THX Certification
In the early 1980s, many commercial cinema auditoriums in the U.S. suffered from poor acoustics and had inadequate audio systems. Cinema loudspeakers hadn't seen improvements since World War II, audience viewing angles were poor, and outside noise interfered with the on-screen presentation. As new technology was revolutionizing the art of film making, the cinema environment was being left behind. [ Expand page content... ] [ Collapse page content... ]
Note: Obtaining THX certification for a home theatre installation is not a feasible exercise and is restricted to public cinemas only. Even then, there are only a handful cinemas worldwide that can boast genuine THX certification. We do however often use THX certified products in our systems. The article is placed here to satisfy queries we have had from clients in this regard.
George Lucas felt that he and his fellow film makers were wasting their time perfecting sound in the professional mixing room, when the audience would never experience their true vision the way it was intended. Because the film making and presentation processes are so highly technical and have so many variables, Lucas believed that the cinema industry could benefit from a quality control system to deliver a consistent level of performance, across all theatre venues.
Lucas hired Tomlinson Holman, an audio scientist and now USC film school professor, to study cinema sound and construct the technical building and Stag Theatre at Skywalker Ranch. Holman's work would eventually lead to the first THX specifications for commercial cinemas and, much later, for home theatre components. The new company was named after Lucas' first film "THX 1138" and Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment. THX was launched in 1983 to coincide with the premiere of "Return of the Jedi."
Today, THX Ltd. provides products and services that provide consumers with an experience "as the director intended." We also provide exclusive technologies and quality control services for companies in all aspects of the creation and presentation of entertainment content. Our customers are Hollywood studios, professional mixing facilities, video game developers, software duplication companies, theater owners, consumer electronics manufacturers, automobile manufacturers and home theater equipment manufacturers.
A mark of excellence in the entertainment industry, THX Certification promises consumers and media professionals that the certified venues they visit, and the certified products they purchase, have been evaluated and tested to meet the highest standards for picture and sound performance. THX is the only third-party company specializing in quality assurance programs and technologies for home theatre component manufacturing. The company's Home Theatre Certification programs provide consumer electronics manufacturers with independent analysis of home theatre products, as well as additional expertise for their design and engineering efforts. It ensures manufacturers' systems and components meet or exceed the industry's highest levels for performance-long before they make it into the hands of consumers.
To achieve THX Certification, home theatre products must meet or exceed our performance requirements under "normal" playback functions. For receivers and controllers, we also add patented post-processing features such as ReEQ, Timbre Matching, Adaptive Decorrelation, Adaptive Speaker Array and Boundary Gain Compensation. When a product switches video, we test it to guarantee that it does not degrade the signal. If a manufacturer claims that their product can switch HD, we test that, otherwise we test it for SD signals. THX Ltd. does not test for product longevity and we do not test "custom" or "DSP" modes such as Cathedral, Sports and room compensation.