Question About THX
I saw the following post regarding THX Optimizer on a newsgroup recently. Since THX does not respond to consumer questions I wondered if you could confirm the accuracy of this statement? “The NTSC system has certain standards for the proper voltage required to achieve a specific color or gray level. When a display is calibrated properly, a disc mastered according to NTSC standards will present a red when there is supposed to be a red, or a blue when there is supposed to be a blue, etc. “By THX’s standards, every single DVD is mastered for different and unique calibrations. This is essentially an admission that they are not mastering their discs to meet NTSC standards, but are rather making up their own standards on a disc-by-disc basis. “You should not have to recalibrate your television for every single disc you put in. If the disc is mastered properly, and the television is calibrated properly, these two things should match up and the movie should look the way it is supposed to. “THX’s ‘Optimode’ program is a sham.”
Rick Reichenbach
mailto:rickreichenbach@yahoo.com
Contributing Editor Joe Kane Comments:
I’ve certainly read similar comments and have supposed if they actually did come from someone at THX, it had to be a person not actively involved in the mastering process. The few times I’ve witnessed the THX QC process they were setting up to system standards. The fact that the Optimode video test signals aren’t inserted using the program production video chain for the program material certainly suggests that THX certifies that they conform to a particular setup and that they are designed to allow compensation for errors in the playback path. There are lots of those.
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