DESCRIPTION
THX® is an exclusive set of standards and technologies established by the world-renowned film production company, Lucasfilm Ltd. THX resulted from George Lucas’ desire to reproduce the movie soundtrack as faithfully as possible both in the movie theater and in the home theater.
THX engineers developed patented technologies to accurately translate the sound from a movie theater environment into the home, correcting the tonal and spatial errors that occur.
When the THX mode of the SR8200 is on, three distinct THX technologies are automatically added:
Re-Equalization-restores the correct tonal balance for watching a movie in a home environment.
These sounds are otherwise mixed to be brighter for a large movie theater. Re-EQ compensates for this and prevents the soundtracks from being overly bright and harsh when played in a home theater.
Timbre Matching-filters the information going to the surround speakers so they more closely match the tonal characteristics of the sound coming from the front speakers.
This ensures seamless panning between the front and surround speakers. Adaptive Decorrelation-slightly changes one surround channel’s time and phase relationship with respect to the other surround channel.
This expands the listening position and creates with only two surround speakers the same spacious surround experience as in a movie theater with multiple surround speakers.
The Marantz SR8200 was required to pass a rigorous series of quality and performance tests, in addition to incorporating the technologies explained above, in order to be THX Ultra certified by Lucasfilm Ltd.
THX Ultra requirements cover every aspect of performance including pre-amplifier and power amplifier performance and operation, and hundreds of other parameters in both the digital and analog domain. Movies which have been encoded in Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic, stereo and Mono will all benefit from the THX mode when being viewed. The THX mode should only be activated when watching movies which were originally produced for a movie theater environment.
THX need not be activated for music, movies made especially for TV, or shows such as sports programming, talk shows, etc.
This is because they were originally mixed for a small room environment.
“Lucasfilm®” and “THX®” are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd.
Lucasfilm and THX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. ©Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. Surround EX is a jointly developed technology of THX and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. and is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Used under authorization.
THX Surround EX - Dolby Digital Surround EX is a joint development of Dolby Laboratories and the THX division of Lucasfilm Ltd.
In a movie theater, film soundtracks that have been encoded with Dolby Digital Surround EX technology are able to reproduce an extra channel which has been added during the mixing of the program.
This channel, called Surround Back, places sounds behind the listener in addition to the currently available front left, front center, front right, surround right, surround left and subwoofer channels.
This additional channel provides the opportunity for more detailed imaging behind the listener and brings more depth, spacious ambience and sound localization than ever before.
Movies that were created using the Dolby Digital Surround EX technology when released into the home consumer market may exhibit a Dolby Digital Surround EX logo on the packaging.
A list of movies created using this technology can be found on the Dolby web site at
http ://www.dolby.com.
“SURROUND EX ™” is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Used under authorization.
DTS was introduced in 1994 to provide 5.1 channels of discrete digital audio into home theater systems.
DTS brings you premium quality discrete multi-channel digital sound to both movies and music.
DTS is a multi-channel sound system designed to create full range digital sound reproduction.
The no compromise DTS digital process sets the standard of quality for cinema sound by delivering an exact copy
of the studio master recordings to neighborhood and home theaters. Now, every moviegoer can hear the sound exactly as the moviemaker intended.
DTS can be enjoyed in the home for either movies or music on of DVD’s, LD’s, and CD’s.
“DTS” and “DTS Digital Surround” are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.
DTS-ES Extended Surround is a new multi-channel digital signal format developed by Digital Theater Systems Inc. While offering high compatibility with the conventional DTS Digital Surround format, DTS- ES Extended Surround greatly improves the 360-degree surround impression and space expression thanks to further expanded surround signals. This format has been used professionally in movie theaters since 1999.
In addition to the 5.1 surround channels (FL, FR, C, SL, SR and LFE), DTS-ES Extended Surround also offers the SB (Surround Back) channel for surround playback with a total of 6.1 channels. DTS-ES Extended Surround includes two signal formats with different surround signal recording methods, as DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and DTS- ES Matrix 6.1.
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Dolby Digital identifies the use of Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio coding for such consumer formats as DVD and DTV. As with film sound, Dolby Digital can provide up to five full-range channels for left, center, and right screen channels, independent left and right surround channels, and a sixth ( ".1") channel for low-frequency effects.
Dolby Surround Pro Logic II is an improved matrix decoding technology that provides better spatiality and directionality on Dolby Surround program material; provides a convincing three-dimensional soundfield on conventional stereo music recordings; and is ideally suited to bring the surround experience to automotive sound. While conventional surround programming is fully compatible with Dolby Surround Pro Logic II decoders, soundtracks will be able to be encoded specifically to take full advantage of Pro Logic II playback, including separate left and right surround channels. (Such material is also compatible with conventional Pro Logic decoders.)
