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substance
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 13:49 |
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Joined: 16 May 2009, 18:05 Posts: 3593 Location: California, USA Has thanked: 29 times Been thanked: 328 times
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Two different unrelated things.
Criterion is a home video label which licenses film rights to put them on home video releases. Historically Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray (there are a couple Criterion VHS releases as well). It was a part of the Voyager Video label. Criterion line focused on independent, art-house and other significant films. Mastering engineers often sought after the best film negative/positive and audio elements to finish their home video production. Often cases they did their best to stay true to the director's intended cut, aspect ratio, color timing and audio mix. This earned them a high reputation among the purist.
THX is a home audio/video quality assurance program. George Lucas (creator of Star Wars) was annoyed that his films looked and sounded different in every theater due to different settings and gear used in every cinema. He consulted the engineer Tomlinsen Holmes for a solution. THX stands for Tomlinsen Holmes eXperience and also a homage to his early film THX1138. They came up with a large number of parameters and standards for how cinema gear(projector, speaker, amp etc...) should be setup. The equipment that met with these standards got the THX label. This way, each cinema got consistent (same quality) equipment and same settings. Later they went on and supervised film mastering, ensuring each film is mastered suitable for THX cinemas. In 90s, THX started offering THx home cinema. This enured the home cinema equipment also met with these criteria. So in short it's just a quality asurance certificate. Most high end equipment actually surpassed THX quality standards but the manufacturer didn't submit their equipment for testing (which cost money).
There are some Criterion LDs with THX certificate btw.
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dumbchemist
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 15:38 |
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Joined: 22 Nov 2011, 18:54 Posts: 698 Location: United States Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 5 times
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Fascinating. I thought that both THX and Criterion were aimed at improving PQ and SQ during the recording process. Instead, THX is a certification that relates to hardware and software so as to reach a certain level of quality during playback. Criterion is a process to get the best PQ and SQ by using the highest quality films/negatives when producing a video format i.e. LD, BD etc. I have only a very few (<10) of LD's with either branding so I cannot say that either one is better.
Right now, I am concentrating collecting LD's recorded in CAV such as box sets primarily.
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substance
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 16:38 |
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dumbchemist wrote: Fascinating. I thought that both THX and Criterion were aimed at improving PQ and SQ during the recording process. Instead, THX is a certification that relates to hardware and software so as to reach a certain level of quality during playback. Criterion is a process to get the best PQ and SQ by using the highest quality films/negatives when producing a video format i.e. LD, BD etc. I have only a very few (<10) of LD's with either branding so I cannot say that either one is better.
Right now, I am concentrating collecting LD's recorded in CAV such as box sets primarily. Correct on the THX. As Samaron pointed out, THX was supposed to mean perfect mastering but its track record isn't flawless. There has been many THX releases with issues. Today THX is irrelevant. I believe there were only 4 or 5 THX certified Blu-rays. Also as I pointed out, most manufacturers neglected getting THX certification to avoid paying fees to THX. For example, Runco LJR-II is a Panasonic LX-900U clone. Runco has the THX certification but Panasonic didn't submit their player to THX. Criterion is NOT a process. Criterion is a studio, just like Universal home video or Warner home video. The difference is Universal and Warner make their own films and put them out to home video under their own name, Criterion licenses the home video rights from such studios to release for home video market. In order to be competitive against the big studios like Universal and Warner, Criterion generally offer the best possible version of the films. They also started including extra supplements such as commentary tracks and behind the scene features. Today Criterion is also irrelevant. Most studios follow the same practice and include extras, different cuts, different audio options. Criterion also made mistakes a couple of times. Those issues were recalled and corrected.
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dumbchemist
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 17:22 |
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Joined: 22 Nov 2011, 18:54 Posts: 698 Location: United States Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 5 times
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Okay, so THX and Criterion are now considered irrelevant. That is fine by me. If a had to make a choice between a regular LD and a Criterion LD, the Criterion LD would win out; but, only if the cost difference is not that big. Obviously, I would not choose a $50 Criterion LD over a $20 CLV LD. With the current prices of new and used LD's being all over the place, the buyer has to do his homework before purchasing.
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dumbchemist
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 19:08 |
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substance wrote: It also depends on the kind of movies you like to watch. Criterion focuses on art-house, foreign and independent films. You will only see a handful mainstream films under their catalog. I don't know about the films that Criterion focuses on. I have only 3 Criterion films in my limited inventory: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Lawrence of Arabia and Zulu. Zulu I can see as being a foreign film. Lawrence of Arabia maybe a foreign film (I am not sure). Definitely, Close Encounters is a US production. I have no idea of how many THX LD's I have. My inventory spreadsheet does not list THX as a feature. Someday, I will update the spreadsheet whether an LD is THX or not.
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substance
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 13 Oct 2016, 22:20 |
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Joined: 16 May 2009, 18:05 Posts: 3593 Location: California, USA Has thanked: 29 times Been thanked: 328 times
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signofzeta wrote: Yeah, another thing not mentioned is that when Criterion started out home video was only barely considered worth doing so it was no problem to license them Ghostbusters or whatever. Now studios release all that stuff themselves. Their first two releases were King Kong and Citizen Kaine. Clearly they aren't opposed to mainstream hits.
Armageddon had to be some kind of ironic hipster joke though. I still don't understand why they did that. Criterion's founder is buddies with Michael Bay. He allowed them to do the Rock and Armageddon while they were also released from Universal at the same time.
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signofzeta
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Post subject: Re: Comparing THX and Criterion Posted: 14 Oct 2016, 20:37 |
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Joined: 14 Jan 2010, 09:44 Posts: 6010 Location: Ann Arbor Has thanked: 1307 times Been thanked: 1118 times
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dumbchemist wrote: I understand about the art-house movies being in Criterion's catalog. I have The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in my collection. The dialog is in French which I can sort of understand; but, the acting definitely needs improvement. I watched the first 5 to 10 minutes of the film before stopping the player. The acting is not up to par. Words fail me...
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