THX Interview

About THX Certification, what does it mean?

THX Certification promises consumers that the products they purchase have been evaluated and tested to meet the highest standards for picture and sound performance. The THX standards for home theater and multimedia components were designed to accurately reproduce the high impact bass and enveloping surround sounds of a THX Certified movie theatre, in the confines of a residential home. The goal is to recreate the sound and picture presentation exactly as the filmmaker or content creator intended. In essence, consumers get a presentation that remains faithful to what the movie director and sound designers created in the professional mixing studios. For home theatre systems, the THX standards take into account the size of the room, speaker and component placement, as well as the way the content was originally mixed.

How it’s certified?

To achieve THX Certification, home theatre and multimedia components must meet or exceed our performance requirements under “normal” playback functions. For receivers and controllers, we also add patented post-processing technologies such as ReEQ, Timbre Matching, Adaptive Decorrelation, Adaptive Speaker Array and Boundary Gain Compensation.

How does the certification process work?

During the design of each component, we work with the manufacturer to incorporate our standards for playback and performance. Once a working prototype of a component is created, the manufacturer sends it to THX for extensive testing. Our technicians then run each component through a series of rigorous tests to ensure they pass the requirements for THX Certification. We typically invest 40-60 hours in testing and correspondence before issuing certification to current THX customers. When working with a new customer, we often invest 120–200+ hours per product before granting certification.

What are the wattage specs for a good home theatre system?

The question is unanswerable because, in spite of their popularity, wattage ratings for home theater products are completely useless as a measure of system performance. How loud a system will sound to the audience depends on the cubic volume of the room, the distance of the speakers to the listeners, and the combination of speaker sensitivity, speaker impedance, subwoofer and listener placement, amplifier power and system bandwidth. A system needs only enough power to play at the maximum desired level without the distortion increasing beyond its specified amount. Extra power will not improve the sound of a properly operating system. To best determine if the system is sufficiently powerful you must audition the system (speakers and amplifiers) in a room similar in size to yours and with the same or less background noise. If it plays loud enough without distortion then it’s OK. It is possible to predict how loud a system will play in a given environment but it’s usually impossible to find the necessary data on each piece of the system. The information one needs includes the amplifiers maximum voltage and current produced when playing complex program material. A speaker’s complex impedance, sensitivity and bandwidth and its power handling capability on demanding program material. A top of the line home theater system will play program material (60Hz – 20kHz) undistorted at 105dB with a subwoofer system capable of 115dB undistorted output from 20Hz to 200Hz.

What speakers would you use on your computer that you have THX Certified?

When doing critical work on the computer, we use THX pm3 Approved self powered speakers from our professional recording studio program. THX pm3 speakers must meet the same requirements as THX Ultra2 Certified speakers except in maximum output. The pm3 output requirement varies depending on the speaker-to-listener distance. Out of fairness to our licensees we do not recommend individual brands or models of THX Certified consumer products.

Could you give our users a break down of what THX adds to movies, games, etc and a break down of what it is in terms the average Joe could understand?

George Lucas founded THX Ltd. twenty years ago to improve the way moviegoers experienced feature films. Lucas felt that he and fellow filmmakers were wasting their time perfecting sound and picture quality in the mixing room, when the audience would never experience their true vision the way it was intended. He launched the company in commercial cinemas to coincide with the premiere of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Today, Lucas’ vision shapes our certification programs and standards for video games, DVDs, home theatre components and car audio systems. Each certification program is designed to improve the audience’s experience by providing a sound and visual presentation that remains faithful to the artist’s vision. Let’s quickly break it down by each program:

THX Certified Home Theatre Components:

Let’s face it residential homes are designed quite differently than commercial movie theatres. The size of the room, the acoustics, furniture placement, and the quality and placement of speakers and components affect how we see and hear DVD and VHS presentations. The THX standards and technologies for home theatre components take all of this into account, helping to replicate the film soundtrack in the home environment. The result: consumers experience the film exactly as it was created.

DVD Mastering and Certification:

The THX Digital Mastering and DVD Certification program help ensure DVD content remains true to the original color palette and sound presentation of the theatrical releases. The process starts by helping the filmmaker and/or DVD producer select the master film elements that will be used in the DVD release. Following a transfer to an HD master, THX technicians begin the certification process, applying a variety of QC services to ensure the visual images and soundtrack are not degraded during DVD production. This includes removing dirt and scratches, and reviewing the compressed video and audio at each stage of DVD production.

THX Certified Video Games:

The THX Certified Games program provides game publishers, such as Electronic Arts, with a set of standards for producing and editing audio and video content for game titles. It’s meant to create a consistent environment at editing and mixing facilities to deliver every bit of the artistic detail and sonic presentation to end-users. The THX specifications for video game development environments include guidelines for room acoustics, background noise, and even room lighting.