Speaker 1: Home theater geeks get all perspiring and somewhat aroused about titles like Avatar and Dark Knight.
But you might be surprised to learn some of the best looking movies in Blu-ray are also some of the oldest.
I'm Brian Cooley with the top 5 classic films that look incredible on a Blu-ray disc.
These are pre-1970 movies selected from CNET editor's latest list of the 40 must have Blu-ray title.
Then we ranked them by the picture quality peers found over at AVS forums.
Let's go
Speaker 2: Put your hands up, you you lopsided bag of hay
Speaker 1: Number 5, the Wizard of Oz.
God, I hate this movie but this release looks so good I might even sit through it again.
With the sound down so I don't have to listen to those damn munchkin
Speaker 3: How about a little fire, scarecrow?
Speaker 1: Warners kicked up the stuff on this one.
They remastered it from a new film scan that has 4 times the resolution of the best HD TV.
Still, this movie is in 4:3 narrow screen but it's perhaps the only narrow screen Blu-ray title we can say we love.
Number 4, it's Hitchcock North by Northwest.
Actually, I've always thought this movie has some of the best scenes out there for a 3D version.
But until that happens, you can enjoy the crop duster and the Mount Rushmore scene in outstanding high def.
Thanks for the fact that this film was shot in Vista Vision which was kind of a the high def film technique of its day
Speaker 4: You will be punished
Speaker 1: Number 3, the Bridge on the River Kwai.
It seems we'll all be dead in the desert before they release the Lawrence of Arabia on Blu-Ray so this other David Lean classic will have to hold you over.
Another disc that was mastered from a 4K digital scan of a great print and I dare you not to be whistling by the end of it.
Number 2 is 2001: A Space Odyssey.
So many sensations here.
You'll feel like a thief when you get it for just 10 bucks on Amazon.
You'll feel guilty for making your TV even try to render this disc's amazingly deep black levels.
And you'll feel stupid at the end because you'll have no idea what that ending means.
That's quite a night out on your sofa.
Before I get you to our number 1 classic film that looks incredible on Blue-ray, maybe you just aren't into that whole paying for content thing.
In which case you'll be intrigued by this list, the top 5 pirated movies according to Torrent Freak.
They crunch numbers going back to like 2006.
We of course encourage legal acquisition of media but apparently a couple of you don't.
Okay.
The number 1 classic film that's gonna blow you away on Blu-ray disc is Ben-Hur.
11 Oscars, the most ever for one film.
The most expensive film ever when it was made on the biggest set ever constructed when it was made featuring the longest film score ever composed and a 9-minute chariot race.
Warners spent a million dollars just restoring this film and if you get the ultimate collector's edition, you'll also get 4 hours of special content.
That's more Chuck Heston in a tunic than I really need.
For a look at CNET's full list of 40 must have Blu-ray disc and more top 5 like this, go to top5.cnet.com.
I'm Brian Cooley.
Thanks for watching
