Thx Surround Ex - Denon AVC-A1XVA Operating Instructions Manual

THX Ultra2 Cinema
THX Ultra2 Cinema mode plays 5.1 movies using all 8 speakers giving you the best possible movie watching experience. In this mode, new
THX processing blends the side surround speakers and back surround speakers providing the optimal mix of ambient and directional surround
sounds.
DTS-ES (Matrix and 6.1 Discrete) and Dolby Digital Surround EX encoded soundtracks will be automatically detected in Ultra2 Cinema mode
if the appropriate flag has been encoded.
Some Dolby Digital Surround EX soundtracks are missing the digital flag that allows automatic switching. If you know that the movie that you
are watching is encoded in Surround EX, you can manually select the THX Surround EX playback mode, otherwise THX Ultra2 Cinema mode
will apply processing to provide optimum replay.
THX Music Mode
For the replay of 5.1 multi-channel music the THX Music Mode should be selected. In this mode new THX processing is applied to the
surround channels of all 5.1 encoded music sources such as DTS and Dolby Digital to provide a wide stable rear soundstage.
THX Games Mode
For the replay of stereo and multi-channel game audio the THX Games Mode should be selected. In this mode THX ASA processing is applied
to the surround channels of all 5.1 and 2.0 encoded game sources such as analog, PCM, DTS and Dolby Digital. This accurately places all game
audio surround information, providing a full 360 degree playback environment. THX Games Mode is unique as it gives you a smooth transition
of audio in all points of the surround field.
Advanced Speaker Array™ (ASA)
ASA is a proprietary THX technology which processes the sound fed to 2 side and 2 back surround speakers to provide the optimal surround
sound experience. When you set up your home theater system using all eight speaker outputs (Left, Center, Right, Surround Right, Surround
Back Right, Surround Back Left, Surround Left and Subwoofer) placing the two Surround Back speakers close together facing the front of the
room as shown in the diagram will provide the largest sweet spot. If for practical reasons you have to place the Surround Back speakers apart,
you will need to go THX Audio Set-up screen and choose the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing, which will re-
optimize the surround sound-field.
ASA is used in three new modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX MusicMode and THX Games Mode.
Boundary Gain Compensation
If your chosen listening room layout (for practical or aesthetic reasons) results in the most of the listeners being close to the rear wall, the
resulting bass level can be sufficiently reinforced by the boundary that the overall sound quality becomes "boomy". THX Ultra2 receivers and
controllers contain the BGC (Boundary Gain Compensation) feature to provide an improved bass balance. BGC can be selected by choosing
"THX Ultra2 Subwoofer–Yes" from the "Boundary Gain Compensation" section of the THX Audio setup menu.
THX and Re-EQ, THX Timbre Matching, THX Adaptive Decorrelation, and THX Advanced Speaker Array are trademarks of THX Ltd.
THX may be registered in some jurisdictions. All rights reserved.
[6] THX™ Surround EX™
In 1999, a new surround system was launched simultaneously with the release of the movie "Star Wars Episode I". "Dolby Digital Surround
EX" is a new movie sound track that greatly enhances the sense of spatial expression and the positioning of the surround channel sound. The
result is 360 degrees of movement and moving sound effects that seem to pass right over the listener's head.
This system was developed jointly by THX and Dolby Laboratories, fusing THX's idea of improving spatial expression and achieving a uniform
360 degree sound positioning with Dolby Laboratories' matrix encoding technology. Emphasis was placed on compatibility with the existing
system Dolby Digital 5.1-channel, and the new "surround back (SB) channel" was added to achieve improvements over the conventional 5.1-
channel system in terms of the positioning of the sound at the rear, the acoustic image of sound moving from the two sides to the back as
well as sound moving from the front to the center rear with the multi surround speaker systems used in movie theaters, thereby enabling
various types of surround sound.
The surround back channel signal is a matrix-encoded signal inserted into both the Dolby Digital SL (surround left) and SR (surround right)
channels. Upon playback, the signals are decoded by a high precision digital matrix decoder within the Dolby Digital decoder into the SL, SR
and SB channels and output as 6.1 channels of signals. With the AVC-A1XVA, the signals further undergo Home THX Cinema processing to
achieve a THX Surround EX system.
Even without the proper environment for playing the SB channel, Dolby Digital Surround EX signals are 100% compatible with existing 5.1-
channel playback systems, so they can be played as such. In this case, the SB channel signal is produced as a monaural signal from both the
SL and SR channels, so none of the signal components are missing. The effects specific to THX Surround EX (the sense of spatial expression
and the positioning of the sound), however, are the same as with conventional 5.1-channel surround systems.
THX and Ultra2 are trademarks of THX Ltd. THX may be registered in some jurisdictions. All rights reserved. Surround EX is a
trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Used with permission.
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