Pioneer VSX-35TX Owner's Manual - Page 87

Techno Tidbits & Problem-solving THX THX is a Lucasfilm, Ltd. program dedicated to maximum accuracy in movie presentation. Movie sound tracks are recorded in large movie dubbing stages using movie theater equipment. For a sound track to be presented accurately in your home, special technologies are required. In your home the room is much smaller and has a bright sound, the speakers are very different and there are only six-eight of them, plus, you sit much closer to each one of those speakers. Because of these differences we often miss the power and emotion that thrills us in a good movie. Now Pioneer and THX have teamed up to bring the full glory of accurate cinema sound to the comfort and convenience of your home. Re-Equalization™ : In a theater the room is very large and dead sounding, you sit a long way back from the speakers and the speakers themselves are very specialized. Because a sound track recorded in this dead sounding space when it is played at home it sounds overbright. THX Re-Equalization adjusts for this difference in a very precise way. Adaptive Decorrelation™ : When a sound track sends mono sound to the surround speakers it often seems to be coming come from one side instead of from all around you as it would in a theater. Adaptive Decorrelation helps to correct this inaccuracy. Timbre Matching™ : When recording a sound track it is very important that the surround sounds move smoothly and seamlessly around the theater. It is very distracting when sounds seem to jump from speaker to speaker. Timbre Matching helps to smooth the movement of the surround sounds even though you are using only two speakers. Bass Peak Level Manager™ : Some Dolby Digital sound tracks can produce bass peaks that are undesirable in a home theater environment. The Bass Peak Level Manager allows you to set the maximum peak levels appropriate to your system. (Set this function according to the Bass Peak Level instructions on p. 39.) Loudspeaker Position Time Synchronization™ : This feature allows you to adjust for the difference in the distance from each individual loudspeaker to the listening position. Doing this ensures that all the speakers operate in precise synchronization improving the seamless nature of the soundfield. (Set this function according to the Channel Delay instructions on p.35.) THX Surround EX™ : 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. Only receiver and controller products bearing the THX Surround EX logo, when in the THX Surround EX mode, faithfully reproduce this new technology in the home. This product may also engage the "THX Surround EX" mode during the playback of 5.1 channel material that is not Dolby Digital Surround EX encoded. In such case the information delivered to the Surround Back channel will be program dependent and may or may not be very pleasing depending on the particular soundtrack and the tastes of the individual listener. 87