Topic coppied from what I posted over at Warp Pipe
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While trying to watch... "Alien Siege" on the Sci-fi channel, I had to turn up the volume a bit more than normal, so my Dad could hear the people in the movie whiser, no problem, right?
Fade out... BOOM, a commercial blasts in with the ear splitting voice of a woman advertising "D-Way". Hit mute on the remote, the room goes silent. Un-mute as soon as the commerical is done, a few more commercials pass by, BOOM another commercial just as loud, except advertising direct TV itself.
Wasn't there a law against increasing the volume of commercials? I thought so... did a bit of research... came up with this on the FCC sight.
Ugh... so that means, no rest for my ears and the dieing battery in my remote?Background
Whether or not something is “too loud” is a judgment that varies with each listener. The decision is influenced by many factors like content and style, the speaker’s voice and tone, background sounds, and music. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not regulate the volume of programs or commercials. FCC rules limit the amount of power that a station can transmit and the peak level of the program material. Within the limitations imposed by FCC rules, however, there is considerable latitude for broadcasters and program producers to vary the “loudness” of the program material.
What is wrong here? Pay for TV, sit through ads.... not that big of a deal. Pay for TV, sit through defeaning ads which can distrub my concentration (not easy to do I might add)
I'm just venting a bit... this situation was bad before, then it seemed to lighten up, but now its back and worse than ever... and what does the FCC have to say about this?
Buy expensive equiptment to alleviate the pain...Equipment That Helps
Equipment is available that can be used to minimize the effects of “loud” commercials. More television receivers are now equipped with circuits which are designed to stabilize loudness differences between various audio program and commercial content. These functions usually need to be “enabled” or turned on through the television receiver’s “Set up/Audio” menu. The “Mute” button on TV remote controls is also useful to “blank” excessively loud audio. Manually controlling volume levels with the remote control remains the simplest approach to reducing excessive volume levels. In “high-end” applications, such as home theater systems, some automatic devices may also help. They include:
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Automatic Gain Control (AGC) Circuits are available in professional and some “top-of-the-line” consumer audio equipment. If the audio level is low, an AGC circuit will raise it; if the level is too high, the AGC circuit will bring it down.
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Audio Compressors are used to pull down loud sounds. Compressors can be adjusted so that many of the negative effects of loudness processing go unnoticed.
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Limiters and Peak Limiters can be used to keep the audio level from exceeding a set level. Peak limiters are the simplest, least intrusive of all the automatic level control devices, but can introduce considerable distortion.
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Audio Expanders are used to increase the range of sound. An expander can restore sound to its normal range and also reduce noticeable background noise.
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Audio Filters can be used to “screen out” specific audio frequencies.
>.<
There has to be something better...
If you are bothered, join in and send a complaint (be sure to follow the guidelines). I doubt it will do much, but I'm posting this everywhere I can. Notify them of any instances you have had the pain of experiencing and encourage them to get up off their comfy chairs and actual measure sound levels, make a distinct limit on what can be aired.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html
*info nabbed from http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts...oundnoise.html *
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