Six Useful Blu-ray Discs For Picture Quality Evaluation

Posted by: David Birch-Jones at 11:11 am, July 21st, 2010

To gauge a display’s ability to deliver deep blacks, dark grays and shadow detail, the last Batman film The Dark Knight is a great choice, especially as the Joker and Batman tussle in the many nighttime fight scenes, some of which take place in underground roadways. Similarly, Spider-man 3 is another great choice, as Spidey’s suit morphs from the traditional red to all black in this movie, which is also highly useful with the nighttime fight scenes to gauge how a display handles very deep blacks and dark grays.

For evaluation of fine detail, I regularly turn to the Blu-ray of Legends Of Jazz With Ramsey Lewis Showcase, which features a baker’s dozen of great jazz tunes performed by a who’s who list of noted musicians and singers. My favorite track on the disc is “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, sung by the delightful Jane Monheit who’s paired up with jazz guitarist John Pizzarellli.

The track has numerous close-ups of John’s guitar strings, which is great for evaluating a 1080p display’s or a Blu-ray player’s ability to correctly deinterlace 1080i content. Ms. Monheit’s black dress and lacy black top are ideal for evaluating black reproduction and dark detail, while the colorful lighting in the studio adds a vibrant touch.

Of course, I have numerous other Blu-ray titles in my collection, but those five mentioned above are the ones that are by far the most often used here when I’m evaluating a display’s picture quality, and any or all of them would make nice additions to your Blu-ray disc library.