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Home Theater forum blazes ahead with reviews that are designed to help you make the right viewing choice! This week Ken McAlinden reviews Albert Lewin's MGM adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, a highly awaited release that gets notable recommendation. Todd Erwin gives us two reviews of the recent "Indie" releases, Harold, starring Spencer Breslin -and- Dororo, a live-action comic book adaptation directed by Akihko Shiota. TVShowsOnDVD this week include 30 Rock: Season 2, The Sarah Silverman Program Season Two Volume One, Lil' Bush: resident of the United States Season Two, and Mission Impossible: The Fifth Season. Finally, new Blu-ray reviews include Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Poltergeist.
 
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Old 12-07-2003, 02:16 PM   #1 of 42
Rick Jones
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DolbyIIx vs Thx Ultra 2?


If i recall hearing correctly both of these will take a 5.1 signal(Such as DD or DTS) and convert them to 7.1 Anyone have expeirnce with either of these? They sound like a great idea for myself who wants to be able to use all 7.1 of my setup most of the time. Would it be worth the extra for the Ultra 2 feature vs a reciever that didn't have it??
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Old 12-07-2003, 02:39 PM   #2 of 42
Michael Reuben
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Everyone is waiting for some real-world reports on DPL IIx. When there's something to report, it will probably appear in this thread.

As for THX Ultra 2, it's designed to process 5.1 soundtracks for a 7-speaker array that haven't been specifically encoded for EX (or DTS ES). (Remember that the official THX recommendation for EX is to have two rear center speakers.) I have it, but I don't use it, because the signal sent to the two rear speakers is essentially mono, and Lexicon's Logic7 creates stereo rears and generally does a better job.

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Old 12-08-2003, 12:14 AM   #3 of 42
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To clarify, DPLIIx takes stereo sources, and turns them into "7.1" sound. EX expands the surrounds in DD 5.1 into 6.1/7.1. They aren't really comparable.

Logic 7, does sorta both. The lexicon gurus know a lot more than I do about L7.

also see this thread: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=171771
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Old 12-08-2003, 12:23 AM   #4 of 42
Michael Reuben
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Quote:
EX expands the surrounds in DD 5.1 into 6.1/7.1.

I think you mean "Ultra2", Chris, not "EX". In some cases, EX may "expand" a non-EX-encoded 5.1 track, but in others it may collapse the rear channels toward the center. The outcome with EX decoding on non-EX material is unpredictable, and that's the reason for a separate mode like Ultra2.

Quote:
Logic 7, does sorta both.

There's no "sorta" about it. Logic7, in its full implementation, extracts 7 distinct channels from both 2.0 and 5.1 material.

M.



"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

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Old 12-08-2003, 12:39 AM   #5 of 42
ChrisWiggles
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My understanding was only that Ultra2 had more advanced processing so the two rears were different, rather than mono. EX-processing on non-EX 5.1 titles *might* collapse to the rear if it's all mono back there, but I've never had this happen. You are correct though, that just as with PL/PLII use on soundtracks or music not mixed specifically with that processing in mind, you may get mixed results.

Lexicon doesn't have much info on their site in regards to Logic 7, which I always wanted to know more about.

I guess you could call it sorta, because Logic 7 is such it's own animal, because it handles both. Doesn't it take 5.1 on the fly and downmix it to stereo, then unfold it into a 7.1 field? This is what is a little more intensive(and, IMO, better) than just Ultra2 processing. And can't it deal with several subwoofers much better?

Well I just was trying to wade through some lexicon papers, but they're not very clear. Oh well.
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Old 12-08-2003, 12:47 AM   #6 of 42
Michael Reuben
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Quote:
My understanding was only that Ultra2 had more advanced processing so the two rears were different, rather than mono.
I believe it's similar to the "decorrelation" used in the original THX spec to give a sense of differentiation to the mono rears in the old ProLogic.

Quote:
Doesn't it take 5.1 on the fly and downmix it to stereo, then unfold it into a 7.1 field?

No. You're confusing Logic7 with a separate downmixing function available in Lexicon processors.

M.



"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert


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Old 12-08-2003, 01:51 AM   #7 of 42
ChrisWiggles
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You're right, I re-read the interview.

http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/Lexicon/dg_qa1.html

For others that are interested.
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Old 12-08-2003, 09:24 AM   #8 of 42
Michael Reuben
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I have the advantage of having used Lexicon processors and Logic7 since 1996. I got one of the first DC-1's equipped with Dolby Digital to ship in the U.S. At the time, only a a few receivers came with DD (all of them made by Pioneer), and there were no DVDs or players. My first DD sources were all laserdiscs.

M.



"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert


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Old 12-08-2003, 05:54 PM   #9 of 42
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Actually if you look at Dolby's site it says it will convert 5.1 DD signals to 7.1 as well. While thx ultra may work better, this is a good option for us not able to shell out around 2k for an Ultra2 reciever.
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Old 12-08-2003, 07:19 PM   #10 of 42
Stephen_Moor
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