Originally part of Lucasfilm, Ltd., THX embodies a series of certification programs for equipment, software, production environments, and presentation venues with the objective of delivering optimum sound and video.
1. A surround sound standard developed by George Lucas that movie theaters try to meet. 2. Equipment to help theaters meet that standard.
Developed by Lucas Films. A set of Standards for Dolby Pro-Logic Systems that ensures a certain Quality for Home Theatre Sound systems. Needs Equipment made to Exacting Specifications.
A playback standard developed by Lucasfilm. It is not a recording technology as many mistakenly believe. It is a rigorous set of standards for equipment used in the playback at theaters and more recently in homes.
A certification program for home theater equipment, which was developed by George Lucas. Its purpose is to provide a base level of quality for a room of a given size.
Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment. THX is a hardware specification that is used to create a sound as close to the original soundtrack as possible. Home cinema software featuring the THX logo have been mastered in a THX studio using THX-certified hardware. Home cinema hardware is badged as THX Select (for small rooms), THX Ultra (for large rooms) or THX Ultra2 (for EX 5.1 or ES 6.1 channel amplifiers).
A set of quality-control standards pioneered by LucasFilm. Encompassing theatrical presentation, home playback, and video mastering, THX Certification means many different things. Home theater components with THX certification, for example, are tuned in such a manner to compensate for differences between theatrical and home playback.
Certification program for home theatre equipment. Uses some proprietary features, but mostly assures a base quality level for a given room size. (See THX Select or Ultra.) Is compatible with any and all soundtrack formats. Stands for either Uniformity: Even distribution across a given space. In video, uniformity can refer to the distribution of light (hot spotting) or color.
THX describes a certification process. The THX label indicates the sound and video quality are endorsed by Lucasfilm. Both software (DVDs) and hardware can carry the THX stamp of approval.
THX is a set of specifications and standards set forth by Lucas film, Ltd., to guarantee that a piece of equipment is capable of allowing the audience to hear movie soundtracks just as the movie makers intended them to be heard. Home THX is the version optimized for playback at home: it takes into consideration the spatial and acoustic differences between homes and theaters to compensate for them by digital processing. To be Home THX certified, the equipment's amplifier must also perform in compliance with specific requirements.
Apparently, when the original Star Wars movie was shown in cinemas during the late seventies, filmmaker George Lucas was unhappy with its sound and picture quality. He set-up THX which specialises in high quality post-production work so that a film's sound and picture standard is of the highest calibre. It's not just films that can be 'THX certified' - the company also specifies exacting standards for cinema construction, professional equipment and home AV components, too. Incidentally, the name THX is derived from THX 1138, the first film Lucas made while he was a student in 1971. It starred Robert Duvall as a robot called THX 1138 and there have been many direct and subtle references to the title in other George Lucas films: it was the number plate of Harrison Ford's roadster in American Graffiti and the numbers are also mentioned in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. The initials stand for Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment - Tom Holman is now a professor at the University of Southern California and widely respected as a film audio pioneer and a lead developer of the THX system (for which he won an Academy Award in 2001).
A sound quality assurance rating and system originally developed by George Lucas.
Developed by LucasFilm, this is basically a set of standards for Dolby Pro-Logic gear, which should guarantee a certain quality of home cinema sound. Needs electronics and speakers made to exacting specs, which tend to be pricey.
A trademark licensed to movie theaters and manufacturers of home theater products, identifying compliance with the performance parameters of Lucas film Ltd. for commercial and home theater sound systems. Unlike Dolby, which focuses on soundtrack formats, THX develops standards for the playback environment, including theater and room acoustics.
Rumored to stand for the Tomlinson Holman eXperience. Others say it was named after George Lucas' first film, THX-1138. THX is a set of standards by which laserdiscs and video tapes are made, as well as by which home theater equipment is made. They are supposed to yield the highest quality in home theater.
Post-processing optimization technique. Less of a specific technology than DTS or Dolby Digital, it is a set of rules or protocols for audio standards. It is a product-certification program based on psychoaccoustic research conducted by Lucasfilm. THX is a method for implementing surround standards with Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Pro Logic. There are several varieties of THX, it is available in expensive Ultra components or it can be found in moderately priced Select components. Without using all of the THX standards or lacking THX-certification, THX can nonetheless use rear surround-channel decorrelation for producing a diffuse rear soundfield. The home THX controller contains the following circuits: re-equalization to change bright front channels, electronic crossover to improve dynamic range, timbre matching to smooth front to surround pans, and automatic decorrelation to improve surround spatiality and listener envelopment.
A trademark licensed to movie theatre and manufacturers of home theatre products, identifying compliance with the performance parameters of Lucasfilm Ltd. for commercial and home theatre sound systems. Unlike the Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround trademarks, THX does not identify soundtrack formats and processes. THX-certified theatre use professional Dolby Stereo processors for playing Dolby Stereo films (which is why you may seen both logos on theatre marquees). THX-licensed home theatre processors are all based on Dolby Pro Logic Surround decoding.
THX was created by George Lucas to apply performance standards to cinema sound systems ensuring the playback quality of film sound tracks. Named after his first feature film, THX 1138. Expanded into home audio, and other areas. THX is now a private licensing company issuing certifications, paid for by manufacturers, that products meet certain performance standards, and incorporate certain functions, some of which are proprietary. There are levels of certification, from very basic to high. It is a reassurance to customers, but it needs to be noted that non-THX-certified products can also offer performance that is as good or better.
An acronym for Tomlinson Holman Experiment, THX is a set of technical standards and performance criteria developed by Lucasfilm to ensure that moviegoers see and hear a film at optimum performance levels, "as the director intended". This comprehensive set of standards includes rigorous specifications designed to optimize equipment, room acoustics, background noise levels, and projection and viewing angles.
Certification program for home theater equipment. Uses some proprietary features, but mostly assures a base quality level for a given room size. (See THX Select or Ultra.) Is compatible with any and all soundtrack formats. Stands for either Tom Holman's eXperiment, after the engineer who drafted the original standard, or is named after the company's founder George Lucas' first movie, THX 1138. Nobody agrees on which.
Subdivision of Lucasfilm, Ltd. that is dedicated to improving picture and sound for the cinema and the home.
Set of minimum technical standards established to improve the reproduction of movie soundtracks in theaters and homes.
Lucasfilm set of standards for Dolby pro logic equipment that ensures THX approved surround sound.
LucasFilm Corporation performance certification program for A/V software and hardware, particularly dealing with Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital behavior but also involving TV monitor and laser-video picture and sound quality. See also Dolby Pro Logic; Dolby Digital.
Probably THE most misunderstood term in the Home Theatre glossary. There are many that wrongly believe that THX is an audio and video format (like Dolby Digital) that provides higher quality sound and video. This is incorrect. THX is actually NOT a sound format. It is a set of standards set by Lucas Film to ensure the highest possible quality of video and audio. Only those that meet these standards are allowed to place the THX logo on their equipment/cinemas.
Refers to a series of specifications for surround sound systems. Professional THX is used in commercial movie theaters. Home THX specifications are not published and manufacturers must sign non-disclosure waivers before submitting their products for THX certification. Manufacturers that receive certification for their products must pay a royalty on units sold.
Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment - Owned and licensed by Lucasfilm, THX comprises defined electronic components that meet the Lucas specification, amplifiers, speakers and processors. The system uses Pro-Logic decoding but adds specific audio processing to filter and distribute the sound.
Set of specifications and certifications designed by Lucasfilm to ensure optimum reproduction of movie sound and video in movie theaters and home theaters (Home THX program).
An audio and video standard for movie reproduction. Originally put forward by George Lucas, this tells how a DVD player should produce a picture and how the surround sound channels should work. There are many flavors of THX including Select, Ultra, and Ultra 2. Many people contend that good THX reproduction is often not good music reproduction. Ultra 2 addressed some of this critcism.
Cinema systems bearing the 'THX' logo comply with stringent performance parameters set by LucasFilm. Software can also be THX-approved. Two domestic variants also apply, THX Ultra, which applies to high-end home cinema equipment and THX Select, for midrange gear.
A set of technologies from Lucasfilm first developed for the cinema and subsequently for the home. In the theater, THX standardizes the sonic environment by stipulating not only the acoustics required but the playback equipment as well. In the home, both electronic and speaker strategies are employed in order to have the program material more closely match that of the dubbing stage.
Industry standard for theater sound. Equipment that displays the THX logo has met rigid performance requirements
A high-performance playback specification developed by Lucasfilm Ltd.
Specification set originally designed by Lucasfilm to ensure optimum reproduction of film sound and video in cinemas and which includes amplifier power and speaker dispersion characteristics. In home cinema set-ups THX Ultra is more stringent than THX Select.
AKA: THX Division A subdivision of Lucasfilm, Ltd dedicated to improving picture and sound for the cinema and the home. On the web: Official Home Page, IMDb Sound Mix Section
A technical specification for the entire playback environment (picture and sound) regardless of film format.
THX is the trade name of a high-fidelity sound reproduction system for theatrical movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems. THX was developed by Tomlinson Holman at George Lucas's company Lucasfilm in 1982 to ensure that the soundtrack for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, would be accurately reproduced in the best venues.