Specifications

Myth: "THX DVDs have THX sound on them
which requires THX equipment to play."
Reality: A THX DVD is one which has been
mastered under their supervision to the
industries highest standards. There is no
proprietary format or content.
at home on top quality hi-fi gear, he and the sound designers and mixers weren’t happy, because the
same tapes played in both spaces didn't "translate" accurately. This led Tom to the first set of
specifications for THX consumer gear, which we will talk about at length in a moment, and the
subsequent launch of the first THX home controller in 1991 (the Technics SH-THX10).
In the years to come, Tom Holman was not idle. While
listening to master tapes of film sound elements at
home on top quality hi-fi gear, he and the sound
designers and mixers weren’t happy, because the same
tapes played in both spaces didn't "translate"
accurately. This led Tom to the first set of
specifications for THX consumer gear, which we will
talk about at length in a moment, and the subsequent
launch of the first THX home controller in 1991 (the
Technics SH-THX10).
Quick sidebar: In the time before DVD I had bought the VHS of James Cameron's Titanic. It did not take long to
realize the audio on the tape was reversed left to right. I e-mailed THX and within a day I got a phone call
asking if they could send FedEX to pick up the tape and drop off a replacement (along with a T-Shirt). Being a
THX Digitally Mastered title, they wanted the tape so that they could figure out exactly which duplication
machine it was made on and correct it. True story!
THX at Home
THX Home Cinema is fundamentally about one thing: The technically competent and correct
reproduction of a piece of audio/video work. Period. THX is able to achieve this through a very precise,
defined specification for hardware which goes well beyond conventional metrics, as well as the
incorporation of proprietary technologies and processes that are integral to the system. Their intention
is to offer the consumer a system with baseline performance which closely replicates the monitoring
environment in the studio. Once that baseline is in place, the consumer can change things any way they
like knowing that they can always go back to a baseline that's pretty darn close to the original recording
environment.
You may have read the usual diatribe about the goals of THX being:
Intelligible dialogue
Pin-point localization
Enveloping surround
Accurate frequency response
Generous dynamics, soft as well as loud
Accurate coverage ("Every seat is a good seat.")
Yawn! That's all well and good, but frankly that should be the goal of ANY product which makes any sort
of "hi-fi" claim (though achieved by few). Performance metrics are obviously the heart and soul of THX
certification, but the real benefit of THX for the consumer is exactly how these standards and design
elements were arrived at. Holman knew that the source tracks sounded different in a home space,
despite him listening to them over absolute state of the art home systems of the time. It would have
been easy to say "lets just do the same thing we do at Skywalker sound", but that is utterly unrealistic,
even for the very wealthy (and I don't know if this was on George's mind, but technically competent and
correct presentation of movies should not have to be the province of millionaires alone).
So in addition to simply drawing on the technologies and specs already developed at SkyWalker for
professional facilities, THX Home Cinema did something more: They addressed the REALITIES of the
consumer market. They realized that consumers would not put wall-to-wall acoustical treatments in
their home, or install an array of 12 surround speakers. They realized that for the most part, home
theater is "living room theater". Even so called "dedicated" home theaters have more in common with
living rooms than they do with Stage C at Skywalker. As we'll see, everything about a THX piece goes
back to this fundamental.