Sound Level of Commercial Adverts on TV

Good news may be on the horizon, but it'll be two years from now. Hey, look at the bright side, at least there is a huge array of quality television to choose from.

As far as the mother in law goes, take the tea, by the third trip she'll be thinking your nothing but a whiney, spoiled, self absorbed a$$hole. You won't hear from her again.

http://blogs.app.com/cultureklatch/2010/09/30/senate-votes-to-turn-down-volume-on-tv-commercials/

Well,

Thanks for that. My bet is on the politicians being bought off before the law takes affect. In another two years I'll probably be totally deaf and it won't matter.

As for the mother-in-law, she can't remember 5 minutes ago, so I'd be swimming in tea. Poor dear never knows what time of day it is, never mind what day.

You found desirable content on TV? I'm impressed!

(There's also a button on the remote called mute. Try it, you'll like it.)

I know how miniature dishes, Bobby hats and whistles, automatic transmissions, coins, whiskey, beer, bugles, hot air balloons, car tires, cargo ships, airplane wings, train rails and just about every thing else on the planet is made.

I know I could mute, but it's the principal of the thing.

Thanks.

I have to admit I like that show too.

My solution is bittorrent. No commercials, HD, watch it when you want, the show is usually available within hours of broadcasting and with a broadband connection a popular show only takes 10 mins or so to download. Hulu desktop is also good. There are commercials but they're fewer and shorter and you know when they're going to end. You'll need a fast processor and fast connection for HD stuff.

You know why commercials are louder? They want you to hear them even when you're in the bathroom or kitchen so it sucks particularly bad to be immobile. Hope you get back on yer feet soon.

There are some manufacturers offering such a thing. I believe the LynDoor^® catalog should not offer them... we NEED people to hear our important commercial messages!

GOOGLE the phrase "TV volume regulator" for many different types. All I am familiar with have a larger performance platform: to level out volume. They will slightly amplify whispers as well as suppress the louder commercial advertisements.

That there sounds like a compressor.

Can't help you out but I fully empathize with you.

I punish the loud commercials by hitting the mute button, so instead of getting the message from the advertiser I get nothing. If they had a normal volume I would not have to mute them.

The same problem occurs in the UK, Commercials are much louder than programmes

Sorry to hear you been laid up mate, hope all is going well.

As far as commercial volume level, I have to concur with the others here, mute button.

I had heard in the not too distant past that Sony and/or Panasonic were coming out with a "smart volume" option on some new models. Claims were 99% effective. Don't know if they did yet.

The worst is when your comfy on the couch, passing time kind of half watching and half dozing, you can be guaranteed to be jolted out of your cat nap _{^{(no pun intended Del)}} about every 12 minutes or so.

Thanks for the thought. It's back to work Monday, part time for awhile.

Cheers.

The volume actually does not increase.It is the modulation that increases.This makes it seem louder to the human ear.There was a device back in the seventies that actually detected this excessive modulation and muted the sound for you.It was very effective, and worked perfectly.However, it never sold very well because no one would give any financial backing to such a device.

I built one from a Heathkit back then, but don't know what happened to it.

I do not know if the same technique would work with the new digital signals or not. It probably would, because the station has no control over the volume output of your set,only the modulation of the signal.Just have to figure out where to hack into the signal on the new sets.

A possible solution might be to actually monitor the audio output modulation,and mute it above a certain level.Audio is still analog to the ear, after all, and still responds the same way to modulation, regardless of the way it was encoded or decoded.

HTRN

Ah, Jeez. Modulation...smodulation. I don't give a flippin frick what you call it. It irritates me, just like your correction of my terminology. It's my thread after all, and I say the volume gets louder.

_{If you don't like it, get your own damn thread.}

Ok, let me explain.I was not contradicting what you hear,but there is a big difference in volume and modulation.If you put an audio meter beside the tv, it will not indicate an increase in volume during a commercial,however, it will sound louder to you.This is not an illusion, it is a fact of nature.Modulation can be distinguished from volume electronically, and this difference can be used to tell when a commercial is on, and mute the sound during this period only, and restore normal sound when it is over, and modulation returns to normal..I was merely offering a suggestion on how to accomplish what you asked for.I am sorry you have been laid up, and hope you get better soon.

I was not trying to usurp your thread.Here, have a beer on me.

Hey,

Thanks for the beer.

It's that semantics thing, I fear. You're going to force me to set up my analyzer and prove you are right, huh?

OK, now that my curiosity is piqued, I'll bring it home next week and have a look.

Cheers.

The bad news: I borrowed this from a review of the "Terk VR1 Automatic TV Volume Controller" on Amazon:

"That having been said, however, keep something else in mind ... the psychological aspects of sound. A lot of the audio we hear today on the air waves is compressed audio, meaning that there is less dynamic range and more sound power within the audio "package". The result is that processed audio (audio that's been compressed) sounds much louder than audio that has its normal dynamic range. That's why some commercials sound louder than the program material that they're inserted into, and why some musical segways between the program and the commercials sound so loud. In other words, it's not just the peaks of the audio that make for a loud sounding audio material, it's also how much the audio has been processed during its production. The VR-1 (or any other volume regulator) can do very little to uncompress intentional efforts to pack more audio power into a sound channel. That would be asking a lot"

Terk VR1 Automatic TV Volume Controller

DVR - FF thru commercial breaks

Sorry to hear you're laid up, bugger!

I've worked at TV stations, the sound levels are compressed so that the average level is higher and definitely sounds louder but according to the rules, maximum overall levels must remain within specified maximum or over modulation will result with the accompanying distortion and interference. If you were watching a VU meter, it will not exceed a maximum level but you will notice that the meter will indicate a higher overall level as the meter does not drop as low as it does during normal (now there's an oxymoron) programming.

I agree, it is very annoying, if marketing was paying attention to how much they are annoying the public with their LOUD junk, they might back off a bit, you would think that they would figure out that they might be losing sales by annoying the potential buyer instead of attracting them! Then again, most marketing don't have too high an IQ to work with in the first place.

Sad to say,marketing does not work that way.

They think: Bad memories of an advertisement are better than no memories.Remember the "ring around the collar" commercials? Very irritating, but you still remember them.

Adrenaline is a memory enhancer.Remember the last time you got mad?

Sure you do.

And basic training keeps you pissed off so you don't forget.

Lessons that stay with you all of your life.

As for modulation, if anyone still uses a CB radio, they are very familiar with modulation.A well modulated signal will be "heard" at a longer range at the same output power level.The modulation is the difference between the highest and lowest part of the signal (the carrier wave, or envelope is constant).The "contrast" for want of a better word, is perceived as an increase in volume by the ear.

Regardless of the technical aspects, it is very irritating and a device could be made to stop it.Problem is, how would you advertise it?

Broadcasters do not want anyone killing the golden goose.

I use time shifting via DVR, and simply fast forward thru the bull.

I'm with you man

Regards

It is not the sound noise but also optical noise which is injurios to eyesight.
Flashings of high light levels at a tremendous levels which is also disturbing.

Long long ago I learnt that black-out of screen & muting of sound is in modern countries TV sets on commercials and no commercials on licensed channels.
But I think it was not a true information.