Why are adverts on television SO LOUD??

[admin_exported]

Watching Clint Eastwoods "Letters from Iwo Jima" last night that I recorded last week from one of the channels on freeview , the volume of the film was quite low , so raising the volume on my meagre JBL ESC200 Pro Logic surround sound system to watch the film..... EVERY TIME THE ADVERTS CAME ON IT WAS 3 TIMES THE LOUDNESS OF THE FILM.... basically that loud that my wife shot out of bed to tell me to "TURN IT DOWN!!!!"

Why is it that the adverts are produced a lot louder than the film your watching???

Jotaboy

 

[stevenbee]

He who pays the piper makes sure you hear his tune...

 

[rigors]

in the old days apparently it used to be that the commercial tape reels were smaller than the other reels so the tape would stretch less and this had an effect on the volume.

these days its because when they do the sound mix for a commercial they just whack everything up.

its like bill hicks says: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

 

[Andrew Everard]

It's one of those things companies like Dolby and Audyssey have developed software to handle.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Andrew,

They not let you out for the Manchester Show, or something??

 

[Andrew Everard]

Something.

 

[rigors]

Andrew Everard:It's one of those things companies like Dolby and Audyssey have developed software to handle.

how to use? how to use??

 

[Andrew Everard]

You can turn it on under the Audyssey settings in the menu - the default is 'off'

 

[rigors]

Andrew Everard:You can turn it on under the Audyssey settings in the menu - the default is 'off'

ah.... okay....

will try this and see how it handles it. has 3 settings on mine - DAY, EVENING and MIDNIGHT. i'm going with DAY to see how it fares...

thanks andrew!

 

[Tom Moreno]

I use the Audessey Day setting on my Sky input and think it does the job beautifully. It doesn't ruin dynamics in any obvious way- more of a gentle hand on extremes- and takes care of those pesky ads. It also gives the dialogue a gentle lift which I suppose would offend most purists, but (and I consider myself a bit of a purist) it doesn't do enough to offend me and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives for tv viewing as far as I'm concerned. When watching a film on sky movies I can always temporarily turn Dynamic volume off.

 

[daveh75]

Why are people still enduring adverts?

Almost all my off-air viewing is time shifted/chase played...Why sit through adverts (or use 'Dynamic volume' s/w to deal with them for that matter) when you dont have to?

 

[Tom Moreno]

Some things must be watched live- like sport.

Also- I don't know how fast your trigger finger is but I never get to the remote before the first few seconds of an ad have started and w/o dynamic volume that's enough to jar.

 

[daveh75]

Tom Moreno:Some things must be watched live- like sport. Hence my almost all comment...

Also- I don't know how fast your trigger finger is but I never get to the remote before the first few seconds of an ad have started and w/o dynamic volume that's enough to jar.Thats what 'Break bumpers' etc are for.

 

[rigors]

updated my denon 1910 to a pioneer avr-lx53... how do i fix the advert volume on this one andrew...?

 

[davejberry]

in answer to the original question... i think its to wake you from the doze the rubbish programming between the adverts led you into

 

[umbucker]

I thought it would have more to do with the dynamic range of the programming vs the dynamic compressed audio within the advert ? ie the maximum high volume output of the programming - explosions etc - would equal the volume of the adverts ? but the normal level of dialogue, music etc would be quieter.

 

[MajorFubar]

I remember someone asking the same question in the Daily Mail's "Answers To Correspondents" section about 20 years ago. The completely lame stock answer given by a spokesperson from the then ITC was that the adverts are not louder at all: the engineers ensure that the maximum volume of the ads and the main programme peak at the same level. I always felt they (ITC) deliberately chose to misinterpret the question. We all know that the *peak* level of the ads and main programme are probably the same, it's just that the *mean* volume level of the ads is hugely greater than that of the main programme as a result of deliberate over-compression.