I've been writing about home cinema kit for years, having previously been the deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice and a tech journalist for decades. And I'm a creature of habit when it comes to reviewing or testing TVs, projectors or sound systems – I always used the same handful of movies.
That was previously a selection of standard Blu-rays, but when 4K Blu-ray arrived – often accompanied by Dolby Atmos soundtracks – I stepped up my game.
Now, thanks to Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days sales event, you too can use the same clips from the same movies to test your own entertainment kit – and save yourself a bundle in the process.
If you don't own a dedicated 4K Blu-ray player (or PS5 / Xbox Series X) you can even get one of those in a great deal too. The highly-regarded Sony UBP-X700 has 15% off during the Amazon event too.
Back to my test discs though, and these are the three I highly recommend.
Why use 4K Blu-rays to test TVs and sound systems?
While streaming services have really upped their game in terms of picture and audio quality in recent times, 4K Blu-ray discs play at higher bitrates and are therefore the more purist way of viewing content.
You'll need a decent player, of course, and some discs are behind the times when it comes to the more advanced picture and audio standards – such as HDR 10+, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos – but you will get the presentation as close to the director's original vision as possible.
At a push though, you can also look at the likes of Disney+, Apple TV+ and Netflix for test content – Tron Legacy isn't yet available on 4K Blu-ray, for example, but is an ideal movie to see just how good your TV is for contrast. I'll still be keeping physical copies of my own favourites to hand, though.
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