Getting Star ted Connections Setup Playbac k Remote Control Multi-Zone T roubleshooting
Adaptiv e Decor relation™
In a mo vie theater , a large number of surround speakers help create an
env eloping surround sound e xperience, while in a home theater there
are usually only two speakers. This can make the surround speakers
sound like headphones that lack spaciousness and envelopment. The
surround sounds will also collapse into the closest speaker as y ou
mov e awa y from the middle seating position. Adaptive Decorrelation
slightly c hanges one surround channel’ s time and phase relationship
with respect to the other surround c hannel. This expands the listening
position and creates—with only t w o speakers—the same spacious
surround experience as in a mo vie theater .
THX Ultra2™
Bef ore any home theater component can be THX Ultra2 certifi ed,
it must incorporate all the feat ures abo v e and also pass a rigorous
series of quality and perf ormance tests. Only then can a product
f eat ure the THX Ultra2 logo, which is your guarantee that the Home
Theater products you purc hase will give you superb performance for
many years to come. THX Ultra2 requirements cov er ev er y aspect
of the product including po wer amplifi er performance, pre-amplifi er
performance and operation, as well as hundreds of other parameters
in both the digital and analog domain.
In addition to impro v ements to the power amplifier with respect to
previous THX Ultra standards, three surround modes have been
added: the THX Ultra2 Cinema mode, THX Music Mode and THX
Games Mode.
THX Ultra2 Cinema
THX Ultra2 Cinema mode pla ys 5.1 movies using all 8 speakers giving
you the best possible movie watc hing experience. In this mode, new
THX processing blends the side sur round speak ers and bac k surround
speakers providing the optimal mix of ambient and directional surround
sounds.
DTS-ES (Matrix and 6.1 Discrete) and Dolby Digital Surround EX
encoded soundtracks will be automatically detected in Ultra2 Cinema
mode if the appropriate flag has been encoded.
Some Dolby Digital Surround EX soundtrac ks are missing the digital
flag that allows automatic switc hing. If you know that the mo vie that
you are watc hing is encoded in Surround EX, you can manually select
the THX Surround EX playbac k mode, other wise THX Ultra2 Cinema
mode will apply processing to provide optimum repla y .
THX Music Mode
F or the repla y of 5.1 multi-c hannel music the THX Music Mode should
be selected. In this mode ne w THX processing is applied to the
surround c hannels of all 5.1 encoded music sources suc h as DTS and
Dolby Digital to provide a wide stable rear soundstage.
THX Games Mode
F or the repla y of stereo and multi-c hannel game audio the THX Games
Mode should be selected. In this mode THX AS A processing is applied
to the surround c hannels of all 5.1 and 2.0 encoded game sources
suc h as analog, PCM, DTS and Dolby Digital. This accurately places all
game audio surround inf ormation, providing a full 360 degree pla ybac k
environment. THX Games Mode is unique as it gives y ou a smooth
transition of audio in all points of the surround fi eld.
ASA (A dv anced Speaker Ar ra y)
AS A is a propriet ar y THX technology whic h processes the sound f ed to
2 side and 2 bac k surround speakers to provide the optimal surround
sound experience. When you set up your home theater system using
all eight speaker outputs (Lef t, Center , Right, Surround Right, Surround
Bac k Right, Surround B ac k Lef t, Surround Lef t and Subwoof er) placing
the two Surround B ac k speak ers close together f acing the front of the
room as shown in the diagram will provide the largest sweet spot. If
for practical reasons you hav e to place the Surround B ac k speak ers
apart, you will need to go THX A udio Set-up screen and choose the
set ting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing, whic h
will re-optimize the surround sound-fi eld.
AS A is used in three new modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX Music
Mode and THX Games Mode.
Boundary Gain Compensation
If y our c hosen listening room la yout (f or practical or aesthetic reasons)
results in the most of the listeners being close to the rear wall, the
resulting bass level can be suf ficiently reinforced by the boundar y
that the overall sound qualit y becomes “boomy” . THX Ultra2 receivers
and controllers contain the BGC (Boundar y Gain Compensation)
f eat ure to provide an improv ed bass balance. BGC can be selected
by c hoosing “THX Ultra2 Subwoof er–Y es” from the “Boundar y Gain
Compensation ” section of the THX A udio set up menu.
THX and Re-EQ, THX Timbre Matching, THX Adaptive Decorrelation,
and THX Adv anced Speak er Ar ray are trademarks of THX Ltd. THX
may be registered in some jurisdictions. All rights reserved.
In 1 999, a new surround sy stem was launc hed simultaneously
with the release of the mo vie “St ar Wars Episode I” . “Dolby Digital
Surround EX” is a new mo vie sound trac k that greatly enhances
the sense of spatial e xpression and the positioning of the surround
c hannel sound. T he result is 360 degrees of mo v ement and moving
sound ef f ects that seem to pass right o ver the listener’ s head. T his
system was dev eloped jointly by THX and Dolby Laboratories, fusing
THX’ s idea of improving spatial e xpression and ac hieving a unif orm 360
degree sound positioning with Dolb y Laboratories ’ matrix encoding
tec hnology . Emphasis was placed on compatibilit y with the existing
system Dolby Digital 5.1 channel, and the ne w “surround bac k (SB)
c hannel” was added to ac hie v e improvements over the con ventional
5.1 c hannel sy stem in terms of the positioning of the sound at the
rear , the acoustic image of sound moving from the two sides to the
bac k as w ell as sound moving from the front to the center rear with
the multi surround speak er systems used in mo vie theaters, thereby
enabling various types of surround sound. T he surround bac k c hannel
signal is a matrix -encoded signal inserted into both the Dolby Digital
SL (surround left) and SR (sur round right) c hannels. Upon playbac k, the
signals are decoded by a high precision digital matrix decoder within
the Dolby Digital decoder into the SL, SR and SB c hannels and output
as 6.1 c hannels of signals. W ith the A V C-A1HD, the signals further
undergo Home THX Cinema processing to ac hieve a THX Surround
EX sy stem. Even without the proper en vironment for playing the SB
c hannel, Dolby Digital Surround EX signals are 1 0 0% compatible with
existing 5.1 c hannel pla ybac k systems, so they can be pla yed as suc h.
In this case, the SB c hannel signal is produced as a monaural signal
from both the SL and SR c hannels, so none of the signal components
are missing. The eff ects specific to THX Surround EX (the sense of
spatial expression and the positioning of the sound), howe ver , are the
same as with conv entional 5.1 c hannel sur round systems.
Timbr e Matching™
The human ear changes our perception of a sound depending on the
direction from whic h the sound is coming . In a movie theater , there
is an array of surround speakers so that the sur round inf ormation is
all around you. In a home theater , only two speakers located to the
side of your head are used. The Timbre Matc hing f eature filters the
information going to the surround speakers so that they more closely
matc h the tonal c haracteristics of the sound coming from the front
speakers. T his ensures seamless panning between the front and
surround speakers.
THX™ Sur r ound EX™
Infor mation