[Mike Bertelson]

We've noticed lately that the commercials are too darn loud.

You set the volume to hear the dialog of the show your watching and when the commercials come on they just about rattle the windows.

I'm not kidding either...sometimes they are so loud we literaly have to shout to be heard. :eek2:

Now we just upgraded our AV receiver and now have 5.1 out of our DVRs so I'm wondering if that effects our preception. :scratchin

It also seems that our locals need to the volume turned up to watch them. When we go back to live TV from a recording (LiL source) and the receiver is on like the "History Learning Travel Science Channel" even the volume on the shows is too loud.

Is it me or is there a HUGE difference in gain between shows and commercials....more than there used to be??

Who controls this. DirecTV or the broadcaster?

Mike

 

[LameLefty]

I don't know who controls it but it is indeed annoying! We have to hit "Mute" for just about every commercial break these days.

 

[PCampbell]

Commercials have long been recored at a higher volume level, no the broadcaster does not change it.

 

[kw2957]

There was actually a study released recently that there is little to no volume difference between TV shows and commercials, whether commercials seem to be really loud or not. It just appears that way because TV shows do not necessarily project their audio to the fullest extent. I really don't believe it; I think this indecency lies within the commercial makers themselves. They want to over-promote their product so much that they are willing to deafen the potential customers.

 

[Tom Robertson]

Eh? What are you sayin', can't hear you over the @#$(*) commercials.

I've heard other explanations that suggest commercials are simple stereo and the shows are more often dolby 5.1 or other high end encoding, which allows the shows to be more dynamic. (And commercials are just loud, no need for dynamic.)

Thing is, as more commercials annoy us, we'll even more aggressively avoid them--not quite what the advertisers really want. Technology is our friend.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[JeffBowser]

I have read that the FCC (or whatever body regulates this) established an average dB cap, so traditional shows will hit it with a great dynamic range, where commercials will peg to the average, thus coming across as quite loud.

Here we go - some reasonable explanation: http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2007/01/bless-you-dolby-technology-lim.html

 

[Newshawk]

Actually, the perceived loudness of commercials versus the surrounding programming is due to audio processing. While a movie wants to utilize the maximum dynamic range of the audio signal for dramatic effect, the advertisers want you to hear their message clearly so they employ audio processing methods to make the sound stand out. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_processing

 

[gregjones]

And one brilliant member of congress is pushing for legislation to legally limit commercials to be no louder (on average during its length) than the program during which it is shown. I don't think she quite gets that commercials are shown during any number of different programs, all of which could have different average volumes. The best cure for commercials is 30-second skip.

 

[Thaedron]

I would agree that I think the differential has increased over recent months. I can buy the arguement that the differential is caused not by commercials getting louder, but by content using more advanced audio capabilities thus lowering their "average sound level" and making the commercials seem louder.

Either way, the more commercials are annoying, the less attention paid to them.

 

[LOCODUDE]

And one brilliant member of congress is pushing for legislation to legally limit commercials to be no louder (on average during its length) than the program during which it is shown. I don't think she quite gets that commercials are shown during any number of different programs, all of which could have different average volumes. The best cure for commercials is 30-second skip.

Indeed.................

 

[Mike Bertelson]

It's not that they are just louder. Near as I can remember it's always been that way.

They're so loud that with house is closed and a window air conditioner running, I could hear when my daughter went to live TV from a Wii game she was playing.

Louder I can handle but when you can hear the commercials outside the house with the windows closed and AC on....That's just too much.

Although, it is pretty funny to see one of the cats jump when we go to commercial...:lol:

Mike

 

[hdtvfan0001]

It's not that they are just louder. Near as I can remember it's always been that way.

They're so loud that with house is closed and a window air conditioner running, I could hear when my daughter went to live TV from a Wii game she was playing.

Louder I can handle but when you can hear the commercials outside the house with the windows closed and AC on....That's just too much.

Although, it is pretty funny to see one of the cats jump when we go to commercial...:lol:

Mike

...and it seems to be on the increase in recent months...

 

[since 2/96]

And one brilliant member of congress is pushing for legislation to legally limit commercials to be no louder (on average during its length) than the program during which it is shown. I don't think she quite gets that commercials are shown during any number of different programs, all of which could have different average volumes. The best cure for commercials is 30-second skip.

if it only worked with live tv! :grin:

 

[Mike Bertelson]

...and it seems to be on the increase in recent months...

That's the way it seems to us. It certainly seem MUCH louder....

 

[hdtvfan0001]

That's the way it seems to us. It certainly seem MUCH louder....

Agreed...my wife commented on that just yesterday.

I recall reading somewhere that part of the reason for this is that commenrical production is not required to meet the same standards (technically) as other video content....so you get stuff all over the map in terms of video and audio, unless they intentionally choose to conform to standards.

 

[celticpride]

what also irritates me about this problem is a lot if not all the televisions you buy nowadays have some sort of perfect volume thats supposed to prevent this from happening ,but i've never seen one that works.

 

[Mike Bertelson]

what also irritates me about this problem is a lot if not all the televisions you buy nowadays have some sort of perfect volume thats supposed to prevent this from happening ,but i've never seen one that works.

Our old 27" Panasonic had "intelligent" audio that would prevent the commercials from being too loud.

It wasn't perfect but it worked well enough so that it was easy to able to tell if it had been shut off.

Mike

 

[hdtvfan0001]

Our old 27" Panasonic had "intelligent" audio that would prevent the commercials from being too loud.

Mike

Alot of the A/V receivers have that feature too....

 

[Steve Robertson]

Here is a thread on AVS http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1051437

 

[mortimer]

And here's an explanation straight from the Sci-Fi channel:

http://www.scifi.com/help/channelfaq/

Why are commercials so LOUD?

Compression. Advertisers use compression so that everything in a commercial is about at the same (loud) audio level, close to the maximum allowable levels. This way, you can still hear their pitch even if you get up to go the kitchen or bathroom. SCI FI does not turn up the volume on these commercials - they're just recorded and mixed that way. Most of our shows, however, are not in an audio-compressed format so they generally have a wider dynamic range than the ads. Since we can't go back and add compression to our shows, the ads tend to sound a lot louder than the programming.