This weekend, TNT will be broadcasting the movie Gladiator 3 times. In the first few minutes of this film is what I call the "open-fire" sequence, about 2-3 minutes of catapults and ballistas firing high-speed (but still visible) projectiles, fiery explosions, multiple moving objects in different directions, etc. One particular shot has two guys running from different directions, pierced by a spear and hurled in a third direction. All this makes for an excellent test vehicle.

I used this sequence for analog capture testing from the DVD, which is one of the few I own. Have also ripped this disk for comparison. Segments of the movie have also been used in a History or Discovery channel documentary on Gladiators and the Colosseum, making for multiple available sources, comparison of Analog vs Digital broadcast, etc.

For those who use IVTC, TNT does something to their broadcast movies which makes this extremely difficult. Have never satisfactorily IVTC'd a TNT broadcast. Seems to be a variable pattern they use, perhaps they delete frames or edit scenes, I don't know.

Having capped this "open-fire" sequence from disk 30 to 50 times, it makes a great sequence for testing, plus you will have 3 opportunities to tweak settings. Get this one to look good, and you're all set.