WOW: World of Wonder Review

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(More customer reviews)Recently purchased a 55" Samsung UN55C6800 LED TV and was looking for a calibration disc. I was about the purchase the DVE HD Basics Blu-Ray but saw a press release concerning this DVD, so I decided to wait until this one came out and give it a go.
I will preface this by saying I had already used calibrated settings from CNET as well as users on the AVS forums to tweak my TV already. Before using the WoW Blu-Ray I would say I was about 95% satisfied with the picture my TV delivered using the settings I found online. The main reason I bought the blu-ray is I was just interested in seeing all the (albeit non-professional) test patterns used to calibrate a TV and so forth. I went in to this purchase not expecting any vast improvements in Picture Quality over my already somewhat tweaked settings. I know this disc is no substitute for a ISF professional calibration and was not expecting such results.
First, for people who havent purchased, head over to Disney's website and search for this blu-ray. On its Disney page, you'll find at the bottom a link to download the "WoW Technical Manual." This is basically an instruction booklet on how to use the blu-ray, and I found it to be a nice read before I actually received the blu-ray itself. It goes over a lot of the test patterns and how they work.Here are the contents of the blu-ray:
DISCOVER
The discover section basically gives you an overview of what HDTV is, how a picture is composed, etc.
OPTIMIZE
Beginner
VIDEO TOOLS
*Brightness *Aspect Ratio *Contrast *Color *Sharpness
VIEWING ANGLE DIAGNOSTIC Find the best seat in the house
AUDIO TOOLS
*Speaker ID *Polarity Test *Noise Floor *Buzz & Rattle Test
ADVANCED
ADVANCED VIDEO CALIBRATION TOOLS
*Advanced Brightness & Contrast *Aspect Ratio *Convergence *Chroma & Hue *Sharpness/Focus *Overscan Test *A/V Sync
DISPLAY EVALUATION TOOLS *Purity *Scaling Test *Advanced Scaling 1 & 2 *Sharpness/Focus *Hyperbolic Zone Plate *White-Black Clipping *Viewing Angle Test *Gamma Response *Grayscale *Compound Test Chart
AUDIO TOOLS *Speaker ID *Polarity Test *Noise Floor *Buzz & Rattle Test *A/V Sync *Speaker Level Adjustment *Subwoofer Level Adjustment
EXPERT
PROFESSIONAL TOOLS HD SHOOTOUT Standard DVD vs. HD Blu-ray (BD only)
EXPERIENCE
1-2 minute clips of recent Disney movies.
So....how did it work for me?
First, I love the included manual. Very well written and easy to use. Also, this blu-ray comes with a blue filter gel used to calibrate your colors. (I believe the DVE Blu-Ray also comes with color gels).
The actual DVD menus are wonderful too. Each test pattern has three sections: Overview (description of whay the particular TV setting is important), Instructions (shows the test pattern and clearly talks about how to use it), and finally just the test pattern itself, allowing you to tweak and take as long as you want.
Depending on how familiar you already are with your TV and if you wanted to watch the "Discover" portion of the disc, you can expect to spend anywhere from 1 hour to a few hours with the disc. There is a second included disc called Visions that has a bunch of nature scenery/etc to show off your TV. I did not care for the second disc, but i could see how someone could enjoy it.
At the end of the day, after running through all the tests (some multiple times because other tests later on may change your initial settings), I only changed two settings on my current set-up, and they were very small changes at that. I was disappointed that my settings didnt change too much, but like i said in the beginning I was already very happy with my TV's picture using settings I found online.
For what it is (an average-joe TV calibration blu-ray), this product is wonderful. I highly recommend it for people purchasing their first HDTV as it thoroughly discusses everything a person new to the technology would need to know. If you are the type of person who buys a new TV and starts watching it day 1 on the default settings, this dvd may help a LOT. However, for those who already play around with settings, consumer calibration dvds such as this one will probably not help all that much - especially since we can get decent settings online already from professional review sites or forums.
However, since I am rating the product, it undoubtedly deserves 5 stars. Easy to navigate, well produced, professional, etc. Just understand that if you've already tweaked your TV settings using information you've gathered online, this dvd may not bring that much of a change to your picture settings!

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The Disney WOW World of Wonder Disc is a definitive "how to" guide for in-home High Definition (HD) optimization of home entertainment systems featuring the help of classic Disney character GOOFY and including HD demonstration clips from popular Disney titles including Toy Story, Up, Bolt and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The easy to follow on-screen guide is designed to help consumers get the best quality experience from their home theater systems by providing everyone from beginners and enthusiasts to experts and custom installers alike with valuable high quality calibration tools.

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