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Topic: THX recertification

Kevin Crawford
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 207
From: Sacramento, CA, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 05-14-2000 12:29 AM

Has anyone out there had THX come out to do a recertification?

I know that my chain has several THX screens and only one complex has had recertifying by THX. Even this was done poorly. I had to go out and redo the A chain.

The companies pay for the privilege of advertising THX. Do they not also pay for the cost of having someone recertify them as part of that privilege?

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Curtis Barnes
Film Handler

Posts: 15
From: Laguna Hills, CA, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 05-14-2000 05:08 AM

This depends on the technician THX allows to perform the work. Most chain certified techs lie constantly about how well their theatres perform. Some sound like pure shit and have blown subwoofers, loud rattles from the air conditioning and so forth, but since they are certifying their own equipment, they are forced to lie to THX on the actual specs. If you get an independent THX tech, you should get good results. I wish THX would not allow in house techs to do recertification for their own chains.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-14-2000 10:59 AM

I also tend to agree that recerts should be by independed outside engineers
If the boss says it will pass I am sure no corporate minian would allow it not to
The system is no better than the weekest link

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Kevin Crawford
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 207
From: Sacramento, CA, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 05-15-2000 01:16 AM

The chain I work for has a tech that is capable of doing recerts. However, they do not have him doing them.

Am I wrong in assuming that THX is ultimately responsible to have them done, to make their own guidelines?

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David Kilderry
Master Film Handler

Posts: 355
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-15-2000 05:20 AM

Our last THX re-cert was a killer. We had 3 visits and were jumping through hoops to finally get our major house past - the tech. was not associated with our chain. The air-con. noise was too high.

Is the Chinese Theatre Cinema one still certified? I heard it was going to lose it. I just love the way that drapes cover the hard parts of the auditorium prior to the feature beginning, does this still happen?

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-15-2000 12:46 PM

>>I wish THX would not allow in house techs to do recertification for their own chains.<<

This is the fox guarding the chicken coop!

Gordon wrote: >>If the boss says it will pass I am sure no corporate minian would allow it not to<<

You're right and I'm sad proof to the contrary. My only corporate engineering job was with Cinemuck in the late 80s. The head-honcho, boss engineer, who always let everyone know that he was from California, like that meant something (even in restaurants, it was embarrassing)... was not only their recertification man, but was going around the country designing and installing all their theatres wrong (filing everything to a one-size-fits-all, incorrect lens sizings, improper equipment alignment, poor installation practices, and an odd belief that moving the lateral guide roller after aligning a stereo cell didn't change anything).

I was hired as their Midwestern engineer, and they sent this big-cheese bozo over, who often appeared to be high on crack cocaine, to check me out for a few weeks on some installs. Shortly after I realized that HE was the one that needed to be checked out, I went to corporate VPs about what was happening to their theatres and why.

Well... to make a long story short, it's the only job I've ever been fired from.

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Better Projection Pays!

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-15-2000 01:36 PM

Lets face it it seems as though THX has really gone south for the most part. The idea is a great one but unfortunately there are too many corporate bozos in the mess for it to ever work right.
I was not aware that the Chineese #1 was ever certified. I heard that it couldn't be certified due to reverb problems(that could not be cured due to its landmark status). If it was certified at some point I suppose it musta been treated either acoustically or by some corporate schmuck.
Mark

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 05-15-2000 03:38 PM

haha Tim, I know EXACTLY who you're talking about.

That's the same fellow who burned a hole in every frame of 2 new prints at a theater I worked with him at all because he refused, despite my pleading to "please use the test prints and not the new prints" for his playing around. He had never bothered to align the lamp.

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Jon Bartow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 287
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-15-2000 11:58 PM

What sort of training/requirements are there for a tech certified by THX? How often do they have to submit to retrained? (Are they retrained?)

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-16-2000 08:00 AM

Training is
1st you buy the R2 analyser
2nd have to haev gone to DOlby school
3rd take the THX recert course

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-16-2000 01:14 PM

Any technician thats worth a nickle should be using an R-2 irregardless of going to recert school or not. Its the best available for general theatrical use.
Mark

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Stefan Scholz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 223
From: Schoenberg, Germany
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-16-2000 01:50 PM

I love my R2, I have received the most consistent results in most auditoriums. It should really be preferred to all those handheld single mike plastic test toys generally seen over here.
There's only one drawback, it's an analogue piece of gear, with the computer just beeing a display unit. (Any 8088 IBM is fast enough)
That means it should be recaliberated due to aging of the filters. Something you don't have to do with those DSP units.
Advantage: Analogue filters have constant resolution over all bands. DSP has high at low end, and low at high bands.

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-18-2000 07:06 AM

>> despite my pleading to "please use the test prints and not the new prints" for his playing around<<

Brad, that's the guy, and 'playing around' is the right phrase. He seemed to be more concerned with being "in charge" than with getting the job done. And you DARED to make a suggestion?!??!! Well, he was from CALIFORNIA, by gosh, and heaven forbid he'd let a good ol' boy from Texas or Kentucky tell him what to do!

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Better Projection Pays!

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