Pioneer VSA-AX10 - Manual (Page 93)

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THX
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THX Cinema™ processing : THX is an exclusive set of standards and technologies established by the world-renowned film
production company, Lucasfilm Ltd. THX grew from George Lucas' personal desire to make your experience of the film
soundtrack, in both movie theaters and in your home theater, as faithful as possible to what the director intended.
Movie soundtracks are mixed in special movie theaters called dubbing stages and are designed to be played back in movie
theaters with similar equipment and conditions. This same soundtrack is then transferred directly onto Laserdisc, VHS tape,
DVD, etc., and is not changed for playback in a small home theater environment.
THX engineers developed patented technologies to accurately translate the sound from the movie theater environment into
the home, correcting the tonal and spatial errors that occur. On this product, when the THX indicator is on, THX features are
automatically added in Cinema modes (e.g. THX Cinema, THX Surround EX).
Re-Equalization™ : The tonal balance of a film soundtrack will be excessively bright and harsh when played back over audio
equipment in the home because film soundtracks were designed to be played back in large movie theaters using very
different professional equipment. Re-Equalization restores the correct tonal balance for watching a movie soundtrack in a
small home environment.
Timbre Matching™ : The human ear changes our perception of a sound depending on the direction from which the sound is
coming. In a movie theater, there is an array of surround speakers so that the surround information is all around you. In a
home theater, you use only two speakers located to the side of your head. The Timbre Matching feature filters the
information going to the surround speakers so that they more closely match the tonal characteristics of the sound coming
from the front speakers. This ensures seamless panning between the front and surround speakers.
DTS
DTS
D TS has been adopted as a sound recording format in the movie theaters since the release of “JURASSIC
PARK” in 1993, and has a good reputation for high quality sound and dynamic surround effects.
In this system, 6 channels of digital sound are recorded on CD-ROM. DTS adopts a simultaneous playback
format. With a low rate of compression of sound signals and a high rate of transmittance, a higher sound quality
format is produced. For this reason, the format is being introduced in more and more movie theaters, and is
being adopted for home use as DTS Digital Surround. When used with movies it's called DTS-LD DVD and for
music software (5.1 channel CD) as DTS-CD .
DTS-ES
DTS launched a new surround format in November 2000. This has come to be known as DTS Extended
Surround or simply DTS-ES. The technology has been advanced to include two new home formats DTS-ES
Discrete 6.1 format, and DTS-ES Matrix 6.1 ch format, both are able to playback discrete, 6.1 channel content
from DVDs and CDs. Both of these formats are compatible with a conventional DTS 5.1 ch decoder. In this
system each channel is encoded and decoded individually, adding to the separation of the channels. Since DTS
adds a third surround channel, the surround back channel, the realism and all-encompassing nature of the sound
reaches levels not seen before in home theater. This unit is equipped with a DTS-ES decoder.
DTS Neo:6
This is a matrix decoding technology that transforms two-channel sources into 6.0 channel surround sound.
There are two modes, "Cinema Mode" and "Music Mode".
DTS 96/24
This high-quality format will be used for software which will be available from November, 2001. For compatibility
with equipment that was produced before this format was made, DVD players can play this software using a
conventional DTS 5.1ch decoder. This unit is equipped with a DTS 96 kHz/24 bit decoder to take advantage of
the higher sound quality available.