Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Help with DSP Selection for multichannel movies.

I have always used Cinema for all movies but my dealer is telling me I should select THX for everything. I think I've seen some here recommend PLIIx Movie 6 for most situations. Seems very confusing. When are other DSPs used like THX Ultra2, etc. and how do you know that a manual override is necessary?

Thanks for any advice.
John

The Meridian handbook gives an explanation of the different presets.This is the section from the user guide

The PLIIx THX DSP preset uses the same PLIIx processing as PLIIx Movie, but adds THX Cinema processing. THX is a set of standards and technologies developed by Lucasfilm Ltd. with the aim of making your experience of the film soundtrack as faithful as possible to what the director intended.
Re-equalistion is used to restore the correct tonal balance for watching a film soundtrack in a small home environment.
Timbre matching 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.
THX can also be used with the 5.1 Movie DSP presets; see THX, page 43.

At the end of the day,however, its what you prefer.Experiment with all the presets and choose the one you like best after all its your money and your ears not your dealers

Good luck

I find THX rolls off the top end somewhat. This can be useful for later night listening or if the sound-track is very tiresome (e.g. lots of gun-shots and breaking glass). Generally though for discrete (5.1) codecs: DTS and DD, I listen using Cinema. PLII and PLIIx (7.1 system now gone) are nice for DD2.0 and PCM film sources. To my ears THX Ultra is unlistenable for more than about five minutes, making me feel nervous and uncomfortable and just sounding horrible.

There is no "should"; its your kit and your ears.

THX has their hands in your pockets, that's all. You're paying/paid for that nonsense.

As it happens, some AVS'ers were discussing why films no longer need the THX re-eq mode:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19780460#post19780460

Originally Posted by FilmMixer View Post
"I attribute that to better production techniques (i.e. learning how to wield digital processing and 5.1 properly, and moving from both 35mm magnetic recording and into good sounding digital equipment throughout the entire post process), improved tuning standards and B-Chain electronics..

I'd say once we got past 1997/98 we were in much better shape in regards to out of control HF content."

IMHO, use Cinema for 5.1 TV and films, discrete for DVD-Audio, Trifield for music. Those are my "rules of thumb".

THX makes a filter that "mimics" a cinema Screen infront of the speakers to dampen the added high frequency at cinmea's so the sound comes natural infront of the screen after the sound has passed through!


Here are some very good info with graphs of the filter and how they work
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/thx4.htm

Here are some from Audioholics

"Editorial Note About THX ReEQ� by John Dahl of THX

ReEQ was developed by THX's Tomlinson Holman in response to a request from the movie sound editors and mixers at Lucasfilm's Skywalker sound. The mixers found that when they listened to master tapes of their work on their home systems they sounded consistently too bright and edgy compared with what they heard in the movie dubbing stage where the masters were created. Movie dubbing stages are set up and calibrated to sound exactly like good movie theaters and vice versa. It's important to movie sound artists that they create the sound track while listening to the same system as the theater audience. In the movie biz this is known as accurate venue to venue translation.

In a movie theater the audience sits a long way away from the speakers, a theater is acoustically absorbent and the theater speakers have the high frequencies turned down slightly. In a home you sit close to the speakers, the room is acoustically live and the speakers do not have the high frequencies turned down. So you can see that a soundtrack recorded in a theater would sound bright when played back at home. The THX ReEQ filter compensates precisely for the response difference between a perfect movie theater and a perfect home theater."

rest can be read here: http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/processors/integra-research-rdc-7-1/thx-overview-and-scorecard