It's been a while since I've seen it, but I seem to remember the scene in Independence Day where Jeff Goldblum demonstrates the alien forcefield by shooting a bullet at it makes good use of the surround sound. The bullet ricochets around the room, from speaker to speaker.

I normally use a DTS demo disk with clips of Minority Report, Bourne Identity, Fast and Furious, Fantasia 2000 and ET.

If I wanted to chose a scene from a movie that I own, I would pick the Cave Troll scene in FOTR.

the Bank robbery scene in Heat.

Many have said the opening battle in Gladiator, which I wholheartedly concur. But as soon as the opening battle scene is over I will skip to the execution scene. You must start the chapter where Maximus is kneels down and asks for an honourable death, a soldiers death.

It is this scene that shows off the subtlety of your system. Swift winter breezes pass from front to back, crows in the background can be heard. Then the strugle, the sword flies through the air and the camera switches perspective, first is flying over your head then it's flying at you, the audio in DTS will maintain the referential integrity. (I just inserted the term referential integrity and have no idea if it applies but it sounds good, eh?)

"Frost, sometime it makes the blade stick."

I love the gunfight in open range. Also the Siege in the Matrix Revolutions and the Lobby fight in the Matrix are great as well.

Five words:

THE BRIDE vs. ELLE DRIVER

Makes excellent use of all five speakers and the subwoofer.

the car crash in Final Destination Part 2 or the scene in The Cell when J.LO first enters the mind of the killer dude

The Opening scenes from Gladiator and Private Ryan are great for DTS. The Matrix lobby scene is also good for DD. Can't rule out the Pod Race scene from Phantom Menace. I also like the drag scenes in Fast and Furious too.

I use the Seven Bridges Road to show the unbelievable seperation of the speakers - each speaker a different Eagle singing.

Saving Private Ryan (Normandy scene)

Is that the one that the THX website says is only for licensed dealers and such?

Star Wars Episode 1 - Podrace

nothing will ever compete with that scene for pure sonic majesty!

I usually use the brief nudity scene from Chinatown of Faye Dunaway. Just kidding. I like the some of the THX intros or Episode I or II bits.

It's called the THX Ultimate Demo Disc. I have one myself. It's pretty cool, and has the WOW montage from the Laserdisc. The cool part is it has every THX trailer. Pretty neat. Check it out in my Profiler link below.

So the only place I see to get this (unless you are a dealer) is on eBay for $50 (only 1 being sold).

Easily the coolest opening trailer I have seen is the Dolby Digital one on "Near Dark" - which also happens to be the only DD trailer I can recall seeing. You seem to be flying through some Egyptian columns towards the sun shining through a hole in the wall. Mmmmm - bass. (I doubt many have seen it, since most people probably choose DTS from the audio menu).

It is for dealers only, but I have seen lots for sale on eBay for far less than $50 in the past. Most of them are DVD-R copies, but they work just fine.

When I was at CES two years ago when it was first showed, someone stole one of only 3 copies that were at the show from Denon. It was funny because I was in the only group that got to see it there. Needless to say, THX was not pleased with Denon.

For DTS:

1. When The Bride is buried alive in Kill Bill 2. Even better when all the lights are out.

2. The rain in the beginning of Se7en.

I sometimes like to demo subtle surround sound changes. I show people the scene in KB1 where the Bride walks to the restroom. At first you hear the band playing in the front and as she walks across the floor you can hear the change of the band's music from the front to the rears as you follow the bride. It then goes back again to front and you see Sofie Fatale walking to the bathroom and soundtrack does the same thing again. Really cool if your paying attention.

Loud bang and fight scenes are fine but to really hear if a DVD sounds good is to hear the subtleties that is put into it.

I like to use the spaceship taking off on the DTS edition of Apollo 13.

Listen to it again in DD. That's one of a handful of dvds that a lot of people agree that the DD track is better. The kick from my SVS subs when the Arizona blows up, along with the plane crash in Fight Club, probably tie for the two scenes that most often make people visibly jump the first time I play it for them.

I'll also second what someone else said about Brom Stoker's Dracula (superbit). Awesome if mostly subtle DTS track on that one. In Dracula's castle, you can hear the reverberations of the actor's voices coming out of the surrounds. Subtle but effective.

I just saw something a couple of weeks ago that I rented from Netflix that did a few really cool things in the surrounds that actually made me look behind me to see if someone else was in the room. Of course, Now I can't remember what the hell it was.

i found a good one that very rarely do i see people use. how about the scene in magnolia, will scare the shit out of anyone watching, and will have people looking around.

A cool scene to check out is in Three Kings when Cube's gun goes off and the bullet ricochets around the room.

As stated...

The first landing scene in the DTS Saving Private Ryan.

I've actually used the opening of Atlantis (yeah, the Disney cartoon)....cool sound with the spaceships flying by and the huge tidal wave crashing on the city.

Chapter six of Behind Enemy Lines when the jet is fired on by two SAMs and they have to avoid them. The best is when the fuel tanks are dropped on ice and you hear nothing but the "clank" of metal, then an awesome explosion!