Digital TV and loud commericals
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Mar 20th 2007 12:52PM
posted Mar 20th 2007 12:52PM
As much as we love HD and you know how much we love HD, we hate loud commercials. No we don't watch them very often thanks to our Series3 TiVo, but on occasion we don't hit that 30 second skip button fast enough and we get blasted. Part of the problem is that the shows are usually Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and the commercials are not. Why this causes problems for the engineers is beyond us, but lucky for us the FCC has our back. You see the FCC has rules about the volume differential between programming and the commercials and it is a little different for DTV. They say "The value of the dialnorm parameter in the AC-3 elementary bit stream shall indicate the level of average spoken dialogue within the encoded audio program. Dialogue level may be measured by means of an "A" weighted integrated measurement (LAeq)." In other words; the commercials can't be louder than the dialog, which is good cause otherwise they could compare the commercials with the volume level of the explosions during 24. If you have this problem, don't bother calling DirecTV, Dish or your cable provider -- you have to go straight to the source and call the local affiliate. You can usually find the number on their website and if they are no help, follow the link to the FCC and file a complaint.[Via AVSForum.com]
I can't stand this problem. There is nothing worse than watching something, and when the commericals come on, BAM! Couldnt be any louder. Someone complain to all the NYC stations for me plesae.
Its not just NYC. I hope everyone and their mothers call to complain, don't even call the stations, go straight to the FCC. nip it in the bud once and for all.
Uh, Yankees368? You seem to be capable of complaining for yourself.
As if they'd actually LISTEN to us!
That's great that they're doing this. I can't stand this. Secondly, why don't they make an A/V Receiver/Amplifier that has a special button for a 20% (or any other arbitrary percentage) decrease in overall volume. We could even have it customizable. So instead of completely muting the commercials, we can just decrease their volume with a press of a button and bring it back up to our normal watching volume when the show is back on. I think that'd be a great feature and I'd buy it up in a heartbeat.
Its bad in Dallas. The network commercials aren't too bad, but during the blocks of local commercials its almost double the volume. I feel sorry for my neighbors when my subwoofer kicks into overtime during the commercials. Especially during the loud and obnoxious commercials. Screaming at me does not make me want to hire you as a lawyer.
Awesome! Thanks for the info and the link.
I've already filed my complaint.
I'm also recording a video of how bad it is on Verizon FiOS in Dallas, using a decibel meter, and posting on YouTube. They may not listen to my complaint, so maybe a little viral bad press will encourage them.
-h
Its not just the commercial vs HD show volume differentials, but also the volume levels from one OTA DTV channel to the next.
Double post