Razer Acquires THX, the Audio Pioneer That George Lucas Started (venturebeat.com) 44
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Most of us know THX as the logo that comes up when we hear that zooming sound at the start of a film in a surround-sound movie theater. The company is a pioneer in audio technology, and today, gamer gear maker Razer is announcing that it has acquired the majority of THX Ltd.'s assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Irvine, Calif.-based Razer said that it has also hired the management team and employees of THX, which George Lucas started in 1983 to develop audio-visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, game consoles, and car audio systems. It will be an interesting match with Razer, which makes laptops and peripherals for game fanatics. THX will operate as an independent startup under its own management and apart from the ongoing business of its parent company. The audio technology business will have discretion to seek agreements with other product makers, service providers and financial partners apart from Razer.
THX Used to mean something (Score:3)
Movie theaters that were THX certified used to be a big deal. It meant they met standards on equipment quality and maintenance. Projector bulbs were replaced - projectors were clean, you had to have decent quality screens with proper gain, and properly sized and tuned sound equipment for the theater.
Then they stopped caring. I remember seeing a movie at the only THX certified theater in the area in the late 90s. The movie was so dim half the picture was pushed to complete blackness most of the time, and one of the subwoofers was clearly shot (RATTLERATTLERATTLE)
Then came the multiple fiascos with THX certified DVDs released with screwed up matting, pulldown flags set incorrectly, and all kinds of color timing problems.
It was a good idea, marketed wrong and managed poorly.
So did the word "startup"... (Score:5, Insightful)
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The "problem" with reputation-based sales is that a new owner/CEO can come along and milk that reputation for profits in the shorter term. They get the short-term profits they want, bail out or cash out before it totally crashes, and leave some poor shlub behind to sell the corpse to somebody else.
That's why IBM took a nose-dive. Not that it had a good reputation before that, but a fairly decent one. It was then milked for quick profits by railroading existing customers and lying to new ones. Eventually eno
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IBM's stock lost about 40% of its value between early 2013 and early 2016. Granted it's on a slight upswing of late, but possibly because they learned from their mistake.
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Re: THX Used to mean something (Score:4, Interesting)
THX wasn't even a technology, it was just a spec and certification - glorified QA with a big price tag.
The reason it's not relevant now is it basically devolved to big speakers and bass since that's all anyone noticed. Current theater effort like Dolby Atmos will provide *much* better audio quality, and still plenty of volume and rumbling bass.
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This is why I only see new movies at my local IMAX theater. Sure it's digital IMAX (70mm IMAX is all but dead now anyways) and the screen is not gigantic (but it's large enough at 70ft wide, just sit closer if you want it to look bigger).
The point is, the IMAX screens that I see all seem to be very well maintained and calibrated to a certain standard unlike other "normal" screens.
Worst keyboard ever (Score:1, Insightful)
Having seen how much their keyboards and peripherals suck, I'm sure that that bought a shitty company that makes an obsolete audio standard.
Their keyboards use inferior and broken cherry clones, and cost more than the original switches.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/2d5uff/is_it_true_that_razer_keyboards_are_bad/?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true
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No only are the keyboards bad, but the software for the mouse REQUIRES you to activate it via the internet for the more advanced functions. DRM on a hardware product? I avoid all Razer products.
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Furthermore, their Razer Config Utility is always showing an update "Upgrade your Sound for Free". If you open it, and choose "Never", it will bother you again after the next reboot.
I will never purchase Razer again.
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No only are the keyboards bad, but the software for the mouse REQUIRES you to activate it via the internet for the more advanced functions
And by "advanced functions," we're talking something as simple as swapping the left-and-right mouse buttons for left-handed operation, or binding a keystroke to a mouse button. It stores all its settings in "the cloud" and none of those settings will load until it's able to contact "the cloud."
I actually like my Razer mouse, but the driver is HORRIBLE.
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Razer's marketing is full of hyperbole, often bordering on outright lying. Many of their statements are obviously made to be misinterpreted so as to make their products appear to be more interesting than they really are.
They are a dishonest, shameful company.
Never mind that their products are more flash than quality. Their conduct is reason enough to avoid them.
Anyway, the reason why Razer moved from Cherry MX to Kailh for their keyboard switches has more to do with Cherry's supply problems a couple of year
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They are the Bose of computer/gamer hardware.
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They are the Bose of computer/gamer hardware.
A few of their products are actually really could. The Razer Deathadder is a really good mouse, one of the few that can approach a Logitech when it comes to proper button sensitivity. But their product line is filled with duds -- the Lachesis has buttons that require too much force to click (a common, unforgivable mouse sin) and break easily, and the Naga also has bad button pressure. And God help you if you want to use the mouse under Linux. On a KVM switch, Fedora takes a good 10 seconds to add the mouse
Tomlinson Holman of THX (Score:5, Informative)
Tomlinson Holman, the TH in THX, left THX to co-found Audessey.
For those not in the know, the Audessey calibration system and hardware many home cinema receivers come with addresses the problems the great majority of users have: Room correction and EQ. It did to home cinema what THX did to the movie studio mixing room and movie theater.
Of course, just using Audessey is not going to be a magic bullet. You still need to have a room with good control over ringing, etc. You still have to know where to put your speakers. And you still need your speakers to be at least in the same family. But if you put in the effort, start with semi-competent hardware and maybe tweak a little what Audessey comes up with, you will have sound better than most has-been multiplexes.
In short, Tomlinson Holman has done more for movie sound in the cinema and in the home than people realize.
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The electronics portion was designed by Tom Holman. Do you think these speakers count as THX Certified?
If they don't have the THX logo, they aren't. But that doesn't mean much anymore. In the end, I think THX was a joke, applied to tiny desktop speakers.
That Holman designed the electronics in your speakers probably assure they are of higher quality, even if the THX logo isn't on them.
I read Holman joined Apple in 2011. (as per wikipedia article on Holman). I think this is a good arrangement, Apple, for as much hate as people heap on them, do care about sound quality. I bet they can take the syrupy bass-h
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Who cares? It means about as much today for the quality of the audio as UL certified.
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At least UL makes sure that it's not going to burn the house down.
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Tomlinson Holman Crossover (X-over)
Also Tomlinson Holman eXperiment
In any case, yes, an homage to THX1138
And for ink and paint lovers of a certain age, there's "THUD - The Audience Is Now Deaf"
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In short, Tomlinson Holman has done more for movie sound in the cinema and in the home than people realize.
Most people aren't going to blow the money on a receiver expensive enough to include the technology, so that's hardly surprising. I'll care when it's ubiquitous. We're very, very far from that, though. Color calibration equipment isn't even ubiquitous yet, and that's cheap and well-explored.
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"most people" don't buy receivers at all: They stick with the built-in TV speakers, or buy a soundbar.
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"most people" don't buy receivers at all: They stick with the built-in TV speakers, or buy a soundbar.
Or if they do, they tend to buy one of those all-in-one systems which converge the optical disc player with the receiver. AFAIK these are not offered with this tech.
Personally, I replaced a ~20-year-old Sony 5.1 dolby digital stereo with a ~10-year-old Sony 5.1 DTS stereo. It was $20 at the flea market and had bad solder connections that made the center channel shut off. I resoldered all the input relay connections and et voila, new stereo. But not that new.
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The home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) setups can have r
Soon... (Score:1)
Ahhh.. the memories (Score:4, Funny)
I remember the THX intro on the Terminator 2 LaserDisc. I'd crank up the volume and I could hear the DDOooooooooWWAHHHHH and my wife yelling at me all at the same time.
I miss the days when Top Gun was the standard (Score:2)
Remember when everyone had Top Gun on LD? And then had it again on DVD? Pepper... you know
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If you want to wawawallowww in nostalgia, check out the end of the Beaver and Krause "Spaced" from 1970, (We used it as a special effect in a production of "The Crucible" in 1973...), or for that matter, the intro to Xenakis' "Metastasis" from 1955.
"Good artists copy; great artists steal." Picasso as quoted by Steve Jobs in 1996. Hmmm..., and just where is Holman working today?
Turn it up!!! (Score:2)
Creative Labs (Score:3)
Most of us know THX as the logo... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Most of us know THX as the logo that comes up when we hear that zooming sound at the start of a film...
Don't you see the problem with the current Slashdot? Summaries do not target nerds, or anyone minimally interested in technology. Some years ago, most of us would have known THX, many of us would have known the intricacies of multichannel digital sound encoding, and some of us would have indeed worked in the field, possibly in THX itself. Comments on the news would come in first person. But right know, new
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100% agree - for years /. has only been echoing the first paragraph of stories from magazine sites - no doubt the submissions to /. come right from the publicists themselves. It used to be a true forum driven by its own community. But that was a long, long time ago! (And in a galaxy far away?)
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Go take your meds, grandpa. We're all millenials and Javascript developers now.
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