Commercials are still too loud, say “thousands” of recent FCC complaints
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I think the computer (or even tv) should have 2 volume controls. The normal volume and then also the maximum volume.
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If anyone thinks that the current regime will do anything to regulate businesses in favor of consumers, I have a new coin called "RugPill" available to purchase.
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Audio engineers playing tricks again. They started off with simple compression so ads appeared louder because they were at a constant volume (though still under the limit) while regular content had a wider dynamic range. Then they used multiband compression on certain frequencies so they could boost sound they wanted to get you to hear while being able to stay within limits.
FCC (if they do anything) needs to be far more specific than just “same average volume”.
Edited: forgot to add, compression is also abused in modern music. It’s why it may be something you find catchy or want to tap your foot to, but not something you’d listen on a quality audio system at home. It’s mixed to have an impact, not to sound good.
FCC (if they do anything) needs to be far more specific than just “same average volume”.
Edited: forgot to add, compression is also abused in modern music. It’s why it may be something you find catchy or want to tap your foot to, but not something you’d listen on a quality audio system at home. It’s mixed to have an impact, not to sound good.
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I've tailored my script blocky thing to cut out "commercials" from my Youtube experience. (It has a little dropper thingy to let me just click on elements to block them.) I specifically kept the stationary images on the sides intact. They're not annoying and easily ignored. (I also disabled some of the injected images that sometimes appear in the last moments of a video, because I'd seen enough annoying cases where those are covering up interesting outros). More than that, I want to send a clear messages. I'll tolerate ads just find when the ads are out of the way, don't make sound, and are easy to ignore. I haven't seen any mountain men screaming curse words at me about soap or misogynistic hero characters beating their wives in a good long while.
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Honestly, the increasing prevalence of Youtube ads is only my second biggest complaint about them. The wildly divergent and increasingly LOUD volume of ads is the worst part of the YT on TV experience.
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and such that the action scenes do not rattle the glasses in the kitchen because you turned up the volume to understand the dialog!
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I've also noticed sound effects designed to capture attention. Sounds like tapping a wine glass with a fork and high pitch beeping noises.
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If they didn’t run the dialog through the “speaking while fully immersed in mud” filter, it wouldn’t be a problem. :grrrr:
EDIT: Or the “why is ambient background noise dialed up to 11” filter.
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I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think the rules apply to streaming services....which is where I suspect the complaints are about.
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My step kid didn't want to use Brave, or ad blockers (ugh)... it was worth my sanity to get youtube premium family sub and not hear ads off of their chromebook ever again.
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I bought a $150 rack compressor like 15 years ago, as I could see no other solution.
When I see the issue has been rectified, I'll unhook it. At press date, I keep seeing articles like this every couple years.
When I see the issue has been rectified, I'll unhook it. At press date, I keep seeing articles like this every couple years.
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As I age my hearing is getting worse and it doesn't help that dialog is getting quieter as the ambient sound on shows is loud. As such I've been using subtitles for years now.
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It's so easy: aggravate me with your ad and you get my attention, but I'll never ever buy your stuff.
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We've been ad-free in our house (within margin of error) for almost 20 years. It's kind of amazing how much more mentally healthy you are when you aren't exposed to a constant stream of corporate propaganda.
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Many people assume the hearing difficulties associated with age are just about things getting quiet or muffled. You actually start declining in the ability to mentally tune out noise and distinguish it from what you want to hear. The advertisers wanting to be heard and the producers screaming, “but mah art!,” just make it unenjoyable.
At least we still get a mute button. If you’re lucky it’s a physical button on a remote rather than a screen you have to switch to.
At least we still get a mute button. If you’re lucky it’s a physical button on a remote rather than a screen you have to switch to.
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If you have to have the remote nearby to react to your TV volume every few minutes, something is broken. I would not mind ads on broadcast TV (mostly) if the dang volume wasn't so crazy. Even my "high end" TV struggles normalizing the volume, and then I have to disable that feature manually when playing a game, as normalized audio has a slight delay that I unfortunately noticed.
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Both actually.
They mix dialog for 'cinematic' fare low on purpose, so you (or the projectionist) has to crank it to be audible, ensuring subwoofers explode with sufficient force when employed (for some reason they're convinced you won't like the movie unless your neighbors complain)
Ads... are complicated (as in technical). There's a db cap, but they get around it by pushing the living shit out of the middle frequencies (among other things)
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PatCoughlin404
Smack-Fu Master, in training
Brightness is the new frontier here. I've started seeing ads on a full on white screen with only a small amount of black text shove in the middle of some dark program material. We need the visual equivalent of the audio rules to prevent this pain in the eyes.
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loudness wars never went away we just got worse at hearing it
it sucks because a beautifully mastered album is such a joy to listen to. Ear fatigue is real.
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This is definitely part of it, but I'm pretty sure non-compliance is up as well.
I seem to recall reading something a few years ago about how hard it was to actually enforce this because of how many commercials there are, multiplied by the different broadcast settings and compounded by the ephemeral nature of the medium, which makes it virtually impossible to catch someone red-handed.
And that's before getting to the streaming component which obviously should be held to the same rules but right now isn't.
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RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha
Ars Praetorian
Things get too much sweeter because food bakers normalize their tastebuds and increase the sweetness. Audio levels that increase, will only irritate or create deafness, tinnitus.
Thank goodness for Closed Captions!
Thank goodness for Closed Captions!
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When they are actually input from script to match the dialog and not automated and display what the bot 'heard'.
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Modern loudness metering tools already call out when the average loudness varies a lot in a piece of audio, or when the loudest segment is much higher than average, using industry standard metrics - see EBU R128, LUFS units.The standard also accounts for certain frequencies being perceptibly louder than others, so that trick is out. Music streaming services already use these tools to make sure you don't have to change the volume between songs on a playlist, ads notwithstanding.
As long as a competent audio engineer is in the room it should be very straightforward to make a law that says "don't go past these numbers", and for it to work.
As long as a competent audio engineer is in the room it should be very straightforward to make a law that says "don't go past these numbers", and for it to work.
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The real problem is that commercials are still tolerated by so many people. The only way to control advertising industry is with your wallet and by boycotting anything they touch.
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In the UK this tends not to be an issue on terrestrial TV (I think?), but I have noticed it on Prime. I don't really understand the practice though -- what do you think I'm going to do? Suffer through 2-5mins of annoyingly loud ads, or turn it down / mute it? Where is the benefit to advertisers if I've muted the TV?
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The other dirty trick is to reduce the programming volume so have to turn it up. Then the commercial comes on much louder. Comcast is the worst offender. Is easy to tell when a commercial is about to commence. I reach for the remote and put a finger on the mute button. Seems the current fcc will do nothing. Probably fired the complaint dept.
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