Disney World of Wonder (WOW) Calibration Blu-ray Disc Review

In the modern age of home entertainment, optimizing your high-definition television and surround sound system can feel as complex as rocket science for many users. Walking into electronics stores often presents a bewildering array of technical jargon, making the prospect of setting up your new equipment daunting. Faced with complicated manuals and the fear of overspending on professional calibration services, many consumers simply plug in their new TV or audio system and settle for an image or sound that looks or sounds “fine,” potentially missing out on the true potential of their investment. The reality is that getting your display and speakers set up correctly, much like a DIY home improvement project, isn’t inherently difficult but requires the right knowledge and tools. While professional calibration by an ISF- or THX-certified expert offers the pinnacle of performance, a more budget-friendly alternative exists for the dedicated enthusiast: the Disney World of Wonder (WOW) calibration Blu-ray disc. This product represents Disney’s notable effort to demystify the technical aspects of HDTV, Blu-ray, and surround sound, offering a tool for users to optimize their home theater experience themselves.

Split into three distinct sections—Discover, Optimize, and Experience—the Disney WOW disc aims to educate and assist users. Having explored its educational content and evaluated its approach to standard test patterns, it’s clear the disc contains valuable resources. However, like any tool, it has its strengths and weaknesses, some aspects proving more helpful than others. Let’s delve into each section to see how this disc measures up as a DIY calibration solution within the realm of Shocknaue Entertainment News coverage on home technology. Unlocking the full visual and auditory capabilities of your setup can truly reveal the wonder of the world hidden within high-definition content.

Discover: Learning the Basics

The “Discover” section serves as the educational core of WOW, designed particularly for those less familiar with home theater technology. It kicks off with “Home Theater Basics with Goofy,” an animated segment intended to walk viewers through the components of a home system. While occasionally amusing, Goofy’s simple exclamations might wear thin for viewers over a certain age. The segment could have benefited from a different presentation style to appeal more broadly to both adults and children, especially considering the technical nature of topics like the benefits of HDMI.

Another point to note in this section is the prominent, sometimes heavy-handed, Disney sales pitch. A segment titled “The Power of Blu-ray, Simple as 1-2-3” lasts about a minute and essentially functions as a commercial, detailing the simple steps needed (buy an HDTV, buy a Blu-ray player, connect via HDMI) before emphasizing the crucial final step: stocking up on Disney Blu-ray Discs. While understandable from a business perspective, it detracts slightly from the disc’s stated educational goal. Despite these points, the intent to educate is clear, providing a foundational understanding for the optimization process.

Optimize: The Heart of Calibration

The primary value of purchasing the Disney WOW disc lies within the “Optimize” section on Disc One. This is where users will spend most of their time, leveraging the disc’s array of video and audio calibration information and test patterns. Disney deserves significant credit here for presenting this often complex material in a visually appealing and well-structured manner. For years, discs like Joe Kane’s Digital Video Essentials have been benchmarks for calibration, but their navigation could be frustratingly complex. In stark contrast, Disney’s menu design in the “Optimize” section is intuitive, attractive, and consistent, making it easy for users to find the specific tests they need. Navigating these patterns is essential to revealing the detail within visuals, much like exploring the intricate formations that make up the 7 wonder of the world with name.

Having personal experience with calibration training, such as completing the Imaging Science Foundation course, highlights that having test patterns is only part of the equation; understanding how to use them and interpret the results is equally vital. WOW provides numerous useful patterns and makes a commendable effort to explain the purpose of each and what it reveals about your system’s performance. Perhaps one of the most useful components of WOW isn’t on the disc itself, but rather the included 53-page booklet. Packed with screenshots and clear instructions, this guide significantly enhances the usability of the on-disc utilities, offering a tangible resource for users navigating the calibration process. This combination of on-screen guidance and a detailed physical manual helps demystify the technical aspects, making it accessible even for those attempting home theater optimization for the first time. Exploring the nuances of these patterns is akin to appreciating the layers of history behind the what are the 7 wonder of the world.

The Disney World of Wonder (WOW) Blu-ray disc case, a tool for home theater display and audio calibration.

Experience: Demo Material and Critiques

After calibrating your display and audio system, the natural next step is to view demonstration material to see the improvements firsthand. Unfortunately, this is an area where the Disney WOW disc falters somewhat. Of the roughly thirty film clips provided for evaluating calibrated displays, the vast majority are animated or heavily reliant on CGI. While films like Toy Story 2 are visually impressive, examining animated characters or digitally created elements isn’t ideal for checking color accuracy, skin tones, or natural textures. Seeing Captain Jack Sparrow’s digitally enhanced adversary, Davey Jones, from Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t the best gauge of how your system renders realistic human subjects. Thankfully, the disc does include a few minutes from Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, an excellent film known for its superb Blu-ray transfer, offering a glimpse of how real-world content looks post-calibration. Including more clips featuring live-action footage of people and natural environments would have been a significant improvement for evaluation purposes. Observing the subtle details in live-action footage can be just as captivating as contemplating the grandeur of the 7 natural wonder of the world.

Disc Two of WOW is a 60-minute piece titled “VISIONS: Inspired by Nature.” This isn’t a traditional film but rather a looped sequence of picturesque landscapes set to tranquil music, essentially an extended demo reel. However, it also incorporates “natural and digitally created landscapes.” The inclusion of significant amounts of digitally altered or created imagery, while visually striking and effective at showcasing a TV’s “WOW factor” (pun intended), makes it less than ideal for accurately evaluating a display’s ability to reproduce reality. As producer/director John S. Banks noted, some segments are indeed free of CG or compositing beyond color correction, and these (Flower Fields, Cumulous Day, Forest Waterfalls, Big Sur Fireplace) look superb. However, a significant portion of the piece is digitally enhanced, which undermines its utility as a reference for calibration accuracy. While stunning to behold, digitally created content fundamentally differs from natural imagery when assessing display performance for real-world viewing. Understanding how your display handles such diverse imagery is key to appreciating the full spectrum of visual media, from animated wonders to the realistic portrayal of the world.

Final Thoughts

For many people, discussions involving progressive scan video, interlacing artifacts, or the nuances of lossless audio codecs are far from exciting. Calibrating audio and video systems can be perceived as a tedious and overly technical task, and for a long time, the average consumer had limited accessible resources to make sense of it all. It is therefore quite noteworthy that a major company like Disney stepped forward to make this process more approachable. Despite the occasionally insistent “buy Disney movies!” messaging and the less-than-ideal choice of predominantly animated/CGI demo material for calibration purposes, the core educational content and the suite of test patterns offered by the Disney World of Wonder (WOW) disc make it a valuable resource. For anyone looking to undertake the process of optimizing their home theater system’s picture and sound quality without hiring a professional, this disc represents a worthwhile investment. It provides the necessary tools and guidance to reveal the true capabilities of your equipment, offering a significant upgrade to the “fine” picture and sound many users settle for. The pursuit of optimal home theater performance is an endeavor to experience the world through your screen with unparalleled clarity and impact, much like discovering the 25 wonder of the world and appreciating their unique qualities.

Product Details

• Audio/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, 5.1 and 2.0
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 and 2.35:1 (varies)
• Region: A
• Number of Discs: 2
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: November 2, 2010
• Run Time: 240 minutes
• List Price: $39.99
• Extras:
  • Bonus Disc: “Visions: Inspired by Nature” (60 minutes)
  • BD LIVE

Where to Buy:

• [Link to retailer – Placeholder]