Is it just me or have the commercials gotten louder?

I went to a friends house who has comcast and his commercials weren't this bad. It's like the volume goes up about 25 points when the commercials come on. I used to just let them affect me subliminally by tuning them out with my ears. Now I have to literally hit the mute button so my ears don't bleed.

I have Monday off and I fully intend on calling DirecTV and complaining but I wanted to check in here and see if anyone else has noticed a difference.

I've already started checking the pricing on other satellite companies. (cable doesn't come out this far)

Yes, I know that advertising companies have a way of manipulating the sounds to seem louder and thereby get your attention, but this is crazy. It's not Ipods making people deaf. It's the commercials.

 

We had DishTV, and had the same problem. Commercials were very loud. Called and complained and were told it was " our imagination ". Called the cable company and switched. Not a problem now!

 

I think they want to be sure you can still hear what they're selling when you go to the bathroom or the kitchen to get another beer!!

 

BY law the amount that commercials can be increased in volume (to catch your attention is why) can not be higher than the loudest part in the movie!! So say
you are watching a action movie and it has a scene with lots of explosions that
is a 80 DB but the rest of the movie is mostly talking and a few gunshots and
say a average 60 DB, When they go to a commecial break the scene before was
say a talking scene and wasn't very loud, Here comes a commercial with a crazy
fast talking guy and a catchy jingle for a car lot instantly the volume goes up to
the 80 decibels that the giant explosion that happened or is going to happen.
Pretty much if you notice the comm are loud you know there is going to be a loud
part in the movie that will equal that volume, Of course it is only going to last for
a 20 second explosion scene but you have to endure 2 minutes of commercials at
that level!! It is annoying!! There you used to be a product that would analyze and
keep the level at a pretty steady volume, but it can take away from movies and
shows because the volume adds intensity to scenes. If enough people write letters
to the fcc to say they want the levels on commercials to be a set precentage of
the peak volume in a show, It may change things maybe not!! Also send a letter to
the FCC that you want them to let the sat. companies to be able to raise their signal
wattage. Right now the FCC only lets them broadcast at a pretty low power, while the
cable company can pump mega watts to their sat YES cable companies are satellite
based!!!!! Somewhere there is a big dish that feeds your cable company that then
sends it to you. If Dish Network and Direct Tv could pump it up a few watts you
would have less of a chance of losing your signal during storms!! It probably has
something to do with cable companies paying money to the FCC, Which is not funded
by taxpayers which is why they levy such big fines against Howard Stern and others
so quickly, That is their operating budget!! Tell them you demand they let the sat
companies broadcast at a higher power, If they hear enough people say then they
will get the idea that we know they are artificially keeping the sat reception on a lower
level and hopefully change their ways!! You could get a bigger dish to get a bit of
extra gain if you don't have a HOA, They have to be kept a certain size so by law it
has to be allowed in a place with a HOA, But that small size also kills your potential
gain. A 3 foot diameter dish will get a lot better signal gathering, Dish network would
need 2 dishes since theirs looks at 2 sat in the sky, Dtv only looks at 1 so it is easier
for Dtv.

 

We've been noticing the same thing for a few months now since we got our new setup. It's driving me crazy, especially when the baby is sleeping.

 

I have noticed it as well.

 

That's the theory that was taught in communications class.

 

Most tvs have an auto volume setting that really does smooth out the commercials. I use this on mine, and have no problems, you can tell when it's turned off though.

 

My TV goes MUTE during commercials, & during them I get up and leave the TV to take a leak or do anything. So they waste money on me. I seldom buy anything that is advertised on TV. If it is any good you don't need to advertise. I owned a business for 12 years never advertised once. I let my customers do it for me word of mouth. I never ran out of work. In fact when I closed up shop people called me for a year afterwards.

 

Yes, very much louder!


I live in a rural area, and cable is about 15 miles away; Dish TV would be the only alternative.

 

Just went to DirecTV, so can't really comment based on observation......But you AIN'T going to be able to escape that commercialism by going to another company....

 

You might want to browse the forums at dsbtalk.com and have a look around.
We have DirecTV along with the HD package and I notice this a lot more with CBS than any other channel and just the HD feed, not the standard feed.
I also notice it with the History Channel, both HD and SD but much worse on CBS at night.
Good luck on finding who's a fault too! I had a problem with the HD feed of channel 3 in Memphis where the picture would freeze and the screen go blank. Not so with the SD feed so I called DirecTV and found out that all my signal levels were good coming off the satellite that my locals were fed from so they told me the problem was with WREG. I called them and talked to an engineer who said it was DirecTV's fault even though the other locals did not show this problem....just WREG. It stopped a day after I called them...WREG that is.

 

Do you notice that the HD feeds of your local channels are a lot quieter than any other channels? That's how it is on mine. Not the "cable" HD channels, but the local channels on the HD side are a good four or five clicks of the remote quieter than their standard version. Well at least until the commercials come on, then they jump back up to full volume. I was wondering if that's just my setup?

 

Yes they are lower in volume. I don't think it's the set-up because I read on another site...TVpredictions.com....that there are no standards for audio as far as HD is concerned. At least not now.
Off topic but what bothers me is the audio-sync issue that comes and goes with the HD channels....some worse than others!

But to be fair to DirecTV, Dish and all the cable providers, I remember as a kid of my dad complaining about the volume of commercials back when we only got 4 channels over a set of rabbit ears!

 

yeah, that audio-sync thing bugs me to no end. I can't watch a program if it's off, I have to switch back to the standard channel, otherwise it drives me nuts.