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January 2, 2010

Anyone who watches TV can tell you: When the commercials come on, it feels like you're being blasted by volume. At some point, we've all reached for the mute button, because those ads are so much louder than the shows surrounding them.

But do TV commercials really have to be louder than the TV programs? That's what Congress is deciding right now.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah

My mom has a television that is supposed to equalize the volume, but some channels are just louder than others. I've also noticed that some movies are lower volume than even regular television shows. Even on my old set I've even noticed that, without changing the volume, the volume can be different from network to another when channel surfing. I'm on Dishnet satellite.

I wish that all broadcasts would be the same volume. And if this keeps them occupied and unable to move that Healthcare bill along, then I'm all for them getting into some piddly stuff like this.

As bad as the the goofballs in Congress are, I'd rather they concentrate on something like this where they can do minimum damage, than to have them focus anymore on a healthcare bill, or TARP, or gun control, or any number of other things where they could really screw things up.

Controlling television commercial volume is about the limit of their intellectual prowess.

The Annoyed Man wrote:As bad as the the goofballs in Congress are, I'd rather they concentrate on something like this where they can do minimum damage, than to have them focus anymore on a healthcare bill, or TARP, or gun control, or any number of other things where they could really screw things up.

Controlling television commercial volume is about the limit of their intellectual prowess.

I still say, "fire all of 'em" and let's start over!

Actually it used to be against FCC rules for commercials to be broadcast at a different level than the shows. I don't know what happened to that rule, but I assume it has more to do with the proliferation of cable tv and cable networks. A broadcast engineer was required to keep logs of the outgoing signal levels and complaints were looked on very seriously and logs reviewed as well as signal levels tested and recorded.

The volume of the signal, because the sound is essentially FM, depends on the amplitude of the signal. Of course in digital it's all zeros and ones, but the original signal gets digitized at whatever volume is set, and then the tv decodes it at that volume. A tv equipped with a limiter sets an automatic gain control and should not raise its volume above the preset, but if one channel is already louder or softer it won't adjust for that.

I used to be able to go into great detail on this, but that should cover the basics.

Since the FCC can't rule over cable, maybe it's time for our legislators to do something after all.

The Annoyed Man wrote:As bad as the the goofballs in Congress are, I'd rather they concentrate on something like this where they can do minimum damage, than to have them focus anymore on a healthcare bill, or TARP, or gun control, or any number of other things where they could really screw things up.

Controlling television commercial volume is about the limit of their intellectual prowess.

While I cant find anything in the Constitution authorizing them to deal with tv volume, it does keep them distracted and out of our wallet (and bedroom, and health care, and firearms, etc).

rm9792 wrote:While I cant find anything in the Constitution authorizing them to deal with tv volume, it does keep them distracted and out of our wallet (and bedroom, and health care, and firearms, etc).

It's interstate commerce.

jimlongley wrote:

rm9792 wrote:While I cant find anything in the Constitution authorizing them to deal with tv volume, it does keep them distracted and out of our wallet (and bedroom, and health care, and firearms, etc).

It's interstate commerce.

You would be surprised how much they are able to get away with by using that.
Its one of the reasons you cant bring a gun into school on a Federal level.
Its how the outlawed Marijuana on a Federal level
I could go on and on, but it just makes me sick

Never before have I seen the words "Congress" and "work" together in the same sentence.

Kythas wrote:Never before have I seen the words "Congress" and "work" together in the same sentence.

Congress has to work hard to get anything right.

...and there you go.

Commercials? What are those?

I think I'll go hug my TiVo.

Even on broadcast channels, even when there was strict enforcement of such things, commercials always had an "apparent volume" that was louder than the programming. That's because the peak volume was no louder, but the average volume was. Programming has more dynamic range (difference between loudest & quietest), while ads run at almost peak, all the time.

One those occasions when I do have to suffer through commercials, it's always when watching cable that I get blasted (we have satellite at home), and it's always locally injected commercials, not those coming from the broadcast station or cable channel.

chabouk wrote:Even on broadcast channels, even when there was strict enforcement of such things, commercials always had an "apparent volume" that was louder than the programming. That's because the peak volume was no louder, but the average volume was. Programming has more dynamic range (difference between loudest & quietest), while ads run at almost peak, all the time.

I was trying not to get into that technical stuff.

When I was the backup to the assistant substitute engineer at a little radio station many years ago, I had to log the madulation levels and such twice a day, as well as changing the antenna pattern at dawn and dusk. Of course it was an AM station so commercials were at the same volume and nothing to worry about. We still got an occasional pink slip from the Friendly Candy Company, but most of them were easily explained or corrected.