Today I had the opportunity to speak with the folks at THX about their certification program and plans for Blu-ray Disc and the home theater market in 2008.
THX's booth at CES is certainly not the largest, but it is VERY busy. THX has come a long way from when they were under the LucasFilm umbrella and certifying cinemas 25 years ago. They since have added programs to certify home theater components, televisions (display devices), mobile audio systems, home video media (VHS, LD, DVD), and game audio.
Taking a tour of the booth revealed several displays demonstrating various THX technologies, including a car parked there in the booth! You could also get your picture taken with their famous mascot Tex, the little robot seen in the now famous THX cinema trailers. Naturally, I couldn't resist.
Getting down to business, I asked about what kinds of plans THX had for HD media, specifically Blu-ray Disc. While there is one THX certified Blu-ray Disc (Lionsgate's
Terminator 2: Judgment Day), getting the studios to pay the additional cost to have THX certify the process is a major stumbling block. It's not a matter of looking at the final master and approving it, all the steps in the process have to be inspected: be it the original film and sound elements, the telecine bay, the monitors used for the picture and sound, and the disc production facilities.
T2 required Lionsgate to use two different film elements since either one had certain problems with different scenes, such as visual effects shots. Getting all these elements inspected and approved takes time and effort, and in the end that means money. Interestingly enough, they spoke of a couple BD titles seen by many as 5 star picture and sound transfers that could use tweaking if they had QC'ed them!
Moving on to games, the THX logo has appeared on several games for the
Sony Playstation 3. Games like
Resistance: Fall of Man,
Warhawk, and
Blast Factor have had their audio certified by THX to give the best possible sound. THX reps were sure to stress that the program does not cover graphics or gameplay. Just the audio.
THX has started certifying display devices. In the past projectors and screens have received certification, and now it has grown to direct view plasma TVs. The first sets to be THX certified will be available from Panasonic and LG. Not only is it a quality certification, but like their audio equipment it allows the TV to add a THX Cinema mode for movie watching. THX Cinema mode is like a built-in THX Optimizer which presets the display for the correct levels of brightness, contrast, and color temperature. How many of us have wished we could calibrate our display with the push of one button? Now we can. THX certified media can also carry metadata telling devices down the chain what the proper settings are. We also briefly touched on audio: specifically that THX Cinema, THX Surround EX and THX Ultra2 Cinema modes are now available with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in the latest receivers. This assures that when we are watching our movies on Blu-ray we are getting the best possible sound.
While the current THX Demo Disc II is DVD only, I was informed that a Blu-ray version is currently in production. THX is very excited about High Definition and the future of Blu-ray Disc. I would like to thank Ed Rice, Allan Scholinick, and Warren Mansfield for helping me on my visit.
Update: This article has been updated with certain portions removed because of a possible misunderstanding, we're sorry about this.