Reference dvd list-nominate the candidates here

[zepplongfellow]

I Cannot see how no one has nominated Monsters Inc for Video. Just look at all that fur.
For audio as some have said Master and Commander is the best sound mix out there.

[DVD-NUTTA]

JURASSIC PARK SUPERBIT -both audio & visuals are phenominal.
WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)- the audio blew me away (the fighter jet attack on the tripods)
TRUE LIES DTS- the entire Harrier jump jet scene
TITANIC dts-ES -The great ship dying

[DVD-NUTTA]

Check out THE ISLAND the DD soundtrack is awesome.That whole gun shootout/motorway chase scene blew me away.Do yourself a favour listen to the car get cut in half by the sheet of steel WOW.I watched it on the London underground on the way to work and my ears were rattling for hours afterwards.Even whilst just listening thru inner earphones i had full audio separation.

[DVD-NUTTA]

I'd like to add THE FRIGHTENERS R3 dts and INDEPENDENCE DAY R3 dts both sound phenomenal audio if you have a multi region dvd player ditch your DD only R1 copies

[sub780lime]

I like to use The Incredibles, espcially for video

others i often refer back to are

Star Wars--I always go back to the Jango-Obi chace, the silence, and sound of Jangos bombs, and how it transitions back passed the viewer into the rears is very nice

LOTR EE espcially ROTK The Final Battle, In scale it is just pretty look at, the drumbs, the horns, make for amazing sound and the use of surrounds just puts you there

X2 --decent on the video side, but the sound used in the jet battle is wonderful---cant wait for third

Phantom of the Opera--actually has become one of my new favorites, the opening scene when the opera is tranformed is just beautiful and the sound always astounds me.

[zepplongfellow]

In order to bring life back into this tread I have went through every post and wrote down every nomitation for a audio reference dvd. I picked just audio because I think video a moot point for dvd with blue-ray and hd-dvd. I hope we can narrow the nomiations down to 10. Movies with sequels and prequels in my opinion should be counted as 1 movie. Also I want people to add any more if they want. I know I am not a administator I just love this subject matter.
Lord of the Rings EE
Star Wars
Desperado Superbits
Fight Club
The Fifth Element Superbits
Mulholland Dr
Moulin Rouge
Rushmore Criterion
Jason X

Both Fast and Furious movies
Bad Boys 2
Black Hawk Down
Blade 1 & 2
Dark City
Daredevil
X2
All Pixar Films
Final Fantasy Spirits Within
Freddy vs Jason
Run Lola Run
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Die Another Day
Titain AE
Matrix Trilogy
Pearl Harbor
Godzilla
U-571
Swordfish
Starship Troopers
Saving Private Ryan
Red Planet
Twister
Sinbad
The Perfect Storm
Se7en
Terminator 3
Underworld
Swat
Jurassac Park
Terminator 2
Hero
X-Men
Mask Of Zorro
Unforgivin
The X-files
The Mummy
Band of Brothers
Master and Commander
Seabiscut
Minority Report
Contact
The Italian Job
The Last Samuri
MIB
Independece Day
The Others
We Were Soldiers
Gladiator
The Patriot
Behind Enemy Lines
Kill Bill
Panic Room
Top Gun
XxX
Once upon a time in Mexico superbit
The Phantom of The Opera
Resident Evil
Final Destinaton 2
Charles Angels
The Texas Chiansaw Massacre
The Flight of the Pheniox
War Of The Worlds
Mr and Mrs Smith
True Lies
Titaniac
The Island
The Fantastic Four
Spiderman 1&2
I Robot
King Kong
Sky Captian and The World of Tommorow
The Chronicals of Narnia The Lion Witch and The Wardrobe
Hellboy
Sin City

[Sehnzeleid]

Here's a few: (I'll probably think of more later. )

Last Action Hero (Superbit, R2 Japan)

Excellent transfer and DTS 5.1 that beats the hell outta Columbia's old U.S. DVD (that was quietly replaced by a cropped full screen DVD )



Kung Fu Hustle (Columbia Tri-Star, R3 Hong Kong)

Reference DVD transfer that's not a showcase for sharpness, but for being quite "film-like." Sony's U.S. DVD and Blu-ray editions are EDITED and feature altered normalized color, so I don't care if Sony released a 2000p super-duper HD edition, if it's like their current editions, it belongs in the trash can.



The Eye 2 (Megastar/ Kam & Ronson, R3 Hong Kong)

Quite simply one of the best DVD transfers ever. I really don't know what the compressionists did, but damn.



Women in Cell Block 9 (VIP, R0 Sweden)

Poorly shot exploitive WIP trash from Jess Franco with totally nude women in prison and running around in the jungle receives an absolutely stunning DVD transfer that quite possibly is the best looking film from 1977 on DVD, yes, including Star Wars.



Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (Synapse Films, R1 U.S.)

Superb transfer that tops Anchor Bay's and Blue Underground's best efforts.



Street Trash (Synapse Films, R1 U.S.)

Another superb transfer from Synapse, probably their best transfer yet.



Night of the Living Dead '90 (Columbia Tri-Star, R1)

Unheralded transfer that's actually surprisingly great looking.



Cannibal Holocaust (Ultrabit, EC Entertainment, R0 Netherlands)

The best film has ever looked, downconverted from a 1080p Spirit Datacine D5, it blows away the muddy, interlaced (and looooooong delayed and overhyped) U.S. Grindhouse Releasing DVD. This is Italian cannibal flick reference.



City of the Living Dead (Gates of Hell) (Anchor Bay, R0)

Back when Anchor Bay gave a damn, they released an amazing transfer of this Fulci classic. Accurately ultra grainy, popping with vibrant color, and crawling with detail. The best transfer given to a Fulci film yet and it's ashame AB has thrown quality control out the window nowadays.



The Evil Dead (Anchor Bay Super Jewel Box Case, R0 / Elite Entertainment Special Collector's Edition, R0)

Fantastic (and nearly identical) transfers seemingly trashed in favor of Anchor Bay's terribly cropped, darkened, almost "neon"-colored Book of the Dead edition's excuse for a "transfer."



Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (Anchor Bay, THX-Certified, R1)

A pitch-perfect transfer of ED2 before Anchor Bay ruined the film with their aborrent (and ridiculously overpraised) Book of the Dead transfer that looks like a pastel painting.

[Sehnzeleid]

Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (Medusa, R2 Italy)

This DVD was out for a long time before the U.S. Anchor Bay edition and I always knew AB couldn't possibly top the stellar video quality of this Italian DVD. Very film-like and a very good reason to grab a region-free DVD player.



Ringu (Dreamworks, R1 U.S.)

Excellent video quality and again, quite film-like. Actually all of Dreamwork's Ringu series DVDs are very nice, and by all accounts feature the best video quality over other DVD editions of the films....and yes, the remake can burn in hell.

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by Mrredcotn

In order:
3. Freddy Vs. Jason

Actually, the Edko Video DVD hailing from Hong Kong has slightly better video quality and ditches the Full Screen version found on the R1 DVD for a DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete audio track.

New Line R1:



Edko R3:

[No6PackJoe]

I'd like to add one

Vertical Limit superbit the picture almost looks HD, and the sound is very dynamic, best scenes, begining before accident, and when they fire the cannon on the mountain.

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by Sehnzeleid

City of the Living Dead (Gates of Hell) (Anchor Bay, R0)

Back when Anchor Bay gave a damn, they released an amazing transfer of this Fulci classic. Accurately ultra grainy, popping with vibrant color, and crawling with detail. The best transfer given to a Fulci film yet and it's ashame AB has thrown quality control out the window nowadays.

I just wanted to make note that the Blue Underground re-release appears to have the same transfer...

[Sehnzeleid]

It always amazing when such amazingly irreverent to the topic or board spam appears.

[Sehnzeleid]

Just watched MGM's From Beyond (1986) DVD, and while I know the film aired on MonstersHD several times, the DVD transfer is stunning. Many times you could have fooled me into thinking it was HD. You even can see stray strains of hair floating from the actor's hairlines and frays on their clothing. The color is excellent too, not pumped to oblivion like their Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 SE. I think it looks noticeably better than the Re-Animator DVDs. Really, I can't imagine this film looking better on DVD, much care has been put into this. Seriously one of the absolute best MGM DVDs I've ever seen.

[Sehnzeleid]

Warner's Kelly's Heroes looks fantastic for a now eight year old DVD:










NO EE or DNR, just beautiful.

[thomashton]

I always pop in SW episode 2 where Obi Wan and Jango are in the space battle above Geonosis. The seismic charges and lazers are amazing sound.

For video, its hard to beat Nemo.