Advert volume

[lady_p_gold]

Is anyone else getting increasingly frustrated with the increase in volume during the adverts?  I have a Sony digital TV.    On ITV 2 it has got to the point where I have to rush to turn it down for fear of annoying my neighbours, then when the programme comes back you can hardly hear it.   I decided to call them to ask about it and I was told that it is not their fault and that the advertisers put some sort of coding into it over which they have no control.  But surely they accept the advertising and if enough people complained they would do something about it.  It is not so bad on other channels but its annoying to have to keep adjusting the volume.

[curiosity]

I totally agree, we have the same problem, infact when I bought my Thompson TV I understood that it had a feature to set a constant volume, regardless of what was being channelled down into it, unfortunately I found out it was the more expensive model that had this, so I still suffer, E4 is similar to ITV2.

[CheekyChops]

I thought I was going mad :-D

I was watching something the other day and thought I was going deaf, I had to turn the telly up so loud.  When I finished I nearly was deafened by the volume of the ads - I thought my TV was playing up!

[Skids]

The TV company ought to play their programs at the same volume that the adverts are played at so that the humble viewer doesn't have to keep messing about with their volume and wind up not watching a particular channel at all, like me not watching any ITV channel anymore cos its so annoying.  Trouble is most other channels are the same.

[hinge1967]

Its really insulting and patronising I think, probably based on the same logic that suggests if you shout loudly at foreigners they can understand you more.

[WaldoMcFroog]

It's caused by the same problem that explains why modern chart music has no dynamic range - it's compression.

Imagine a recording engineer had a vocalist who would whisper words quietly and then belt out some loud screams.  A sound engineer, has to record such a take. The whispers are too quiet unless the engineer boosts the fader and the screams require  the engineer to quickly lower the fader so s/he doesn't overload the recorder. That is the time-honored technique called "riding the gain" (gain is another word for volume).  A compressor is an audio circuit that automatically 'rides the gain'. It pumps up the volume when things get quiet and slams down the peaks when they get loud. The goal of the compressor is to achieve a more uniform, more consistent audio signal that is optimum for recording and listening. 

That's what happens with adverts - and all the sound is boosted to the top end of the scale, which is why it sounds so loud compared to a television programme - the programme will typically have more dynamic range.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Sorry - just to clarify then: let's say you're watching a film that has some scenes with talking, and some with explosions. You would naturally expect the explosions to be louder than the talking. If you compared the volume of the adverts, they would be the same volume as the explosions (or whatever the loudest noise on the programme might be). If your television was turned up so you could hear the conversations (or equivalent), then you're going to percieve a huge difference in sound levels.

[ursula62]

I thought they made it illegal years ago for adverts to be at a higher volume and colour saturation than the rest of the programmes.  At least on the terrestrial channels. Maybe satellite/digital has different regulations

[milly143]

I asked the same question a while back and got some good explanations here:- http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Film-and-TV/Question127730.html

Doesnt make it any less annoying though.

[wideboy]

Both me and my wife hate this effect. I don't seem to remember it being a problem on terrestrial, it seems to be worse now that we watch through satellite. Would like to make the advertisers sit in front of our telly!

[LINCOLN]

As i understand it the more you pay the tv network for an advert campaign the more volume you will get for your money, which could be why major named products such as Sony,Heinz and so on have more volume added than a cheaper advert/product. I think that the theory is that the louder it is the more people will look and take notice.

[FrizBJ]

Adverts on satelite and cable channels abide by exactly the same regulations for audio levels as for terrestrials.