
I recently visited the Japanese factory where Denon and Marantz make the hi-fi and home theater gear, and the best part of the seeing the facility was getting a demo of the reference home theater listening there, with its 9.4.6 channels of Dolby Atmos sound delivered via $250k of Bowers & Wilkins speaker.
While snooping around the room, the shelving in the corner that houses their disc library naturally caught my eye. Marantz's engineers had already told me that they consider Gravity to be one of the ultimate stress tests for AVRs (you can read why in the piece I linked above), but what else do they keep on hand for testing AV receivers and other gear?
I wanted to make a list to share with the many 4K Blu-ray and home theater enthusiasts out there, looking for fresh demo disc ideas — but given that we had limited time in the room and a major portion of the movies are in Japanese, I took a few photos of the shelves, and came back home to analyze them.
The list is below, and it's in two sections: movies, and concert discs. I excluded anything that isn't a Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray — the shelves were obviously also full of CDs and SACDs (and a few DVDs).
It's not an exhaustive list: I used Google Gemini to help me translate Japanese titles that I couldn't discern myself anyway (I did not need help identifying which disc was Mad Max: Fury Road, naturally), and sometimes its translations were either vague or otherwise uncertain, so I didn't include those titles unless I could verify them another way. And also, I probably missed some because this whole exercise made me go a little stir-crazy.
So if you want to see the shelves and comb through yourself, here they are — but my written-out list is just below.
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The list is inevitable in places — Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 are obvious inclusions, and two versions of Interstellar is the normal number of versions of Interstellar to own, in my opinion — but it was also really interesting and surprising in places.
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I loved seeing Bridge of Spies in there; I didn't expect Hairspray (2007), but it makes a ton of sense; I'm very curious what makes Taxi 3 specifically a good disc to have; it absolutely rocks that they have RRR, and I can't recommend it enough for your own library; and in contrast to Interstellar, I really don't think anyone needs two copies of Pixels…
The music side includes a fun mix of jazz sets, classical music, movie music and huge stadium events — and with a very healthy dose of metal.
Movies
1917
2001: A Space Odyssey
28 Years Later
9 (Nine)
A Clockwork Orange
A Complete Unknown
A Star is Born (2018)
Akira
Alien Romulus
American Made
American Sniper
Apocalypse Now
Apollo 13
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Argo
Avatar
Back to the Future Trilogy
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Battleship
Birdman
Black Rain
Blade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
Blue Giant
Bohemian Rhapsody
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bridge of Spies
Burlesque
Casino Royale
Chicago
Civil War
Crimson Peak
Deadpool & Wolverine
Donnie Brasco
Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
Dune (2021)
Dune: Part Two
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Ford v Ferrari
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Get On Up
Ghost in the Shell
Ghostbusters (2016)
Gladiator II
Godzilla vs. Kong
Gran Turismo
Gravity
Green Book
Hairspray (2007)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Hidden Figures
The Huntsman: Winter's War
I, Frankenstein
Inception
Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures [Doesn't include Dial of Destiny]
Inside Llewyn Davis
Interstellar
It: Chapter One
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Jason Bourne
John Wick
Joker: Folie á Deux
Jumanji: The Next Level
Lucy
Mad Max: Fury Road
Man of Steel
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible – III
Moana 2
No Country for Old Men
No Time to Die
Nope
Oblivion
Oppenheimer
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Paris, Texas
Pixels
Pokémon: The Movie
Quantum of Solace
Red Tails
Rocketman
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
RRR
Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends
Seven (Se7en)
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sinners
Sisu
Skyfall
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Spectre
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Superman (2025)
The Legend of Tarzan
Taxi 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tenet
The Batman (2022)
The Cell
The Creator
The Expendables 3
The First Slam Dunk
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Greatest Showman
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The Phantom of the Opera
The Shallows
The Sky Crawlers
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Top Gun
Top Gun: Maverick
Transcendence
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Twisters
Unbroken
Venom: The Last Dance
West Side Story (2021)
Wonder Woman
X-Men: First Class
Yowamushi Pedal
Music and concerts
Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Ado Special Live
Babymetal: Live at Tokyo Dome
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7: Wiener Philharmoniker
Berliner Philhamoniker: The Asia Tour
Billy Joel Live at Shea Statdium
Black Sabbath: The End
Bob James Trio: Feel Like Making Live
Bob Marley and the Walers Legend
Bon Jovi Live at Madison Square Garden
Chihiro Yamanaka: Somethin' Blue Quintet – Live at Blue Note Tokyo
Chris Botti: Live in Boston
David Gilmour: Live at Pompeii
George Mccrae - Love
Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague
Harvie S Trio: Too Late Now
Hit Man David Foster & Friends
Joe Bonasmassa Live at the Greek Theatre
John Mayer: Any Given Thursday
John Mayer: Where the Light Is
John Williams in Tokyo
KISS Rocks Vegas
Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour
Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same
Megadeth: Countdown to Extinction
Metallica: Quebec Magnetic
Michael Jackson: This Is It
Misia: Soul Quest World Tour
MR. BIG – The Big Finish Live
MTV Unplugged ayaka
Norah Jones: Live at Ronnie Scott's
Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up - Live
Pat Metheny: The Orchestrion Project
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
Prince Sign o' the Times
Queen: Rock Montreal & Live Aid
Quincy Jones: The 75th Birthday Celebration
Roger Waters: The Wall
Rolling Stones: Shine a Light
Scorpions: Live in 3D
Shogo Hamada: On The Road 2015-2016
Steve Vai: Live at the Astoria
Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris
Take Me to the River
The Beatles: 1
The Beatles: Get Back
The Great Jazz Trio Hank Jones – The Legend of Jazz: Live at Blue Note Tokyo
The Last Waltz
The Rolling Stones: Hyde Park Live 1969
Tony Bennett: An American Classic
Toto: Live in Poland
Vienna Philharmonic: New Year's Concerts – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021
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Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, meaning he's in charge of persuading our team of writers and reviewers to watch the latest TV shows and movies on gorgeous TVs and listen to fantastic speakers and headphones. It's a tough task, as you can imagine. Matt has over a decade of experience in tech publishing, and previously ran the TV & audio coverage for our colleagues at T3.com, and before that he edited T3 magazine. During his career, he's also contributed to places as varied as Creative Bloq, PC Gamer, PetsRadar, MacLife, and Edge. TV and movie nerdism is his speciality, and he goes to the cinema three times a week. He's always happy to explain the virtues of Dolby Vision over a drink, but he might need to use props, like he's explaining the offside rule.
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