Loud commercials are getting louder.

[vaylon]

Has anyone else noticed that those loud commercials that come on occasionally are getting really nasty loud.

My brother just used his sound meter to measure the system and it jumps 25 decibels when those annoying commercials come on.

 

[Bobby]

I have a wonderful 'mute' button on my remote. For the few programs that I watch live, it works really well.....

 

[JohnC]

The loudest commercials appear to be the ones inserted by Dish Network or the local channels. Commercials that are part the national broadcasts are not as loud in general.

 

[navychop]

There's other threads on this. And a purported fix from Dish. Bah! I have a DVR with a 30 second skip ahead button.

 

[KAB]

The loudest commercials appear to be the ones inserted by Dish Network or the local channels. Commercials that are part the national broadcasts are not as loud in general.

Out local newscasts (OTA) crank up local commercials. Nothing new!!!! And on cable shows...the commercials are all over the spectrum.

 

[REB]

I have a wonderful 'mute' button on my remote. For the few programs that I watch live, it works really well.....

But you shouldn't have to use the mute button. Lower the volume please!!!!

 

[grb]

But you shouldn't have to use the mute button. Lower the volume please!!!!

Right on!

I have found the worst ones are those that occur during a dolby digital broadcast and the commercials are in pro logic...

 

[3HaloODST]

Thank goodness my 722k's have volume leveling. It makes quite a difference, however some commercials must be so incredibly loud that they even get past the volume leveling a little, but instead of being ear-bleeding loud they're just slightly louder for me.

 

[Ron Nielson]

Thank goodness my 722k's have volume leveling. It makes quite a difference, however some commercials must be so incredibly loud that they even get past the volume leveling a little, but instead of being ear-bleeding loud they're just slightly louder for me.

How and where do you set this option? I don't see it in my menu.

Ron

 

[Straybeat]

Menu - 6 - 7 for audio leveling.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I noticed the Audio leveling option (I think it is Audio Output, but do not quote me on that.) on our 222ks today.

 

[goaliebob99]

This was one of the one of the things I hated... The volume was too high and if you turned it down during commercials to match a comfortable level, once your program came back on the volume was so low you coulnt hear the program.

 

[cwk3]

Hey Bob, it's not just Dish inserted stuff. My local news has commercials so loud that when you react by lowering the volume at the beginning of commercial, you cannot hear the news when it returns from the break. I've emailed every tv station in my market and they all say they have no control as it a electronic thing with the commercials that overrides their system. I replied that I call BS on that and that if that's so, the advertiser are running your station and not you. I think that the loud commercials are offensive, manipulating, an insult to the viewers intelligence and should be against the law. My stand is if the sponsors can pay to have an ad on a certain station and control the volume and override the stations system, then what would keep them from putting unethical or even vulgar material on the air and override the system, Who would answer to the FCC? I think it's all a bunch of BS on the TV stations and FCC that it can't be stopped. It ain't getting better and will continue to get worse in my opinion.
Thanks for listening.

 

[goaliebob99]

Yea my market, Chicago they do have control over that, so the only time I saw it was on dish insurted stuff.. I'm in the 3rd largest dma so it would make sence that we have some sort of Auto leveler or equlizer at the station level, versus some of the smaller stations that can bairly afford to be on air. I hear ya about it though!

 

[STL]

Thank goodness my 722k's have volume leveling. It makes quite a difference, however some commercials must be so incredibly loud that they even get past the volume leveling a little, but instead of being ear-bleeding loud they're just slightly louder for me.

But that also affects more than just commercials. For instance, when watching a movie or TV program the audio will be dynamically compressed adversely affecting explosions and other sounds as well.

 

[lavarock]

There is down sides to volume leveling such as bomb blasts etc. I have also noticed when watching some older films such as Gunsmoke that during a scene that is quiet you can hear the volume level go up to the point you hear noise from the old sound tracks. Then when someone does talk it is loud for a couple milliseconds.

I would prefer they fix the loud commercials. I do mute them and have noticed they have more graphics with messages like you would use for the deaf. So they know what they are doing and compensate for those of us that mute by providing visual information about the commercial.

 

[whatchel1]

Sound leveler stinks sure glad my Yamaha 7.1 has real dynamic range adjustment.

 

[bacchus101]

I have a wonderful 'mute' button on my remote. For the few programs that I watch live, it works really well.....

So what do you do, velcro the remote to your chest or something? The most annoying part about the "sound torture" provided by the loud commercials for me is when I get up for a drink or to use the bathroom and the TV starts blaring in the background.

Thank goodness my 722k's have volume leveling.

Here is how I would liken volume leveling...

Say you have a perfectly good good stretch of interstate, 30 miles long.

Then along comes outdoor advertising agencies and they place billboards up every 4 or 5 miles. Many of the advertising agencies pay the DOT for the right to add giant speed bumps in the middle of the highway to slow people down so they will notice the billboards.

Some people complain about the speed bumps. Others say you should just zip around them on the shoulder.

Finally the DOT says there is a fix - everyone needs an air suspension system.

 

[TheForce]

We addressed this in the other thread- The loud sound comes from two root causes, most of the complaints has to do with a practice of permitting the Dolby encoder to auto switch from DD51., the default encoding to DD2.0 triggered by the source of the program meta data when commercials are inserted that are only DD2.0. DD2.0 will normally be 6-9 db louder than the sum of DD5.1 channels in the output so your audio will jump 2-3 times in volume when the meta switches to DD2.0. The solution to this is quite simple but getting the engineers to reprogram the encoders is a task in and of itself. The solution is to change the auto switch to always on DD5.1 and this way if your receiver is DD5.1 capable, all your spots will come through in DD5.1 meta and the DD2.0 ones will also but just have no sound output on the surround and center channels. Sound only in the front left and right. The advantage is that the volume will be the same as the program on the channel.

The second and more minor issue with loud commercials is the practice of compressing the audio with peak limiting. This is an old practice and once this audio processing is added to the sound track it can't be removed. The software in the Dish DVR's that you can enable allows you to add peak limiting to all the audio on the receiver. It will destroy the dynamic range of your receiver, does absolutely nothing to improve the meta data switch volume jump caused by the auto switch in the encoder and it will add distortion to already compressed commercials. In effect, it is worthless to resolving the primary issue of loud commercials.

 

[acker1]

It is even worse since I got my hearing aids. When the loud commercials sneak up on me, it is so loud that it hurts my ears.

DICK