TechAgility

Problem:
So how come the Volume on the TV always seems to jump that little (or a lot?) extra during the ad breaks? If we can all take our MP3’s and set them all to the same volume how come the TV Stations/Channels/Studios do the same thing? Are they just lazy or what?

I know it’s not just me right? Search on google with this string – loud volume on tv during ad breaks and you will get:

TV ads too loud, industry watchdog says – Moves to ‘minimise annoyance’, save eardrums
Editorial: TV Ad Volume: Loud Defeats the Purpose
Five’s ad breaks too loud for ASA
Why are TV commercials louder than the show?
Why are TV adverts so loud?
Why are the ads so loud?
‘Excessively loud’ TV adverts to be banned in crackdown after viewer complaints
Bill seeks to turn down sound on TV ads

Now this is just a quick selection from Australia, UK and the US…..

Workaround:
*If* you have a media centre you can record in almost real time and then get the unit to “skip” the adds?

But to be perfectly honest, I don’t mind the ads and if this is what keeps folks at Channel Nine (here in Australia) able to then produce local content like “Underbelly” then that’s fine with me. I would just like to preset the ad volume at 50% say to compensate what it sound like?

Back to the Media Centre – it is possible to detect Ads and do something about it using something like the DVRMSToolbox but unfortunately the disadvantage of this is that you can only do it when watching shows that have already been recorded – not live TV.

DVRMSToolbox – andy vt’s tools & blog
DVRMSToolbox User Guide

http://www.comskip.org/
Comskip Manual
Tuning Guide
Release History

Potential:
So if comskip manages to create it’s magic based on – “The recording is analyzed on various characteristics such as black frames, silences and changes in aspect ratio”, and my brother has mentioned to me that what happens is that the National TV Station puts out a signal that uses 3 black frames to indicate the “cut” from the program to an ad break so that affiliates can switch in their local ad’s, then if this is the case then surely there is potential to be able to somewhat reliably “recognize” the cut to to ad’s in a live TV transmission?

Can anyone confirm this is the case?

Rather than wait for govt’s to dictate to TV Broadcasters that they MUST have or enforce some kind of “Volume Levelling” system I’d love for the open source community to come up with an alternative that puts the consumer in charge?

I have seen that there are units out there that can limit the “dynamic range” of the TV/Amp system – but I feel that’s a bit of a cheat – in this day and age we should be capable of wresting the volume control away from the advertisers and putting it back in our hands?

written by dcaddick