This page contains my favorite demonstration material for Atmos home theaters. While these reference selections should make most systems shine, they were tested on a 7.2.4 Atmos system with discrete height channels. Most of these demos are native Atmos, while some I'm relying on up-mixing. Many of these scenes are mostly geared toward sound demonstration, but films with good audio design often tend to also have good video. I have noted instances where this is not the case.
The table below contains the film, timestamps, and related comments. I don't add the finish point of the demo, as that's generally pretty obvious.
| Film | Scene | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 0min: Opening Scene | Great use of surround effects. |
| 16min: War Party | Classic scene of the brigade on the attack, although I really prefer the "Fuel Drop Off" scene more. | |
| 50min: Fuel Drop Off | Combination of a powerful score, deep bass hits and action. | |
| Blade Runner 2049 | 0min: Opening Scene | Impressive LFE, high energy from LCRs & front heights. While the picture quality is excellent in Blade Runner 2049, the UHD Blu-Ray is 4k SDR put into a HDR container. It does not go above 200nits. While this may be the directors intent, it should be noted that this is a darker movie. It will register as HDR10 nevertheless. |
| 58min: Shot Down | Dynamic score LFE, rain while flying creates immersion using the height channels, crash scene is impactful followed by the drone attacks. Very impressive reference scene. | |
| A Star is Born | 38min: Song Together | Vocals, dynamics. Not a bass demo, but a balanced system demonstration and great for showcasing natural sounding vocals. For a longer demo that increases the build up, start at 34min. |
| Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | 1hr 15min: Helicopter | Immersion, Atmos demo. Helicopter blades inside the barn produce some good low frequency demo. |
| 1hr 35min: Motorcycle chase + elephant | Immersion, heavy elephant steps | |
| Interstellar | 41min: Launch | Not Atmos, but still an impressive demo. However, like many Nolan movies, the dialog mixdown is terrible - so it's not a good judgement of your systems balance in that regard. |
| 59min: Wormhole | Another very powerful scene from Interstellar. | |
| Tron | 41min: Bike Race Scene | While not mixed in Atmos, the Masters Audio soundtrack for this up-mixes beautifully. The LFE is also very powerful. |
| 1hr 8min: Nightclub | Same as above. | |
| Godzilla: King of the Monsters | 0min: Opening Credits | The footsteps at the title sequence are recorded quite hot. This is a good LFE torture test. |
| 41min: Fight | Another good demo scene from the movie (which is otherwise basically unwatchable). | |
| John Wick 3 | 1hr 38min: Shotgun Scene | Great use of the Atmos format, and extremely realistic shotgun blasts. Very good test for tactile response. |
| 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi | 1hr 44min: Embassy Attack | Great all around demo material. This entire movie has an excellent soundtrack, but this is one of the highlights. |
| 1hr 58min: Mortars | Best of the movie. |