Here are my four favorite movies for testing new TVs – plus the 4K Blu-ray test disc I can’t live without
An important part of the way we test TVs at Ny Breaking is subjective testing. That’s the part of the process where our reviewers put the best TVs through tests for picture quality, sound quality, gaming features, smart TV features and more. To test picture quality, we use 4K Blu-ray and streaming, HD Blu-ray and streaming, and lower resolution sources such as DVD.
The specific movies, TV shows, and other media we use are important to our image quality tests. We use the same scenes as reference on each TV or projector because we know what to look for when it comes to contrast, black levels, color accuracy, motion, brightness and more when using these scenes. And it’s not just about picture quality: we’ll also use some of these movie scenes to test the TV’s built-in audio quality.
The films and scenes we use will vary from reviewer to reviewer (apart from one disc which I’ll get into later) but will have been carefully chosen as references as they can quickly show the strengths and weaknesses of a TV based on the above mentioned criteria.
Here are the four movies (a mix of both SDR and HDR on discs and streaming) I use when testing a new TV, along with a bonus disc at the end that no reviewer can live without.
1. The Batman
For me, The hitter, the 2022 film starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, is an excellent resource for testing different aspects of the TV picture. An extremely grainy, dark and gritty film, The hitter used “available natural light” and is “an urban noir film,” according to cinematographer Greg Fraisier ACS ASC (via Cinematography World). The film is also mastered at a very weak 400 nits (most films are mastered at 1,000 nits).
The hitter is a no-brainer for testing shadow detail and black levels on a TV. If a set can reveal the details and textures in such a dark film by keeping the dark tones accurate, that’s a big positive. Much of the film takes place at night, so it’s also great for testing black uniformity: the ability to render dark tones evenly across the screen. This isn’t usually a problem for the best OLED TVs, but can be a real problem for edge-lit LED TVs like the Samsung CU8000 for example, causing black areas in images to look gray and cloudy.
There is a noticeable amount of grain in it The hitter – a conscious choice by the director – but the film still strives to maintain lifelike skin tones and textures. That’s why I use it to test a TV’s digital processing to see if it reduces grain too much, giving the picture an artificially clean look – something that typically happens in picture modes like Standard and Vivid.
Along with the image quality, The hitter is excellent for testing audio. The speech is a bit mumbled (again, perhaps intentionally?), so it’s a great drive to test the clarity of the dialogue. There’s also the brilliant Batmobile chase scene, which can test the power and heft of a TV’s built-in audio, mainly through the rumble of the Batmobile’s roaring engine.
2. Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to 1986 Top pistol (both starring Tom Cruise), is almost the opposite of The hitter. Both 4K Blu-rays are excellent for evaluating skin tones and a TV’s ability to display lifelike textures. But a a lot of Independent thinking person is recorded during the day so I can see how a TV handles these features in a well-lit scene.
The main reason I use Independent thinking personhowever, is to test movement. In 2018, Tom Cruise commented on TV’s motion settings, saying, “It takes the cinematic look out of every frame and makes it look like a soap opera shot on a cheap video camera” (via BBC news). He made these comments while shooting Top Gun Maverickso clearly natural-looking cinematic fast-paced action was what he was aiming for.
Independent thinking person is filled with lots of long, panning shots – through landscapes, past crashing, rolling fighter jets and even boats and motorcycles. There are also plenty of intense flying scenes, including the first “dogfight” training mission, which I use a lot. This sequence makes it easy for me to tell if motion looks smooth or jerky on a TV. When using Filmmaker mode (usually the most accurate TV picture preset) the motion smoothing settings are disabled and that’s a real challenge for TVs. More premium models tend to deal with this fine, while more budget models, contrary to what Mr Cruise says, need a little motion assistance via blur and shake reduction adjustments.
Again, I use this drive not only for testing picture quality, but also for audio, because, you guessed it, jet engines are a great workout for a TV’s built-in speakers. It also features many shots of jets flying across the screen, testing the TV’s soundstage (the wider the better), virtual surround sound and the positioning of sound effects in relation to the on-screen action.
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Despite what many people think Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it’s a beautifully shot and beautiful looking film. Details, movement, contrast: you name it, this film has it. However, I mainly use it for one test: color.
In the ‘throne room’ fight scene between Rey, Kylo Ren and the red-clad guards late in the film, so many dynamic and punchy colors appear on screen, really testing a TV’s color reproduction. This scene in particular uses the color red (the guards’ armor, the walls of the room, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber) and can reveal a TV’s strengths and weaknesses. Budget models often exhibit a more washed-out and dull hue, while premium sets offer the bold red I’m looking for, but without oversaturation.
The lightsabers are another excellent test of color. Several scenes make these the focal point of the shot and can be very useful for showing off a TV’s effectiveness in displaying HDR highlights. TVs I’ve tested that handled this successfully include OLEDs like the Panasonic MZ2000, Philips OLED808, and LG G3.
4. The great Spider-Man
This choice is less about the film itself and more about an old format: DVD. The great Spider Man is a great looking movie, but not all 4K TVs handle it equally well. Textures can appear soft and blurry, which isn’t surprising considering the image needs to be heavily upscaled.
A good 4K TV provides blur upscaling and sharpens textures to give the image more life and power. On larger screens, like the best 65-inch TVs, 4K upscaling of a standard definition picture will never be perfect, but a good TV should be able to make a DVD watchable.
The great Spider Man is a colorful, fast-paced film with plenty of alternating day and night scenes, so all the picture quality testing bases are covered. More importantly, the DVD version tests a TV’s upscaling to see if it can deliver a vivid visual punch to the film even from a lower-resolution source.
Bonus Disc: Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray
Many readers won’t know Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray, but it’s an essential disc for TV critics. Spread over three disks, it is designed for testing each performance aspect of a TV. The UHD benchmark contains test patterns for color gamut, grayscale, sharpness, motion, skin tones and much more, and is a must-have for me.
One section I use regularly is the demonstration material, a seven-minute film sequence mastered in all HDR formats – HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision – that highlights each area of a TV’s picture performance mentioned above. Snowy scenes show how a TV handles vibrant white, nighttime landscapes show it can reproduce truly black skies, while animal shots feature intricate textures and details in feathers and scales.
This drive allows home theater enthusiasts to calibrate their TVs for the absolute best picture, and it is highly recommended.