HTF REVIEW: "Movie Night" - UPDATED FEATURES SEE PAGE 2 (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Joe Bernardi]

Who's Viola?
Voila! 'Tis Viola!

 

[Woo Jae]

First of all, thanks Ron for your comments and the review. If it weren't for you, I would not have known such DVDs existed!
It seems like a very interesting disc... But only if this last third of the year wasn't full of so many hot releases.... :frowning: [A side note: I collect anime or Japanese Animation as well as movies, so it's rough going on my wallet and credit cards....]
It seems to me that the question posted earlier about how to get the movie to play after "feature presentation" wasn't answered. Can someone who has seen or purchased this comment on how to get this to work? If it involves a two disc player, then I would be interested in it. How would one work this so that it does run like a theatre?
I will probably wait a bit for a later version with a bit more in the feature department (more trivia would be nice).
Like many others on this forum, I was surprised (in a good way) that such products are coming into being. It seems that the people who make these products and the industry in general realizes what a bonanza can be had from marketing to enthusiasts and the common joe.
Once again, thank you Ron for letting us know of such products....

 

[Glenise]

I prefer to use these type of DVDs before a moving showing.
Meaning, while folks are still getting their popcorn and sodas, I put on a DVD demo with trailers or short clips of the movie.

I've used FOX's DVD demo #1 from Best Buy, Widescreen Review DTS demo #1, DTS Demo #5 and DTS Demo #6.
People enjoy watching these before everyone sits down to enjoy the movie.

 

[SpenceJT]

Pointless, absurd, geeky. That's probably how I would begin MY review of a product like this

Ordered mine today! Am I nuts? Oh, HELL YEAH! (...and loving it)

I have a few from another vendor and look forward to additing it into my rotation at the next viewing party!

Regards,
Spence

 

[Jan Strnad]

With easy home DVD recording, you could create exactly the movie disc you want to show for single-disc players. You could copy parts of "Movie Night," throw in some old 1950s "Let's All Go To The Lobby" for concessions stuff, add a cartoon, go back to "Movie Night" for your Feature Presentation graphic, then dub the movie that you legitimately own.
I can't personally get excited over "Movie Night" with my modest setup, which is not a real home theater. But if I could dub a DVD without loss of quality I'd probably get into making a few "home theater presentations" for kicks, and "Movie Night" has a couple nice features.
Thumbs up for the idea of building such a thing into a DVD player. The manufacturer could make continuing bucks by updating the graphics and trivia questions and selling them online.
Jan

 

[Jim-G]

hmmmm...
I am trying to imagine a DVD player that has 1gb downloadable ROM and could afford to hire an animator to make custom graphics for every person who purchased a DVD player... I don't think so, but good concept.
By the way.. I got my copy Thursday and it ROCKS! The trivia is hard and my dinner guests last night thought I was Bill Gates with my own theater logo.
Someone asked how you use the disk:
After your custom logo, the animations (very cool, by the way), and all of the trivia you can take, it plays a feature presentation animation and you swap out dvd's then. I have an X-box so I have just been using the X-box to play this DVD and my DVD player to play my movie to make the experiance more seamless.
My friend has a competitor's version of something like this he got for 200 bucks, but the quality isn't half as good as this one. He was so PO'ed when he saw my copy.
The only problem: I wish the menu screens had the high end graphics to match everything else. More DVD calibration stuff to go with the color bars would be nice too.

 

[Pam W]

Love the idea for the custom intro DVD!
Like others, I, too have seen the more expensive versions of these custom intros, and I am thrilled to finally see one of these in my price range. Sorry some of you don't like it, but I guess that's why we also have chocolate and vanilla ice cream - choice!
I'll be getting one of these babies for my yet-to-be-named HT as soon as I have a name for it.

 

[TonyD]

well it looks like the standard version is now $25. i think it was $40 before.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Tony,

The standard version was never $40. The custom
version is $40.

 

[Scott_J]

When I checked their site after initially reading your review, they were $40 and $50 for the standard and custom, respectively

 

[Bob Black]

I think this is a great idea. I actually wanted my brother to design a similar "intro disc" for my home theater, but I will probably buy one of these DVD's! What I will probably do is have my brother re-create the disc - adding trailers and clips from my favorite films to replace the trivia section. I think $40 is a bargain for a custom product of this type! (It sure is cheaper than the $1000 I want to shell out for an antique popcorn maker
My Theater -
http://avanticomputers.com/bob/theater.htm

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Scott and Tony,

My apologies.

I received an email form the company (who has
been reading this thread).

Seems the prices had changed since I did the
review.

 

[Aaron Croft]

I have a feeling that the warning was pointed almost directly at me
I apologize if anyone was offended, but I surely didn't mean any offense. It was meant to be humorous, and I truly do smile at the fact that you all like this type of product.
It is certainly up to the moderators of this forum to set the rules, and I knew my post was a little over the top.
Have a nice day!
Aaron

 

[Jim-G]

I will probably play the CG opening sequence for every movie even if I'm by myself. I'm a theatre geek. I love that stuff. I used to play that custom THX trailer based on starwars all the time.
I will gladly post what I think of the disc in this thread once it arrives

So what's you're opinion, Jason?
Did it arrive yet?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

UPDATE

Seems there have been some rather significant
updates to this product.
Received this letter today from Cinemawise:
==========================================
Hello Ron,
I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that based upon some of the
feedback we have received from some of your forum readers, we have
implemented some more new features into our Movie Night DVD.
1. We enhanced all of the Menus and trivia pages with better sounds, and
graphics.
2. We added in a concession stand animation.
3. We added in some home theater calibration features. (i.e. colorbars,
pluge ,and audio tests)
4. The self-running quiz now randomly selects its questions from a database
of over 100 questions so you never get the same quiz twice.
We tried to include movie trailers also, but it seems the movie studios'
music clearances would cost upwards of 250k if they granted us a license for
a commercial product.
We also re-vamped our web site and the web gallery so people can download
clips and still of just about everything on our DVD.
All these changes were implemented at the request of your forum members that
provided feedback for us.
I just wanted to let you know how positive and constructive the majority of
your readers have been for us.
Thanks much!
Noah George
CinemaWise Productions
www.cinemawise.com
[email protected]

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Hmm, well I won a version of this got it 2 days ago. I Guess I can't ask for the new version. It's my only real criticism of the Product I received the fact there is a static opening, trivia has no music, is the same everytime, and it's a bit bland. Looks like they've taken steps to make it even better.

 

[Matt Goddard]

It's getting harder to say "No" to this one. It's great to see changes made in response to the feedback. Maybe I'll buy it as a Halloween gift to myself.

 

[Wes]

Well I finally went for it, The video on the site of the filmstrip ride pushed me over the edge so I bought the Basic version. Also talked a friend/coworker into buying one at the same time.
I ordered mine over Christmas and received it last week, would mine (Basic version) be the updated version?
To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the sound. I knew what to expect with the video and it is all I expected but the space sounds in the trivia gets on my nerves after several minuets. The stop and start with the changing questions is annoying also. In the theater you get music, if you could add it with the space sound it might be better.
Just nitpicking but I really hated the curtain opening, I would have liked to see them remain hanging fairly strait down while opening and stop at the edge of the screen. I have curtains masking my screen and it drives me nuts if they are not strait!http://prosteering.8k.com/images/rfrtscreen.jpg
I did not care for the concession stand spinning upside down like it does. Perhaps a little 3D here would have been better.
I was really hoping for a "over the top" sound during the filmstrip ride and was quite disappointed. I think the sound of the cup and box of popcorn could have been exaggerated much more as well as the sound of the filmstrip ride itself. The Lasers and the planet exploding did sound great, although I would have loved to see/hear a ring like Lucas did for StarWars "Special addition" coming from the planet with the wave ending up clearly in the surrounds or something alittle more impressive.
I have really been debating on this purchase. I'm sure I will keep it but really wish it had been alot more over the top so the viewers would be saying things like "WOW that was cool" at the end instead of "You actually paid for that?".
I'm sorry I am being a bit hard on this, I love the fact it's 16:9 and I do like the whole concept but I really was hoping for more "WOW" factor.
Wes

 

[Mark Booth]

There are other companies offering similar products. And, judging from the samples on each of their web sites, you pretty much get what you pay for. While there is no doubt in my mind that Cinemawise offers the most features and sequences for your money, I also find their graphics to be lacking (and comments here leave me wondering about the audio as well).
Digital Forge seems to have the custom HT intros with the most wow factor. I particularly like the Awards Night Theme. They're not cheap, but again, you get what you pay for:
Digital Forge Gallery
Mark

 

[Eric Norman]

I have the CW Custom product and the sound on it rocks my theater. I've tried both the DTS and the DD sound and it is great. My friends are consistently amazed when they see this intro and love to play the trivia game when they come over. I've also read a lot of other feedback over at AVS Forum that reflects how much this product wows people. And you can't beat the price or even get close to it with the DF stuff (which didn't even support DTS the last time I checked).

Regarding the graphics, they are very clean and impressive on my 120" front projection system. Looking at the videos on CW's web site is a bit misleading because they have clearly limited the size/quality of the example videos so that people wouldn't grab them and try create their own discs. It's also kinda hard to give an informed opinion about a product that you don't own, IMHO.

My $0.02

Eric