There ought to be a law
Congress looking to regulate the volume or TeeVee commercials.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
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October 16th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Congress can go back to more important matters than the volume of TV commercials. Nobody watches them anymore.
In this age of TIVO, DVR, and even old-fashioned remote controls, the moment a commercial starts blaring out (or preferably 0.01 seconds beforehand) the channel is changed to the other channels.
At least, that is how it is done in my world.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:32 am
My problem is that some stations have volume levels that are radically different than other stations. I might have to turn up the volume to 75% on one station to be able to hear the program, but when I switch over to another channel it blasts the hell out of me and I have to turn it down to 30%.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:49 am
This is an opportunity for a TV manufacturer to make automatic sound-level adjustments, matching one station to another, when the channel is changed. A technological fix that might sample actual volume from each station the first time each is accessed, and adjust volume setting appropriately every time that channel pops up thereafter. Continuous sampling and readjustment is also possible. Over time, popular channels would be adjusted to sound the same without the problem Robert describes.
Uncle and Robert may patent this idea with my name on it as co-author. I don’t think it is as valuable as intermittent windshield wipers, but who knows….
October 16th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Already been done numerous times. Google tv commercial volume control
oh yeah, lol commercials
October 16th, 2009 at 11:17 am
I’m sure there is some reason why technology incorporated in the iPod (Sound Check) cannot be scaled up to a big screeen TV. You know, something like lazy engineers or poor product design. Although on the conspiratorial side it could be an organized plot by television broadcasters to limit choice among their consumers.
October 16th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I actually did an high school science project on this. I guess it goes to show how long it takes congress to fix something that could be fixed by the free market. There was at one time a movement to “mark” the beginning of commercials with a tone or inaudible signal to the set.
October 16th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I don’t know the details of exactly how it works, but my MythTV (mythtv.org) box I built filters out 100% of commercials when I record a show. I don’t even have to fast forward through them.
MythTV is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Ipod Soundcheck normalizes the level of different songs, but that only makes them equally “loud” if they are similar in their spectral content and levels of compression — it makes the “peak level” of each song the same. Some hearing-aid makers who incorporate automatic-loudness compensation use the average (RMS) level as the target because they find that works well for making speech from different people equally loud. Since speech has a much different crest factor (difference between peak and average levels) from the music and sound effects content of many programs, it is actually quite difficult to do this effectively for television programs. I have no confidence that any legislation would choose a useful or effective metric for loudness.
October 16th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Avanti!
The nattering nabobery of nanny statism marches on.
October 17th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Just for reference, “Outer Limits” intro:
“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits.”
October 17th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
The government should leave this alone. My tv has a switch and several other controls on it, that put what I watch or not totally at my command. I don’t need their protection, nor do I want their interference in the free marketplace. That would just be another entre’ into areas of our lives where they have no legitimate power to exercise control.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:46 am
“I’m sure there is some reason why technology incorporated in the iPod (Sound Check) cannot be scaled up to a big screeen TV. ”
Well, iTunes looks at the volume of the entire song as it loads it into the library, and stores a volume correction value. TV is live. Unless you have a TV that can see into the future, it’s not likely to be able to normalize the entire show without some odd effects on what you’re watching.
Now with recorded shows, it’s easy enough to just skip past the commercials in the first place.