Networks raising volume for commercials & lowering it for shows

[Donatello.]

Is this ever going to be addressed by any organization with power?

It's blatantly obvious that so man networks are upping the volume on commercials & lowering it for the shows.

This bs needs to stop

I AM TALKING ABOUT TV, NOT ANYTHING ON THE PC OR STREAMING

[///MPhatic]

Bro, I hear you, I remember when that started. There used to be a little box called Mute Magic that you could buy (supposedly) that would auto-mute the commercials because it would detect the volume increase.

The other thing they do us use a lot of flashing lights, very contrasty, flashy stuff, so if you happen to be snoozing, you'll wake up at the commercial every time.

Burn them all (commercials).

https://www.yahoo.com/news/meet-mute...135612910.html

And another one from 2018.

https://circuitcellar.com/archive-ar...v-commercials/

I imagine this is very illegal, but I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could.

EDIT: Found this, and other instructions, as selling such a device is illegal, but apparently it's legal to make your own?

https://beepscore.com/website/2019/0...matically.html

[M-technik-3]

Used to have a tv that would auto mute them if you just turned on the feature was fantastic. Now I just mute the damn thing. I have a 50% loss of hearing in one ear and that plus my tinnitus it drives me nuts. Some days I just use the closed captioning but it doesn't always keep up.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Used to have a tv that would auto mute them if you just turned on the feature was fantastic.

Holy hell, such a thing was made? Do you remember what it was??

[spazzyfry123]

Coincidental that this pops up. I was noticing just last night the direct opposite. Turned on Hulu to fall asleep to and the show was significantly louder than the commercials. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone as I've always known it to be the inverse. Maybe they're listening!

[JeffL0]

many TVs today have an audio setting basically called "leveling" or "normalization" which is intended to equalize the sound volume between programs, commercials, and in some cases, even input sources

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

Holy hell, such a thing was made? Do you remember what it was??

I honestly don't remember it was years ago when there were tubes. I want to say RCA.

[M_Six]

I *rarely* watch TV aside from a baseball game here or there. But I habitually mute commercials when I do watch it. My brother is visiting and he always has the TV in the garage on some movie or CNN or The Weather Channel. The commercials drive me nuts. Sometimes the same commercial will play over and over again, which I thought was just a thing with MLB.TV. And virtually all commercials are seriously idiotic and annoying (ahem, Burger King) or are for some pharma crap with a gazillion warnings about side effects.

[JeffL0]

you think not muting commercials is annoying, wifey actively WATCHES a 24x7 commercial channel (QVC)

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Donatello.

It's blatantly obvious that so man networks are upping the volume on commercials & lowering it for the shows.

This practice used to be illegal, and TV networks would be fined for doing it 40 years ago.

If you are watching cable TV with locally-inserted commercials, all bets are off on having balanced audio. Heck, some of the cable head-end commercial insert equipment was lucky to have its video synced with the broadcast feed back in the analog days. (The picture would glitch for a moment while your TV re-synced for the inserted commercial, and then glitch again when they cut back to the broadcast.)

With streaming services, who the heck knows what kind of audio-balancing the inserted commercials have.

As someone whose family was supported by advertiser fees paid for TV commercials for most of my childhood, I have to recommend watching the commercials with great interest...and of course supporting the advertisers.....

[Higgs Boson]

I feel like its been 10+ years since I watched regular TV.

[freakystyly]

Originally Posted by Higgs Boson

I feel like its been 10+ years since I watched regular TV.

What's a commercial?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

As someone whose family was supported by advertiser fees paid for TV commercials for most of my childhood, I have to recommend watching the commercials with great interest...and of course supporting the advertisers.....

I understand that, but I hate the commercials so much that I literally won't buy a product I see advertised. As weird as that sounds, it is what it is.

Now if the service were FREE because we were subjected to all these commercials, then sure, I'd watch them, listen to what they had to say. But that's not how it is. It's double-dipping, and I won't buy it.

[dradernh]

I first interrupted the speaker wire with an on/off toggle switch in a tv of mine in 1967. The switch was placed next to my seating position. Problem solved.

[MassWholeBimmer]

This commercial makes me want to brick the tv..


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1cm87fLoaM

[chassis]

Originally Posted by Donatello.

Is this ever going to be addressed by any organization with power?

It's blatantly obvious that so man networks are upping the volume on commercials & lowering it for the shows.

This bs needs to stop

One of the long list of reasons I do not watch "television".

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by freakystyly

What's a commercial?

You don’t watch sports?

[JeffL0]

And what's with the Pharma ads for ever more Yahtzee-created drug names??

It's like "OK let's take a bunch of consonants and put 'em in a Yahtzee cup, and that's our new drug name"

[RickFLM4]

To answer OP’s question, I doubt anything will be done about it. Streaming services can’t or won’t even get programming to stick to a standard volume level. HBO volume always seems lower on YouTube TV and switching between streaming apps results in different volume levels even without touching the volume. I wonder if they do it to be able to say there are too many variables to control in case someone tries to do something about commercial volume.

And commercials are all over now, not just broadcast TV. Most streaming services either force you to watch them just like broadcast TV (without being able to fast forward), or charge extra to avoid them.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by JeffL0

And what's with the Pharma ads for ever more Yahtzee-created drug names??

It's like "OK let's take a bunch of consonants and put 'em in a Yahtzee cup, and that's our new drug name"

They all may cause diarrhea, in some cases severe.

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by Higgs Boson

I feel like its been 10+ years since I watched regular TV.

Originally Posted by chassis

One of the long list of reasons I do not watch "television".

Streaming services do it also. Paramount 100% does it. I don't watch a ton of stuff on there so I have the "free" plan with commercials and I have to mute them because they are always considerably louder than the show. Which seems like it would be the opposite of what they want people to do.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

Streaming services do it also. Paramount 100% does it. I don't watch a ton of stuff on there so I have the "free" plan with commercials and I have to mute them because they are always considerably louder than the show. Which seems like it would be the opposite of what they want people to do.

This is definitely true. It seems that shows and movies are too quiet and have to be turned up and then comes the damn commercials which are blasting. I hate commercials and always mute them but I will not pay extra for no commercials. That's robbery. Who started that anyway? Was it Netflix? It's just wrong whoever started it.

PS - and remember when cable first started? It was commercial free.