-- Something tells me that commercials (TV specifically) are played at a higher volume. You know it is just a scheme to get you to buy more of their product. By playing it louder they tweek your senses and you have a better chance of "absorbing" that idea. I think someone should contest this or atleast look into it to see if it is a true claim. I know this is pretty off-topic but it really annoys me. What do you think?
Does anyone think that TV commercials are played at a higher volume?
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godhatesjustyou
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yeah, especially local commericals.
Chris in Cali
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Yep, I started noticing this about a year and a half ago. 
commercials, that's why I'm on the internet. I only use my T.V. for DVDs and games.
commercials, that's why I'm on the internet. I only use my T.V. for DVDs and games.
CappyCobra
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Commercials? People still watch those? 
(holds dearly to Panasonic HD/DVD recorder)
(holds dearly to Panasonic HD/DVD recorder)
No mystery there. The advertisers bribe the stations, especially on local ads, to grab viewers attention. You might recall a few years ago there was a line of TVs that had a feature to maintain a universal volume level to prevent this. I think it might have been Magnavox with John Cleese appearing in the commercials.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.
[quote name='epobirs']No mystery there. The advertisers bribe the stations, especially on local ads, to grab viewers attention. You might recall a few years ago there was a line of TVs that had a feature to maintain a universal volume level to prevent this. I think it might have been Magnavox with John Cleese appearing in the commercials.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
Boo! We need to stick it to the man.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
Boo! We need to stick it to the man.
Saucy Jack
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[quote name='epobirs']No mystery there. The advertisers bribe the stations, especially on local ads, to grab viewers attention. You might recall a few years ago there was a line of TVs that had a feature to maintain a universal volume level to prevent this. I think it might have been Magnavox with John Cleese appearing in the commercials.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
Yep, it was indeed Magnavox. They came out with that "Smart Sound" technology. Worked really well by the way. My Magnavox TVs had great sound.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
Yep, it was indeed Magnavox. They came out with that "Smart Sound" technology. Worked really well by the way. My Magnavox TVs had great sound.
greendj27
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[quote name='epobirs']No mystery there. The advertisers bribe the stations, especially on local ads, to grab viewers attention. You might recall a few years ago there was a line of TVs that had a feature to maintain a universal volume level to prevent this. I think it might have been Magnavox with John Cleese appearing in the commercials.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
I sell those local tv commercials. We don't deliberately pump up the volume on commercials, but its almost impossible to have all the commercials at the same volume as the tv shows. You just notice the difference in the volume levels because it sometimes happens abruptly.
The FCC has regulations forbidding this practice but it is nearly impossible to enforce with the limited resources available.[/QUOTE]
I sell those local tv commercials. We don't deliberately pump up the volume on commercials, but its almost impossible to have all the commercials at the same volume as the tv shows. You just notice the difference in the volume levels because it sometimes happens abruptly.
TurkeyOnRye
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Dude, what are you talking about? Root beer fizz IS yellow... oh... wait..... wait, I'm colorblind. I forgot.
But seriously, isn't like Mug's fizz a little yellowish? Geez I hope no one has been peeing in my root beer. I'm serious about the colorblind thing.
But seriously, isn't like Mug's fizz a little yellowish? Geez I hope no one has been peeing in my root beer. I'm serious about the colorblind thing.
hiccupleftovers
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Same over here I feel with the local commercials. Sometimes it's a miniscule difference, other times it's just a huge difference.
[quote name='greendj27']I sell those local tv commercials. We don't deliberately pump up the volume on commercials, but its almost impossible to have all the commercials at the same volume as the tv shows. You just notice the difference in the volume levels because it sometimes happens abruptly.[/QUOTE]
YOU may not be doing so but if you aren't operating the board yourself 24/7 you'd have to be naive to think there weren't some self-appointed salespeople doing their own business to supplement their income.
It doesn't matter what audio levels are encoded on the master provided to the station. Providing a constant audio balance across multiple input sources is a trivial problem. A second semester EE student could make you a diagram of the circuit over lunch. There is no excuse for broadcasters and cable MSOs to not maintain perfect audio control throughout their operations. This happens with amateurs running the board or bribery.
YOU may not be doing so but if you aren't operating the board yourself 24/7 you'd have to be naive to think there weren't some self-appointed salespeople doing their own business to supplement their income.
It doesn't matter what audio levels are encoded on the master provided to the station. Providing a constant audio balance across multiple input sources is a trivial problem. A second semester EE student could make you a diagram of the circuit over lunch. There is no excuse for broadcasters and cable MSOs to not maintain perfect audio control throughout their operations. This happens with amateurs running the board or bribery.
greendj27
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[quote name='epobirs']YOU may not be doing so but if you aren't operating the board yourself 24/7 you'd have to be naive to think there weren't some self-appointed salespeople doing their own business to supplement their income.
It doesn't matter what audio levels are encoded on the master provided to the station. Providing a constant audio balance across multiple input sources is a trivial problem. A second semester EE student could make you a diagram of the circuit over lunch. There is no excuse for broadcasters and cable MSOs to not maintain perfect audio control throughout their operations. This happens with amateurs running the board or bribery.[/QUOTE]
Salespeople do not have access to the anything being broadcast. There is one person in master control watching the systems, but everything is run through a computer. I know you want to think there is more going on there, but even if somoene was trying to bribe a saleperson for louder audio there is no way we could get it on the air. We don't even make the commercials ourselves. That is done by the production department.
Any sound difference is unintentional. It happens but it is definitely not on purpose. Keep in mind that during a tv program the sound level can change for dramatic pruposes, so on a station using some method of keeping the sound volume at the same level it would come out almost monotone. Think of the difference between a whisper and a yell. Not too mention that some peoples voices are naturally louder than others.
I admit that I am not completely up to speed on what is all going on with the technical side, but I can tell you that advertisers are not paying more to be louder.
It doesn't matter what audio levels are encoded on the master provided to the station. Providing a constant audio balance across multiple input sources is a trivial problem. A second semester EE student could make you a diagram of the circuit over lunch. There is no excuse for broadcasters and cable MSOs to not maintain perfect audio control throughout their operations. This happens with amateurs running the board or bribery.[/QUOTE]
Salespeople do not have access to the anything being broadcast. There is one person in master control watching the systems, but everything is run through a computer. I know you want to think there is more going on there, but even if somoene was trying to bribe a saleperson for louder audio there is no way we could get it on the air. We don't even make the commercials ourselves. That is done by the production department.
Any sound difference is unintentional. It happens but it is definitely not on purpose. Keep in mind that during a tv program the sound level can change for dramatic pruposes, so on a station using some method of keeping the sound volume at the same level it would come out almost monotone. Think of the difference between a whisper and a yell. Not too mention that some peoples voices are naturally louder than others.
I admit that I am not completely up to speed on what is all going on with the technical side, but I can tell you that advertisers are not paying more to be louder.
Actually, I remember reading about this a while ago. The main reason is not marketing purposes or human error, but technology issues. TV stations have to worry just as much about bandwidth and storage as much as a website does. Therefore the stations have to use a certain level of compression. Of course they don't want to fark up the video quality of what you're sitting down to watch, so the commercials are compressed. Of course, compression tends to mess with things, resulting in a video quality loss, as well as unpredictable sound levels.
Compression? Bandwidth? Storage? What the hell are you talking about? FYI, most local television stations are still run off of VTR - the same medium you have sitting in your VCR right now. There may be compression if you are talking about digital cable/satellite service, but this would affect the entire programming range as a whole and not single out commercial segments.
The whole problem is a function of allowable sound levels. See, broadcasters are given maximum and minimum levels at which they can transmit sound, exceeding the maximum (peaking) will cause distortion on the receiver end. Turn the volume all the way up on your television and sounds will start going flat and squawky.
So television shows are broadcast within this range and use the dynamics of this range for dramatic purposes -- bad guys whisper their plans, Jack Bauer screams about not having enough time. But a commercial has a much simpler purpose -- to push product.
For a commercial producer, there is no dramatic reason to vary sound levels. They want your attention and the easiest way to get this is by screaming at you. Local commercials are generally just verbal pitches overlaid on images, no plot or character, so these suffer the most from "Screaming Larry" syndrome. As such, commercials then to operate at, or near, the peak of the volume range.
So are commercials louder? If you take the programming as a whole -- no. However, since they use such a limited range whereas the actual program will use a much more dynamic range then it can seem like they do.
btw. The first entry on a Google search for "volume on commercials" backs me up - KCTV5 - Do We Turn Up The Volume On Commercials?
The whole problem is a function of allowable sound levels. See, broadcasters are given maximum and minimum levels at which they can transmit sound, exceeding the maximum (peaking) will cause distortion on the receiver end. Turn the volume all the way up on your television and sounds will start going flat and squawky.
So television shows are broadcast within this range and use the dynamics of this range for dramatic purposes -- bad guys whisper their plans, Jack Bauer screams about not having enough time. But a commercial has a much simpler purpose -- to push product.
For a commercial producer, there is no dramatic reason to vary sound levels. They want your attention and the easiest way to get this is by screaming at you. Local commercials are generally just verbal pitches overlaid on images, no plot or character, so these suffer the most from "Screaming Larry" syndrome. As such, commercials then to operate at, or near, the peak of the volume range.
So are commercials louder? If you take the programming as a whole -- no. However, since they use such a limited range whereas the actual program will use a much more dynamic range then it can seem like they do.
btw. The first entry on a Google search for "volume on commercials" backs me up - KCTV5 - Do We Turn Up The Volume On Commercials?
salsa_shark
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Yep, it's just because some commercials are at a different compression than the actual shows or other commercials. No paying off, no subliminal trickery.
[quote name='greendj27']Salespeople do not have access to the anything being broadcast. There is one person in master control watching the systems, but everything is run through a computer. I know you want to think there is more going on there, but even if somoene was trying to bribe a saleperson for louder audio there is no way we could get it on the air. We don't even make the commercials ourselves. That is done by the production department.
Any sound difference is unintentional. It happens but it is definitely not on purpose. Keep in mind that during a tv program the sound level can change for dramatic pruposes, so on a station using some method of keeping the sound volume at the same level it would come out almost monotone. Think of the difference between a whisper and a yell. Not too mention that some peoples voices are naturally louder than others.
I admit that I am not completely up to speed on what is all going on with the technical side, but I can tell you that advertisers are not paying more to be louder.[/QUOTE]
The claim doesn't wash when the effect can be readily observed during breaks in a show featuring plenty of explosions and shouting people. The blast when a commercial kicks in is extremely noticeable and my experience with audio equipment and electronics in general tells me there is no excuse for this other than as previously stated incompetence or intent.
The FCC regs concerning this were writtten with the knowledge that this is completely controllable without impairing the audio track of shows. They simply haven't the resources to do any real enforcement.
Any sound difference is unintentional. It happens but it is definitely not on purpose. Keep in mind that during a tv program the sound level can change for dramatic pruposes, so on a station using some method of keeping the sound volume at the same level it would come out almost monotone. Think of the difference between a whisper and a yell. Not too mention that some peoples voices are naturally louder than others.
I admit that I am not completely up to speed on what is all going on with the technical side, but I can tell you that advertisers are not paying more to be louder.[/QUOTE]
The claim doesn't wash when the effect can be readily observed during breaks in a show featuring plenty of explosions and shouting people. The blast when a commercial kicks in is extremely noticeable and my experience with audio equipment and electronics in general tells me there is no excuse for this other than as previously stated incompetence or intent.
The FCC regs concerning this were writtten with the knowledge that this is completely controllable without impairing the audio track of shows. They simply haven't the resources to do any real enforcement.
BlueWingX
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I seem to remember there also being a line of VCR's that supposedly would automatically edit out commercials. They did so by monitoring the volume for the increase that is inherent in the commercials, and pause until the volume returned to normal. Something like that. I never had one, so I'm not exactly sure. Anyone else remember these?
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