HD TV

Probably because the advertisers are paying for the commercials, but you are not paying for the movies.

haha nice one.

Commercials are fun and the movies you look must be dark!

I guess you should watch kids movies, cartoons with more colours instead of doom and gloom.

Ha!

Maybe commercials are not real while movies are?

Ho!

Filmed in a studio the light is more artificial while movies are meant to be more realistic in the light source

He!

Its because Batman did go to the dark side while the milk chocolate is trying to become white! Get nuts!

Well, if you HD movies are dark, adjust the settings..... TV's that are in the show rooms have the TV's brightness adjusted very high to combat against the show rooms bright Florescent lights.

A few things similar.....

1.) I had purchase an Magnavox back in the late 80's that had automatic sound control when the commercial came on.... At the time the commercials were so much louder then the shows, you you always had to turn down the volume when they cam e on and then turn up the volumes when the show returned.

The advertisers said that the volume never increased but it did.

I enjoyed that TV

2.) I've also read, as you age, one can't really tell the difference between HD or SD TV..... unless there is a split screen, I don't believe I could.

How 'old' is old? I'm in my early 60s and I can easily tell the difference between HD and SD. I have the option of watching movies via Amazon Prime in either HD or SD and there is a very noticeable drop off in sharpness of the image for SD.

The same is true when I watch broadcast TV. I have an antenna that allows me to watch a number of local TV stations which broadcast signals in HD on their 'main' channel (X.1) and in standard definition on their secondary channels (X.2, X.3). Again, their is a very noticeable drop off in resolution for the SD channels.

I haven't noticed what the OP has described as a brightness difference between HD movies and commercials. Perhaps there is a setting on his TV that needs to be adjusted. Or perhaps the stations he's watching use video gamma correction in their commercial feed to keep the commercials bright.

I guess I should say genetics..... instead of age.

I just got new glasses this past week, which was way over due..., and I noticed the color enhancement is quite a change..... I think its due do the clarity.

I have a Samsung Smart TV, and a Vudu account where I purchase movies..... and as I stated early, I don't think I could tell the difference unless it was a split screen where 1/2 the screen was HD and the other half was SD.

And on the Vudu account you also given the option of purchasing/renting movies in HDX, which I believe is better....

I was told at a very young age what not to do or else I would go blind.

Do you suppose the root-cause of eye sight clarity with onset aging is directly related to not avoiding said behavior?

Or is it just due to Jeanitics? (Pun intended.)

As a child,.....you were only told that because you always embarrassed your mother as you were waiting in the waiting room at the dentist and such.

It was always a hobby of yours..... when you had nothing to do and your hands were free.

LOL!

I thought growing up that "scratchin", "chewin", and "spittin" was a required, and very big part of baseball since every time I watched a game there lots of the collegiates and pros doing it.

After my first little league baseball game my mom made it a point that not only did it not matter what the pros did but if I knew what was good for me, I would not ever do that again in public.

I was a quick learner and never did it again in public where I could be seen.

My little league coach chewed tobacco, and when we were up to bat, he coached third base....

I was able to get on third base,...... I had black licorice, when the coach spit,..... so did I..... he laughed so hard he swallowed his chew....

I told my parents when I got home,.... they thought it was in bad taste,..... but they shouldn't be laughing about it while telling me this......pretty funny....

And the next little league practice..... while everyone practice,.... he made me run laps.

The good old days. I really miss the simplicity, common sense, and neighborly attitudes we had.

I also remember in televised football the rule was "Do not touch yourself down there no matter what or there will be consequences."

The first game one of the linebackers on our team got whacked and everybody made a tight circle around him so the cameras could not reveal what was happening.

It worked well until one of our defensive backs took a shot to the gonads and was rolling around on the ground in the open field screaming with both hands holding his head.

The trainer not realizing why the back was holding his head and screaming tried to hold and massage his head.

That's when the fireworks started between the trainer and the player.

After that incident the trainer constantly received severe teasing about not knowing one end from the other of a football player.

I tend to agree with you, and wonder whether the word "brightness" is perhaps out of context?, Perhaps "intensity" is a better description? Maybe HD = HEAVY DARK ? yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah..I'm on my way now..

"The advertisers said that the volume never increased but it did."

Technically, they were right, the Peak volume of the commercial was not louder than the Peak volume of the show. However, the show was using the full dynamic range of volume (from 0% 'dead quiet' to 100% 'loud noise') to tell the story, with the majority of the sound around the 40-60% range. The commercials used 'dynamic range compression' to adjust their audio so everything is in the 90-95% range. So they could claim that they were following the rules, ("The loudest part of the commercial SHALL NOT be louder than the loudest part of the show.") However, the Time Weighted Average of the sound would show the commercials were consistently louder than the shows under human perception. The 'loophole abuse' is that the TWA wasn't the metric mentioned in the rule, just Peak Level. Commercials also like to use people who are good at constant shouting, such as Gilbert Godfreid, or Terry Crews, while most shows use people who TALK instead of shouting.

^{I RECALL THE DEBATE AT THE TIME}...... how's that for a commercial volume

Here's my two cents:

I worked in the Motion Picture industry for quite a few years doing Special Effects and mechanical fabrication. There are a few things that the broadcasters won't tell the laymen!

• Q - Are the commercials louder?
• A - YES - Why? Because they want you to hear the sound when you're getting up to grab another beer!
• Q - Are commercials brighter?
• A - YES - Why? because it makes the product look better and more appealing!
• Q - Why are HD movies darker?
• A - What movie are you watching? Mood lighting?

The list can go on and on and on!

TV advertisers want your eyes and ears on their product.

Do you think that they will pay on average $200,000 for a basic commercial with 1 or 2 actors and then pay residuals to them too and not want a return on their investment?

You bet they do!

I did a quick test with my real time analyzer the other night (nothing formal or documented) and saw from 10-15 dB increase in sound during commercials.

Lyn,

Thank you.

I didn't have anything to test my statement on the sound levels.

I'm sure that if you had a light meter you may see a change in the brightness too!

I canceled noise and vibrations electronically.

Never messed around with light.

This is what a typical noise spectrum looks like on a simple hand held analyzer.

Lyn #15

With age,my hearing has got worse in the speech range, and even with modern digital hearing aids, I need sub-titles on all the time. There is a side effect to speech deafness, and that is I am very much aware of extraneous natural noise, and especially 'added' sound-track noise that makes speech hard to hear (they call it background music - but it is really noise)(and particularly annoying when people are speaking - and louder when they are not speaking).

The point I want to make, and your test proves it, I am aware that the volume of commercials are louder than the associated programmes.

However, despite denials, and with 'laws' (in the UK at least) supposedly limiting max volume, the programme producers arrange for the transmitted volume of the programmes themselves to be reduced just prior to the ads coming on.

The effect is the same. But this doesn't bother me - it is easy to avoid by fast-forwarding the ads - and in bad cases during programmes - to use the mute button.

For those not affected by speech deafness then subtitles can be annoying. Although back to the OP and the 'darkness' issue - the dark scenes, which seem to be used as a filming technique too much these days - at least the subtitles become clearer.

As an aside issue, I sometimes wonder why subtitles don't increase in size when the volume is turned up.....

Sounds like Tinnitus. My dad had it, and for him to sleep, he had to have the radio on to drown it out.

Thanks, but it is not tinitus in my case. The sounds I hear are from known sources and they can be switched off. It must have been awful for your father.

Yes, at first the whole family suffered, but he found out on his own that actual sounds, like the radio drowns out the hum of tinnitus. Years later, it's reported that's what you have to do.

By the way, he got tinnitus back in the late 60's,.... I believe. And at 90 years old, he managed it pretty well.

I have tinnitus, too. It's constant, but I seem to have become accustomed to it, other than it is something that interferes with my understanding other peoples' speech. I hope it doesn't become louder or worse. I'm glad your dad found something that provided at least some help.

If anyone wants to have an idea of what tinnitus can sound like, here are some examples: Synthesized Auditory Examples

Mine is like Example 9, present 24/7/365.

Thanks for the experience,.... There all horrible but 11 is the worse

If #9 is really yours, that 5.5 kHz.

Mine is at 8.5kHz.

Here's an interesting sound generator program to experiment with.

Online Tone Generator - Free, Simple and Easy to Use.

I had to take that link home to try it out on Chrome. That is one fascinating site. I think I hear something a little higher, but it's in that ballpark. I'm not sure it is always exactly the same, but it doesn't vary much.

Something else I downloaded for my Android phone is the Spectrum Analyze app.

I haven't calibrated it against my "real" analyzer, but it looks close enough when monitoring the volume of my TV.

I worked in noise cancellation for 8 years starting in 1990. We had all the lab quality toys then, and even a product or two.

I've noticed that also. When the actors are in a sceen where the whisper, the background music (noice) goes way up. Thes you don't you miss what they said.

Getting old is not for sissies.

I wear hearing aids as well. I find that sometimes the loudness (of the commercials only) is so annoying that I have to either leave the room or adjust the volume of my aids downward until the annoyance is past.

I use the closed captioning feature a lot of the time, for one the background music drowns out the dialogue sometimes, and sometimes the dialogue is not mixed clearly or too low and I can't understand what was said other than a mumble, and the closed captioning ignores the commercials....plus it keeps your reading speed at high rate....unfortunately a lot of times the closed captioning can't keep up with the dialogue either....(sic) In this case I crank up the sound so not only I can hear it, but the neighbors as well....hey I hear their dog barking sometimes.. dammit....Sometimes you just have to watch the program a few times to get the missing dialogue, fortunately this is not a problem because almost every show is shown again and again and again, ad infinitum...

We record most of our TV programmes. Fast forward to skip the ads.Or use the mute button.

I have just replaced a Humax remote control because the mute button wore out.

PS: The OP must be wondering what has happened to the HD darkness issue.

I've lost acuity at the high frequencies and wear hearing aids, too. I've also noticed how many times the "background" music is louder than the spoken dialog. And I have noticed how often vocalists are overwhelmed by backing instruments in today's popular music. For quite a while I thought this was an artifact of may hearing loss coupled with my hearing aids.

But, I was watching an old movie on a classics channel, and I noticed I had no trouble hearing the dialog over the background music. I noticed this on several old movies and TV shows. I then pulled out some old albums and CDs and played them and realized I could hear the vocalists. In direct side-by-side comparisons of old and new movies and music, I can hear that the sound is mixed differently. So it isn't all related to your hearing. There is a component of change of expectations in the modern producer and consumer regarding what sounds proper. Background music today does overpower the foreground dialog, and I believe that is intentional.

As a further example of what is thought of as a proper sound, the transition "smear" or "Cher effect" between notes sometimes heard in songs that have been Auto-Tuned. I was watching a PBS show about singers and one record producer said he has young people auditioning for him and producing this sound as part of their singing voice. It's what they've heard all their lives and they believe it is expected.

It seems like some enterprising inventor could market a device with a microphone and IR LED to send a volume down signal to the TV when they turn up the volume for the commercials.

Actually, after writing this, I did some searching and someone has...

http://mods-n-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/arduino-loudness-guard-caps-your-tvs-volume-banish-annoyingly-loud-commercials-0142515/

It's the filters...

..."

Contrast Control Filters

Although the best of the latest generation of professional video cameras are capable of capturing contrast or brightness ranges up to 700:1, most home television sets and viewing conditions limit that range to about 30:1.

This means the brightest element in a scene can't be more than 30 times brighter than the darkest element -- with any hope of seeing the detail in each. (Digital/HDTV receivers do considerably better, but until everyone has a digital set, we must play it safe.)

"Real world scenes" often contain collections of elements that exceed the 30:1 brightness range.

Although in the studio we might be able to control this with lighting, things become a bit more challenging outside.

For critical exterior scenes the videographer must often consider ways to reduce the brightness range. One way is with a contrast control filter."...

http://cybercollege.com/tvp013-2.htm

I think that must be for amateur and semi-pro videographers, not professional, commercial television or movie studios.

The ability of a TV set to handle the range of gray shades is set by the background (black) offset and by Gamma. Gamma is the 'brightness' a display element generates as a function of the voltage to the display element (pixel in a CRT or LCD, etc). How a TV reproduces a variety of gray levels is set in the factory, though the home owner is usually given some limited ability to adjust brightness (and contrast, which is gain), and gamma. Brightness and Gamma can be set to made dark scenes lighter (expand the available gray levels) though typically with a loss of contrast in the bright scenes. And vice-versa.

In a dark room a CRT is capable of producing thousands of gray shades - actually more than LCDs, although the most recent LCD screens are nearly equivalent. The advantage of LCDs occurs in rooms with mid-level lighting as most homes have. The diffuse glare off of a CRT severely reduces useable contrast when room lighting is present. The diffuse glare from modern LCDs is far, far less than from CRTs.

Filters are used extensively in modern videography...

http://www.tiffen.com/camera_filters.htm

The director who oversaw the movie wanted it to look "correct" on any device that was set for the NTSC (Never The Same Color) standard. This makes most movies to dark for many peoples liking, ambient light is the main problem.

Commercials are directed by salesmen who know the human brain is wired to pay attention to fast moving bright things. Simple test, show expensive jewelry to any woman and see for yourself. So the bright, audio compressed commercials are all part of the daily fight for our limited attention.

I heard that.