Another very serious problem with presenatations today stems back to our friends at TES. Just last week I was in Dallas and visited two theaters and BOTH complexes had a print with lab defects! Want to know why these reels were not replaced? There wasn't time because the prints did not arrive until Thursday night, when the projectionists are WAAAAAAAY too busy to do full inspections and when a few films come in, frequently there is just not time for a technical screening. Of course, by the time the customers complain it is too late...as the theaters will get charged for the reels with the old "well, you must've damaged them" line.

So it's lab defects right? TES will know the difference, right? Nope! I have called in replacement reels with brown and blue lab scratches and THE THEATER WAS CHARGED. I even called into TES and made a huge stink about it and they insisted that was "theater damage". The bottom line here is TES is literally scaring theaters against from calling in replacement reels for fear of getting charged. This MUST be corrected! Just imagine if someone pays top dollar for a "SuperTHX" or "Kodak ScreenCheck" program at their theater and can't get a good print just because there wasn't enough time to pre-screen it to find that damage. It's very sad and if Mr. Carroll from TES is reading this, all reject reels really should be inspected by someone who really knows what is what, and prints must arrive on Wednesdays to rectify this.

The government usually steps in only when the public health, safety or welfare are in jeapardy. So food, drugs, airlines, broadcasting, public transportation, hospitals, schools, etc. are usually regulated and inspected in some way. Even then, the cost of doing this and the lack of qualified inspectors limits the coverage and enforcement, so poorly maintained planes do crash, food poisoning outbreaks do occur, radio stations sometimes do cause interference, and some doctors and teachers are unqualified.

IMHO, in a market-driven economy, suppliers (e.g., distributors) are reluctant to antagonize their direct customers (e.g., theatres) on issues of quality, especially when, as Brad notes, fingers of blame can be pointed in both directions.

So, in a market-driven economy, good presentation quality will eventually win customers, and poor presentation quality will lose them. THX and ScreenCheck are tools available to assess and improve presentation quality, but in the end, it is the theatre's responsibility to maintain quality if they want to please customers and stay in business.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Note that I did qualify my statement with "...when there is an alternative supplier, superior quality will attract customers." I agree distribution patterns may sometimes give a bad theatre a virtual monopoly in a given area, and then there's no competition to force better quality.

Somehow, when the THX letters are mentioned, a lot of the same "issues" raise their heads, time and time again. I must say here that all of you, not just those mentioned above, are, how do I say it, simply fabulous. The fact that you all care enough to share your knowledge with the rest of us is one of the highlights of this industry. It's awesome. And I'm never let down. Keep up the good "word."

Anyway, let's talk re-certs since nobody wants to talk about THX Certified PCs... First of all, there is a distinct difference between "certification" and "re-certification." Certification is ALWAYS done by a THX Technician. That is the initial test of the theatre, and it must be performed by one of our guys. Re-certification is a different story. Unfortunately, with almost 3000 THX Screens out there, it is impossible for us to get out there and visit them on any kind of a timely basis... you do the math. So, with re-certs, we have independent technicians, who have been trained by THX, send us back the data from their re-cert, for us to determine if the screen passes. The Techs doin the re-certs have to be trained in how to use an R2, and how to fill out our re-certification forms. O'kay, so what's to keep them from lying? We have an extensive network of feedback mechanisms, TAP and this web site are among them. We do send TAP Evaluators to do blind spot checks of questionable sites, and /or sites we get complaints about. But that's it. That's how we do it. With the construction boom over, we can focus more on re-certs and actually have our own guys doing some of them... but in the past few years, this was utterly impossible.

I hope that answers a question or two...or am I feeding the coffers of a multitude of further questions...? Either way, I'm cool with it.

I think you'll find that the people that THX is catering to are the hardest ones to please. THX has a very tough job, because the people that actually care about quality are the ones that will even notice or care whether something is THX-certified or not. Those that care about quality, by definition, are the ones who have higher standards of expectation than the general public and are harder to please and impress. Add to that the tendency for such people to be people with computer science, mathematics, or engineering backgrounds who are used to thinking in a very analytical fashion and you've got an even tougher job!

As for myself, my background is computer science and mathematics and so naturally, when something like THX comes along, I try to look at it in terms of "What measurable difference does THX certification make in what I see or hear when watching a movie in a THX-certified theatre or on my home system?" If most people interested in THX try to analyze it that way, then THX will have a tough time.

However, many people simply trust THX without knowing anything about it. If THX-certified CD jewel-boxes became available, some people would probably buy them and put their CDs in them, thinking they'd make their CDs sound better.

The general public seems to think that THX is a sound format. I know this because I hear "Is THX better than DTS?" way too often. Heck, a guy who helped wire the auditoriums at one THX-certified location was talking to me and he said that only Dolby Digital sound systems could be THX certified and that DTS ones could not. The funny thing is that 2 of the auditoriums he wired that were THX certifed had DTS sound! Even technicians don't always understand THX.

Go to Madison Square Mall and as people are entering Suncoast, ask them questions about THX and see what kinds of responses you get! Many swear that DVDs in the "THX format" sound much better than the others. If you ask them if THX DVDs sound better than ones with Dolby Digital sound, they'll usually always say "yes", since they think THX is another type of soundtrack, like DTS.

THX can definitely benefit from the general dumbness of the general public in this area. If the public thinks THX is a sound format that is superior to Dolby Digital or DTS, why change their thoughts? In this sense, George Lucas is a genius. Who else could create such an entity that so many people misunderstand and look up to so much, even if for the wrong reasons? Genius!

If people are making comments like "THX is better than DTS", either they are confused about what THX is, or... they are talking about the THX Softball Team... which yes, is much better than DTS.