[Stuart Wright]

AVForums Home Cinema Podcast : 6th December 2007

In a very special podcast, Phil Hinton and Neil Davidson talk to Tomlinson Holman, the academy award winning inventor of THX & founder of Audyssey Labs.

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Please reply to this thread with your feedback.

[choddo2006]

Awesome.

[DustySox]

What a great Christmas treat.

Well done you guys!!!

[baccattack]

Very interesting listen. Was particularly interested in the Audessey stuff towards the end. Almost certainly something I will be looking out for on my next receiver along with a possible change to diapole rear speakers.

[mossym]

I met Tomlinson a couple of years ago. real down to earth guy, but my god was it obvious he knew his stuff.

[jwramsay]

Sounded like a very knowledgeable and friendly guy.

Lost faith in THX when they added their certification to the R1 version of the Disney Tarzan movie, when one of the rear tracks contained a copy of one of the front tracks.

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by PDP-434HDE

Sounded like a very knowledgeable and friendly guy.

Lost faith in THX when they added their certification to the R1 version of the Disney Tarzan movie, when one of the rear tracks contained a copy of one of the front tracks.

Yeah, there were one or two instances where things fell down in the quality control areas. But I think the biggest plus point of THX was the fact they laid down a standard for others to match or beat, thus giving us even better content and products in the home than we have ever had. Their push for quality cannot be underestimated when it began in a market where thinsg like theatres/Cinemas where poor quality, mastering of video was poor as were the sound systems used. The impact of Toms work from the dubbing stages at Skywalker set the standard for all professional movie mix systems, right through to the playback systems. If it wasn't for companies like THX and organisations like ISF we would not have the quality of products to chose from that we have today, because these people brought about a minimum standard that others now stick too or even try to better.

Glad you enjoyed the show.

[meltonboy]

On paper this podcast would have been too technical for me, but it was in fact a pleasure to listen to. What a genuinley nice bloke with enthusiasm, knowledge and an extremely influencial chap as well. The guy that invented the phase "5.1" He really is at the top of his game !

A real treat - thanks

Meltonboy - Supreme Advisor (wannabe)

[Peter Stiff]

Hi,

Thanks everyone fantastic.

[Neil Davidson]

Hi Everyone,

We are delighted that everyone is enjoying this edition of the pod cast so much. Phil and I would have been delighted to keep the interview going for much longer but we were already pushing our time slot as it was!

As a slight addition to the discussion in the interview the guys at Audyssey have asked me to point out the following information that Tom didn't have at the time of the interview...

"The Sound Equalizer is capable of twice the filter resolution available in any of the receiver and pre-pro products that are Audyssey Installer-Ready. This is because the Sound Equalizer gets to use the entire DSP and thus can run longer equalization filters.

The difference will be more obvious in the low frequencies as longer filters are capable of correcting narrower peaks and dips in that region.

Also, the Sound Equalizer is the only Audyssey-Installer Ready product that is capable of being assigned to equalize multiple room audio systems. Remember: you can assign the 8 channels to different zones."

Our thanks to Audyssey for this clarification.

One final point - what a handsome speaker Tom is standing next to in our photo

[Rainfall]

Excellent podcast guys. Thanks for an early christmas present

cheers Steve

[monkeyleader]

Please make this podcast available in the Zune store ?

ta,

Nige

[Stuart Wright]

Originally Posted by monkeyleader

Please make this podcast available in the Zune store ?

What and where is that, then?

[Figment]

Yes great Podcast guys, Thanks. Bit disappointed not to have had a film podcast this month and by-the-way what ever happened to the guy from Onkyo who was contributing that was pretty short lived.

[Neil Davidson]

The interview had to be recorded during working hours and unfortunately Mark had to be in a meeting at that time.

See being self employed or working shifts can have advantages

I am sure we will have Mark back for the next Podcast!

[Phil Hinton]

Movies podcast is due to be recorded next week!

[Paul_thx]

For me, that was the best podcast so far. It was very interesting to hear from Tom himself about his work in the industry, and the Audyssey stuff has got me looking forward to getting my new Denon amp even more.

He mentioned in the interview about mastering engineers having forgotten what they're doing when it comes to mastering albums. There are still plenty of skilled mastering engineers around, but unfortunately things are quite often now dictated by the record companies wanting very loud sounding, compressed albums. It's very strange to be releasing albums with a dynamic range of 5 or 6dB (as many current releases do), when CD has a dynamic range of 96dB. One mastering engineer who is really fighting against this is Bob Katz, who is a leading expert in the field. I know that the podcast is primarily a home cinema one, but I'd love to hear an interview with Bob in a future edition to get his opinions on the current CD mastering problems.

[Renoir]

Would also be interested in a discussion on CD mastering

[simonjtaylor212]

Dear Sirs,

First of all many thanks for your fine podcasts... however I do have a slight complaint. I own a photo ipod, use normal "in ear" headphones, and listen on the underground, which can be a noisy environment. Podcasts from the BBC and twit.tv sound fine, good and loud. Unfortunately your podcasts generally seem to have a lower level, which, even with my volume control to the max, I cannot hear over the noise in the tunnel! In particular I could not listen to the interview in the last podcast since the telephone seemed to have a MUCH lower level than the voice of the interviewer, which was almost inaudible at times! Is there any chance the general level of the podcasts could be boosted?

Anyway, I greatly enjoy your podcasts, but unfortunately only in quieter environments!

Many Thanks

Simon Taylor, London

[Peter Stiff]

Originally Posted by simonjtaylor212

Dear Sirs,

First of all many thanks for your fine podcasts... however I do have a slight complaint. I own a photo ipod, use normal "in ear" headphones, and listen on the underground, which can be a noisy environment. Podcasts from the BBC and twit.tv sound fine, good and loud. Unfortunately your podcasts generally seem to have a lower level, which, even with my volume control to the max, I cannot hear over the noise in the tunnel! In particular I could not listen to the interview in the last podcast since the telephone seemed to have a MUCH lower level than the voice of the interviewer, which was almost inaudible at times! Is there any chance the general level of the podcasts could be boosted?

Anyway, I greatly enjoy your podcasts, but unfortunately only in quieter environments!

Many Thanks

Simon Taylor, London

Hi Simon,

Welcome to the forums.

I agree with you it was a little low but so informal

Perhaps you could email London Underground and see if they can sound proof the carriages a bit more

It was fine played here at home on my home cinema system played at reference level

[henrik-t]

hi i have a suloution for the auds Mic placment.......

Sid in your normal seat... sid still place the mic on your head, then you are in the sound img, and auddys do ajust to you and at ear hight almost.. but u need not the breathe heavy og caff,,, u have to be abb still and sid still....

it s not hard it 5 - 6 min max.. for each position.. for all the potisions..

Henrik

[namuk]

best bloody pod cast i have heard . TM what a guy .. i want his brain